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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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Leperflesh posted:So, that was the little yard at the old place we used to rent, and yeah, clover. Clover is actually super good with grass, the clover plants are symbiotic - they help to fix nitrogen that the grass roots can make use of. You can continue to basically treat a clover lawn like a grass lawn, just don't mow too short, and when the clover is flowering, you will have fuckloads of bees. yeah, you can buy bags of white clover and overseed with it (or mix it with your regular grass overseeding if that's something you do). I will probably go this route once I annihilate all the chickweed and spurge that are currently the bane of my existence.
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Jan 29, 2017 19:17
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Tremors posted:I have a miracle berry plant that I believe has a case of scale bugs. I'd rather avoid removing affected areas of the plant; what's the best topical method of dealing with them? Neem oil?
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Mar 25, 2017 02:05
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Warbird posted:Nearly lost my mint plants to a particularly cold night the other week.. No you didn't -- that's just what the mint wants you to think.
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Mar 27, 2017 19:02
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Home Depot does a really bad job of informing you that you need to use distilled water on your Dracaena 
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Mar 29, 2017 12:03
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cheese posted:Yeah, was looking at those. Hard to find something with 10"+ depth though. I know that makes it heavy but 6-7" really limits what you can plant to annuals and herbs. I'm in the same boat and that came to mind for me as well. Alternative suggestion: build a little shim that fits snugly OVER your metal railing that makes it the right size for something made for a deck railing. Like a few little wood 3/4 squares.
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May 1, 2017 01:55
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Enfys posted:I'm pretty sure I'm being trolled by a bird. Sounds like he's just weeding his garden.
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May 3, 2017 14:06
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Then I go and stick them back in, only for him to dig them up and scatter them on the ground again. He apparently has no interest in eating them, but he is determined to dig them up anyway, so now I am engaged in a power struggle with the little feathered hooligan.
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Fitzy Fitz posted:The zz plant might be an exception, but overall that looks more like damage from sunlight or low humidity. My pothos, peace lily, and spider plant have similar browning and slight tearing on the leaves. I have brown spots like this on my Dracena, and I've read that "flouride toxicity" can be an explanation. I guess the flouride in the water can build up and be unhealthy for the plants. General advice seems to be to fill your watering can and let it sit overnight to let the flouride come out of solution first. Does anyone know anything about this? Is it a real thing, or some edge case that probably isn't the actual explanation?
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May 24, 2017 19:45
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The Snoo posted:since I already have dechlorinator for my aquarium, would that be fine for plant water?  but for beer 
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May 25, 2017 00:17
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Jeb! Repetition posted:Crosspost from A/T: Is there any way to keep the grass on your lawn from growing? Wait, do you want to keep grass from growing in your yard or do you want to keep the grass in your yard from growing? Plant Growth Regulators are apparently the "pro" way of doing the latter.
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Jun 6, 2017 18:19
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The Snoo posted:there's like white fly and red aphids on the tomato plant my dad started from seed for me and soap + water doesn't seem to be helping much Spray it with water? E: assume you can afford the water
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Jun 9, 2017 12:15
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The Snoo posted:I've been using a spray bottle with water + a couple drops of soap, unless you mean using a hose, which I don't have because it's an apartment Yeah, I meant higher pressure (knock the sucker loose). If you've got an adjustable nozzle on the spray bottle you could try tuning it for a strong stream, but that's going to get old real quick. Anyways don't use household soap instead of insecticidal soap -- it isn't the same thing, doesn't work, and can do harm to the plants. If you can't afford  / 2 then your best bet is to prune the affected stems (if possible) and/or remove them mechanically either by hand or with high pressure water and/or pray that some ladybug gets lost and lands on your porch.
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Jun 9, 2017 15:17
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Fitzy Fitz posted:Yeah, that vine is English ivy, and you can do whatever you want to it because it is an evil monster weed that will always grow back. It will eventually consume you, your home, and everyone you've ever loved. It looks pretty to me -- and low maintenance, too! Maybe I'll put some along the bamboo privacy planting I just put in 
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Aug 11, 2017 04:41
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kid sinister posted:Grow bulbs. Regular fluorescents have wavelengths that match up well to plants, but grow lamps match even better. They mainly do it by using different phosphor coatings inside the bulb. What kind of color temperature / power should I look for, btw? I've got a hand-full of 5000k / 450 lumen LED bulbs that I decided were too blue for my basement, but I've held onto them because I had a wild idea in the back of my mind of building a little indoor garden rack.
