My Garden

[jana]

I thought I'd start a garden journal over here rather than take up space in the square foot gardening thread.

I visited our new place tonight and took some measurements and photos of the patio, and I wanted to show you guys why I'm so excited about our new place...look at all that room!

[Csara]

Shuddup!! When did you get a new place????? Why am I out of the loop missy? :nono: Details, details!!!! Well, congrats girlie. That is great. Does this mean you are staying in Austin??

[jana]

Lol C, I guess because you haven't been into the sfg thread... :p (Yeah, yeah, I know, what does gardening have to do with moving? Nada. :lol: )

Our lease is up in our current apt soon, so we're just renting a bigger place until we find a house to buy. We'll probably stick around here for now, since the economy isn't the greatest to just be moving around to different places on a whim, and we haven't found "the perfect place" yet. It's still exciting to get a nicer place to live with lots more space, and that patio means I can plant lots of veggies out there! :D

[Mel-icious]

Wow, that's a nice size patio. So where are you thinking of putting the garden? :D

[jana]

Not sure...I still have to see what the sun exposure is like! The planters will probably all go along the long railing, though. I'm doing one vertical bed (1'x4') and two 2'x4' beds. I bought some electrical conduit elbow connectors today, and I'll probably buy the conduit (for the vertical support) and wood sometime this weekend.

I decided to buy some flower seeds and go ahead and make the 2 2'x4' beds. May as well just leap right into the whole mess, right? :p Here's what I bought: Nasturtium (Scarlet Gleam), Pansy, Viscaria (Blue Angel), and Cornflower. I've never heard of the last 2 (except for cornflower blue in the crayon box-ha!), but they're pretty.

[Mel-icious]

Nasturtium (Scarlet Gleam) are vining types, so are you trellising them or letting them sprawl where ever they want? And Pansy's I love pansies! I have some Swiss Giants germinating outside. My girls love their little faces, so do I! Your Viscaria will do well in the bed since they like well drained soil. I can't wait to see your beds! I can't wait to get mine started! LOL!

[Dakotah_Skye]

Your patio has tons of potential!!!! Have fun and be sure to keep us posted on how it turns out!

[jana]

Haven't decided yet what I'm going to do with the Nasturtiums, but I'll just play it by ear. :)

Thanks, DS! I'll definitely keep you all posted.

Last weekend I bought all the wood and stuff I'll need for my planters! All I need now is soil and room to build everything. I want to get started now, but we really have no place to put the finished product, so I'll probably make them the weekend before we start moving.

[jana]

Okay! Time for an update. :D

I built my 3 planters, and the wood wasn't the straightest, so a couple corners are kinda wonky. They should still work fine, though.

All 3 planters have soil in them, but only my 1x4 climbing plant box has any seeds planted. Things have been much busier than I expected, and I keep running out of time and daylight! So right now I have tomatoes, cukes, sugar snap peas, and green beans planted. I don't expect any of the early spring stuff to come up (like peas, broccoli, spinach, lettuce), but I'm going to plant them anyway, just for grins. :)

All I have left to do is plant my 2 2x4 planters and make my grids (bought some cheapo mini blinds for that purpose).

I've been going pretty crazy on plants for inside, too. I just love our new place so much--it's super bright and cheery! I have fallen in love with orchids. I got a dendrobium and a phalaenopsis, and they are so beautiful! I also found a cute little african violet for a buck or so, although it's a complete mystery what color it will be, since it's not blooming. I also snagged about a dozen leaves from my mom's african violets, and I'm going to see if I can make them grow. She told me they're mostly whites and pinks, but they're all different kinds/shades. My grocery store also has some beautiful, lush, 10" hanging pots of golden pothos, which I just couldn't resist buying. I'm going to separate one into 5 or so little pots and put them on the ledge above our kitchen/living room pass-through bar.

I'll post some pictures as soon as I get a chance! :run:

[Csara]

It sounds beautiful, Jana! I can't wait to see the pictures.

I love orchids too.....they are the most gorgeous, interesting flowers, IMO. Such an amazing variety.

[Mel-icious]

Orchids are so beautiful! I'd love to have some of those, but Maddie thinks plants are for digging in, I can't keep her out of my hibiscus and I'd hate for her to ruin an orchid.

Your veggie beds sound great!! I can't wait to see pics of those veggies when they come in! T and I will start building our bed soon, I can't wait to get started!!! We'll have to wait for it to warm up again, we just received a couple inches of wet snow. :rolleyes:

[Deana]

Jana, your garden sounds really wonderful - isn't it so much fun?

I love orchids too - I've always heard that they are hard to grow?? Are you doing anything special to your orchids?

