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What type of plants are you interested in growing? This poll is closed. |
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| Perennials! |
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142 | 20.91% |
| Annuals! |
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30 | 4.42% |
| Woody plants! |
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62 | 9.13% |
| Succulent plants! |
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171 | 25.18% |
| Tropical plants! |
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60 | 8.84% |
| Non-vascular plants are the best! |
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31 | 4.57% |
| Screw you, I'd rather eat them! |
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183 | 26.95% |
| Total: | 679 votes | ||
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Fitzy Fitz posted:Guys, you can seriously just run your fingers down the stem of the plant and knock off or kill all the aphids. There's no need for chemical/biological warfare against something that tiny that can barely even move. the spray bottle stream worked fine for me and I don't like touching bugs, tbh. the tomato plant irritates my skin anyway 
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Jun 21, 2017 17:58
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I live in southern Indiana and I've been told my crabapple tree in our front yard will not survive the summer. Our tree lady recommend planting a new tree instead, so I'm soliciting recommendations from the thread. While I personally would like to have a fruit tree, I think it's a bad idea to have it where the neighborhood kids can get to it. Thoughts?
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Jun 21, 2017 22:39
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Welp, I have a situation to discuss with you good folks. We recently moved into a home that was previously foreclosed and subsequently purchased by a company that flipped it. Last summer, when it was still in possession of the bank, an old existing in-ground swimming pool was removed. (As I understand it, it was a vinyl lined pool, and the normal method of "removal" involves yanking out the rigid vinyl panels, pushing the concrete walkway into the thing, and covering it up.) The house was redone quite nicely, and we do love the place! However, the backyard looked like a WWII battlefield. Besides the rather large area of clayish fill, there was once a shed in the rear of the backyard that had been removed, leaving quite a nasty footprint; also, there was a pile of dirt/bricks adjacent to a wide shallow hole, and I think from viewing older google earth shots that it was a child's play set. In any event, the yard was about 1/2 fill dirt, smothered areas under leafy trees, and the old scars I described earlier. It was bad. Since moving in about three weeks ago I've made some progress. The yard has been shoveled, chopped, and raked to a sufficient degree to plant grass seed. But here's the problem, and this is the thing I'd like to hear about: Because of the poor quality of the fill dirt (I believe it is clay, it was very hard in areas and it was a light tan in color), it doesn't accept water very well. Water pools quickly and tends to run off rather than soak in. I do have a decent smattering of grass seedlings (not as uniform as I'd like due largely to a 5" rains storm we had shortly after germination), but they are stressed due to (1) summer heat and (2) poor soil composition. I've read in places on the Internet that dish soap can be very effective as an aeration treatment; the wetting action allows better moisture penetration and such, and should be repeated every couple of weeks or so. My question, then . . . does anyone here have any experience with such treatments? I know the obvious and normal response is that I should amend the clay soil with organics and compost, but I don't have the time or the equipment for such a massive undertaking for that big of an area; also, I treasure my grass seedlings! Thanks for listening, friends! LOVE, VITALIS
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Jun 22, 2017 02:34
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Do you talk mushrooms here? I got a pink oyster growing kit, and was amazed at how they take off once you see the body, but I'm worried that I waited too long to harvest. I read that they're too mature when the ridges curl upward, but couldn't tell what it means relative to the growth of the gilly body.  It's clear that this group has died out, but I can't tell if that's overmaturation or dehydration  Any help on what to do next? Should I expect smaller budlings to show up and grow elsewhere on the medium? Some of them are fine, and at the very least I can collect spores!   The spores are supposed to be white, but I already saw a couple after almost transferring a head so the paper works for me Stinky_Pete fucked around with this message at 02:00 on Jun 24, 2017 |
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Jun 24, 2017 01:52
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Hello plants thread, What do you think this plant is? It has some pretty distinctive flowers. Also the leaves look a bit like fat pot leaves.  There's a little patch between my sidewalk and the road that's "gone feral" as it were, and this thing popped up. I take a lot of pictures of flowers and send them to my girlfriend, but I thought this one was pretty neat.
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Jun 24, 2017 02:48
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Eeyo posted:Hello plants thread, I believe this is a cleome.
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Jun 24, 2017 22:17
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Tremors posted:I believe this is a cleome. Thanks, that seems to be it! I guess the 4 petals and 6 stamen arrangement should have tipped me off they're related to Brassicaceae (They're a separate family but apparently most closely related to them). The seed pods look similar too!