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Aug 11, 2017 22:11
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Boris Galerkin posted:I seriously didn't know this. I found a tumblr with a bunch of time lapse gifs of plants responding to eg water and sun and it's just really crazy to me. Do plants like the calathea I have respond to "any" UV lights or does it actually keep some kind of rhythm? Ie, if I put it in a dark room would it still fold up "at night"? I'm thinking no but I'm honestly blown away that they can reorient themselves to begin with so I dunno what to think any more. Hop bines wiggle around in circles as they grow up, which is how they find objects to then climb and proceed to wrap themselves around. This appears to be timed to the sun, but not necessarily following it per se.
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Sep 23, 2017 13:03
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Dongattack posted:Does some kinda substance that will kill all plantlife in a area and leave only dirt/dead plants, but allow the soil to recover and grow plants again after a year or two exist? Glyphosate (AKA Roundup). You might need to spray, till, wait 2 weeks and spray again, but it'll do the trick and then degrade into nothingness within a few more weeks. Of course, it won't stay barren for long -- nature will eventually do it's thing. The other option (if it's a place that gets a decent amount of sunlight) is solarizing the area. e: Fitzy Fitz posted:If you have larger woody weeds (like bamboo, honeysuckle, or privet), then you'll want to cut the plants down before you spray the stumps. Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think this is right? Roundup needs to be absorbed into the plant to do the trick, and so must be sprayed on leafy green vegetation, ideally while actively growing (in fact you might find it beneficial to fertilize slightly right before you spray the roundup to kind of "bait" the plants into sucking the herbicide in more). Either way you're going to need to till the soil, and in case of bamboo probably a lot more than that. Chopping down the growth beforehand might be good as it may encourage rapid growth at the cut site, though (although in that case you'd want to chop and wait for new shoots to appear). Fitzy Fitz posted:If there's a lot of grass, then you might want to use a grass-specific herbicide. Hubis fucked around with this message at 20:22 on Oct 2, 2017 |
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Oct 2, 2017 20:17
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What can people tell me about Cordyline Florica? I saw a beautiful red/deep green plant that I am hoping will do alright in my basement office. It's cool (low 60s in the winter) and has some amount of dim indirect natural sun (a 3'x2' east facing window). Forced air heat, so humidity is going to drop in the winter. I had a pair of dracenea down there that I almost murdered through a combination of light deprivation and over watering, but they are thankfully recovering now. I understand Cordyline are related to dracenea, but I am reading they prefer more moist soil -- should I just stick with the "water when the top 1" feels dry"? I have a light/moisture/pH meter (best purchase I've made in a while). Also I just impulse purchased some HD succs. Here is hoping I don't kill them!
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Dec 27, 2017 14:16
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Fluffy Bunnies posted:I'm in zone 8. I found some cheap rear end bulbs to plant with my other cheapass bulbs that I got. Is there any reason not to go ahead and sling them in the ground like, tomorrow? Is the ground frozen solid where you are?
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Jan 3, 2018 04:46
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SpartanIV posted:Sounds like fungus flies. They eat microscopic fungus from the soil. I had a coworker bring in an infested plant and they spread to mine. I finally got rid of them by putting a half inch layer of sand on top of my soil. I wonder if a little diatomaceous earth would work even better?
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Jan 4, 2018 18:07
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Shame Boner posted:You know what works wonders for fungus gnat control? Forgetting to water your houseplants for a week-and-a-half over and over again*. Destroy all life in your plant pots with this one ~WeIrD~ trick!
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Jan 4, 2018 21:04
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learnincurve posted:Put in and maintain With gravel you can go through with a weed torch, though
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Jan 21, 2018 16:44
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paving slabs are an absolute bitch if you have a slope and/or clay soil. Plus you can do curves and increase and reduce width as you like. You have my sympathies though. Gravel is a pig if somone has not kept on top of the weeds, or put enough gravel down to supress them, whole garden is going to be a massive twice yearly weedkiller and constant hoeing job and be harder to keep on top of than grass.
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Lead out in cuffs posted:It can depend on the plant -- some plants want different mixtures of nutrients (African Violets especially). This is usually specified on the fertiliser as a N:P:K ratio, and you can look up online which ratio your plants prefer. How do the pencil-sized fertilizer stakes do? Anecdotally my plant's seem to be doing alright with them (i.e. they're growing/not dying) but I don't have a lot of experience/large sample size to compare against.
