Laufey, I'm afraid the combination of greenhouses and flying rocks isn't a good one either ;D
Asterales: Auricularia auricula-judae, A. polytricha and several other Auricularia species are grown on wood, like oyster mushrooms. You can grow them in a box or bag, on a mix of damp straw and hardwood sawdust, or on a piece of wood. A young friend down in the city grows them by inserting plugs of wood containing spawn into holes drilled in suitable branches (but he has a very live garden where just about anything will grow; this is the guy who had a swarm of bees colonise his outdoor dunny, left them there, and now he and his wife just work around them).I have seen it in real life :D My father found a patch close to the village pool last year, and had it confirmed by an expert, too. Mostly we eat Parasol, because there are loads of them around the horse paddocks. They are very good in tomato soup. We use them instead of minced meat, for which we also dry them. Chanterelles and cauliflower mushroom are also very tasty and okay-ish to find in the region. The champignons seem to have vanished in recent years, though. Either we are always too late or it has something to do with our farmers going overboard with manure! (The meadows seem to consist of mainly dandelion and buttercup :-\)
If you want to see what cloud fungus or woodears (Auricularia species) look like, check out most of the scenes in SSSS where there are dead or dying trees or wet indoor wooden beams - they are those ear-shaped or semicircular, hard jelly textured fungi which are growing everywhere on wood. They are a popular food and medicine in the Orient, somewhat known in Europe, not that popular in America, possibly because of the rubbery texture. You can also find pictures in any of Christopher Hobbs's books on edible and medicinal fungi.
I learned to prepare them by cutting them at the base, thoroughly cleaning them, then slicing finely and drying. They can be stored dry and reconstituted in hot water.
Buteo: you will get better results from your spuds if you plant them early, and at least six inches/ around 15cm deep. The reason for this is that new tubers form above the seed tuber, and if these new tubers are exposed to sunlight they will go green, due to the formation of solanine which binds to the chlorophyll in most Solanaceae, and renders their green parts poisonous. These are still perfectly good for next year's seed, just don't eat them. As the haulm (the green part) grows, keep piling up mulch around it so only the top few inches stick up out of the mulch, and more tubers will form along the stem. Keep the soil moist but not wet. If it's too soggy you will get fungal and bacterial rots.
Feed potatoes with compost and seaweed extract, which will help to prevent many diseases. My Gran used to grow them in a bed piled high with a mix of straw and seaweed, just a bit of soil at the bottom, and she got beautiful clean potatoes.
If you need to grow them in pots, bigger pots are better. Put a few inches of soil at the base, lay the spuds on it, cover with compost, straw and seaweed mixed together. Water them in well and don't water again for a few days. Do you have Gro-bags in America? Basically big garbage-bag sized bags, hessian or heavy plastic with ventilation holes, same mix you use in pots. Or old styrofoam boxes, like the kind used to ship broccoli. All these, like pots, can be put on a sunny porch to give you a few weeks of early start on the growing season. Except in exceptionally hot weather, potatoes like full sun.
Noodly: I've never tried coffee grounds! Sounds interesting. In this part of the world the usual mix for growing terrestrial fungi (like your ordinary supermarket mushrooms) is a box of aged cowdung or horse manure mixed with compost, sphagnum moss and straw, to which you add the mushroom spawn, then water well and leave in a warm, dim place for a few weeks, keeping the soil warm and molst. I'm trying to grow pine mushrooms on a mix of forest soil and rotting pine needles, to which I have added over-mature pine mushrooms from last years' foraging trips. Might take a few years to do anything. But foraging season starts again in the next few weeks, and I'm looking forward to getting out in the forest with students again!
Excellent! Put some basil in with them, for the health of the tomato plants and for eating with the tomatoes.
Luth, is it in direct sunlight magnified through the window? Airconditioning? Either of those may be drying it out despite watering. Also, lavender really doesn't seem to like indoors, except maybe in the dead of winter. Try it out on a sunny porch, or even in the ground.