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Jun 25, 2017 17:15
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Stinky_Pete posted:Do you talk mushrooms here? My wife could answer better than I could about mushrooms, but those look past their prime. You want to pick them when their caps are full and shiny. If the edges start curling up, that means they're drying out. You could try making more slits in the bag, but I doubt that you will be getting any more. An enclosed bag that small will have the same temperature and humidity throughout, so it will fruit everywhere all at once. kid sinister fucked around with this message at 22:12 on Jun 25, 2017 |
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Jun 25, 2017 22:10
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kid sinister posted:My wife could answer better than I could about mushrooms, but those look past their prime. You want to pick them when their caps are full and shiny. If the edges start curling up, that means they're drying out. Okay. It's been on the high side of heat while they were growing and we don't use A/C so could they have matured. I'll have to read a book that focuses on it since the one that got me interested (Mycelium Running) was an overview of everything about mushrooms, and didn't have the depth that's promised from the author's earlier book about cultivation
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Jun 26, 2017 00:37
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I snapped some shots of my yard before leaving for work. I feel our yard now is kinda bare, it's just grass mostly. I think this place needs more plants to accentuate it. I want perennial plants that don't require too much fussing though. I am posting this in part to help myself keep track of what I am planning, and perhaps some input and suggestions. On the left of the driveway it looks like this, I mostly made this garden myself when we built the house. Had help from a digger to move the big rocks into place, leftovers from blasting for the house foundation (bedrock is almost surface level here) and I figured using it for landscaping was better than paying to have it removed:  I like the strip of natural forest that we left, it's a very low maintenance "decoration" and it even grows bilberries and lingon berries in it. Closeup of the stone pillar with our address number, around here I think I want flowers, bushes or something because I hate mowing the grass around this part. My SO planted a few flowers but frankly it just made mowing this area more a PITA than it was.  We added grass here last year, upper level was all gravel before and it was too barren looking for our tastes. I plan to remove the top layer of gravel remaining and make a concrete pathway. Also imagining after that's done concrete pots sitting in front of the wall with flowers and plants. And this strip of grass is a bit boring as is. Some bushes would really liven it up.... Roses perhaps, whatever it is, it must be thought of in. A project I hope to get done this year is installing a garden water tap there in the middle where there's some crap on ground. It's a lid covering a borehole, water level was around 2-3m when I checked.  The other side of the driveway I don't really have any plans for, I like it in the natural state more or less, I like the big bush:  Further away though it looks like this, mostly wild growing crap, we want to buy a bunch of soil, even up the ground here and plant more lawn and also flowers, bushes and fruit trees (but not apples, get enough of those from relatives). In the background you can see the rock wall, over there I really want to plant some flowers/bushes along the top edge, something that'll "flow over" the wall and pretty it up, and most importantly, remove the need for me to go so near the edge with the lawnmwoer. A lot of what I am doing is to make mowing the lawn easier....  Seen from other side. The grass lawn would be extended at the lower section to the left too, and I figure bushes and stuff against the wall. I am thinking flowers and plants all long this edge, perhaps some rose bushes in the middle, I have this idea to make round and rectangular concrete planters in contact with the ground and grow the plants there, I've developed this thing for concrete.....  Behind the garage, don't really have any plans for this area for some years yet. That's a woodshed I made from literal scrap, it will be torn down once I have built a bigger storage shed and we're thinking of putting a small greenhouse there.  Plants I am thinking of: -Siberian carpet cypress (Microbiota decussata) is one plant that features heavily in my imagination, looks good, hardy, covers lots of ground, I am thinking of planting it both aroudn the pillar at the drive way and on the to of the wall behind the garage. -Aubrieta Rock Cress Cascade Blue Aubrieta Hybrida Superbissima, holy poo poo what a name it's got in english, but drat they look nice, I can imagine these swelling over the top of the rock wall and perhaps over planter boxes. -Thymus serpyllum or Breckland thyme is another purple plant that looks like it can do well around rocky areas and cover ground. -Phlox subulata, creeping phlox or moss phlox. Holy moly this thing can cover land... wiki says "The odor given off by the plants is mistaken for that of marijuana", this one might find lots of use.... The thin lower bit of my garden that borders our neighbor might be well suited for this, whole solid stripe of purple.... hmmm. -English yew is also something I think would look nice, either as a closely cropped low hedge infront of the house. Or as individual bushes accenting things here and there. His Divine Shadow fucked around with this message at 07:23 on Jun 28, 2017 |
