Tuesday, October 4, 2016

My Experiment Was a Bust

When I was a kid, I used to plant flowers on the first day of school vacation. It was just a habit I got into and I enjoyed seeing them burst into bloom during the summer. One of my favorites was nasturtiums.
Then when we lived in Maryland, we had a deck built on our townhouse and I planted window boxes for the deck. Again one of my choices was nasturtiums. Bentley, my first Portie developed a taste for the flowers and each morning would check the boxes for new blooms. I didn't get to enjoy much color from the nasturtiums, but I continued to plant them for Bentley's pleasure.

Then we moved here and I tried them, but it's just too hot here for nasturtiums. I tried a couple times, then gave up.

This year I was determined to try again. I planted them in two pots on the deck.
 The packet says they like full sun, but it's just too hot here and even watering them twice a day, the little plants cooked.
 I moved them out of the direct sun to a spot where they would only get morning sun, but they continued to die off.
 Then I moved them to a spot on the porch behind the hedge, so they got no direct sun at all. They were in shade all day. I continued to water twice a day and the leaves started growing back. But one morning I glanced out the window and saw a squirrel sitting in the pot. I ran outside to chase him away, but he had already eaten 90% of the leaves and all I had left were bare stalks.
I decided the experiment was over and gave up. But then the temps cooled off and we got some nice gentle rains and the leaves started growing back. I had a few small flowers, too, but only one at a time.
 Now a couple weeks later the plants don't look too bad, if you don't look closely. There are even several flowers in bloom at the same time. I offered one to Fudge a couple days ago and he agreed that they are indeed tasty.
 It wasn't my most successful experiment, but at least I saw a few pretty nasturtiums this year.



8 comments:

Two French Bulldogs said...

Beautiful. We think you should stick with your tradition. Those darn tree rats
Snorts
Lily & Edward

Bella Roxy & Macdui said...

Glad you got some results after all your hard work. Those crazy squirrels...

Ruby Rose and the Big Little Angels 3 said...

Persistence pays off. The flowers look lovely

Molly the Airedale said...

Aren't they just the prettiest flowers! Our mom loves them too☺ We walk past them all the time and have never thought about eating one. hummmmmm

Ruby said...

I've never had those befores!!!!! OMD, they look DELISH!!! I'll try and gets Ma to grow those so I can taste them....butts she's so mean that she'll probably puts them in our 'plant jail' so I can't have any....meanie.
YOURS are beautifuls!!!! Anythings that doesn't die is a HUGE success around here! BOL
Oh, and those frickin' tree rats have made ruin of TONS of Ma's potted plants! Don't worry...I'm on the hunt, and almost got one yesterday....keep you updated....
Kisses,
Ruby ♥

Lapdog Creations said...

Would you believe my green pepper plant started to get a gazillion blooms a couple weeks ago and now my cherry tomatoes are flowering again. Crazy! I don't think anything will come of them, since it's so late, but.....
My cucumbers and mini pumpkins seem to have been a total bust.

Marjie said...

You got flowers, even though they were later than you'd hoped, thanks to those pesky squirrels. Best of all, it was a surprise, because you thought they were a goner! So I'd say the experiment was a success! Jeffrey's new house has just a patio backyard with flower boxes, and it came with flowers. Tank and Quincy made short work of those flowers on their first day in the house, so I'd guess that active dogs and flowers don't mix well.

How Sam Sees It said...

Oh how pretty! Your weather must be like AZ - I never had much luck growing anything unless I never let it see sun. :)

Monty, Harlow and Ramble