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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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13Pandora13 posted:Cross-posting on recommendation. I am in USDA grow zone 7a (central Virginia) Honestly I wouldn't worry too much about planting "termite repellant" plants. If you like them then go for it, but it's probably not going to matter a ton. The chemicals your professional is going to hit it with should do more than enough to keep things under control. Yeah, catnip will absolutely bring in cats. It won't necessarily attract them, but any who meander on their territory (cat territories usually overlap significantly) will be much more likely to linger. Good call on raking back the mulch. Put down some heavy landcape cloth first to create a barrier between the rocks and the soil below so they don't just sink in over time.
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May 17, 2018 13:14
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Bark mulch is a great way to import and/or attract new termites. I hope the lava rocks work out better. Edit: catmint contains the same insect repelling compound (nepetalactone) as catnip, though it's less potent. Big Nubbins fucked around with this message at 14:01 on May 17, 2018 |
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May 17, 2018 13:46
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This is pretty small potatoes (as it were) but I still think it's neat when this happens. Had a small pansy in my office window for most of last year and stuck it out in the ground in the fall. I'm in zone 4 so I didn't expect it to show up again - had a pretty harsh winter as well. But hey! 
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May 17, 2018 15:13
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Hubis posted:Honestly I wouldn't worry too much about planting "termite repellant" plants. If you like them then go for it, but it's probably not going to matter a ton. The chemicals your professional is going to hit it with should do more than enough to keep things under control. Thanks! I don't know much about landscape cloth, will it still drain ok (since it's going close to the house)? Should I not put cloth down against the foundation for a few inches or is it okay? Shame Boner posted:Bark mulch is a great way to import and/or attract new termites. I hope the lava rocks work out better. Thanks! I like the flowers of the catmint and it seems to be more resilient (to the point of being weedy). I'm also doing a couple of Gardenia bushes (my grandmother grew them and always wore gardenia perfume when I was little, so they bring back good memories).
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May 17, 2018 19:15
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Mozi posted:This is pretty small potatoes (as it were) but I still think it's neat when this happens. what a great surprise
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May 17, 2018 20:46
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13Pandora13 posted:Thanks! I don't know much about landscape cloth, will it still drain ok (since it's going close to the house)? Should I not put cloth down against the foundation for a few inches or is it okay? The cloth seemed to drain well so I don't think it matters how close it is to your foundation. I installed it about 6 or 7 years ago and pinned it right up against the foundation. Weeds didn't give two shits though and would constantly find a way to emerge right at the edge of the fabric. Granted I don't use weed killers of any sort, so YMMV. This year I actually removed all my landscape cloth for many reasons, chief of which I was tired of maintaining essentially two flowerbeds (one in the poor soil below the fabric and one in the rich composted wood chips on top). I didn't like the strata it created, or the fact that worms and other critters couldn't freely move from above to below; probably why the soil underneath was the same condition as when I put the fabric in. I also didn't like that it seemed to select for only the most aggressive weeds. For me it was Aegopodium, which grew these incredibly dense root mats in the soil immediately beneath the fabric, which became a beachhead for it to grow through the fabric wherever it pleased (everywhere). Now you're making me wonder if the catmint I have is a dwarf variety, because it's not weedy at all. It forms these nice full mounds a little over a foot high and two or three across and hasn't moved or spread (unlike my tigereye sumac). I've had just two plants for at least 5 years, but this year when I raked out all the bark nuggets and ripped out the landscape fabric, there were some woody roots in the compost on top of the fabric that had new leaves emerging. I gave the baby catmint clones a real home in the soil and so far so good. I think my favorite thing about catmint is the staying power; even in zone 6a Ohio, it blooms strong for drat near 3 seasons. Big Nubbins fucked around with this message at 21:26 on May 17, 2018 |
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May 17, 2018 21:21
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i put two jalapeno plants in the same pot because i ran out of big pots  amazing how happy every plant of mine has been once i got them outside. my coleus (seeds taken from last year's plant) are looking good, the tomatoes and basil are doing well, the sage came back from the brink of death... i grabbed some morning glory seedlings from my parents' yard bc they have so many and i'm hoping to train them up to cover the one side of the balcony railing that faces our gross annoying neighbor  hopefully i can make some kinda diy trellis with metal coathangers and cotton twine!
