Well, technically it will start in a bit over 24 hours but...
What are the spring plans? spring cleaning? flowers, flowers and more flowers?
Colorful gardens? herbs? veggies?
I'm glad to share with you that I just finished dealing with my plants. Soft start as it was past midnight, but I transplanted two bell peppers that were in small felt planters downstairs to the huge planter in the balcony.
I also trimmed some dead "traps" from Audrey 2, gosh, it's HUGE!
My succulents, well, they definitely LOVE the California weather. Even during the winter, they managed to grow like crazy and took over the planter. A bit more and the planter itself will finally disappear, leaving a beautiful cascade of different succulents. It's so pretty now that I still can't believe i did it myself.
Apple tree, well... I'm starting to have mixed feelings about it. Maybe it's time to let it go because it's growing too much. My father in law's backyard will probably be it's new home where it can grow freely. Maybe a dwarf lemon or lime tree will be more interesting.
Calibrachoa... OMG... Winter came, I thought it was going to die, so horrible it was. To my surprise, several green leaves are growing and everything makes me believe it will soon bloom that explosion of colorful tiny flowers.
Sprinkler system, I couldn't be happier with it. Orbit B-Hyve. It was a pain to learn everything because it's extremely accurate and the instructions are terrible, you actually need to "teach" Alexa exactly what you have planted in each zone, then she monitors the weather using GPS and it will water EXACTLY what each plant needs, instead of following a fixed timer for everything. If it rains, it automatically creates a rain delay based on the exact amount of rain and also the soil moisture. It took me several months to finally learn all the tricks and make it operate perfectly (and I almost killed my plants in the summer). Maybe this year I'll buy more moisture sensors that are buried in the planters and the smart sprinkler heads to make the system even more accurate. because I have different sizes of planters, consequently different watering needs. and only one sensor is being somewhat "generic" instead of having the system spitting 2 tablespoons of water in a tiny vase and several gallons in a huge raised bed.
Of course, I still have to water Audrey 2 and Audrey 2-too manually because they require distilled water only.
First shop this spring was a cherry tomato from The Homo Depot. Sad news, the Roma tomato didn't make it through the winter, so I decided to try something different this year. I was lucky to find a huge tomato plant that is beautiful.
This year I also want to continue the balcony project by surrounding it with flowers (hanging planters to create a cascade) and the passion fruit that I desperately want to see growing and hiding the stairs wall.
In the bathroom, the wax flower that arrived here with less than 5 inches is now almost 7 ft long, growing as a frame to the sink mirror. Hopefully it will bloom this year.
And my landlord was hating me because of the water consumption absurdly high (of course he didn't know it was because of laundry and several baths, not showers, per day). He almost freaked out a couple of months ago when he saw the sprinkler system, two days ago, he came and told me he researched about the B-Hyve and he was actually going to buy the same sprinkler controller to reduce his water bill.
I'll take pictures tomorrow, during the day and post here. But I'm very curious to see your gardens!
What are the spring plans? spring cleaning? flowers, flowers and more flowers?
Colorful gardens? herbs? veggies?
I'm glad to share with you that I just finished dealing with my plants. Soft start as it was past midnight, but I transplanted two bell peppers that were in small felt planters downstairs to the huge planter in the balcony.
I also trimmed some dead "traps" from Audrey 2, gosh, it's HUGE!
My succulents, well, they definitely LOVE the California weather. Even during the winter, they managed to grow like crazy and took over the planter. A bit more and the planter itself will finally disappear, leaving a beautiful cascade of different succulents. It's so pretty now that I still can't believe i did it myself.
Apple tree, well... I'm starting to have mixed feelings about it. Maybe it's time to let it go because it's growing too much. My father in law's backyard will probably be it's new home where it can grow freely. Maybe a dwarf lemon or lime tree will be more interesting.
Calibrachoa... OMG... Winter came, I thought it was going to die, so horrible it was. To my surprise, several green leaves are growing and everything makes me believe it will soon bloom that explosion of colorful tiny flowers.
Sprinkler system, I couldn't be happier with it. Orbit B-Hyve. It was a pain to learn everything because it's extremely accurate and the instructions are terrible, you actually need to "teach" Alexa exactly what you have planted in each zone, then she monitors the weather using GPS and it will water EXACTLY what each plant needs, instead of following a fixed timer for everything. If it rains, it automatically creates a rain delay based on the exact amount of rain and also the soil moisture. It took me several months to finally learn all the tricks and make it operate perfectly (and I almost killed my plants in the summer). Maybe this year I'll buy more moisture sensors that are buried in the planters and the smart sprinkler heads to make the system even more accurate. because I have different sizes of planters, consequently different watering needs. and only one sensor is being somewhat "generic" instead of having the system spitting 2 tablespoons of water in a tiny vase and several gallons in a huge raised bed.
Of course, I still have to water Audrey 2 and Audrey 2-too manually because they require distilled water only.
First shop this spring was a cherry tomato from The Homo Depot. Sad news, the Roma tomato didn't make it through the winter, so I decided to try something different this year. I was lucky to find a huge tomato plant that is beautiful.
This year I also want to continue the balcony project by surrounding it with flowers (hanging planters to create a cascade) and the passion fruit that I desperately want to see growing and hiding the stairs wall.
In the bathroom, the wax flower that arrived here with less than 5 inches is now almost 7 ft long, growing as a frame to the sink mirror. Hopefully it will bloom this year.
And my landlord was hating me because of the water consumption absurdly high (of course he didn't know it was because of laundry and several baths, not showers, per day). He almost freaked out a couple of months ago when he saw the sprinkler system, two days ago, he came and told me he researched about the B-Hyve and he was actually going to buy the same sprinkler controller to reduce his water bill.
I'll take pictures tomorrow, during the day and post here. But I'm very curious to see your gardens!
