From a Failure, to a Success

 So my melons are obviously the butt of jokes around the world at this point, but at least I have one other plant that works.

Anyone want a spider plant?  I could probably cut some off and send you one.  For a fee.

I hear spider plant growing is a lucrative business.  I have enough for at least the beginning of the enterprise, but the ramp up to production scales will take a while longer.  Your order will be with you within the year.

Interestingly I think the plant is seeding, which I didn't know they did.  Strawberries are similar in that they seed and send off runners and you can buy packets of strawberry seeds, but I've never encountered a packet of spider plant seeds.  Anyway, they dry out and open up, usually facing upwards so you have to dislodge them with a stiff breeze or by accidentally brushing up against them, which is a pretty good way to ensure decent dispersion.

And on an entirely unrelated note, here is an enormous butterfly that has no reference for scale which is a shame, because it was a palms width or so and jet black.  This was taken with my phone camera so the quality is, well, evident.

Anyway, that's about it for now.

Farming

So I'm now officially a farmer.

Interestingly, of the dozen melons I planted this is the only one to come up so far.  These four plants were separated from the rest which makes me assume that the quarantine I imposed on these guys was actually beneficial in some way.  I'm assuming it's warmer where I put them.  Or maybe I forgot to water them and that made this melon start growing.

The spider plant also has some new growth which is encouraging.  I've since put these four somewhere brighter, and moved the other lazy bastards where these guys were previously.  If they don't start getting their acts together, they'll be in the bin.  I've already given them a verbal warning, next is written.

Operation Fruits Go Go

So I'm going to try and grow some fruits this year.  As a cursory fan of enormous fruit and veg, I obviously went straight to melons, because they don't have the potential of, say, a pumpkin -  but they can still get big.  I think both those pictures are the same grower.

Anyway, the biggest oaks start with the smallest acorns.  Or something.

The two in the middle are spider plants, I'm trying to grow new ones because I had a couple of spare pot things.

I'm going for some strawberries too, but I'm still trying to figure out how to get all this lot in the sun outside.  The veranda is extremely thin and has a high wall, so it doesn't get much sunlight.  I'll have to find a table, or even better, steps.

Something to think mull over.

And a picture of, is that Putin?  Riding a weasel?  Riding a woodpecker?  Being chased by Gandalf?  And a stormtrooper?  The internet in a nutshell.

Green Fingers

So I'm horrible at plants.  I am also horrible at animals.  I bought a spider plant a few months ago because I think it would be impossible to kill one of those - low and behold I was right.  Unfortunately I picked a really good place for it to go and it grew really big, outgrowing the pot I bought it in and sprouting roots and whatnot everywhere.

Obviously I had to buy a bigger pot, so I did, and now I have this:

They actually gave me 2 spider plants, so I split them up and put some mossy stuff between them.  I've not forgotten to water it yet, so I think they should be fine.  I bought the wrong kind of soil so I've got to change that; put a big wodge of real soil underneath the stuff that's currently in there.

Because there were so many roots wedged into the old pot (there was no soil left) I couldn't get it out.  I resorted to taking out my pen knife and cutting the damned things out, nearly chopping my fingers off in the process.  The knife came in handy for cutting the plants apart though, so I was going to need to risk life and limb at some point in order to get the desired effect.

Regardless of how long it takes to kill these things it turns out that you can grow something for a short time even if you are terrible at that kind of thing.