I was under some physical restrictions and bed rest orders last week, so this week has been a flurry of planting and weeding to get some more summer veg gardens up and running.

Our squashes and pumpkins are pretty much ready to be planted

And my front gardens are absolutely popping off now

What’s growing on with you all?

  •  Rin   ( @DreamyRin@beehaw.org ) 
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    229 days ago

    Heyo! So recently we got some new plants, and thank you for the tip a while ago to re-pot my aloe, it’s doing much better now, I think. The middle is still brownish red, but the rest is very strong and green, and there are still parts of it growing out of the center.

    I’d post pictures but I’m on mobile, maybe when my power comes back on!

    My mom bought a tropical hibiscus which I’m not sure will survive but we’ll see. It seems to be doing well enough. I managed to get an english lavender and I’ve been told by a friend who knows more about plants that it looks very healthy. And roses have been really hard to grow for us but one of the two rose bushes my mom bought seems to be doing well too!

    Questions, though. I’ve read that lavender wants pine needles over leaf mulch, are they significantly better? I’m also wondering how much I should be watering it, we’ve had a lot of storms lately but I want to stay on top of it.

    Thanks for any more tips and thanks for the thread!

    • I’m so glad it’s doing better, yay!

      In my experience (I live among white pines) pine straw as a mulch holds less water than aged bark mulches or leaf mulches. I do tend to use the pine straw for my Spanish lavenders - several years ago I did some trials between the two and the pine straw ones fared better than the leaf or wood chip ones did. I’m unsure how the difference in native climate changes their water preferences but they tend to appreciate drier soils overall based on what I’ve read and experienced. Hopefully someone with amazing English lavender can weigh in on this.