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Jun 28, 2017 07:19
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^ Roses are a lot more low maintenance than people think, you basically just have to hack them back once a year, or give them something to grow up. Some nice flowering things around the bottom of that pillar would do wonders too. The natural forest bits looks nice! I've been meaning to post here for a while. Tidied up my front garden a few weeks back. Mainly by digging up all this rubbish in the border. I hated it, it was messy,and somebody told me the flowers were poisonous to dogs anyway...   I found an amazing amount of bricks in there. Can't do anything about the border on the other side as that belongs to the neighbours. Planted two Rosemary I got for like, 50p each, a Tarragon? and an Ivy at the end. Also put a stone in because the dogs always run across there. I've moved it along a bit and dug it in more since then, but I need to put some sand or something underneath.  I'm going to plant a Lavender hedge. I bought 18 different varieties off Amazon, but they're a bit small to go in the ground just yet... They've got much bigger over the last couple of weeks though, I need to take another picture, and it's amazing how all the types smell different. I apparently ended up with: dwarf blue, tara, munstead, evermore blue, mellisa licac, pinata, Devonshire compact, Blue Star, Vera, Imperial Gem, Twickle Purple, Madrid Purple, Forever Blue, Sugarberry Ruffles, Provence, Lusi Pink, Madrid Pink and Havana, although I have no way of identifying any except the dwarf blue and the evermore. Got the pot cheap off the local house clearance sale for £4. Did have to ditch the bottom plate as I think it was drowning them. At what point do you guys think they can go in the ground? I know that whatever happens I'm going to have to build a temporary fence around them or they're going to get crushed by the dogs, my mum thinks I should leave them in there til next spring. The soil here is fairly clay-like, but is also filled with bits of rock and coal. It used to be forest before they built houses in the 1930s.   and a bonus puppy! 
Nettle Soup fucked around with this message at 21:25 on Jun 28, 2017 |
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Jun 28, 2017 13:54
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His Divine Shadow posted:(bedrock is almost surface level here) Just how much dirt do you have? You might have problems trying to grow some stuff if they are sitting directly on top of a rock slab.
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Jun 28, 2017 20:44
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His Divine Shadow posted:
I will vouch that these are great. We have pink along our driveway wall and about 4 years after planting smalllll plants they ar really bushing out and expanding. This year I found some larger-than-original (mail ordered) plants at a local garden centr and planted more further down and they really took off this first year with th ton of rain we've gotten. Also, bonus, weed seeds don't tend to penetrate th greenery. I dug up a little maple seedling and a shallow dandelion in about 5 feet of phlox, that's it. I wish I'd taken pics when they were in bloom, but I am lazy. You might want to rconsidr filling in that drainage ditch with dirt there. Might serve a purpose. You could probably plant some milkweed and cat o nine tails in there though.
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Jun 28, 2017 21:12
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The Snoo posted:the spray bottle stream worked fine for me and I don't like touching bugs, tbh. the tomato plant irritates my skin anyway The aphids came back almost full force for me, so I bought ladybugs from Amazon and released them on my plants last night. I checked on them today and the ladybugs are loving up the aphids, it's great. I really suggest this method to anyone with a serious aphid (or other small bug) problem. They're good to have in the backyard anyway, and they work really fast too.
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Jun 28, 2017 22:05
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since we're growing plants, mostly non-edible, on our apartment balcony and not in a nice yard, I feel like ladybugs wouldn't be feasible for my single tomato plant  we usually have a large ladybug population during the summer in this area, though, I'm sure we'll see them soon. we found a big praying mantis on our balcony and put them on the plant yesterday, and in doing so found a baby (?) mantis as well. I hope they will help keep the aphids down. edit: the real problem is if it'll ever set any fruit
snoo fucked around with this message at 22:48 on Jun 28, 2017 |
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Jun 28, 2017 22:40
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I discovered a bunch of aphids on some of my coriander plants today. They are indoor, and the other nearby indoor plants seem fine, so I'm not sure how and why they suddenly appeared. The coriander has all gone to seed now anyway, so I'm not that upset, but it is alarming to suddenly discover big long lines of them up a stem. I squished them by hand, and it was very gross.