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May 17, 2018 23:40
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Okay, so I decided to get started with removal tonight after work (it's been raining two days so the soil is pretty moist and pliant) and discovered two lovely things: 1. There's bugs that are small and white on the root balls of two plants I pulled up, I don't know enough about bugs to know if they're termite nymphs or what but it worries me enough to not want to try to salvage/move the plants to my backyard near the wood fence. 2. The soil close to my house isn't soil at all, it's loving mulch, for a good 14"+ down. I don't know how the foundation hasn't gone to poo poo, or how I don't have termites in the house itself, or any number of issues. I don't even know the best approach to fix it, soil backfill and rocks, or all rock? I knew this was going to be a relatively large project but I feel like it's going to end up being a nightmare. gently caress.
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May 18, 2018 00:23
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13Pandora13 posted:Okay, so I decided to get started with removal tonight after work (it's been raining two days so the soil is pretty moist and pliant) and discovered two lovely things: mealy bugs?
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May 18, 2018 01:53
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Harry Potter on Ice posted:mealy bugs? They weren't fuzzy enough from my past mealybug experiences, but I suppose it could be. About the length of a (lady size, not grown out) pinky nail. I googled "white bugs root ball" and all the results were mealybugs on plants so that wasn't very useful. They looked more like whiteflies but there's nothing above ground on the plants/leaves.
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May 18, 2018 02:50
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13Pandora13 posted:Okay, so I decided to get started with removal tonight after work (it's been raining two days so the soil is pretty moist and pliant) and discovered two lovely things: Grubs? Also, how do you have 14" of mulch that isn't decomposed at least towards the bottom? Did they dump it in all at once last year?
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May 18, 2018 04:15
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The Snoo posted:i put two jalapeno plants in the same pot because i ran out of big pots Be careful with the morning glories. They can take over, and do the whole tree killing ivy thing. I am currently engaged in an ongoing battle to save a line of fir trees at the back of our yard from those pesky vines.
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May 18, 2018 05:13
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I'm growing plants on a third floor apartment balcony and they're in a window box kind of planter, but I'll definitely try to tear it down before it dries up and the seeds drop to the ground below where they might come up again next year 
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May 18, 2018 05:21
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That seems like an ideal use for them!
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May 18, 2018 06:02
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Winter, has hosed my 50m hose. I bought one of those 30m stretchy hoses and it won’t reach my main flowerbeds On the other hand if anyone knows about roses then good news! I scored David Austin’s Dame Judy Dench 
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May 18, 2018 07:12
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Planning to go buy an automatic water pump today, we got a 140m deep borehole in front of our house which is how we heat it with a ground exchange pump, figured when we built it we should sneak down a hose in the hole, so we can pull up water for irrigation / car washing. Guess it's about time to start that project now. All the watering of the new lawn is motivating me to get started on it. Otherwise I hate watering lawns and think if they can't survive on their own they shouldn't be used.
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May 18, 2018 07:15
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learnincurve posted:On the other hand if anyone knows about roses then good news! I don't, but I'm curious what makes that special!
