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Hello all, I need some guidance and hope. I live in Michigan, and currently it's getting colder, less light outside, less daylight/sunlight during a normal day. I still want to grow some herbs and in fact, I have some gift ideas for Christmas.
I bought a few peppermint seeds before some places eventually stop selling them or stop sending seeds due to the colder months. People usually tell me I have a "green thumb", but for someone who has one, I'm very impatient. It's only been about a week or, at the most, two weeks and nothing is showing yet. The gift ideas is for some tea drinkers and a co-worker - and a bet. The co-worker basically said that no real plants will grow in her office but she is interested if anyone can prove her wrong.
I decided to take a few coffee cups with tinfoil wrapping paper and stuff them with garden soil. Then adding peppermint seeds to grow within those mugs. Everyone who'll get one enjoyed the idea of having peppermint on hand, and the aroma in the office. I'm excited, and again impatient. I have never grown a mint from seed before. I have gotten some from a nursery but they quickly died, not knowing about their requirements.
On a side note, my mom gave me a pot with a spider plant that had one main plant with one spiderlette. The plant itself was in really good condition; no brown leaves, not wilting; she watered it and fed it. However, it's not growing anymore spiderlettes, or no new leaves. When I took it home and trying to remove it from the pot, I snapped the main plant from the root. What's left is all the leaves put together but it snapped above the root-ball.
I stuck the plant into a bowl of water, so I'm hoping it re-roots itself. Does anyone think it'll re-root or potentially die?
Any suggestions on both stories is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advanced.
We have a friend who sets up free-standing shelving in front of her South-facing windows each winter. She starts a wide selection of plants.
This month I built a shelf that is level with one of our South-facing window's sill. It comes out 30 inches. I made a framework around it to support clear plastic drop-cloths just to keep our cats out of it. And we have a bottom-heat growing pad on this shelf. I just started a flat of lovage, one of borage and one of ginger.
Mint, Basil, Spinach would all do well in a big window.
I grow herbs in a south facing window in a similar climate to yours. I currently have rosemary, thyme and basil, but have grown mint in the past. They all make good windowsill plants.
When I've grown mint in the past, I do so using root cuttings from my outdoor mint plants. We've had a mild winter so far here in the upper Midwest - if you have mint in your yard it wouldn't be too late to grab some root cuttings and plant those. They grow much quicker than seedlings.
You people with south facing windows are lucky. All I've been able to save from my garden is the parsley plant. I'd glad to say it's doing fine in my east facing kitchen window so far. Usually I have a rosemary plant but I never did buy one this year. It's almost impossible to keep them alive inside during the winter around here.
You people with south facing windows are lucky. All I've been able to save from my garden is the parsley plant. I'd glad to say it's doing fine in my east facing kitchen window so far. Usually I have a rosemary plant but I never did buy one this year. It's almost impossible to keep them alive inside during the winter around here.
In most contexts I do not believe in luck. Good things do randomly happen as do bad things. If enough people buy lottery tickets, one of them will 'win', but I am not convinced that makes them 'lucky'. A person is likely to buy a lot of losing lottery tickets, before they buy a winning ticket. That 'luck' came after a lot of failure.
Before we bought this land, we designed this house to be fairly efficient, with the intention of one day being powered by Solar-Power and heated by Solar-Thermal.
I have been told that I am 'lucky' for having solar-power.
I guess that after we finish the solar-thermal, we will be 'lucky' for being net-zero. Though it took us 10 years to finish.
In our town, most homes face the road. Our town's one road follows a river, it changes direction every mile or so, and is never oriented East-West, so houses built to face the road never face South.
A few homes are set back away from the road and these homes are more commonly oriented to the sun.
Are homeowners who decided to face the road 'unlucky'? While the homeowners who decided to face the Sun 'lucky'?
We produce most of our food. As we do this we have observed how our grocery shopping has declined. We only buy things that we do not produce. We had conversation yesterday about how to further close this gap. How to bring our food consumption more in line with our food production. It has taken a while, but we are having more successes. I try a lot of things every year that fail. In my mind, I see a lot of failures. Someone else looking at our setup might only see the successes. I have been told many times that I am 'lucky' with our garden. From my perspective it takes a lot of failures to make that luck.
We do have a lot of South-facing windows [that can be used for growing], we also have North and East windows. We live in dense forest and we like having a view of the forest around us.
I think that my 'luck' in having windows, has been that I included windows in our home design.
We do have a lot of South-facing windows [that can be used for growing], we also have North and East windows. We live in dense forest and we like having a view of the forest around us.
I think that my 'luck' in having windows, has been that I included windows in our home design.
Maybe it isn't luck, but not everyone has the good fortune to have so much choice in the place that they live.
That said, I do agree with you that it is sad that so few builders consider orientation when they select a house design for a lot. When I was looking to buy a house, I saw several with huge north-facing windows, or no windows at all on the south side of the house. The house I settled on was not 100% ideal, but had no windows on the north side and at least one large window on the south and is situated perfectly for a nice, big south-facing veggie garden and fruit tree patch. Sometimes compromises are necessary.
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