[Sca-cooks] miffed at plants re: lavender

[Mercy Neumark]

>Can you tell I'm miffed at my lavendar? The mint flowered. The >raspberries
>had ripe fruit the Sunday before Thanksgiving. The pepper >plants had
>peppers (which were little green chilis of death). The >basils were happy
>and fruitful. But the lavendar, just sat there and >laughed at me. Maybe
>next year.

>I have this amazing gift of killing plants. I am always amazed when >they
>survive. I almost killed a philodendron once.

Ok...now, I'm pretty darn good with plants, but what I do doesn't always
work for other people.  My laurel, Huette (hi mom) has a gift for finding
the best parking spots, and mine is normally doing hideous things to plants
and having them grow into scary, monstrous, proporitions (or is this more a
curse?).

The lavender...cut it back in a very huge way.  If you want to experiment
with some first (as to not distroy a plant), like a section of it, that
would probably be best!  The more you cut back on a plant, the bigger the
plants should come back the next season (also cut at an angle...I do that
with roses too, which seems to really promote growth).  So, I'd slice half
of it right off the stalk (especially with winter coming/here).  I normally
throw the clippings back into the same plant as mulch/natural fertilizer.

When spring comes, give the plant a shot of fertilizer when you feed the
rest of your plants.  Also, try to water the ground around it pretty heavy
and make sure the leaves get wet.  Many plants soak up water more through
their leaves (and vice versa) than through the roots.  Or so my mutant
plants see to do.

Oh, and just to let you know WHY I think I have mutant plants...I have a
swarf peach tree in my patio/backyard area that is now two stores tall.
It's not supposed to get any bigger than 8 feet or so.  Or so the paperwork
that came with the sapling said over 10+ years ago.

Happy Gardening (and cooking with the spoils of your labor)!

-- Farmer Arte


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