The Gardening Thread

[Sc0ut]

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.

I think it's worth starting all of them now even if they may not fully develop. Seeds are cheap, and this is an easy experiment that will give you confidence to do more next year (or at least show you what doesn't work). All of the plants you picked like full sun, so keep that in mind when deciding where to put them. Start the mint in a container, since it spreads easily in some places, and might take over the whole bed (though in my experience, mint has been much tamer and even difficult to grow sometimes). The rest can be planted straight in the dirt, as Ana Nymus instructed. Give them some space, place the seeds like 4 inches apart. Make sure you water them daily. Morning or evening is better, since watering them in full sun will cause a lot of the water to dry up instead of getting to the roots.

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. I'm not sure where to buy seedlings in your area, but a farmer's market might be a good start.

Also, if you don't compost already, it's a good idea to start! Compost is very good fertilizer for the garden. There are many guides online on how to do it.

[Lenny]

I've managed to identify some of my mystery plants :O I knew they were all herbs, but had no idea which was which. It seems, though, that I have several sage plants, a ton of chamomile, even more lemon balm than chamomile, and a few mint plants. There was a fifth type but I think that one died last year and didn't come back up again. The lemon balm is growing so well right now that I've had to re-pot a lot of them (putting some chamomile along with them), and I think there's enough and they're growing well enough to start thinking about making tea or other things with it :O I saw that it's possible to make liqueurs with it, too, and I'm quite tempted to get into that... but ooonly if they stay alive X'3 I still see it somewhat as a fluke that they're growing this well. Usually I forget to water, or forget that I've watered and overwater, or forget that the plants exist, etc.etc.etc.

[thorny]

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.

If you do buy plants, be careful where you get them. I'd avoid the big box stores, which destroyed tomato crops all over the Northeast several years ago by insisting on selling plants carrying late blight despite being warned by extension agents.

-- on what to plant when in Texas, I have no clue. That's an entirely different climate than mine (and, I gather, a different climate depending on where you are in Texas.) There should be a Cooperative Extension agency somewhere in your county or whatever Texas uses for counties, and they've probably got advice. If any of your neighbors have good gardens, then I'd go talk to the neighbors.

In my area, all the mints including catnip will spread on their own, once well started: including quite possibly to places where you don't want them. So bear that in mind when choosing locations. A lawn full of mints smells quite nice when it's mowed, though --

[Sc0ut]

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.

Yeah, I meant safer in the sense of not having to deal with seeds that don't sprout or very young plants dying. Disease-wise that's a risk, I guess, but as long as you look at what you buy and it seems healthy, I wouldn't worry too much. (I personally buy seedlings from farmers markets in a completely different part of the world, and I've never seen plants that looked diseased for sale. People seem to have the sense to avoid this, at least when they're not part of a big company.) Besides, 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. And thank you for sharing that story, thorny, it's pretty shocking that a company can be so careless, and good to be aware of that.

[thorny]

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.

True; but it does depend on the disease/pest. If something's already widespread in the area, you're right, it's less of an issue: partly because it's there anyway, and partly because its predators/disease resistance are probably in the area also. Bringing in something that's not already present, including things that otherwise usually only show up so late in the year that most of the crop's already in, is another matter.

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.

There are quite a few things which attack both plants grown as ornamentals and their relatives grown as food. And some things (including the late blight in my example) can spread rapidly for miles; so one person's hobby garden can affect a whole lot of people, including those for whom the planting is livelihood and/or necessary dinner.

Buying from a reliable, known seller at a farmers' market, or from a reliable local nursery that grows its own plants, is a sensible thing to do. Bear in mind that in some areas what appears to be a farm stand or local nursery may have bought in stock from somewhere unreliable; try to know who you're dealing with if possible.

[Róisín]

Totally agree with thorny. Here in South Australia the one that gives me the cold horrors is Mediterranean Fruit Flies. They often come in with fruit imports from Qld and NSW. When they infest fruit trees here, local councils feel it needful to strip the affected trees and all other fruiting plants for a couple of blocks to a suburb. Plus spraying vile insecticides which taint tank water and destroy native insects and are ruinous for beekeepers.

Then there is fireblight, which we didn't have here until we started importing cheap fruit from NZ which does have it, rather than supporting our local apple and pear growers. SA was clean of fireblight before then.