Are there healthy lavender plants in your neighbourhood? What is different about where they are growing?
**we actually have a gardening thread here in the forum, or we used to, but I haven't been able to find it for awhile**
I don't have air conditioning in my room, but it was in direct sunlight through the window. That seems likely - it was doing better during the winter inside. I put it out on the porch and gave it a bit more water this morning, hopefully that'll help. Thanks for the advice! :)
And I'm not sure about lavender growing elsewhere in the neighbourhood - I'm not usually very social with my neighbours... ::)
I've been thinking of growing cover crops in my potted plants to keep them from drying out too horribly. The soil is exposed in the sun on my windowsill so they dry up faster than I want them to.
Have anyone ever tried? I'm thinking that some low herb like ground thyme could work but IDK.
An alternative to this is mulching - cover the soil with something like dead leaves or pieces of bark or some other natural material that doesn't decompose too fast. The advantage is it's instant and guaranteed to work. I do this for the plants I keep on my very sunny balcony.Does it work indoors? I thought about it before, but ruled it out since there aren't any bugs or worms in the pots that could actually help decomposition. I'm a bit worried it will just start to smell and attract insects.
Does it work indoors? I thought about it before, but ruled it out since there aren't any bugs or worms in the pots that could actually help decomposition. I'm a bit worried it will just start to smell and attract insects.
What soil are you using for the lavender? They like somewhat sandy soils to push their roots through properly. Adding some sand to planting soil (or gently fertilizing cacti soil) would be good for it. Putting it in a pot of regular store-bought flower soil, probably not so much.
Gwenno, thank you! I searched through the dormant threads, but could not discover it. I'm afraid my gardening skills are better than my thread-necromancy skills.
Anent your rosemary: where is it growing? Out in the garden or inside? Rosemary is quite tolerant of both heat and cold (that's why you so often find it in Christmas decorations), but, like its relative lavender, it doesn't like humidity or full shade. My rosemary bushes do best in full sun, even in our horribly hot summers, being subject to moulds and other fungal diseases if it gets too cold, dark and wet.
The other thing rosemary likes is good air circulation, that is, having the air moving around its branches, to prevent the buildup of moisture. It also needs very good drainage; having standing water around the roots is certain to make it rot. Rosemary likes a slightly alkaline soil, so if your soil is acidic give it a sprinkle of lime. If the problem seems to be a mould or fungus, I'd say cut off the affected bits and dispose of them by burning or putting them in the rubbish, water it, including the foliage, with one part milk to four parts water (sounds weird but works), and if it is in a pot, move it to somewhere with lots of air and sun. There are commercial fungicides you can use, but many of those also kill the soil biota.
Which rosemary cultivar do you have? My hardiest ones are 'Blue Lagoon' which has large very dark blue flowers, a white-flowered form, the pink-flowered trailing form and 'Silver Laced' with its white-striped leaves and pale blue flowers, all of which are fairly modern cultivars developed within the last few centuries, and another unnamed one which I grew from a cutting of the rosemary hedge along the driveway at Cave House, taken when I lived there about twenty years ago. Those five grow in shallow sandy/gravelly soil, right out in the open, exposed to frost and blazing sun, and they do fine. The one from Cave House is particularly tough, when I came there it was growing as a long hedge along the drive, exposed to all weathers on a very windy hilltop, and had been completely neglected for at least twenty years. The bushes were gnarly and twisted with weather, planted in gravel against an old stone wall, but only a few had died, and the scent and the flowers were amazing - our summer honey was always wonderful there.
I also have the cultivars 'Benenden Blue', which has very fine leaves and bright blue flowers, and 'Gold Laced' which has a pale blue flower and leaves with a gold stripe. Those two can tolerate part shade, one being on the eastern side of my house so it gets only morning sun, the other is under partial summer shade, growing between the jujube tree and the Early Settler peach, both of which are deciduous so it gets winter sun.
