ARUGULA PLANTED, PERENNIALS REPOTTED

Yesterday afternon I worked on my little northeast-facing deck. It took forever for me to try to figure out a way to rig up the self-watering system I've decided to use (glass jars of water with wicks of string -- that part I'd already figured out and wrote about in the previous post). But how to do that with bigger pots?

Now, I have one large window box planted with arugula seeds, set up on a little old vanity bench that long ago I'd attached a piece of wood to in order to make it a table. I just removed the four screws and the piece of wood and had an open-topped stand to put my two largest window boxes on. My gallon and half-gallon glass jars fit easily underneath, with the string wicks hanging down from the pots.

I've no clue, really, how to properly deal with my three perennials: chives, garlic chives, and Egyptian walking onions. Frankly, I figured they were all a lost cause, because after moving into this apartment last fall, these pots just sat on my deck, on my covered deck, which meant no moisture fell on them and I just simply didn't think about the fact that I should have been watering them occasionally. Prior to this move, they just sat outside on my stairs, where they got whatever the sky bestowed.

I trimmed all the dead stuff down, then took them each out of their pots and broke off as much of the old dirt as possible. Then I repotted them with lots of new, organic compost and some peat and vermiculite. I've serious doubts they'll all come back, but I was delighted to discover finally, in the Egyptian Walking Onions, one teeny, tiny little green shoot.

As I was cleaning up the dead stuff on the Walking Onions, I did find a half-dozen or so loose, little seed clumps. I just buried them in the new soil with their mother plant -- perhaps they will sprout.

I've also no clue if this sort of repotting and the degree of diisturbance I went to is appropriate. Time will tell.