Ok, you've inspired me to clear out my flower beds and pots this weekend. I don't think my hibiscus is going to come back :( so I might try azaleas this year.

[jana]

I planted my other beds about a week ago, and I've discovered that they are in the PERFECT location for lots of gorgeous sun! YAY!! :clap: I totally lucked out on that awesome patio.

I have photos, but I'm moving slowly because we're still lugging things back and forth and getting everything set up, so photos aren't top priority right now. I want to share, though!

D, I'm not doing anything special to my orchids, but I've read that different types have different requirements. The 2 kinds I have are supposed to be the easy ones. They like bright, indirect light and water about once a week. It seems to be working so far!

Guess what?! Some of my plants have sprouted!!! :run: I'm so excited! Here are the squares I saw little green shoots in yesterday: tomato (apparently I got 2 seeds in that one! whoops!), cucumber (2/2), peas (3/8), garlic (2/9 but those were the 2 that were already sprouted when I planted them! lol), and I think something else, but I can't remember. Oh, yeah, 1 or 2 of my cornflowers. :D

I've also learned that we have a kitty neighbor who likes to visit our porch. She really scared me the day after I added the soil to my planters...I saw pawprints in my dirt! EEK! I thought for sure I had just provided her with 3 giant litter boxes, but I think she was just checking them out. I haven't seen any pawprints since I put the miniblind grids across the planters, and hopefully she won't be interested in eating whatever grows.

[Mel-icious]

Yay!! Sprouts! You are so lucky that you live in a warmer climate. My spinach and lettuces have sprouted, I can't wait to plant them.

D, you should wait it out, water the hibiscus and give it a little Miracle Grow or some other type of plant food, it just may come back for you. I know I thought I killed mine, and I watered it, gave it a shot of MG and it gave me two blooms, indoors, not to bad. ;)

[jana]

Okey doke! Time for some photos! I'll start with my indoor plants and then move out to the patio.

Here's my dendrobium orchid:

[jana]

My phalaenopsis orchid:

[jana]

The teeny african violet I got is doing well, but no flowers yet:

[jana]

And here is the golden pothos I separated into 5 little pots. This was taken right after I separated it, so it looks really good, but now they're all getting kinda scraggly and I don't think they were too happy with the re-potting job I did!

[jana]

Okay, now the patio. Here are my flame seedless grapes, which haven't changed much from when I planted them. In fact, I think I had just potted this when I took the photo.

[jana]

The plants look so different from the photos I took a week ago, so I just ran out and took some more. :)

From left to right, here are my tomatoes and sugar snap peas. I have 2 tomato plants and should only have one, so I still have to transplant one of them.

[jana]

Cucumbers and green beans:

[jana]

Clockwise from top left: cornflower, garlic, thyme, broccoli

[jana]

Carrots, nasturtium, lettuce, basil:

[jana]

Oregano, onions (wow!), pansy, soybeans (wow, too!):

[jana]

Serrano pepper, cilantro, spinach, and viscaria:

Whew! That's everything so far! I also have another teeny tomato plant from my boss that I'm going to try to transplant soon, and I'm toying with the idea of planting some geraniums, marigolds, or something else that kitties don't like.

[Mel-icious]

Wow! Jana, I am so jealous! I am longing to build my beds, and get to planting. Your little seedlings are looking great! And that orchid, wow! Beautiful! :thumb2:

[Csara]

I second that WOW! Your little plants are adorable and your orchids are gorgeous! How long does it usually take for the veggies to grow enough to be eaten? I bet they will be so delicious!

[jana]

Thanks! :D I'm so tickled that stuff is really growing! I just hope I can keep everything growing long enough to actually get some veggies and flowers from them!

C, the length of time depends on the plant. SFG says beans take 8 weeks, broccoli 16, carrots 10, cukes 9, lettuce 7, onions 20 (less for green onions), peas 10, peppers 19, spinach 7, and tomatoes 17-20. We'll see!

Just noticed I forgot to add that last picture! :rolleyes: It's not all that spectacular, but here it is anyway:

[jana]

GRRRR!!! That@!$% cat has been into my plants again! My soybeans, broccoli, carrots, and a couple more I can't think of are flattened. :( They're MY beds, not the cat's! NO SLEEPING IN MY VEGGIES!!

I've been sprinkling cayenne pepper all over the place, but it doesn't seem to phase the cat. I guess I'll have to resort to building some kind of cover for the seedlings or maybe I'll buy one of those cat-away sprays. Hopefully they're safe for veggies; I'll have to check the label.