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May 18, 2018 11:28
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On a related note, we went away for 8 days with no roses in bloom, and were delighted to come back to this. It's the big old bush I've posted about before. We also learned that it went in when the house was built in the mid 1960s, so, if that's correct, it's about 50 years old!  Clusters typically of 4 buds, though the clusters can double or triple up quite impressively. Still looking for opinions on what variety or family it is  With growth comes problems, too. Bugs are easy enough, I've had good luck with homemade mild soap/oil sprays and just squishing them  This is a much bigger problem, though:  I assume that's powdery mildew? It doesn't look quite the same as google images; mine is almost exclusively on the buds/bud stems and not on leaves. It also looks heavier/thicker than the powdery mildew I see in pictures  At the moment I'm removing the bad ones. From reading it up sounds like homemade remedies (i had good luck with a baking soda solution when I had mildew on mint last year) aren't very effective, so I've gotta pick up a commercial spray I guess
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May 18, 2018 12:17
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Neem oil is supposed to help with mildews
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May 18, 2018 12:34
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it's so hard to find consistent information. Here's a discussion and it ranges from "yes great" to "not at all" to "you guys are misunderstanding, it's not a fungicide but can be effective anyway" https://www.houzz.com/discussions/1459534/does-neem-oil-cure-powdery-mildew need to make a big bottle of Neem/Milk/Baking powder and just blast all of them at once
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May 18, 2018 13:05
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I'm glad I'm reading this thread; we've got a crapload of wood chips from a few tree removals (ours and our neighbors') which we've been mostly saving for when we plant our vegetable garden. We finally did that this week and it barely made a dent in the chips, so we're looking for other places to put it. We were considering right around the house where there are soil beds with plants, but we did notice some termites in the chips, and we were wondering if that would be a problem. The impression I'm getting here is, probably. (In other news, the pear tree I asked about a few months back seems to be doing exceptional after some pruning. Hard to tell if the cuttings I planted will do anything -- it was hard to do it in ideal conditions due to winter rearing its head every weekend -- but those were just possible side benefits of the pruning anyway.) Sir Lemming fucked around with this message at 13:17 on May 18, 2018 |
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May 18, 2018 13:14
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I wouldn't put woodchips with a known termite infestation near the base of the house. Maybe they'll be happy in the woodchips, maybe they'll be happier in your home but that's not something I'd be comfortable rolling the dice on. If it were me, I'd use them as a bulking agent in my compost. If you have no interest in compost, I'd just bury them in garden beds that didn't border my house or in planters and pots to help drainage. You could probably even use them for mushroom farming, though I've never undertaken such a project.
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May 18, 2018 14:20
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Sir Lemming posted:I'm glad I'm reading this thread; we've got a crapload of wood chips from a few tree removals (ours and our neighbors') which we've been mostly saving for when we plant our vegetable garden. We finally did that this week and it barely made a dent in the chips, so we're looking for other places to put it. We were considering right around the house where there are soil beds with plants, but we did notice some termites in the chips, and we were wondering if that would be a problem. Also don't use fresh woods chips for your garden because they just sponge up water and nutrients. Wood mulch is made from shredded *bark*, which has the most rich nutrient matter and will contribute to the soil as it breaks down. Interior wood chips are basically just dead cellulose. Chips are good for places you don't want things to grow like paths. They are also good as a component of compost. Finally, they ARE useful in the ground if you are willing to let them break down a bit (essentially compost in place) as the sponge nature will aide in water retention. Look up Hugelkultur sometime, and/or Back to Eden Gardening.
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May 18, 2018 15:01
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Oops, well I guess it may be too late to take them out of the garden now, though I'll mention it to the wife and see if there's anything we can do. We did at least need something to mark it off so people didn't keep stepping on the plants, and also have like no budget. (It also looks pretty!) On the plus side, they have had something like 8 months to break down, and there's definitely some stuff going on in there. Worms and all that. The top of the pile is pretty dry but we took stuff from the middle where it's pretty dang spongey. Definitely not planning on putting them near the house now, in any event. Paths would be a nifty idea. And we're definitely interested in composting, we're up to like our third compost bin at this point. I had briefly considered laying them at the base of a playset to create a softer landing than the fairly hard soil we have, but termites would be a problem there too. As foreshadowed by the carpenter bees that keep leaving sawdust all over the slide. Sir Lemming fucked around with this message at 15:14 on May 18, 2018 |
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May 18, 2018 15:10
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Nosre posted:I don't, but I'm curious what makes that special! https://www.davidaustinroses.co.uk The bio bit: David Austin has a well deserved reputation for being the best rose producer in the world, he’s a very old man now and has spent a life time creating new roses and is responsible for saving a lot of old types that were in danger of being lost. His roses are also incredibly hard to kill. Dame Judi Dench was released last year at Chelsea and this is the first year my rose supplier has had one half size and shaped (you can get them cut back online though). I got maybe 50 roses with another 9 on order - I say 50 but it could be nearing 100 at this point if you include the tiny ones. TLDR: me WANT new David Austin. Look at it just look at it! 
