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Call to all gardeners! [pics]

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13:46 / 04.04.04

spring is here, and I am faced with my second term as House Gardener. I am super excited and am very eager to start hacking away at the earth as soon as possible.

when I garden, I prefer to use my bare hands whenever possible, as for me part of the pleasure is getting all cruddy and getting an actual feel for the dirt, the bulb or roots of the plant, the leaves and the flower.

last year I had a lovely little herb garden (in containers), but I left them out too long and they all died. I'm going to try again but keep them inside, and have started with last year's most used and altogether favored plant, rosemary.

I'm very interested in hearing what you plant in your gardens and when you do it, what's common where you're from, what you've found works and doesn't work, what you tried and disliked/failed, what works for you.

13:49 / 04.04.04

I never thought I'd enjoy gardening so much! to me, a true city girl, gardening was something that grandparents did. but I've always appreciated other peoples handiwork, and I really believe that flowers and green things make any home more cozy and lovely, whether in a pot on the windowsill, a vase on the dining room table, or a whole backyard full of the stuff.

14:01 / 04.04.04

I bought these for planting yesterday:

hyacinths, deep almost blue purple. these are a bit weird looking, but damn they smell soooo yummy. I wanted to buy zillions of them, just for that amazing smell.

hydrangeas, a nice pale purple-blue color. they're great for cutting and keeping in a vase indoors - so pretty!

clematis, a bright pink with yellow and white, the leaves have a little reddish cast near the tips. I've never seen this before but I think it's going to be a favorite! this little climber is just a single stem now, but I'm hoping to encourage it to it's full potential.

spiderwort, pale purple. this was last year's favorite, and looks to be coming back again quite nicely. it was growing weedlike in my aunt's backyard, and I was planning on taking hers for my own when I found it at the store. very nice, especially if you prefer a more wild look.

00:44 / 05.04.04

I mainly like gardening that which I can eat.

Lately, though, I've been on a bamboo kick. My tropical black (Javanese) just came back from death. I have high hopes for that plant.

But basil and cuban oregano (and rosemary and chives) right outside the kitchen door... new small colored peppers (just noticed them in the market a couple weeks ago, never seen 'em before, like dwarf red and yellow bells), a dwarf cardamom (not quite the same as the real spice).

Love 'em all. And I kind of like having orchids around, although I don't do too much to 'em. (Have a vanilla next to the chives -- won't produce though, since it's all by itself and they need mates.)

Oh, and there's a pineapple just coming in. MMmm. Hopefully ripe before summer hits.

01:58 / 05.04.04

I, too, am a HUGE fan of orchids. I just bought my first one a few months ago, and it's growing beautifully. unfortunately (I think) all of the flowers opened within the first weeks I had it - I really don't know enough about orchids to know how to keep the little bugger going. I've been watering it whenever the top mossy stuff is well dry, and it sits atop a saucer full of glass stones, which I keep wet.

and bamboo - wow! how much space do you have in your yard?!

as for the food plants, last year I planted strawberries, which produced very few sizable berries, attracted slugs, and was protected by an unsightly cagenetting. it did, however, grow in a healthy overabundance and seems to already be doing quite nicely this year. I'm considering tearing it out to make room for something more useful or attractive and less work - though I really hate to kill off such healthy living plants!

I'll definitely start my herb garden again - right now the rosemary is sitting alone in a huge windowbox.

12:13 / 05.04.04

I used to have a lovely inner city garden but since moving house a couple of years ago gardening has suffered in that time, energy and enthusiasm have been channeled elsewhere. I also no longer have my sunny south west facing garden and have a south east facing one that doesn't get much sun in the bottom half (i.e. the part the house looks out on.) If anyone can suggest some cheerful low maintenance plants that grow well in shade I would be delighted.

I guess the things that I do best and give me the most pleasure are hanging baskets. It's so easy to create something that looks great and will last all summer and autumn if you water it. I also found that watering my hanging baskets in the evening became a calm ritual that I really enjoyed. The best part is that you don't actually need a garden for hanging baskets.

12:18 / 05.04.04

Another thing - sweet peas. All you need is a decent sized pot and a wigwam of bamboo canes to grow these gorgeous beautiful smelling flowers. The more you cut them for your vases the more they flower.

13:01 / 05.04.04

although care directions say otherwise, my gerbera daisies thrived in flowerbed under the shade provided by the overhang from my porch, which ends just past the bed. it did get plenty of indirect light, though, so I guess it depends on HOW shaded your yard is. and they're so very cheery. other than that, I'm not good on advice, as I'm just learning (part of the fun, really). maybe next year I'll have more actual wisdom to share

I'll look into sweet peas - that sounds nice. did you start them from seeds or buy the plants?