[Mel-icious]

You know what you can try, you know those plastic rugs, the clear ones with the prickley things on the other side, can you surround your beds with those prickley side up, cats don't like the feeling on their paws so they won't walk on them. I also hear citrus peels work, they don't like the smell so they stay away but you have to keep up with it. ;)

[FarmGirl]

I'm sorry kitty got into yuor plants, I know how annoying and frustrating that is - but please, please, please do not put out cayenne pepper to repel kitty. If it gets in the cats eyes, kitty can gouge out his own eyes because of the burning. When walking on the pepper, it gets into their paws, then when they clean themselves or scratch, they rub it into their eyes. Or they could lick it and get into their mouth, which causes a kitty to go a bit nutty - and bad things can happen from that too.

Ever been chopping up a pepper and rub your eye? It hurts like hell.

Shake Away (http://www.critter-repellent.com/cat/cat-deterrent.php)

or

Save all your lemon, orange, grapfruit (any citrus) rinds, cut them up in little pieces and spread liberally. You'll enrich the soil and annoy the cats. This must be done continuosly to be effective but eventually the cat will instinctively know it's a spot to avoid. (You might try the citrus oil, instead of the rinds - you wouldn't have to eat so many oranges that way)

One tip that I think is especially funny is this - plant some catnip in your neighbors yard :D

aluminum foil, garlic, cedar compost, heavy bark mulch

Or, entice kitty somewhere else - give kitty his (or her) own sleepy spot by planting something that he is attracted too, like cat mints, oat grass, barley grass, sweetgrass, mint, silver-wine - anything that will attract him, and keep him out of your plants. Just keep in mind that if you do this, you have to try and not let the plant die - its a pretty tough fight, but if it does die, kitty is back into your stuff again.

[jana]

Argghhh, that sucks about the pepper! Oh, well. It didn't work anyway.

Thanks for the info, chicas! I totally forgot I read about citrus peel, too. I have an orange here; maybe I'll try that this afternoon.

I'm not sure if the prickly mats or any other kind of "don't-walk-on-this" things will work. Our patio is just so huge, and I'm sure kitty would be able to jump straight down into my beds from the railing if she really wanted to. :huh:

[jana]

:wave: Hi, Lainie!

Thanks for the compliments! I find it utterly amusing that someone would say I have a green thumb, but it sure looks that way from my pictures, doesn't it? :lol:

My spray bottle has found a permanent home by the back door; kitty now takes off as soon as she hears the door open. She knows that that sound means she's getting a shower soon!

Last night I put orange peel in my beds, but I can't tell yet whether it's making a difference.

Hubby talked to the office today and they suggested we do what other residents have done: buy some screen to block off the gaps in the railing. I don't know if that will really help or if the cat will decide the dirt is worth jumping over the fence, but I'll probably try it anyway.

[jana]

Well, it's looking like my thumb is not so green after all. :(

My pansies, oregano, cilantro, and viscaria never came up. The cat has killed all but 1 of my lettuce plants, my carrots, broccoli, spinach, cornflowers, and some of my soybeans. Something is eating my peas and beans. :mad:

I broke down today and bought oregano, thyme and cilantro plants to put in those oh-so-empty squares. My nasturtiums are looking good, and so are my onions, garlic, tomatoes and serrano. I'll probably put some flowers or something in a couple of the other dead squares, too.

As for the indoor plants, my pothos is still very unhappy, but my orchids and african violet are doing great!

[suzieq728]

:( Jana, I am so jealous! I want to plant something, anything in the worse way, but my garden is water logged at the present time!
Your garden looks great, (not to mention that new apt :D , hope you got a extra room for me:D )...

But I am still jealous ;)

You go Jana!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mel-icious]

Aww Jana I'm sorry to hear about your seedlings. I know that frustration, I have a chipmunk here that does the same to my seedlings, I have to over plant just to get a few sunflowers. :no:

Try replanting your lettuce and carrots, they come up quickly so maybe you'll still get a crop. have any early varieties? Over plant and that way maybe one or two will survive?

[suzieq728]

Aww, I didnt read the whole thread Jana, I just looked at the pictures and got jealous :( ...

You know I have 2 cats, there my cats, and they always wreck havoc in my garden. But I bought this stuff at the pet store, apple seed somethingorother, I'll have to pick up more cause I am all out and then I'll post it for you. And my cats hated that stuff. And, the best part, it's safe for all plants, and CHEAP!
I got about a gallon of it, it looks like seeds, but its not, you just put it over the soil and poof, no more kittys.. I dont know about chipmunks M.. I dont think I have any chipmunks ;) .....