How easy/common is it really for this to happen? Do you always check if a new plant is toxic before growing it?Not a gardener, but:
Not a gardener, but:
Unsurprisingly, there are no plants that like getting eaten, so their majority is somewhere on the poison scale (from OH GOD RUN down to mere bitterns). Plants that are downright dangerous will usually come with explicit warnings - in the shop, in gardening books, in an Internet search, as long as you do a bit of checking for that aspect. (Same for invasiveness, BTW.) Note, however, that the sets of plants poisonous to humans/cats/dogs/... differ somewhat - which is why there are explicit "plants safe for your pet" lists as well.
[random example (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avocado#Toxicity_to_animals)]
And yes, I have had pets and am well aware they tolerate different things according to species. Sorry, but is there really a point to your answer other than being incredibly pedantic?
My question is - does anyone know cases of people (or pets) poisoned by common plants? How easy/common is it really for this to happen? Do you always check if a new plant is toxic before growing it? I know I will from now on, but I have been told I'm a bit overcautious with other things so... just wondering what other people do, and what the risks really are, I guess.
I think that's a little harsh. There are lots of people who have no idea that plants can be poisonous to some mammals and not to others. How is JoB to know what you already know and what you don't?
I've met people who had no idea that there are poisonous plants at all. They weren't stupid; they were just city people who'd never eaten anything they hadn't bought at the store, or grown anything at all. There are undoubtedly things they thought of as basic knowledge about which I haven't even enough of a clue to know which questions to start asking.
And Unlos, I am so envious of your wealth of burdock! I can't imagine having enough to be able to use it for mulch.
Yeah, yarrow is good for other plants. And like nettles, comfrey and elder, its leaves make a good addition to compost, speeding up the composting process and adding mineral nutrients. Plus yarrow is a useful medicinal herb, being a styptic and vulnerary as well as a component of herb teas for colds and menstrual problems. I grow it for the bees and hoverflies, and because the flowers are pretty and are a frequent component of the bunches of cottage flowers I sell at the Farmers Market. Allround useful plant, as well as an attractor of beneficial insects.
I hope I'll find someone willing to water it when we leave for vacation next week.
Hey y'all!
My family just moved out to an area where we now have two acres of land. So we now have tons of gardening space.
Weare working on fixing up the house first, and revitalising the garden beds in front of the house.
Already, we have purchased Catnip (my own choice), Spearmint, and Marigold seeds. How should we start these, and when? It's July, but we still have about 3 months of warm temperatures here in hot-as-heck Texas.
For next year, it's worth keeping in mind you can also buy seedlings for a lot of garden plants, and it's easier/safer to use those rather than starting everything from seed yourself.
If what you mean by 'safer' is that you don't risk having the seed not germinate or the seedlings die early, that's true; but buying plants can be risky in that if the plants aren't healthy you may bring diseases into your garden, or for that matter into your entire neighborhood. There are seedborne diseases, but not as many, and if the seed's from a reputable seed company it should have been checked.
plant disease and pests will almost certainly pop up in any garden, a lot are there already when you start to plant, and learning to deal with them is a part of gardening.
Edited to add: if this were a food garden which people's livelihood depended on, I'd be entirely on the side of extra precautions, of course.
So I know nothing about plants and growing things, the only thing I've successfully grown is some type of succulent that requires almost no work. I'm about to start college which might not be the best time to learn how to grow things, but anyway. Does anyone have any tips or tricks? I'm a couple hours from home so I can't have anything that would be too difficult to transport.
So I know nothing about plants and growing things, the only thing I've successfully grown is some type of succulent that requires almost no work. I'm about to start college which might not be the best time to learn how to grow things, but anyway. Does anyone have any tips or tricks? I'm a couple hours from home so I can't have anything that would be too difficult to transport.
