Settling in to the New House

THE NEW PATIO - WITH SHE-RA HAMMING IT UP AS USUAL

I have been in the new place for almost three weeks now and I am down to my last four unpacked boxes. Moving is never fun and it took a few days to get used to the new place (especially for She-ra) but we are very happy in our new home. I am especially thrilled by the potential presented by the large outdoor patio in the new house. The two plants I brought with me from the apartment are adjusting to their new surroundings.



Above is the wooden box with a mixture of wild flowers and the oregano. I thought for sure the seedlings would all wither but they are once again proving me wrong. The peppers also continue to grow and appreciate their new sunnier home. I never realized how little natural light actually reached my plants on the balcony of my old apartment. Here, the plants are exposed to direct sunlight for a much longer period of the day. This will be key when I once again attempt to grow vegetables.


In addition to my plants, I have also inherited a few others from the previous tenants. I will need to research each of these plants if I am to care for them properly. Two of the plants I already know their names because they happen to be one of Ryan's favorites: Bougainvillea.
It appears that the previous tenants had given up watering these plants as they were severely dry when we first moved in. After about a week of daily watering the plants began coming back to life. I don't know much about this plant but I was surprised by how quickly they started to recover. In particular, the one below went through a noticeable growth spurt in a matter of days.


I did not take pictures of the plants prior to commencing the recovery process but I can assure you they were quite barren. All of the blossoms seen here are fairly new. The tallest of the branches jumped upwards so fast it started to bend sideways so I decided to use a stake to secure the plant and ensure further growth. The effort was rather crude on my part, I simply used some leftover packing tape to hold the plant in place (as seen in the picture below)

Also seen in the above picture are a couple of the other inherited plants. I can identify them as a mix of succulents and cacti but other than that, I know nothing about them. As for the other bougainvillea it has taken it a bit longer to recover, but it too has been making good progress as seen below:


As for the rest of the plants you can see pictures of them below. For the time being I will be focusing a lot of attention on these plants until I return to growing vegetables (or at least trying to). I will need to take another trip to the nursery to find additional pots, soil and more seeds. It is like I'm starting over, but that's ok because I'm a little less clueless about this whole gardening thing than I was the first time.