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Mar 12, 2018 17:03
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Fitzy Fitz posted:That yard is badass. agreed. Super jealous. One fun thing to do (if you have the time) would be to take photos every hour or two from the same position over the course of a day. Look at all of them/combine them in photoshop to see what your total sun situation is in various parts -- something like this. e: It looks like it's graded, so definitely think in terms of drainage when putting in any raised beds. I don't see any problems with where you've mentioned already, just food for thought. Hubis fucked around with this message at 16:04 on Mar 22, 2018 |
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Mar 22, 2018 15:44
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Fitzy Fitz posted:My fluorescent fixtures keep dying, and I have no idea why. They aren't even outlasting their bulbs. This is super annoying. Heat? Humidity? Is it the ballasts that are dying?
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Mar 25, 2018 21:26
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Fitzy Fitz posted:Yeah, it's the ballasts. I doubt it's heat, but it might be humidity. It doesn't seem like it's that humid in there though... Might be worth posting in the DIY wiring thread (phone posting so linking is annoying, sorry). They might have more insight into what would cause ballasts to wear out like that.
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Mar 25, 2018 23:30
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kid sinister posted:Life, uhh, finds a way. Does anyone have much experience with humates/humic acid? I've heard it (along with liquid KO- applications) can be very effective at breaking up clay into useful soil.
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Apr 7, 2018 14:48
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Plant MONSTER. posted:
What a cool problem to have!
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Apr 15, 2018 02:25
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Southern Heel posted:Is there anything that I can do other than pull these dandelions out, one by one? As mentioned, a selective herbicide will do the trick. Personally I like something with Quinclorac, like this: https://www.ortho.com/en-us/products/weed-control/ortho-weed-b-gon-plus-crabgrass-control-concentrate2 But Spectracide, Bayer, etc. all make similar products. You want something that's a 3-way mix of 2,4-D, Dicamba, and either Quinclorac or Mecoprop. You can usually find this as either a concentrate (for use with a spray can or a hose attachment) or as a pre-diluted spray bottle formulation. Spray when the weeds are growing (generally between 60'F and 80'F) and when the grass isn't wet or stressed from drought -- like a day or two after a good rain, but ideally a day or two before it's going to rain. For established perennial broadleaf weeds you will probably need to do multiple applications to totally knock them out. Read your product label, but you will probably want to wait 3-4 weeks between applications. If you find something and aren't sure, post a link and I can help you sort it out. learnincurve posted:Bugger that, that is a dead lawn, nuke with chemicals, cover with weed suppressant for a year, or dig the whole lot out with a spade and returf it. Weed suppressant might be tricky on the hill since as a consumer you usually find it as a granular and ideally you'd want to use a liquid, but yeah. If you can find a liquid pre-emergent, a fall and subsequent spring application should cut down on any new seeds from taking root and then you can fall back too "mechanical removal" after it's under control. Of course, then you need to plan to re-seed it, otherwise weeds will just come right back. Or did you just mean Glypho it and start over? Fitzy Fitz posted:It looks fine and green to me. Then again I think lawns are basically immoral and should be abandoned. I'm NOT in this camp, but in that particular area I'd carefully consider whether grass is the right choice -- the slope is going to make it tricky to maintain. Long term some terracing or ornamentals might be much more rewarding. If you want too go that route you could solarize the area with some tarps, but I assume that's not in the immediate future since you specifically asked about NOT killing the grass e: BTW, I've got nothing against the "natural" lawn approach. What makes me shakes my drat head is my neighbor who insists on mowing his Bluegrass/Fescue lawn at like 0.5". He puts so much effort into it -- I saw him going around this weekend with one of those manual core aerators doing the whole thing by hand 
Hubis fucked around with this message at 16:56 on Apr 19, 2018 |
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Apr 19, 2018 16:31
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Leperflesh posted:We've always struggled to keep our mint alive and it dies easily if we don't take care of it so I always find these mint comments weird. I think probably in our hot California climate mint is way less of an invasive mess. Definitely. When I was playing with sub-irrigated planter designs I made one with not nearly enough drainage. It was way too soggy. I transplanted some mint into it and the wetter the soil the more it thrived. Schmeichy posted:I guess mint seems less awful compared to the Himalayan blackberry, Aegopodium, and bindweed contantly trying to get in my garden. Hopefully some day mint will be the worst weed I'm dealing with. At least when you are pulling out mint it smells wonderful!