Does anyone have tips for increasing the soils ability to hold water? The drought is downright merciless here. I've buried some sheeps wool around young plants hoping it will absorb moisture and keep what little rain we might get (there's a government ban on watering so yeah), but I'm looking for anything that might help my garden out rn.
Government ban on watering? D: That sounds post-apocalyptic to me.
Also if you have a place that sells plants nearby, it's worth talking to someone there and ask them recommend you something appropriate for a beginner.
Quite a lot of places do this during dry spells. There are many places on the planet where fresh water is in seriously short supply, and needs to be reserved for drinking water and essential agricultural supply. Some major metropolitan areas on the planet are in serious danger of running out of water altogether and having to ration drinking water.
Some places that sell plants have people who know a lot about them. Others don't.
Try to find a place that's actually growing the plants, not just selling them.
Antillanka, if the base of the leaf is not already dry and callused, leave it for a day or two to harden. New roots start better from a dried base. Echeverias have such a pretty flower, as well as interesting shapes and colours of the rosette.
Nah, I see Sc0uts point. Aren't you from Sweden, Fauna? It's uncommonly hot and super dry in large parts of Norway as well, and bans on watering many places (and restrictions in others -very sensible "only water with what you can carry and don't leave the sprinkler on" for private gardens, but still not what you usually get around here) that indeed gives me the shivers and a pre-if not post-apocalyptic scare.Old topic now but indeed. It's been ridiculously dry here this year. It's lush and green now as we have had rains the past few weeks and all the trees have recovered (thanks, gods!) but up until last month or so, the place I live literally looked like those stereotypical images of dryland Africa. There were still leaves on the trees, but they were all shriveled up and dried, or they were orange like they go in November. The lawns were clay and dust. Walking to the bus was accompanied by leaves crunching underfoot, it was creepy to say the least.
Wavewright: my horseradish put up its first leaf today. I'm about to go and water it, because it is uncommonly dry with us for the season, though we have had an unusually cold spring. Cold, clear and dry means more and worse frosts. I have a bad feeling about the coming bushfire season this year, so am trying to keep things trimmed back, well weeded, mulched and moist.I finally got about a dozen itty-bitty leaves coming up this past week, whew!
Love the stuff! Red clover honey makes most excellent mead. I have planted some for my bees. Plus it is pretty, medicinal and improves the soil. But should we be in the gardening thread? Ask the mods?
A late summer bounty from my garden: parsnips, green beans, runner beans, capsicums, carrots, zucchini, and a couple od cucumbers that liked the rain we finally got recently.
Any idea what family of orchid it is? Many orchids don't like direct sunlight. Or frost burn, if it is cold outside. Some, like Sydney rock orchid, will tolerate full sun, but even those can burn from excess heat and cold. To judge moisture, stick a finger into the soil in the pot. Soil should be moist just below the surface, but not soggy (unless you are growing Paphiopedilums or other swampy-forest species - mine do well for being mulched with damp sphagnum moss). My Paphs also wilt if the light is too bright and glaring.Not a clue...I think this one traveled through a couple of hands before it reached mine. I'll ask one of the people who used to take care of it. The windowsill hasn't been getting any direct sunlight (yet...we'll see if that changes as the season changes), but I'll keep an eye on it.
Identify it if you can, because needs for light, water and nutrients vary wildly across the Orchidaceae.
Hearty congratulations on the seating change! Echoing what my fine colleague said about large variation in requirements. I'd say it's one of the moth orchid ypes offhand. I can't see the center of the plant to see whether new leaves are coming through okay. I had some plants do well for many years in an eastern window (only some sunlight in the morning). They also went through a period of seeming decline every year for a spell before perking up in and sending out blossoms. Do you have an orchid society near you? (They're more common than you think.) Make their day and ask them.Thanks! And this is technically three plants in three smaller pots that were arranged together in a larger pot. I’ll look for an orchid society...I know there’s a fern society that meets nearby, so I imagine there must be an orchid one too!
