The Gardening Thread

[Antillanka]

I'm preparing my babies (succulents mostly) for when I leave for vacations, for three weeks... I plan to leave them in the backyard, in a place where they might get a little water from the sprinklers, but not enough to soak their soil. I wonder if leaving them in a different light regime than what they had indoors could harm them. Any tips?

[wavewright62]

I'm not sure.  I'd be more tempted to give them a good watering and then leave them in their normal places for the 3 weeks - succulents are generally pretty tough that way.  But I don't know whether the indoor conditions might get too cold for them without you being there?

[thorny]

I know next to nothing about succulents.

I do know about hardening off transplants -- you don't go straight from indoor light to full sun. You start by putting them out in the sun an hour or so the first day, a while longer the second, and so on for several days.

I also know that my aloe plant has severe difficulties with full sun. It takes it quite a while even to adapt to its summertime location, which is up against the east wall of the house and so is shaded from late morning on.

So I think I'd recommend first looking up the particular species you've got, and seeing what their light requirements are; and then, if they are suited for full sun, hardening them off gradually for several days before you leave. But again I know next to nothing about succulents.

[Róisín]

Agreed, thorny. Aloe vera and Aloe socotrina in the wild are plants of light dry forest and the thin soil between rocks, not the full blazing desert sun. Mine are frost tender also, which can be a problem where I live, which varies between -12C and +48C in the twelve years we have lived here.

Also, anent Antillanka's succulents, the best way I know to keep them alive over an absence is to water them thoroughly and then leave them outdoors in the shade under trees. Or indoors in the bath, with something like damp towels or wet paper under them.

[Antillanka]

Thank you for the advice, everyone! I think putting them under a tree will do, I hope they'll be ok ^^

[wavewright62]

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.

[Vulpes]

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.

It's always a little disorienting to hear gardening news from the southern hemisphere during the northern hemisphere winter. We've had a week or more of minus mid-teens celsius, with the winchill lowering that to mid-minus-20s. I was out for a walk this afternoon and got thinking about the raised beds I'll be building this year... once the 2.5 m deep snow pile where they're meant to go has melted! I'd been mulling over putting a cover on one bed, to keep a few things going into winter, but I suspect it would wind up buried - this is actually a low snowcover year, I can't imagine keeping the area clear-ish in a heavy year!

Nice to think about growing things, though, even if I'll more than likely be out skiing later this week.

[Róisín]

Vulpes, you are in Canada, aren't you? Sounds like nice weather. Times I have lived in such climates I used to bed my perennial plants down for winter with about a foot of mulch over them. Some of it will rot down in late winter/early spring, the rest you can scrape aside to let sunlight at the beds when the weather warms. And I used to put a layer of small light twigs and dead leaves over my bulbs, like what they would get on the forest floor, and they were better for it. Good luck!

[Vulpes]

Róisín, yes, I'm in Canada, on "the Rock", i.e. Newfoundland. Rather more challenging gardening than where I grew up in Nova Scotia. Plus we have a shady yard. I had several frustrating years trying to grow veggies in insufficient light and soil. Then we got rid of an over-large shed that was in the only truly sunny part of the yard. This summer I'll build some more substantial raised beds than I had before, and get a load of good soil. I'm a big fan of mulch - the rhubarb (the only perennial food plant I've got at the moment) is under a thick layer of leaves. It's always a challenge to remember to check on it in the spring and loosen up the leaves, they get pretty compacted under a couple metres of snow. Most of our small yard resembles forest - ferns, patches of bunchberry and snowberry, shrubs like beaked hazel, and the whole works with a carpet of leaves. Fallen twigs from the trees stay where they fall for the most part.

[Mebediel]

My desk was recently moved from the middle of the floor to a window space, so I started collecting the plants my coworkers abandon and putting them on the windowsill. I'm trying to rescue this orchid, but I'm not sure exactly how to do that. Are the wrinkly leaves from being over-watered or under-watered?

[Róisín]

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.

Identify it if you can, because needs for light, water and nutrients vary wildly across the Orchidaceae.

[Mebediel]

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.

Identify it if you can, because needs for light, water and nutrients vary wildly across the Orchidaceae.

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.

[wavewright62]

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.

[Mebediel]

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!

[refract3d]

I've been growing some radishes and other food plants in my windowsill and one day I came home to weird tapping noises behind my curtain. This Fatbird was doing a shimmy dance and watching. Waiting for opportunity.

Also my parents gave me like 15 aloe plants (many of which are crowded and rootbound) to try and resuscitate. Is there a good way to keep cats from gnawing on aloe? My roommate's cat is Hungry and Large and quite willing to chomp down on things that will end in kitty diarrhea. (no one wants this)