My wife gardens. As best I can tell, the method is to buy a $1 plant, dig a $10 hole, put the plant there, and see if it works. It probably won't, so try another place. Eventually, you figure out which plants want to be in which spots. (There are about 50 unique spots around our house, because of the shadows, and the wind, and the watering, and, for all we know, the psychic energy imprints of the dead mastodons that died there.)
Plants in pots have their own special problem: They often get a lot hotter, and drier, than in the ground. So you have to pick plants that can take it. It also helps to have automatic watering, and when it gets really hot, water several times per day. Or get a really really big pot.
Even with all this, all plants eventually die, and only "local natives" and weeds will reappear. (Note that mint and basil are actually weeds. The thing is, they taste really good.)
As you can see, the best plan is to find a weed you think is pretty.
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ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2010-05-31 01:06 am (UTC)Plants in pots have their own special problem: They often get a lot hotter, and drier, than in the ground. So you have to pick plants that can take it. It also helps to have automatic watering, and when it gets really hot, water several times per day. Or get a really really big pot.
Even with all this, all plants eventually die, and only "local natives" and weeds will reappear. (Note that mint and basil are actually weeds. The thing is, they taste really good.)
As you can see, the best plan is to find a weed you think is pretty.