13:15 / 05.04.04

I grew the sweet peas from seed. You get a packet of 80 or so seeds for the price of one plant and they germinate with a pretty good success rate. From memory I think you have to pinch out the main stalk when it has sent out the second set of leaves but I'll double check that with my gardening consultant/mother.

13:35 / 05.04.04

MannnnN! - just spent this weekend clearing out our garden. Moved into the new place a few months ago, and the garden was overgrouwn and really out of shape. The old lady who lived there before had had the garden paved over with odd shaped paving stones. We spent most of the weekend turning these up. In total we got rid of about 30-40% of these stones - the rest are okay.

After digging these up (and their concrete supports), we had a MASSIVE pile of concrete and stones, and weren't really sure what to do, until my housemate suggested building a rockery for our herbs. Really nice touch and it worked out well.

Am looking forward to next weekend so we can start planting the vegetable and flower seeds. Hola!! 4 day weekend - the weather really needs to be good!

14:03 / 05.04.04

You might know this already, bitchiekittie, but soil acidity affects the color of some plants' blossoms, and I think hydrangea is one of them. Depending on your soil chemistry, you might see other shades over the years, always a sort of exciting surprise.

I have a black thumb and kill otherwise healthy plants with frightening regularity. I have finally resorted to planting nothing but succulents, a cactus or two, and one sacrificial jasmine which I expect will die but which I must have for the scent.

I am hoping to plant tomatoes in the backyard as they're one fruit that taste so much better when homegrown that it makes it truly unappetizing to buy them at a market.

Let's see photos of your gardens, please.

15:14 / 05.04.04

cash jackson - I'm going to get me some sweet pea seeds right away. thanks!

jub - my garden was a mess last year, too. there were all these weird unidentifiable beasties growing! and lots of really ugly, super amazingly heavy brick things that nearly broke my back to move. the compulsive recycler in me had massive trouble with just throwing them out, but I hated them so much! luckily, my aunt took most of them to border her garden.

but when you finish all of that cleaning and fixing, man it feels good!

fred - thanks! I have heard that, but it doesn't hurt to remind me, as I'm more than slightly forgetful, and am definitely a novice at this business.

last year I planted tomatoes, but they didn't grow well at all - not one good tomato, with two plants! which was a surprise, because everyone else seems to be able to grow them with zero trouble at all, and everything else I did turned out great! I may try again this year, though I was terribly disappointed.

15:15 / 05.04.04

and for photos, I have a few of my flowers at home. I'd love to share!

15:52 / 05.04.04

hullo, first message in this place so lets see, better stick to topic, i like:

elder; you can make great juice form the flowers but i suppose a tree is difficult to grow in a city if thats where you live

woormwood; proper use is to stick a twig in a bottle of vodka, let it soak for a day and then drink ice-cold as schnaps. Look green either you love it or hate it, no in-betweens there. (its the same stuff that gives the distinctive flavour to fernet branca).

I suppose mushrooms and oaks doesn't count, so that finishes my list of favourite plants in a garden.

19:44 / 05.04.04

bk: don't overwater your orchid. They actually seem happiest growing on this kind of "gravel" made of pretty big chunks of bark, with occasional soakings and decent humidity. That moss stuff I think makes 'em soggy. In the wild, they grow in the crooks of trees or wrapped around branches -- they don't sit in water much. They seem to prefer having a lot of water around that just sort of runs over them.

Oh, and they seem to like Dynamite Plant Food -- gray granules, comes in a clear plastic tube with a big red label. I can't find a picture on Google, all the returns lead me to an Indian organic fertilizer site which I really suspect isn't it. It's the same thing as Nutricote, you get it at Home Depot. Just toss a handful in the pot -- it's time release and won't burn.

19:48 / 05.04.04

Oh, and my bamboo isn't that bamboo -- it's a Gigantochloa, not a Phyllostachys. Smaller, clumping variety, not one of those huge running varieties. I'm hoping it'll replace this palm tree I took out of the front yard, but that'll take some time.

19:57 / 05.04.04

I'll have to read up on them more, as I think it needs a repotting - it's got some crazy roots hanging out of the pot I bought it in. but generally, I don't water it often, and just give it a proper soaking when I do.

that bamboo is so pretty - how big does it tend to get? do you have any pictures of yours?

20:41 / 05.04.04

You show me your bamboo and I'll show you mine?

Gardening rocks harder than 'The Darkness' on PCP and I think this is a lovely thread BK. As you say, spring has sprung which is lovely, because it means my beautiful Magnolia has flowered.