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Jun 28, 2017 22:51
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The Snoo posted:since we're growing plants, mostly non-edible, on our apartment balcony and not in a nice yard, I feel like ladybugs wouldn't be feasible for my single tomato plant What, that's awesome! We had a "pet" preying mantis we kept in a fish bowl. Her name was Genghis.  Definitely post pics!
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Jun 29, 2017 01:24
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kid sinister posted:Just how much dirt do you have? You might have problems trying to grow some stuff if they are sitting directly on top of a rock slab. It depends, the surface is really uneven, but trees managed to grow pretty much everywhere beforehand. We've also filled up the yard with sooo much soil (clay based soil for filler, gravel for places where drainage is important, then fine soil), 100 truck loads worth I think. His Divine Shadow fucked around with this message at 04:47 on Jun 29, 2017 |
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Jun 29, 2017 04:38
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That70sHeidi posted:You might want to reconsidr filling in that drainage ditch with dirt there. Might serve a purpose. You could probably plant some milkweed and cat o nine tails in there though. The two next to the pillar, that's where the overflow from the drain wells around the house goes if it rains too much. I don't want to fill soil into the ditches, probably need to remove some, just get something growing there that replaces the grass.
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Jun 29, 2017 04:42
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Has anyone observed that planting lavender in your yard has a effect against flies? I have a huge fly problem in the yard and i'm trying various solutions to get rid of them. It's been a wet spring and wet early summer so far + i've done a fair bit of digging, but it's my first summer here so i don't know if this is normal or not. But! I read online that flies dislike lavender + they are pretty so.
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Jun 30, 2017 19:49
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Seems the best place for this. Found this monster growing in the midst of our red tip bush, about 9 feet tall with a base of about 3/4 in thick. What the poo poo is this? Thought it was a weed but it has a woody stem so IDK  
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Jul 1, 2017 21:12
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A weed is really just any plant that you don't want around. They can be woody. Red tips are actually really weedy around here! I'm pretty sure that's a box elder, a type of maple tree. Their young stems are green, they have opposite leaves, and they usually have 3-5 leaflets.
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Jul 1, 2017 23:11
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And they attract harmless but PITA box elder bugs.
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Jul 2, 2017 00:24
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Fitzy Fitz posted:A weed is really just any plant that you don't want around. They can be woody. Red tips are actually really weedy around here! I should point out I live in Texas, and maples don't grow here to my knowledge, especially not just in the wild out of nowhere. But then if I knew anything about trees I'd maybe know what that was.
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Jul 2, 2017 15:17
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Attention jade and or succulent gurus.. I inherited a pretty decent 10 year old jade, the problem is it's been neglected for most of those years. I'm thinking it's either mealy bugs or powdery mildew, leaning towards bugs. I've isolated it from the rest of my jades and currently thinking of going with water first then isopropyl alcohol on qtips and in some areas straight up cutting off the bad sections. The reason I hesitate to do that for all of it is because my friend already actively pinched it and there isn't much of what I like in jades left: the leaves. How should I clean it? When should I repot it? What would you do to make this jade be all it can be? I get a lot of enjoyment from letting jades back bud and just flow rather than aggressively shaping them (that's what maple bonsai are for!) , any trick to inspiring back budding? I have a succulent specific miracle grow that I usually do pre hot spells once a spring. Album: http://imgur.com/a/b7Ngn Thanks!
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Jul 2, 2017 21:21
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life is killing me posted:I should point out I live in Texas, and maples don't grow here to my knowledge, especially not just in the wild out of nowhere. But then if I knew anything about trees I'd maybe know what that was. Box elders grow all over the country. They aren't usually recognized as a maple though because of the compound leaves. The only reason I'm a little less than certain about that ID is because those lateral leaflets are kinda big. Usually the terminal leaflet is big like that while the others are smaller, but leaf shape can really vary a lot, so...
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Jul 2, 2017 21:32
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life is killing me posted:Seems the best place for this. You've had some answers but for plant identification I've found this app really usefull: http://identify.plantnet-project.org/. Used it this weekend to identify some wildflowers and it worked more than it didn't.
