location spotting

so, according to my research, in order to help my parsley plants grow, i need a place that is both rich in sunlight and has good drainage; so i went and tried to find the most suitable location that would both help my plants grow well and be fair for all of the plants in my backyard.

location number one: not very suitable- unfair amounts of sunlight to different plants, due to the shadow of my pool's fence, a table as well as a tree; poor drainage

location number two: not very suitable- relatively equal amounts of sunlight per plant, but poor drainage

location number three: definitely not suitable- poor amount of sunlight, poor drainage, on balcony (that = stairs and climbing)

location number four: maybe- good drainage (waters the lawn at the same time); but uneven surface- easy for plants to fall over with the windy weather we're currently experiencing, the grass trapped underneath the pot plants won't receive sunlight

location number five: perfect!- looks ugly, but it will porvide a relatviely equal amount of sunlight to each plant, it has good draiange (it is after all a drain, hahahahaha my awesomely lame joke) and is overall, the best location; so i placed my plants here///

my plants veiwed from above

what pot?

according to my research, drainage is a very important issue. so, in order to help the draining out of excess water and to help prevent the over-watering of my plants, not only do they need a location with good drainage, they also need a pot with holes. so, i went off to try and find three pots of the same colour with holes at the bottom. (why three?, because i plan to colour-code my plants, e.g. trial 1 plants can be in black pots and trial 2 green)

i found a great number of pots, but only a few that were the right size and had holes at the bottom...

... what i mean by "holes at the bottom"

see what i mean by the holes allow good drainage? i found three orange pots of this type, and three green pots of this type- YAY!!!! perfect!

research: plants

Plants:

- watering needs depends on the type of dirt, the climate, amount of exposure to sunlight, plant size, as well as the plant type among many, many other factores- wayyy to much to consider, so i went on some herb gardening websites and they recommended that the soil be damp, that the platn is watered until water seeps out of the holes at the bottom of the plant, and that there is good drainage

research: parsley

Parsley:
- Egypt is the country of origin
- likes to grow in sunny places or in partial sun
- need rich, moist soil
- grows best when temepratures are under 21 degrees celsius
- water regularly
- water it until water comes out of the holes at the bottom of the pot (i tried this and found it was about 200mL per pot plant)
- water should be room temperature
- good drainage is needed

I BOUGHT MY PLANTS!!!!!!!

i finally got a round to buying my pot plants, so here they are...

hehehe aren't they pretty?

basically, they're all Parsley Plants, and these are the three that i could find that were the most similar in size. I'm going to feed one the salt-water mixture i make, the other the sugar-mixture i make, and the last on pure water. then i'm going to compare their  growth rate.

some more pics....

LOVE HEART!!!!!

research- other methods

Other methods:
I looked at a lot of other methods which were similar to my method, or rather, my idea of what my method would be about, and I found some a major aspect which i really like, and which surpisingly didn't think about before:
- the trying to make the experiment as fair as possible, i.e. ensuring that the plants are place in a sunny area in which they will all gain the same amount of exposure to sunlight, ensuring that the plants receive the exactly the same amount of water per day, ensuring that the plants are in the same or similar types of soil, and the list goes on. obviously, i won't be able to control all the variables, but i'm going to attempt to control most of them. I hope it won't rain, as this will affect my experiment massively.

research: sugar

Sugar:
- may not have an affect upon the plant; depending on the concentration of sugar in the mixture fed to the plants
- can induce microorganism growth around the plants- this may be good or bad
- can be beneficial towards your plants; all depends on the concentration of sugar
- soil stay moister as the sugar effects the way in which water travels thorugh the roots of the plants through orsmosis


for some reason, bullet points won't show up on my blog, so I have to use hyphens, im sorry if that makes it hard to read

resarch- salt

Salt:

- Salt affects the growth of many plants, but not all
- The higher concentration of salt outside of the plant cells in the soil causes water to move outside of the cells to try and equalize the concentration. Some root cells of plants that do not tolerate salt may die, and if bad enough the plant will die. The damage gives the plant a burnt look, often on the leaf edges first. The same thing happens with too much of any mineral
- Some types of plants, such as mangrove trees, can tolerate higher levels of salt and not be damaged. Their cells have a high concentration of salt already in them so the water doesn't move out. Some even separate salt from the water and excrete it through their leaves, roots, and branches