And I spent a good few delightful hours at the weekend looking at a mail order organic herb catalogue from Jekka's Herb Farm choosing plants for someone else's garden. I wanted them all, not in the least because I am now the proud owner of Holistic Herbal which is a book that every gardening Lither should own.

21:32 / 05.04.04

that bamboo is so pretty - how big does it tend to get? do you have any pictures of yours?

None that would make it distinguishable from lawn grass as yet. The plant, small to start with, died off when I was in China. I thought it was totally gone. It only sent out a new shoot last week, while I was negotiating with a friend to dig some bamboo out of their yard.

Oh, and Gigantichloa gets between 15-30' high -- I planted it to kind of screen the big window in front of our living room.

22:03 / 05.04.04

olulabelle - oooh, how pretty!

two pictures from my backyard, taken last year:

grant - I think that would be a really cool screen! definitely different than anything MY neighbors have. does it grow fast?

22:36 / 05.04.04

BK, is it me or are your pictures teeny?

That bamboo screen is a lovely idea Grant. How long did it take to grow?

Orchids are lovely, and I have two. They appear to like me; people whinge about how hard they are to grow, but one of mine is in my bathroom - flowering:

and the other is on my kitchen windowsill - not flowering but about to:

(but obviously this is not my kitchen windowsill as I have just moved the plant to take a picture...)

They're both doing really well. They seem to like it best if you basically ignore them - keep them vaguely warm but not in direct sunlight, water when you remember to, and cut back to the next stem joint when they've flowered.

BTW, have you read the Orchid Thief?

16:19 / 06.04.04

Every word in that book is true.

grant - I think that would be a really cool screen! definitely different than anything MY neighbors have. does it grow fast?

Not as fast as the running varieties -- they'll like just bush out and take over in a flash. The clumpers, it'll take probably a couple years before we're talking privacy. Till then, the neighbors get to see me lunge into the living room three-quarters asleep in my boxers on them mornings when it's my go to get the baby changed and fed.
Hi neighbors!

There are quite a few bamboos around here. Florida gardeners tend to have an eye for the "exotic."

23:47 / 06.04.04

I wish I could plant bamboo, but I'm too paranoid about it growing out of control. I know about clumpers v runners, but still.

These are about my speed. See the little white fuzzy things on the one on the top right? Those sweet babies are brand new. Christ, I want to knit them sweaters.

00:05 / 07.04.04

Nice phaelenopsis!

Orchids aren't nearly as difficult as people make out - although some species are hardier than others. I'd second Grant's caution about allowing decent drainage (they're susceptible to root-rot if allowed to stand in water. In fact, if you're keen for them to re-flower, err on the side of underwatering; this seems to hasten growth of new flower spikes.

Otherwise, they like strong but indirect sunlight and high humidity - so bathrooms are ideal. Many species don't appreciate sudden sharp changes in temperature, so avoid draughty windowsills (and, if you buy an orchid in winter, makes sure it's properly wrapped up for the journey home). They also like frequent tepid misting, with a plant spray.

01:22 / 07.04.04

no luck no luck, so I present links to my gerbera daisies and my calla lily

I haven't had any troubles with my orchids yet; however, I am quite new at plants in general and appreciate all of this advice, because it's easily my favorite petaled houseguest. it seems the bathroom is the most readily obvious place, so of course I didn't think of it! if this one does well, my next will definitely go there.

grant - I hope you'll offer up some pictures when it grows a bit more - it might be sort of old news for you down there, but I have never seen someone growing their own bamboo!

fred - I've seen and even owned some of those, but those weird grape ones at the bottom...nice!

17:08 / 09.04.04

Bamboo:

Notice I don't much care for the "weeded and trimmed" look.....
Just as well, otherwise I would have mowed over the poor thing befor it grew to its impressive stature.

17:20 / 09.04.04

oh that's SO pretty. I would lovelovelovelove to have a pond in my yard - I worry that it will be prohibitively expensive, or that the harsh bmore winters will kill my fish. can you tell us more about it?

sorry I'm such a goober, but I'm finding that the loveliness of my garden has a extraordinarily positive effect on my mood

21:18 / 09.04.04

The bamboo and the pond are closely related, actually.

I went to a bamboo festival at Fairchild Tropical Garden down in Miami, and bought the bamboo with the thought of digging up the (useless and boring) Christmas palm that was in the middle of the yard. The bamboo was comically tiny, of course, but had promise. So I spent a whole Sunday digging up the palm tree, had niece's boyfriend with pickup truck and come-alongs come over with a few extra hands and we managed to haul the thing out and over to my sister-in-law's house, where she was quite happy to get the tree in the middle of her drive. They're kind of expensive, I think.