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May 18, 2018 15:27
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Sir Lemming posted:Oops, well I guess it may be too late to take them out of the garden now, though I'll mention it to the wife and see if there's anything we can do. We did at least need something to mark it off so people didn't keep stepping on the plants, and also have like no budget. (It also looks pretty!) On the plus side, they have had something like 8 months to break down, and there's definitely some stuff going on in there. Worms and all that. The top of the pile is pretty dry but we took stuff from the middle where it's pretty dang spongey. Keep them around and use them as a source of "browns" to balance your "greens". I think the ratio you want is like 2:1?
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May 18, 2018 22:27
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learnincurve posted:https://www.davidaustinroses.co.uk Do you sell the cut flowers, or are you a landscaper or something? My roses have begun blooming, but I'm not sure of any of the names, as they came with the place.    
Schmeichy fucked around with this message at 01:39 on May 19, 2018 |
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May 19, 2018 00:54
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Oh no I’m the Gollum of roses. half my (small) back garden is a solid wall of roses where my neighbour had one of those enormous overgrown evergreen tree hedge things that they ripped out.
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May 19, 2018 09:16
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Ok, so on the same subject of wood chips and what might grow in them... Could anyone tell me what these white things are? I'm guessing it's just some unremarkable weeds, but I've never seen any that look quite like this before.
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May 19, 2018 14:54
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I've been slowly but surely won over by roses. There were a few over-crowded and highly diseased roses on the property when we inherited it which at the time I had no interest in, I dug them out and gave them away. But one of them kept growing back from the roots (most likely a "Dr. Huey") but it was right along the fence so I just went with it and let it ramble up the fence, out of the way of my other plantings. This time of year it looks really nice, but other times it's forgettable. Then I decided to do a sort of cottage garden border, which naturally needs roses. I opted for Pemberton's "Penelope" rose, which at 4 years old now is looking amazing. Those I picked simply because the color would go well with other things in that border and being relatively carefree, but I fell in love with the fragrance. From there I decided to go wacky old-fashioned and got a Rosa gallica officinalis to add to my old-timey medicinal herb garden. And now I found that one of the seed catalogs I order from had Rosa rubiginosa seed and I thought what the hey, I'm up for a challenge. So I'll be cold stratifying those this fall to see if I can have any success growing roses from seed. And if not, I'm only out $3. I thought about putting up photos of my roses but we've had over 6 inches of rain for the past 2 days and it keeps coming, so they're all looking downturned and weighed down from being soaked.
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May 19, 2018 15:07
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learnincurve posted:https://www.davidaustinroses.co.uk Beautiful! I've certainly heard of him, but there's advocates for lots of different growers so it's always so hard to know if they live up to the reputation they have. You're in the UK, right? Similar conditions to me in BENELUX I imagine. Any thoughts on that fungual infestation I posted above? I'm starting to doubt it's powdery mildew: -powdery mildew spreads easily to leaves, whereas this is almost 99% exclusively on the flower buds/stems right before the flower buds -PM looks fairly easy to wipe off when it's early, this stuff forms a heavy pad that's difficult to even scratch with a fingernail
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May 19, 2018 16:22
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Sir Lemming posted:Ok, so on the same subject of wood chips and what might grow in them... Could anyone tell me what these white things are? Those look like mushrooms, chips are a nice wet habitat for them. It's a good thing, usually means the soil is healthy.
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May 19, 2018 16:30
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Sorry I missed that post nosre, it’s extreme powdery mildew now doubt. With the plant being so big and so old it’s going to be more susceptible to fungus and disease and be hit hard by them. With this bush I would be cruel to be kind and cut off the very badly effected parts, with it being this age and so badly eaten into there is a risk of a secondary infection if you just treat it. You might want to look at taking cuttings from new growth, 50 year old shub roses are absolute gems as they predate the current yen for grafting they will grow true - rose people will bite your hand off for them.