Those are lovely! What colour are the flowers on that last taller lily? It looks more like the shape of a tiger lily.Yellow day lily, a beautiful canary yellow, you'll see in a few weeks.
Stumbled accross this gem, I think everyone in this thread will appreciate.
Yet kudzu is such a useful plant! I can only suppose that those who have it as a weed don’t use it?
And yet the tubers can be eaten or made into flour like yams or jicama. It was originally introduced to the South to repair and prevent erosion damage, it is a nitrogen fixer, and a good source of material for biofuel. Plus it has many uses in traditional medicine, including reducing the cravings of alcoholism. The flowers are very beautiful, and are excellent bee fodder - only problem is that the honey comes out this weird purplish colour, like the flowers. I wonder if the dried flowers might make a dye....
Does anyone have any tips or tricks for growing tomatoes? Just sort of generally.
I've got 4 plants, and they're...okay, I guess?? They could be better.
What sort of tomatoes? Cherry tomatoes? Beefsteaks? Roma? They mostly like a sunny spot and some support to lean against or climb up. Only water from above if you water in the morning, as leaving the foliage wet overnight encourages moulds. Pinch out the tips to make the plants bushy. Mulch high up the stems - as with many solanaceous plants tomatoes will put out extra roots from the stem to absorb more water and food. Leave enough leaves in the canopy to shade the fruit if the weather is very hot. They like a rich soil and enough water to keep the soil moist but not sopping. They like nitrogen fertilisers.
Need more info. How do they not look right? Do the leaves look diseased, or pale, or bitten, or stripey or spotted, and if so what sort of stripes or spots or bites? Are they not blooming? How old are the plants? Are they in pots, or field grown? What variety? What climate are you in? What's your soil like?
Róisín is as usual generally right but I'll throw in that too much nitrogen can cause lots of vegetative growth without much fruit, and/or improper fruit development and/or increased insect problems; and the extent to which pruning is useful and how to prune can depend on variety and also on whether you're aiming for the most fruit, or the largest fruit, or in the case of indeterminates fruit over the longest season.
I'm not sure, they're certainly not cherries. They might be Romas. I tend to water in the evening as I don't time in the morning.
The leaves sort of dry (burn?) at the edges, then the whole leaf withers. I'll need to take a better look at them when I get home. There's also ants on them, so I sprayed them after I watered them yesterday. They're field grown, from seed. I reckon they're about 4 or 5 moths old the the very most.
Bugs terrify me.
Any advice for growing cilantro? I just planted some chives and cilantro in my (hopefully) soon to be a full herb garden, and then it got really hot. My cilantro is wilted within the first day of it being outside so I moved it to some shade. Should I move it inside for now or just water it more? It said they liked full sun but this little guy doesn't seem to, at least not the hellish texas sun.
Also, basil seeds, any tips you may have about growing them are very welcome.
they're really small so I can't really tell; but they don't seem to fly- from what I've observed of them, they could potentially be springtails ? I will try to get a picture of them !
Springtail was my first guess. Are you over-watering?
If they are springtails, I would try either diatomaceous earth (least threat to the plants, easy, but I've no idea how vulnerable springtails would be) or drench the soil with safers soap - any soap, really - let it sit for a bit, and flush thoroughly with clean water. If you have >1 plant, definitely test that first on one before risking them all. I would guess anything mint family would stand up to it, but you never know.
There's some other insect that is likely, but my brain isn't interested in sharing what that might be. I'll check in if it comes to me!
Solokov, please make sure to not grow anything edible in it! Properly cleaned, almost anything can be used as container for decorative plants, but with edibles you have to be more careful.
Agree about not growing food plants in a diesel container, though things grown for ornament are probably okay, and after a few years the container may have been sufficiently cleaned by insects, plant roots, soil bacteria etc. to be safe for food plants.
