The Great Garden Planting of 2013: After

Yesterday we got Mom's garden plant, and I repotted nearly all of my plants. We accomplished a great deal, and I'm here to chronicle the seeds of our future success (somewhat literally!).

I'll start with my plants. I'm glad I repotted my spider plant; when I took it out of its pot, I could tell it was starting to get rootbound. There are lots of spider plants in the greenhouses that are so rootbound that they're pushing themselves out of their pots. I wouldn't ever want mine to get that desperate. It has lots of room to grow now.

Here's the wandering jew that I've decided to keep, as well as a succulent (the tag says it's Haworthia coarctata, but I highly doubt that because of the lack of "pearls") that I replanted. I'm taking two of these succulents.

My purple shamrock got the nicest pot. It's droopy from being out in the heat, but I think it will recover quickly.

Pictured here is the other succulent (of the same species) that I'm bringing home, as well as my jade plant. It seems like jade is a slow grower, so this pot should be suitable for a while.

Moving outside, here are my peppermint and thyme in their new homes. The peppermint might be able to take over a much larger pot, but I want to keep it manageable. I think I'm going to harvest pretty aggressively once it looks like its fitting the pot better.

The rosemary was also looking rootbound when I repotted it, so now it has deeper soil to probe into. Rosemary has a simple appearance, but I think it's a beautiful plant.

Now onto the grand finale: Mom's garden. This is what it looks like now. I think it's a perfectly sized plot for what Mom wants.

Here's the row of peppers and tomatoes, from the pepper side. No, the row isn't straight, but don't judge.

The same row, from the tomato side. I think Mom did a good job choosing her tomato plants. They're young and healthy, and I think they'll do great. She already got cages for them (and one for me, because she's sweet).

I had a lot of fun helping Mom transplant her vegetables and digging around in the soil. I'll make updates on the progress of the garden when I come home to visit.

Next post: tis' the season for my favorite flowers in the whole world.

The Flora of Elephant Rocks: Finale

This is the last post regarding my trip to Elephant Rocks! It was a good time of year to go, and I learned a lot about the local flora (and fauna! see below).

This is the second turtle we saw. There was a third, but he was too far away to photograph. This one's cute as can be. He was showing off his lovely shell. He's even got his head thrown to the side in a glamorous pose. This guy's a future Ralph Lauren model, I'm telling you.

Now back to plants. At the edge of the quarry were these cattails (Typha latifolia), which are neither common nor unheard of in my area. These plants had cottony fluff on their tips. I think the fluff is the fruit of the plant, which has bristles to aid in dispersal.

Kind of different, isn't it? Dandelions and cotton use the same device to propagate their species.

After taking those pictures, we ventured away from the quarry and back onto a trail. There I found a plant that looked very familiar:

It looks like a shamrock (though there is no consensus on what species "shamrock" actually refers to)! While I cannot find any photographic evidence, this plant must be within the Oxalis genus (which also includes purple shamrock and woodsorrel). This picture gives a glimpse of the hot-pink undersides of the leaves.

Looking back, I can't determine whether or not these flowers are coming up from these Oxalis plants. They're pretty, though.

Yeah, still can't tell. I don't see any other leaves around them, so maybe these two have the same roots (pun?).

Here's a final "shamrock" hanging out with another woodsorrel species to the right.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing my trip to Elephant Rocks! What species comes to your mind when you think about shamrocks? Are cattails common in your area? What about turtles?

Next post: the brightest pink of the season thus far.