Anyway, I had this huge hole in the front yard, and a comically tiny plant. I thought to myself, hey, grant, you're never going to dig a hole that big again, are you.
So the better half and I had a brief conference, I diddled with the tape measure, and then we headed over to the Home Depot and got one of those plastic tub form things and a stack of flagstones. Since we're sitting on sand as it is, filling in around the tub was easy. We already had the Buddha statue and the bamboo went in neatly alongside him. The other plants came along in dribs and drabs later -- the floating lily-like things are actually an attractive (invasive!) plant from Mexico called a water snowflake. Five bunches cost five dollars, along with some underwater oxygenator plants at the nursery. We don't have a pump or filter, just plants and five growing goldfish (it was six and an algae-eating pleco, but, you know, attrition is the only law of the sea and all that).

So, anyway, yeah. Big hole. Plastic tub. Sand. Water.
Easy.

Then, of course, the bamboo died back and is now resurrecting itself. Happy Easter.

Oh, and uploading that inspired us here to mow the lawn.

We're fit and eco-friendly:

17:23 / 12.04.04

I have to admit that I've been out to buy the biggest meanest lawnmower that I can find. you have successfully shamed me, at least temporarily.

you make that pond seem suspiciously easy and inexpensive. though eventually, I think I'll end up giving it a go - yours is really pretty, I'm jealous.

here's a picture of a japanese snowbell (I think), a tree I planted in my yard last year. it was pretty much just a twig when I bought it on a whim in may at the annual flower market sale. it couldn't have been a foot tall, but now it's easily four feet. yesterday I inspected the sad, bare branches and viola! lovely, delicate little leaf buds covering each. I am so hopeful for that tree!

18:28 / 12.04.04

Is that a picture of your tree, or the kind of tree you have? It's a lovely picture.

18:48 / 12.04.04

no, that's someone else's picture, mine's still just a glorified twig. but I'm hoping for it to look like that sometime in the not too distant future.

I was looking for a tree, I think a yard needs a tree, even if it's a little one. they were selling all sorts of trees, from sad little twigs (like mine) to large, hearty saplings. I told him I wanted something that wouldn't get too big (my yard is small, and I don't want the roots to damage the alley or anything else), and would produce something pretty. he showed me some things, and this one appealed to me most of all. and the best part - it was only $10! I'd already dug up a big hole in the back, because there was a stump that I was afraid the children would hurt themselves on. perfection.

18:52 / 12.04.04

Ah -- the kind of tree, I realize upon re-reading.

Anyway, the pushmower is a great thing. Slightly more work than the gas kind, but 1/quiet! can mow at night without waking anyone! can hear birds sing! and 2/no hassle with starting and stopping! no plugs & cords like electric, no choking, priming, refilling, reoiling like gas.

Plus I feel really fit afterwards. Only real drawback is it doesn't like the twigs dropped by the mahogany in the frontyard (you can probably see part of it in the background of the pond picture). So I have to back up the blades and pull out twigs when going under that tree. No big deal.

Anyway, yeah, ponds are pretty easy. Fish are pretty resistant to freezing -- I'd advise getting any book on "water gardens" out of the library to see what plants do well near you.

You could check out Webb's Water Gardens, "12 miles north of Baltimore," or Wicklein Aquatics, which is in Baltimore itself.

The Webb's site has an FAQ and a section on winterizing, although they seem uptight about leaf litter and stuff. I'm much more laissez faire.

And here's a handy Audubon article on building a water garden. No pictures, but more contact info for suppliers, some in your area.

Cloned Christ on a HoverDonkey

23:07 / 12.04.04

Got a couple of Corkscrew Hazel in my back garden.

They're a very cool tree - all twisty-turny unpredictability, crumply looking leaves in summer, beautiful catkins in late winter and one of mine even developed a single nut last year (which my wife, Emma, threw away before I got a chance to eat it).

Very low maintenance (just need fertilizing and feeding occasionally, no pruning or other forms of hackery), not too big and look great.

Oh, and bay trees definitely rock my boat at the moment - love popping out a plucking a couple of leaves off to cook with.

17:55 / 17.04.04

thanks for the links, grant. yesterday I eyed up some supplies at a local place. in addition to the tub, filters, rocks, etc - they had a great selection of flowers and the most lovely fish!

cloned, I've never even heard of that! I love the idea of having a bunch of trees and bushes, but I have such a little yard.

here's a pic of my orchid.

you can see the dying blooms. I don't know whether to cut them off or let them be! normally I'd just pinch them off, but they aren't coming off with a mere pinching. the leaves seem to still be a great healthy green, so I'm assuming that it likes the amount sun it's getting there.

01:18 / 18.04.04

Yeah, let 'em drop. Eventually, the whole stem goes brittle, then snip it off.

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