Today, being the first day of March, is GOOPS day at joene's garden. GOOPS stands for gardening OOPs. I fess up one of the many gardening mistakes I've made over the years, hoping that my admission will help prevent other gardeners from doing the same. Then I encourage you to share a GOOPs as well.
Coleus, dressed in orangey reds, or deep maroons and bright greens, or solid limey green; any way you look at this group of plants you must admit they are foliage fashionistas There are varieties for sun, shade, and anything in between. Some are tall, others short, and the amazing range of colors from the ever increasing varieties allows just about anyone to use them in gardens and containers – I do both. Coleus are easy to start from cuttings or seed – I do both. Plus, they make good houseplants for all the northern gardeners – like me – who crave color during winter months. Coleus adorn my kitchen windowsill (bright light but no direct sun) most of the year. In late summer, I load fresh cuttings into vases of water and wait for them to root. From rooted cuttings they become small potted plants. Some years they adorn window sills all around the house, other years I manage to save just a few – usually depending on how I'm able to control aphids – but most often you will find my sills holding a coleus collection.
February is my least favored month of the year. I have a zillion reasons to be thankful and upbeat … and I never forget any one of them … but this does not prevent my February mood from turning blah … or even, at times, downright surly. In spite of annual efforts to stave off these February blahs, they settle in as surely as the sun sets and tides wane. The month's dangle-a-shiny-object moments like Groundhog Day, the Super Bowl (even if ambivalent about American football, there's usually one or two amusing commercials), Mardi Gras, or Valentine's Day do not alter the fact that I simply don't like this month. The nicest thing I can say about February is it's short.
Here's a meme that's new to me. The houseplant census started by Mr. McGregor's Daughter. The idea is to list the houseplants you currently have, including the plants you are overwintering. You can list them as a post on your own blog with a link at MMD, or as a comment there. Obviously I've opted for the former.
Shoulda, woulda, coulda. That's my gardening oops this month. Here at joene's garden, the first of each month is Gardening oops - GOOPs for short – Day. On GOOPs day, I fess up one of my gardening blunders in the hopes that you might avoid a GOOPs of your own after reading one of mine. I figure we all learn from our mistakes, and often from mistakes of others. So why not share our mistakes with each other and, therefore, enhance everyone's overall chance to learn.
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