Where to start? (Small yard and indoor shade)

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CircusWitch
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Where to start? (Small yard and indoor shade)

Post by CircusWitch »

I would very much like to start looking after some plants but trying to find a balance between plants that are good for beginners and can also survive either in a small walled yard (in north east England, so I may realistically have to forget about any outdoors gardening until after winter) or inside in the shade (I have a bit of windowsill space but the most space I have for it is in the shade). If anyone has any beginner tips then it would be greatly appreciated! I have cats so nothing indoors can be poisonous (they will chew plants, one of them killed a bonsai tree I had once!). If not then I guess I'll be best learning by gradual experimentation! Also, anyone somewhere similar levels of cold have any experience with those see through plastic covered shelves that act like greenhouses, are they any good?

Edit: also I'm very much a beginner at witchcraft so if the plants can be used for beginners magical then that would just be and extra bonus!
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SpiritTalker
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Re: Where to start? (Small yard and indoor shade)

Post by SpiritTalker »

Before you choose plants, decide if you want to Do in-ground gardening, raised bed or container and pots gardenIng. Then decide what you want in each of the spaces you have to use: flowers, herbs or veggies. Then in late spring prep the soil so it can air out before you plant. Good soil feeds the plants. A mix of sand, black dirt and peat moss will grow just about anything. Plant only when the last frost is gone. When it frosts again, the season is done. Cleanup.

Winter is a great time to plan, research and design the garden layout on graph paper. Even if it's all in pots, plan their location by observing how many hours of sun each area gets a day. You can move pots around to get more or less light as needed. You can stack pots on a plank and cinder block shelf. Consider how you will get water to each area. Hand carrying is back breaking.

Once you know what you want, then google easy to grow mixed part sun/part shade plants for your region. Growing regions have numbers assigned to indicate growing conditions in each zone.

Most herbs like sun most of the day, veggies like cool early morning and hot afternoons. Flowers don't all bloom at the same season. Yea, it can drive you nuts. So research plants for your zone and their requirements, then provide what they want.

"No evil goes where basil grows. Rosemary for remembrance." Basil & rosemary have cooking and multiple magical uses but different growing requirements. Basil can handle some mixed sun and shade, while rosemary likes more sun, hot and dry. They are very fragrant. Oregano and mint need to be confined in pots or with a border because they spread and choke out other plants. Fortunately oregano dies off in winter! I'd in-ground planted mint seed just once 20'years ago and it's still with me. It is self replicating and thrives on neglect (my kind of plant! :mrgreen: ), thus it is my main prosperity, protection, psychism, health, cleansing, spirituality plant buddy.

Marigolds ( keep bugs away), carrots and radishes are dead easy to grow in-ground or pots or 5-gal. buckets. Sun loving green "string" beans and tomatoes also can grow in buckets or in-ground and need to be staked for support. Cucumbers also do well in ground or pots, even hanging pots.
Speaking of hanging, you can use a pocketed, hanging pouch on a fence to grow herbs, if it gets sun 6 hours a day.

Pumpkins and squash vines are huge & spread out to trip the unwary passer-by, and they consume huge amounts of water to grow fruit. I don't recommend them, but have grown them in my small fenced back yard. They were not worth the work, and disposal of the long vines at year end clean up is a pain in the buttox in the city.

I've never used a greenhouse, but a coworker had a portable plastic covered one. She said it was too small, about 4'x4', but it did work. The shelf kind can be set on top of a table to make it easier to reach. Soil has to be above 50'F for seeds to grow.
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corvidus
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Re: Where to start? (Small yard and indoor shade)

Post by corvidus »

Aloe Vera and Jade plants do well in my baaement apartment, with very low sunlight, and winter usually starts early up here!
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blue_moon
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Re: Where to start? (Small yard and indoor shade)

Post by blue_moon »

In my house we have a lot of shade as well. There are so many plants that don't need much sunlight at all! And of you take care of them they might even bloom.

I give mine about a glass of water per week (maybe 1/2cup size glass) and spray them down in the shower every 4-6 weeks. Repotting every 2 years, adding new soil and a bigger pot will be thanked as well.

You can hang plants infront of you window! I used some hemp string and knoted a little basket. You could get all fancy and add stones, shells or beads. Even bells or feathers (but that might attract the cats).

Orchids like it if they get some sunlight in the morninf or evening.

I'll walk around the house and take some pictures for you as soon at it's brighter.
BB

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Aesennyll-IF
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Re: Where to start? (Small yard and indoor shade)

Post by Aesennyll-IF »

I used to have many indoor plants. I do not feel that most of them had any magical properties really, except they lent this green lively energy to the apartment. That alone made the dingy dump feel a whole lot better and that was magic!
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