Thinning my Herb Garden – Part 2 of Many
After a week of wondering how long it takes plants to grow, I finally started seeing a few green shoots. While this may not exactly be the same as a mother seeing her child for the first time, I must admit I got excited. Admittedly, all I did was go to Home Depot, buy seeds and equipment, and then spend an hour prepping and planting. But I did have to water the plants every day and poke around the soil while I looked for green shoots. That has to count for something, right?
So now that my plants are growing, I have to do something called “thinning” the garden.
Plants grow better when they can monopolize the nutrients. Though competition might force a few of the stems to grow larger roots, many will wither from the competition. I followed the instructions on the back of my seed pack: “Thin when shoots are 1-2″ tall, so that plants stand ~12″ apart.”
Unfortunately, my pot is only 12″ wide. I think that means I only get 1 plant. At least it’ll be a giant without any of its siblings around. And, because I planted a whole bag of seeds, my shoots sprang up in random distributions. Oops.
Here is my oregano plant before thinning:
These are the shoots that were sacrificed in the name of good gardening. I buried them in the pot from whence they came so that they can complete their life cycle through decomposition.
