We planted some seeds. How did they turn out? Let’s look!
That’s the ‘left’ planter on the back patio (this is a rare post from my computer so you can click on the images to see them in higher resolution). The whiskey barrel is old and falling apart so it may be it’s final year, and we planted morning glory seeds in it. These photos were taken over an approximately 4 month period, about one a week. You can see a few (purple) flowers in the second last photo, but it’s starting to look a bit ragged probably due to the excessive heat it receives during the day.
That’s the ‘right’ planter, and you can easily see the dilapidation of this barrel (not to mention the no-longer-functional palantir in the middle). As with the other barrel we planted morning glories and you can see they flourished in this one since it is partially shaded by the tree above. However they are still showing sun damage in the final few shots. Had I taken any of these photos during the early hours you would see more flowers; they are mostly closed during the day.
And here we have close to the full life cycle of marigolds from seeds. I bought the seed packet for next-to-nothing at Walmart, and planted all the seeds in two cheap pots. Sue told me that this was a bad idea since they’d compete for nutrients and it seems she was correct. Even though I tried to thin them out when they (all!) sprouted, their roots had entangled a bit and this was difficult so I decided to leave them to their own devices. As you can see they started promisingly but quickly became weeds. They were not helped by a rogue chipmunk hell-bent on digging out the soil and monsoonal rains that kept knocking them over for days at a time. Basically these plants were cursed, and their ruinous lives led to a wretched final state. If we actually see flowers I’ll deem it a miracle!
So there you go. Some success and some failure, but mostly more the former. Lessons were learned, and next time the marigold seeds will fare better 🙂