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May 19, 2018 17:12
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Schmeichy posted:Those look like mushrooms, chips are a nice wet habitat for them. It's a good thing, usually means the soil is healthy. Oh cool, that thought occurred to me but I couldn't find any pictures online that matched up. We definitely get lots of mushrooms around the house so it's pretty likely. (Don't worry, I don't plan on eating them)
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May 19, 2018 19:36
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learnincurve posted:Sorry I missed that post nosre, it’s extreme powdery mildew now doubt. With the plant being so big and so old it’s going to be more susceptible to fungus and disease and be hit hard by them. With this bush I would be cruel to be kind and cut off the very badly effected parts, with it being this age and so badly eaten into there is a risk of a secondary infection if you just treat it. Interesting, thanks. I'm surprised it's so extreme since I left for a trip on the 8th and hadn't noticed any, then come back a week later and the spots are this thick: https://i.imgur.com/Sx2VxEh.mp4 Totally fine with going ham on them, though; as I've said it's almost entirely on buds, not leaves/canes, and there's plenty of healthy buds to be left over. learnincurve posted:You might want to look at taking cuttings from new growth, 50 year old shub roses are absolute gems as they predate the current yen for grafting they will grow true - rose people will bite your hand off for them. I'd love that--though unfortunately my dutch/french are pretty bad so it's hard to find enthusiast groups here. Nice to hear it's something special!
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May 19, 2018 19:41
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Speaking of roses, I have a dilemma. I plumb forgot to trim my few bushes earlier this year, and with all the rain we've been getting on the NE coast my roses are now growing at an extreme rate. They're far too heavy and tall, so they're falling over and looking pretty dumb. Ultimately I'd like to trim them so at the highest they're about even with the bottom of the windows in the picture, but there are almost no leaves on that portion of the plant. My concern is that if I trim all of this heavy stuff, the bushes will die because they have too much energy in those branches and they won't be able to photosynthesize. Would it be better to just stake them this year, and then give them a very hard prune next spring? Any opinions/ideas? The bushes in question:  Also in other news, all the rain has also brought back an old, semi-unsightly friend... 
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May 19, 2018 19:47
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16 pepper plants ready to go; 6 in a planter box, 6 in a greenhouse, 4 in 5 gallon pots. Now to fill the rest of the planter boxes/greenhouse with basil. Leggo!
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May 19, 2018 21:36
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They need supporting rather than cutting imo, cutting this time of year will restrict growth for next year but sometimes you just got to go “sorry plant” and cut if it’s in an area where it seems to leap out and scratch passersby. Personally I would run wires or trellis along that wall and tie them to it but canes/sticks/those big stake hoop things would work too 
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May 19, 2018 21:37
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Strawberry patch, this is it's third year, I believe that is one of the most productive years in the plant life cycle. I wonder how other people keep the covering from blowing away, ours isn't very neat looking because of all the stuff I piled on to keep it from blowing away. But when driving around I see some very nice looking and well kept patches. This is the raspberry plant, hares have eaten it during winter, we'll need to get nets for these come winter.  They really went all in on the american blue berry plant, but it looks like it survived  Now this is one of the better ways to spend a sunday. 
His Divine Shadow fucked around with this message at 12:34 on May 20, 2018 |
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May 20, 2018 12:32
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We got anyone here that can opine on grow lights? Our primary window is a north-facing that gets <1h of light in the late afternoon, so I've gotten by with low-light stuff but would really like to be able to have more options. Even stuff like our little Lithops, which the GF loves, apparently wants 3-5 hours of direct sun So: simple e27 socket, <20$ light to run for a few hours on a timer. It's a bit hard to research this because it's overwhelmed with "tomato" growers talking about crazy $150+ box setups -Is this a stupid idea? Are there any problems to avoid in this cheap range? -I assume I want full spectrum, which I'm seeing listed as something like this: 22RED + 12BLUE + 2white + 2IR + 2UV (https://www.amazon.de/SOLMORE-Pflanzenlampe-Pflanzenleuchte-Pflanzenlicht-Leuchtmittel/dp/B01N7I54HO/) -15w, 30w? This isn't for anything intense
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May 20, 2018 22:09
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