Solokov, what tree do you plan to grow? And yeah, that sounds better than diesel fuel!
Thorny and Róisín, is the sad truth that these are diseased and ought not to be let near the vegetable patch? The seeds were kept dry and the earth was from my veranda.
Level 2 begins at midnight tonight, and I am thinking of playing hooky from work and take the train to be at a garden store when they open tomorrow! (My online account is munted, plus I want advice on Auckland conditions surrounding a bigger purchase.)
I want potting soil and seeds and/or seedlings for my kitchen boxes. Woo hoo!
You might want to wait a day or so with that. When gardening centres reopened here, in many places there were long lines of people up to two hours before they actually opened. Although it's of course possible that won't be the case in New Zealand.There was only a short queue, some retirees and me. In addition, I went through work emails on my phone as I waited, so really only lost an hour. O:-)
Vulpes, the nice thing about setting up raised beds is that you can use them again next year, so the cost can spread out a bit. And sprouted seeds are wonderful! When I was on the road for months or sometimes years at a time I would carry several small jars of sprouting seeds in my backpack, set them in the light when I stopped, and have a steady supply of fresh crunchy greens. Probably kept me from scurvy a few times. My favourites were alfalfa, red clover (The most delicious), buckwheat, fenugreek (nice and spicy), sunflower and white clover.
I don't really have enough light, I guess, because those poor babbies are r e a c h i n g toward the window, but that's the only window I have available.
I have checked out grow lights from local suppliers, and quite aside from their nudge-nudge wink-wink assumptions about what *ahem* crop I want to grow, even the smallest LED item costs
We got a large bowl of potatoes one year when I found sometime in the summer (after Midsummer definitely but I think it was WELL after Midsummer) that there were a few ex-potatoes in the fridge from Christmas. The tubers were shriveled and the roots and shoots were over 15 cm long, but they appeared dead. So they went into the gardening compost heap. Sometime late September I noticed that the plants growing vigorously on top of the compost looked very much like potato plants. And indeed, the shriveled starts had grown and produced any beautiful taters :) They weren’t planted or anything, just thrown into the heap, and I guess something was thrown on top soon after that.
When I was younger one time I think we grew potatoes in tires? You'd stack the tires on top of each other and fill it with dirt and compost and put the seed potatoes in there, but I think sometimes you would stack another tire on top? I can't remember very well, I was quite small.
I do gotta say though, grubbing for potatoes in your vegetable garden, sticking your hands in the dirt and digging up the potatoes - it's very fun.
Keep, I meant to ask: in WA, do people still call that process of grubbing around the edges of the potato plants for tiny sweet new potatoes ‘bandicooting’?
Not just alliums either. Tomato leaves, while they smell lovely and contain a natural antibiotic substance, are not safe to eat. Solanine.
We have recently bought an almost 120 year old house, and at least @SkyWhalePod has asked to see what it looks like.
Yay :D That's such a wonderful, cheerful color. And a nice big garden! It all looks very homey, you guys (and your builders) did a great job fixing it up.
This might be a silly American question, but it occurred to me one day when Minna was sharing images of Finnish country homes on Twitch: why are there sturdy ladders attached to all of these houses?
I didn't know that pineapple plants were safe for cats!
As for the ladders, there are two reasons. Firstly, if you have a fireplace (and practically all country houses and holiday cottages, as well as most one-family dwellings even in cities, do) you have to have the chimneys sweeped every year. And the sweeper will only do it if it’s safe, which means a fixed ladder and also there have to be even walking surfaces on the roof, called “roof bridges”.
Secondly, the upstairs must have an emergency exit, i.e. an openable window of sufficient size with access to a safe ladder. This has applied to new built for decades, not since early 1900’s though :) But as long as the ladder is there anyway, it makes sense to arrange a way of getting to it.
Oh, wow, that is a lot of mozzie bites! I genuinely did not know you could get that many.