Propagating

Look, I found a little buddy while gardening, actually I found two but I only photo-ed one. Ain't he cute. Not as cute as Kathy's_puppies, but pretty sinking cute none the less. I found something else while I was gardening. Just some more understanding of God, His Church and me.


Right behind my spade fork and transplanting spade is a very large clump of oregano, darn near as much trouble to take out as the Siberian Irises, but alas for me, no tractor help today.

I am taking most things out to rearrange and because somethings, like the iris and the oregano, have grown beyond their area and crowded out other things. But similar to many other perennials they actually benefit from being taken up every so often and separated into smaller plants. I really should do it more often with somethings.

Different plants have a different timing, some appreciate being divided annually, some every other year, others could go farther, but most of them appreciate it at sometime. Even plants that don't bloom heavily the year they are divided still do better with some room.

All of that plant material in the bed just beyond the water bottle came from the one oregano plant. When it was planted four years ago, it was just a baby plant. It quickly spread but also became a tight mat that was choking itself to death, the center portions of the plant are now much weaker than the outer portions.

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I'll have Anna sit and separate the oregano into separate plants to fit a four inch square pot. I am sure she will fill several flats worth and I will still have some to dot around the garden for some fragrance between bloom times. And of course the ones we dot the garden with will in time become big and we will do this all over again. The pots will go in my holding area and in the spring I'll put a sign down on the highway and sell them for a few pennies.

You know, I do love to plant shop, find some wonderful thing I don't have yet in my garden, find a spot, tuck it in, watch it grow. I like my plants no matter how they come into my garden. But what I really love in my garden are plants I have propagated.

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Now, I will certainly take the whole division thing, there are lots of gardeners, good gardeners, that don't even attempt that. But what I really like is propagating from seed or cuttings or layering.

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Of course I do not turn my nose up at all my lovely little things that self sow, however seeds that are hard to germinate and the plants and flowers that come from them, those get me all giddy inside. The same goes for cuttings, anybody can take a willow twig and stick it in the dirt, nothing fancy no protection, just jab it into the dirt and it sprouts. But things that take bottom heat and certain humidity and all that, those are the cuttings I feel groovy about raising.

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Mostly because as the wife of a poor school teacher, I can't afford a fancy set up, so my success rate isn't what it could be with a coveted deluxe propagation set, fans, hymidifiers, a green house. I don't think Santa is coming through this year either. Oh well, challenges are good for the soul, right?

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Do you ever want to grab blogger by the... paragraphing issues this time, hence the dots, ugh.