I would like to grow and harvest my own spearmint. This type of mint would be nice to put in water, tea, or use as a fragrance.
Sunflowers
My favorite flowers are sunflowers. Growing up my mom grew giant ones in our backyard, and I’ve always enjoyed their unique look.
Lamb’s Ears
I love the way the leaves feel of this plant. Their very soft, and I remember someone telling me that lamb’s ears were used as Native American Band-Aids.
Mint grows in bushes.
When I researched mint (also known as Mentha Spicata) Spearmint grows well in hot weather, in contrast to its cousin peppermint, which grows better in the Winter. Mint just needs lots of water to grow. Spearmint can be grown from seeds, but my sources recommended growing from cuttings. Before planting spearmint, one should consider that spearmint grows rapidly, so an isolated area might be more appropriate. The seeds sprout in 10-15 days, and can grow into full plants within 2 months. It might be a bit long, but I think it would still work for our semester. It was recommended by my sources to give spearmint about 3 feet of space to grow. It is most beneficial to plant spearmint in a mild ph level of soil, somewhere between 6.5 and 7. It normally will grow to be about a foot to a foot and a half tall. I also learned that all mint types attract other organisms. It is common for birds, butterflies, and bees to be attracted to its fragrance. Many of my sources recommended planting mint in a pot, so that it doesn’t take over the area it is planted in. Mint will be easy to grow, because it can handle both shade and sun. The usual pests that are attracted to mint are whiteflies, spider mites, and aphids. Spearmint however is good at repelling ants, which would be helpful to our ant problem in the garden.
As the name suggests, sunflowers are flowers. They are durable plants that favor hot weather, but are able to withstand small frosts, so I’m sure they can handle the climate of NTC. Sunflowers are normally grown from seeds. They take about a week to germinate, up to 10 days. Something interesting about sunflowers is that they always bloom in the direction of the sun; this would be important to keep in mind when planting them so that other plants wouldn’t block out the light. Sunflowers reach maturity in about 70 days, which is I think is do-able for this semester. There are a couple negatives to growing sunflowers. One other thing to keep in mind when planting sunflowers is that they require a lot of space between each other. My sources recommended one foot apart for miniature sunflowers, and two feet for the intermediate. I think it’s a little too ambitious to think I would be able to grow giant sunflowers given the amount of time we have. Sunflowers can grow in soils of ph levels varying from 5-8. Just like spearmint, sunflowers need lots of water. They grow often in fields, so an irrigation system should work fine. An important fact to know about sunflowers is that they attract a lot of different creatures. The websites I looked at mentioned that birds are prone to digging around in the ground for the seeds, as well as other insects and rodents.
Sources:
http://gardening.about.com/od/
http://www.planetnatural.com/
http://myfolia.com/plants/412-
Sources:
http://www.gardenersnet.com/
http://www.gardenersnet.com/
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