Shanghai Balcony Gardening V

The parsley showed up a few days ago,  but no sign whatsoever of the sage, rosemary, lovage or lavender.  Basil's very slow. The mint is 90% dead, and four or five of the borage have germinated.  The thyme, I'll prick out next weekend.  This weekend I did the geraniums, I've got seven altogether.  I bought at bag of garden soil from Mr Mint.  35 kuai, (which seemed a bit steep); about half a hundredweight, more than enough to be getting on with.  Mr M suggested a packet of bonemeal, 5 kuai, so I got some.  I think he's got perlite there, too, but that's for another day - I was heavy laden with the bag of earth. 

The paper cups I was using for seedlings are no good - they get waterlogged and slimey round the bottom.  Now I've got translucent plastic cups, half filled with soil, holes with a kitchen knife in the lower rim, the bit nearest the water.  My theory is with them, the plastic will let in the light and keep off some, but not all, of the wind.  And you can see when the roots are growing enough for them to be potted on.  I'm trying that with the geraniums, anyhow, in earth with a wee bit of compost and bonemeal mixed through it.

Weather's very variable.  No thermometer, but it must be up to 30C in the day, cooler at night.  There was a colossal explosion of thunder and torrential rain in the night.  

Comments

  1. drawjerkyThu Apr 28, 10:11:00 am BST

    How did you manage to kill the mint? I thought it was near indestructible. I have a decent size sage plant myself which was looking a bit ropey, actually very ropey so I cut all leaves off in the hope of energising it. (think I did this two years ago and it proved to be a good action) Was rather worried 'cause nothing seemed to have happened until I looked this morning. Lots of lovely new growth.

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  2. Garry NixonThu Apr 28, 11:41:00 am BST

    The mint was doing fine until I put it in a big plant pot which was sitting on the balcony when I moved in, full of earth. I can only assume some stupid bastard put weedkiller in it to kill whatever was there previously, fuck knows why.

    Actually, there's a tiny sprig of the mint still growing, and the borage seems ok. So maybe I did kill the mint, and fuck knows how...

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