Gardening : Gardening

[hodge]

Okay, I'll start. I've been growing flowers from seed and have done tomatoes in the yard for several years. I've had numerous houseplants every since I got my first place more than 10 years ago.

I like taking care of plants and I find comfort in their presence around me. I've always wanted to have a room that was like a garden, with plants and flowers all around the walls and ceiling and with pillows to lie on the floor and soak in the flora.

This is the first year I started an extensive vegetable garden. Two reasons: soaring food prices and a major decrease in household income. I started almost everything from seed in the house back in March. . . turns out I was too early this year, but most of the babies seem to be doing fine since I put them in the ground on June 1. Btw, I'm in the Upper Midwest.

Anyway, it's been very therapeutic, good exercise, and calming for me to check on them everyday, keep up with weeding, and watch them grow.

So, join on in - what do you grow? What successes and tips can you share? What problems do you have? What does gardening mean to you?

 

[hodge]

One problem I'm having is growing a blueberry bush. I bought a two-year-old one about two months ago and planted it in a big pot and kept it in our bedroom till the weather got a bit warmer. It seemed to be coming to life, growing little leaves. Then I put it outside for a few hours over the course of the few warm days we had earlier this spring to try get it used to being outside, and all the leaves died. I guess I overdid the hardening :(

So I read up on caring for blueberry bushes and found out they like acidic soil - which we don't have around here. So I figured out a good place to plant it outside and mixed a good vegetable/fruit soil with a Miracle-Gro acidic additive and peat moss. Then I covered the peat moss up with cedar chips (plus I was careful to keep the cedar chips away from the stem). I also wrapped garden webbing around the stems to try to keep birds and rabbits from eating it. It's been 2 or 3 weeks now and no sign of new buds or anything.

I'm going to hang in there for awhile, since in the past I've had two houseplants that I thought were goners, but I kept watering them anyway, and they came back. I really hope that will happen with this blueberry bush, but who knows?

Suggestions and tips are very welcome!

 

[kers]

Yay, a gardening group! What a good idea, hodge. Hang in there with your blueberry bush. Replanting stresses them so they shut down for a while (just like us!). I moved a beautiful Japanese maple from my front yard to the back, and it looks dead--all the leaves fell off! But I have read that if I keep care of it, it will come back next year. So don't lose hope!

I like Japanese-style gardens and plan to create one in my backyard. I also have a real weakness for daylilies and asiatic lilies. I love the colors and shapes.

 

[hodge]

Oh, cool, Kers! I've got a bunch of daylilies I wish I could ship to you. Also tiger lilies. They spread like crazy!

Your experience with your Japanese maple confirms my gut instinct to not give up on the blueberry bush. I knew ficus trees were sensitive to too much motion - although mine survived a 1,000-mile move and only died a few years later when our furnace went out while we were on vacation :(. Anyway, I didn't know that about blueberry bushes, so thanks a ton.

Speaking of "rescuing" maple trees . . . A few weeks ago, I found one growing next to the house and half of it was under concrete - definitely not a good place for it:) So I tried to be really careful in digging it up. I got the main root and a smaller root out okay, but severed the medium-sized root. I planted it in my backyard and within a week it was growing lots of new little leaves. The tops of the branches sticking up look dead, though. I'm not sure whether to cut them down. Anyway, I'm psyched because I really like maple trees and even very young and short maple seedlings cost a small fortune around here.

 

[hodge]

Also, I really like Bonsai trees. I don't know how they would do this far north, but they look cool. If you get your Japanese-style garden in, I'd love to see a picture.

I'm going to post pictures of my garden spots when they get developed. I tried my hand for the first time at a very small flower garden in a corner of the backyard (where we buried our beloved old cat two years ago). Before this, I only planted flowers in containers. I have hollyhocks and larkspur framing the back, since they're supposed to get pretty tall. I just "had" to break down and buy a beautiful lavender and peach pansy and a pink impatiens because they were on sale for a really good price, and I planted them in the middle. Then I planted alyssum by seed in front. The larkspurs don't seem to be doing very well, but everything else is coming along and looks pretty.

 

[Grama-Herc]

Thank you for the invite into your group. I can certainly use the distraction, not to mention the help.