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Jul 3, 2017 11:27
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Harry Potter on Ice posted:How should I clean it? When should I repot it? What would you do to make this jade be all it can be? I'd clean it with alcohol like you mentioned. That's how I clean my really dirty plants, if a wet rag won't cut it. Clean it first and see how bad the really bad parts are. Keep it alive until next year, and then trim or whatever. That's what I'd do. I'd also wait to repot until next spring, as summer is already in gear. I have a 3 or 4 year old jade that I didn't even know was jade until a few weeks ago. I haven't done any shaping (or back budding) so I have no advice on that front. It's a great looking plant, I hope it cleans up ok for you.
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Jul 3, 2017 17:54
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This is probably a dumb question. I have mini-trees of some sort (not oak) popping up all over the yard. Each one is attached to a larger root. I have dug a few up and pulled up the root until it breaks, but then I started getting worried about harming the oak tree in the middle of the yard. Could digging up all these roots harm the oak?
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Jul 6, 2017 03:15
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I have a question, can anyone identify what kind of tree/plant this is?  I thought maybe Beech at first, but Beech leaves have pinnate veins, not reticulated veins.
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Jul 6, 2017 19:25
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TheManWithNoName posted:This is probably a dumb question. I have mini-trees of some sort (not oak) popping up all over the yard. Each one is attached to a larger root. I have dug a few up and pulled up the root until it breaks, but then I started getting worried about harming the oak tree in the middle of the yard. Could digging up all these roots harm the oak? Looks like a runner. Do you have any bushes nearby with similar leaves? Or you you could just follow the root back to its source. No, you can't harm an oak by pulling up runners of other plants. Oak roots are deeper.
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Jul 7, 2017 18:28
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kid sinister posted:Looks like a runner. Do you have any bushes nearby with similar leaves? Or you you could just follow the root back to its source. Not really anything nearby. I'll have to follow one back, they are just all over so I'm betting it's multiple sources. Good to know I can get rid of them though, thanks!
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Jul 7, 2017 18:41
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Was going around the rear of the garden with my brushcutter and clearing things up when I noticed two stands of wild raspberry bushes:  Looks like some of them are going to be giving berries this year. Is it possible to move these? I plan to build a 5x5m shed about where these things are growing.
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Jul 8, 2017 08:00
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Just follow usual bush transplanting tips. There's plenty of very similar guides out there. I wouldnt count on berries immediately after transplanting though.
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Jul 8, 2017 10:41
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Went to Hampton Court Flower Show. Came back with a Yacon plant (to go with my Jicama, currently 3 inches high), Australian Finger Lime, as well as a Feoija plant.
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Jul 9, 2017 20:31
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Eat the lime
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Jul 10, 2017 04:14
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Can anyone recommend a good general resource / guide on trimming? I've just sort of been letting my plants grow however they want up until now.
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Jul 13, 2017 17:15
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Cheston posted:Can anyone recommend a good general resource / guide on trimming? I've just sort of been letting my plants grow however they want up until now. I haven't found a good general purpose source, but lots of flowering/fruiting plants have very different growth habits, so I just tend to Google "How to prune X" and "When to prune X". Do you have any in particular you're looking for advice on?
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Jul 13, 2017 18:07
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Cheston posted:Can anyone recommend a good general resource / guide on trimming? I've just sort of been letting my plants grow however they want up until now. One of my favorite gardening books of all times is Cass Turnbull's Guide to Pruning. I borrowed it from the library years ago and it's stuck with me ever since. Not only is it really informative, but it's actually a very enjoyable and at times quite fun read. She's the one who introduced me to the term "crepe murder" for the habit people have for yearly topping of their crepe myrtle trees.
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Jul 13, 2017 18:21
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| # ? May 15, 2024 16:05 |
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Cheston posted:Can anyone recommend a good general resource / guide on trimming? I've just sort of been letting my plants grow however they want up until now. Like others have said, it depends on the plant. For all plants, you can remove dead stuff at any time of the year. Generally for plants, the best time to prune live stuff is the very end of winter or beginning of spring. You'll want to prune back to the next node past what you want to remove. Pruning is for removing dead and diseased portions, maintaining size and general shaping. There's a saying about pruning: "It ain't what you cut, it's what you don't cut." Pruning the wrong parts could ruin your plant. If you cut off the buds, you'll never get flowers. If you cut the spurs off a fruit tree, that branch won't fruit. If you cut the leader off plants that can't resprout from old wood, it will only grow from its side branches and look weird.
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Jul 13, 2017 23:00
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