2 min read culture

On Plants

Since I recently moved, I have to pretty much grow my garden from scratch, save a few plants. I managed to transport a Dracaena surculosa (Stardust? Golddust?), and a Moonlight Philodendron.

Funnily, the basil plant I had was dying, so I just planted it outside my old apartment. I visited a few weeks later…the fucking thing is absolutely thriving.

So my plan for now is to just figure out what to plant. Here’s the considerations I have:

  1. I have a garage, I can probably get a rack there an have task lights for indoor growing.
  2. I can either grow plants/herbs indoors with indirect/low light.
  3. I can grow plants outdoors in my garden in a container.
  4. I can grow plant outdoors directly in garden soil.

So what I have to figure out is, what grows together well, what grows better in each of the said conditions.

So far the shortlist is as follows:

I have thyme, dracaena and the moonlight philo growing on my kitchen windowsill, where they typically get a lot of afternoon sun. The philo is on the side of the window that has a filter on, so the light it gets is a bit less. I’m debating growing basil and tomato on the west side of the garden, where the walls adequately protect them from the hot afternoon sun. The only contemplation is to whether to grow in soil or in containers. I have a small basil, rosemary, an mint plant each that I’ve just thrown in containers in the garden. They’re doing well, except for the basil. How come every basil I touch die but when I leave it to die it just thrives?

I am also considering just buying a rectangular container for my windowsill and just planting basil, parsley, and a couple other things directly in it. Might work, might not.

As an aside, I need floor-plants that are tall enough and upright enough to not take much space in the house yet provide decent greenery (Side note: I’ve always wondered how people water such plants).

Side Note No. 2: Why the fuck is everything toxic to dogs?

August 28, 2023

I have given up, and bought a KMC Smart Tap Mini, which is just a rebranded Tuya (which I can control locally via HomeAssistant’s Tuya local plugin). This attaches to my washing machine, which takes 10A, and a home depot/lowes long work tube light, which is 0.5A at best. Given that the KMC tap boasts 15A, I think I’ll be fine, even though I only needed a dual slot and it has…four, with one always on. We’ll see how that goes.

Anyhow, point being is that I have re-arranged how the laundry room rack looks. Now the 2nd rack is long and is dedicated to plants -- pre-existing trimmings/plants (mostly Basil) and some new stuff I am growing. We’ll see how well it works. Issue is that the bedroom looks directly into the laundry room, so the choice is between keeping the door closed, or draping a towel over the slot where the plants are. I’ve done the latter. I might build a DIY cage sometime later with foil paper just for that. We’ll see.