I do have a fantastic green thumb, as long as the plant starts out green. Any plant containing flowers are doomed if I bring them home. OH ! ! They live and flourish and turn out beautiful, They just never, ever flower again. Mom did not believe me til she saw with her own eyes when we moved in together. I buy any house plant/garden plant that is green with no flowers-----No problem! My cat nip in the ground is spreading and healthy. My spider plants are gigiantic and my pony tail palm is thriving. The yellow allamanda is growing, green and healthy and never flowered again. The day I bought it, there were flowers, not any more. Drives me crazy

 

[hodge]

Hey, nice to see you, Grama-Herc! I saw that you had posted recently in the gardening thread in the General Chat, so hoped you'd be interested in joining.

I don't know what you could do about your flowering problem. I do know that if I get begonias, roses or dahlias - which are some of my absolute favorite flowers of all time, especially orangey and peach colors - they will not keep flowering for me. The plant in general seems to stay healthy (except for the roseplants), but - no more flowers. Sigh. I wonder if there's a Miracle-Gro for that? I'm using a special one for my "dormant" blueberry.

On the other hand I have three gardenias as houseplants and they flower all the time. Plus I inherited a Christmas cactus from my MIL when she went into the nursing home. It flowers at all odd times now, though it used to only flower around Christmas time. Go figure.

 

[kers]

hodge, I wish you could send me your lilies, too! I looked up tiger lilies and they are stunning. I looked up a lot of the flowers you have been planting as I am unfamiliar with them, and wow! They are neat flowers. Nice and tall--I bet the colors are vibrant, hmm?

I have one bonsai that I am working on, but I need to learn how to prune it. They are so peaceful looking. You might be able to do them where you are--some of the conifers (like juniper, etc.) do quite well outside and go dormant in the winter as long as they are sheltered from bad winds. On the other hand, the longest my bonsai have survived is my current record of two months, so I could be talking nonsense!

Grama-Herc, is it that the plants survive but simply don't flower, or do the plants and flowers both die back?

 

[Grama-Herc]

Hodge. The plants not only survive, they thrive and grow and are very happy, BUT-----they got no FLOWERS leafs absolutely FLOWERS nope! Drives me nuts. Mom thinks it is funny

 

[hodge]

Kers, I think lilies generally are sold as bulbs and the ones I have are perennials that spread. Yes, the blooms are gorgeous, but I have a thing about bulb flowers that spread. I think it's a control issue for me:) . Anyway, I don't know if they all spread like that, but I think they come back every year.

Thanks for sharing your experience with bonsais. I don't know if I could do any outside here - we get wicked winds year round because we're on the plains with no big cities and skyscrapers, etc., so there's nothing to stop the winds! I'm thinking of one for the house.

Actually the flowers I planted in the small garden are ones I started from seed in the house, except for the pansies and impatiens. Oh, and the alyssum - those are supposed to be sown directly in the garden. Unfortunately, the hollyhocks and larkspur have not bloomed yet, but the hollyhocks especially look strong and are growing, so I'm hoping for blooms later this summer. Also we had an unusually late spring, so that's probably another reason they haven't bloomed yet. Some of the colors I have so far are pretty vibrant; others are more pastel, which I tend to prefer. I also started sweet pea (the flower, not the vegetable) from seed in the house and planted them in another little spot. I have a couple of trellises on which they are currently climbing, slowly but surely. They haven't bloomed yet, either, but they look pretty healthy and I hope they will.

Grama-Herc, the only thing I can think of is to look up more info on the flowers you want to grow and check for the kind of soil they like (some like or don't like clay, some loamy, some acidic, etc.). Here in MN we have an extension service that provides a lot of this info online through their website. Also do you fertilize them? And are you trying flowers that like the climate you're in?

 

[hodge]

Hmmm...I just realized the reason I planted hollyhocks is that while my Dad was so ill, one thing he mentioned (in a rare moment of lucidity) was that his mother always had hollyhocks in the back of their yard. I remember seeing them. I love and miss my Grandma, who died a few years ago. I never planned or thought of growing a perennial, but I think I did hollyhocks, and did them in the back of my yard, as a way of keeping part of Grandma near me.

 

[hodge]

Hi Moonshadow! Glad to see you here!