[Sc0ut]

Thank you both for the extra info! I know I still have a lot to learn on these things. I wanted to put an optimistic spin on things so the newer people don't see gardening as this overwhelming thing that can even endanger other people, though I'm afraid I ended up sounding irresponsible. Honestly, if I knew pests were such a big deal in gardening when I started my experiments, I probably wouldn't have bothered at all. But now I'm hooked and determined to learn to fight them in appropriate ways, and learn from my mistakes. There's a delicate balance between learning to be responsible in a new activity and keeping your enthusiasm for it (at least for me).

[thorny]

FWIW: despite occasional disasters, most plants, most of the time, aren't all that bothered by most pests.

That doesn't mean no pests aren't there, or that there's no damage; but plants suited to the area, and provided with the right nutrition and balance of sun and water, can tolerate a certain amount of chewing on, and produce a crop despite some degree of disease prevalence.

-- another advantage of either starting your own, or getting plants from a reputable local source, is that you're more likely to be getting varieties that actually are suited to your area. The best tomato to grow in Texas is unlikely to be the best one to grow in upstate New York; and even over much smaller distances suitability can vary considerably. If you buy seed to start your own, there are smaller seed companies specializing in specific climates -- I know several in the Northeast USA and a couple in the short-season Northwest USA, but don't offhand know who's best for any particular part of Texas. For the southeastern United States, there's Southern Exposure, http://www.southernexposure.com/ and some of their stuff might do well there. There's probably seed companies in the Southwest I don't know about, though.

[wavewright62]

It's hard for me to keep enthusiasm going across an entire growing season, let alone 3 of them like we get in Auckland.  My garden is mostly organic not out of any particular scruples, but out of sheer neglect.  We prepare the soil well & buy plants from local suppliers, try to get the early weeding & thinning done, but after that the plants are mostly on their own as what time and energy we have goes elsewhere for a while.  For the winter crops, they only get a look-in on the weekends, as I don't see the place in the light during the working week.
We get pests, and we get fungal diseases, but we still get enough of a harvest to fill our pukus.

[Auxivele]

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.

[wavewright62]

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.

I think succulents or maybe euphorbs are perfect for a dorm room, although one like aloe or hens-n-chicks tends to need maintenance for its numerous pups (I can't bear to let them die, but neither can I repot the things endlessly).  OTOH, potted pups make nice gifts for your new college friends?

[thorny]

Auxivele, do you want things you can eat, or things just to look at?

It sounds like you'd be doing container gardening -- there's a good bit of information out there on that, both for edibles and for ornamentals (not that some of the edibles aren't ornamental --).

You should decide whether you're willing to get into plant lights; that'll make quite a difference in what you can grow, as there's unlikely to be enough sunlight in a dorm room for sun-loving plants to do well. There are plants that do well in shade, however. If you only want to light a small space, there are also plant lights that don't amount to significantly more than an extra lamp in the room.

[Ana Nymus]

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.

Like wavewright mentioned, succulents are great for dorms! Seriously, I got one my first year at college (a little aloe) and now I have... six that I bring to school, about 10 that stay at home because I don't have enough windowsill space. Also, they all have names and lives in a complex suburbia AU in which my original plant is a biology professor married to my roommate's plant, a prickly actuary with a heart of gold. But I digress.

The nice thing about succulents is that they don't mind if you forget to water them one day. The downside is that they need enough light, and depending on where you go to school and what plants you get, they may not tolerate the drafts near windows in winter well. But I've found that a decently sized window provides enough light for many succulents to flourish. My aloe even flowered last year, and the others have grown enough that I've had to repot every one of them. Succulents are also usually pretty sturdy for the purposes of transporting to and from the dorms: mine have followed me for every break and are none the worse for wear. Seriously, I recommend succulents.

[thorny]

At least some aloes prefer not too much light.

I've got a shade-loving aloe that I wish it were practical for me to give you a chunk of. It keeps trying to take over the place. I have multiple times given away all of it but a couple of small pieces, but it always gets huge again.

I'd need a nursery license to sell pieces of it at farmers' market, and it's not worth getting one just for that one plant, as I don't sell anything else in that fashion. I understand why that's necessary (disease and invasives issues), but it's still mildly annoying.

I should probably keep it under control by harvesting leaves and using the gel as skin cream, but I have another hand cream that I really like, and I tend to forget to use the aloe.

[Auxivele]

Thank you all so much!

I'm in New England, so I don't know if the draft would be too cold. I do think I want to stick with low-light plants so that it's one less thing I have to worry about. I never really thought of having edible plants in my room but I'm open to anything.

Now I'm going to spend all day researching plants and container gardening instead of doing anything else important but I mean it's summer break so it's not like I have much to do...