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Apr 19, 2018 19:40
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learnincurve posted:No! Things with tap roots are terrible for the soil and you all have Stockholm syndrome Interesting - why? Do the taproots end up increasing compaction?
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Apr 24, 2018 11:23
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Nosre posted:Can I get a 102 course on amending/creating potting mix? If you want to use garden soil too make cheap potting mix, the ratio is usually 1 Part Peat Moss / Coco Coir 1 Part Coarse Sand / Perlite / Vermiculite 1 Part Loamy Soil If you've got clay, that's not going to cut it -- maybe mix it 50/50 with some compost first.
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Apr 25, 2018 04:12
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Fitzy Fitz posted:This seems like a ridiculous question, but what are the most critter-friendly pesticides out there? I would prefer something organic. I think I've got mites in some of my sarracenia, but I don't want to use something like orthene on them because it's not worth it to me to also kill all the pollinators. I've used neem oil on nepenthes in the past, but it seriously burns them even if I keep them out of the light and rinse them off. Spinosad? Wikipedia posted:Toxicity: Hirayuki posted:My biggest garden worry this year is our lawn. It's pretty shady up there, and one part in particular is always patchy. After several years of overseeding it to coax it into at least kind of matching the rest of the lawn, we gave up and resodded the whole front (it's not huge). It didn't work, and that area went patchy again. More reseeding (and telling the fertilizing service not to use preemergent weed spray on that part) got it to a reasonably good place last fall...but no, turns out it's still poo poo. If you care (and are in a cool-season turf area) I can make a big effort-post, but yeah shade is hard. Nosre posted:
I've had disgustingly good results with the "beer in a cat-food can" approach. Fitzy Fitz posted:I have a little pair of slug scissors and like to stumble around with a headlamp after dark chopping the fuckers up. ... Slug Sissors? 
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May 2, 2018 20:50
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I'm considering restructuring the planting we have up front to eat into most of the bad lawn section and planting it with pachysandra, which we've seen thrive in an almost identical situation a half-mile down the road.
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I've got a few. Nandina: It spreads like bamboo (because it basically is) and crowds out anything planted next to them unless you are very aggressive with your pruning while not doing anything for the local ecology because the berries are toxic to pretty much anything. They can look nice if pruned well (and can have some attractive color) but they're a total "I don't know what to plant in this shady spot around the house and I don't feel like doing any maintenance". Hostas: I actually love a good hosta, but they are another extremely predictable plant that does *just* well enough without any maintenance that people plant them and forget about it. Ivy ground cover: Bad memories as a kid of having a house with a big ivy section in the yard that was basically useless for playing in  I think I basically hate lazy shade gardens. Plant a fern or something, people! Fitzy Fitz posted:Poorly pruned crape myrtles, the fake jewelry of the plant world. Extra points if there's a mulch volcano at the bottom
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May 3, 2018 21:10
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vonnegutt posted:Wintercreeper. Introduced to provide evergreen ground cover, it smothers everything in its boring, useless, shiny green leaves. It's super invasive, prevents anything else from sprouting, and impossible to remove without going scorched earth. My neighbors planted it at some point and I get to spend this summer beating it back from my yard where it has grown through the fencing. Something with Triclopyr will do it, though you will need to do more than one application https://www.ortho.com/en-us/products/weed-control/ortho-weed-b-gon-chickweed-clover-oxalis-killer-lawns-concentrate Spraying them with a dilute solution of Borax beforehaand letting it dry will break down the protective coating a little.
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May 4, 2018 19:40
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His Divine Shadow posted:Very nice weather today, though since I just seeded the new parts of the lawn that means extra watering. At least when it's grown in that nonsense stops. What kind of grass do you grow up in the land of snow and metric funny-talk anyways?
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May 13, 2018 03:35
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His Divine Shadow posted:I honestly don't know, bought the stuff in my nearest store (they had one type) and threw away the box. Too bad. I'm curious if it's the same bluegrass/fescue/ryes we use in the States or some different species/cultivars. Ask a question, get an answer... http://www.sterf.org/sv/library/handbooks/grass-guide Hubis fucked around with this message at 18:02 on May 13, 2018 |
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May 13, 2018 17:54
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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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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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Neem oil is supposed to help with mildews
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May 18, 2018 12:34
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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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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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