[jana]

Guess it's time for an update here! I replanted everything that didn't come up or died pretty early on. Kitty hasn't been by in a while. (Woohoo!) Broccoli died again, carrots are doing well, pansies are barely coming up, lettuce is still okay but a little bitter, spinach is there but small, cornflowers are small too, ummm...what else? The herb plants are rockin' (especially the oregano!), nasturtiums are getting big but still no blooms, I have 2 pea pods (!) and a bunch of teeny weeny soybean pods! The soybean plants themselves look pretty sorry, but there are definitely some beans growing! My grape plant never took off at all, so I'm going to return it one of these days.

Almost all of my plants are turning yellow from the bottom up. Any idea what the heck could be causing that? My climbing beds are the worst (tomatoes, peas, green beans, cukes). I went ahead and pulled up the cukes and green beans because they looked so awful. Today I went out and saw a new green bean plant growing up! Maybe it won't succumb to the yellow problem.

Just about everything is turning yellow, though...serrano, cilantro, basil just started, nasturtiums, etc.

Remember how I said my golden pothos was getting pretty scraggly? Well, K and my 11yo friend M (she's just like a little sister) both suggested that maybe it didn't like getting blown on by the a/c vent. I moved it outside (repotted it into a bigger pot, too) and it is SO happy now! :clap:

My orchids have finished blooming (well, the 2 that I had already; I bought another that has 2 little plants in one pot, and they still have 1 bloom each), so I cut them down. It's now a matter of time to see if I can get them to grow and bloom again. If all else fails, I can always take them back and get more, since Home Depot and Lowe's both have a 1-yr guarantee on all their plants! :D

[Mel-icious]

Sounds like nutrient deficiencies give them a light dose of fertilizer and see if that helps Jana. It may be to hot in Texas right now for broccoli, I know I can't grow it here in the summer, its a cooler weather crop, so are snap peas.

If your lettuce is bitter you aren't picking it soon enough, I think. When lettuce "bolts" {goes to seed} it begins to get bitter. Pick it younger and see what happens. ;)

[jana]

Great, thanks! I was considering fertilizing them but wanted to ask first. I think I over-fertilized my peace lily a while back and got some burning on the leaves, so I didn't want to jump right into that again. Honestly, I followed the directions on dilution but I forgot I had added fertilizer to the watering can and watered with it again too soon. :rolleyes:

I'll see what the fertilizer does. I wasn't expecting either the broccoli or the peas to come up at all, so no loss on the broccoli. The peas have been a very pleasant surprise! I couldn't resist eating half my crop today...that sounds so funny since I only had 2 pea pods! :lol:

My lettuce hasn't bolted yet, but it's definitely the larger leaves that are more bitter. The smaller ones are yummy. There's not much lettuce there anyway; I just grab a leaf or 2 when I'm out watering.

[starjasmine89]

Great work, Jana! Sometimes complete plant fertilizers and some slow release frertilizers (with trace minerals) are useful.

Be sure to use only liquid fertilizers on some plants. Also, some plants don't seem to be using the slow release. They seems to just sit there for too many months. more than half a year!

When your plants are bigger, you can try adding mulch and wood chips. Please don't over watered anything, the roots may rot or fungus may take over the plants.

Some times, young plants need shelter or heavy shade.
I tend to shield the young shoots. I got some sleepy bulbs to grow again. But I had to hide the plant under one of the bigger potted ones and use the wall ( I have a balcony) for warmth. So to check on them I will have to bend down and even take the pot out to look at the young shoots.

My best chance with plants are the hardy ones like rose mary. I used to laugh (still do) at the thought that " I"ll keep the ones that survive the seasons years after years".

I had fun hanging a fern on my sad looking frangipanni. I guess that I'll be testing the fern out this winter.

Any way, good luck and will chat another time.

Starjasmine89

ps: got a brami plant in the attached file. hard to multiply in the natural way. But surely kept some plants alive! :hatsoff: to you! keep up with the work...

:graduate: to growing and lively garden
:five: to becoming an expert!

bye & :toast: to good health to you and all others.

[jana]

Hi, starjasmine89! Thanks for the tips!

Well, I have what looks like powdery mildew on my peas and some kind of critter is leaving "trails" on the leaves of my soybeans, green beans, and basil. It's like they've eaten halfway through the leaf but there are no holes. Okay, there are some whiteflies on the underside of my leaves. Geez, they seemed to appear overnight...although they must have been there for a while. *sigh*

I think the peas are about shot, so I'll go ahead and pull them up. I'm going to try to spray down all the whiteflies with some soap/oil/water and see if I can kill the buggers.

[starjasmine89]

Hi Jana,

I get a lot of pest too. I hope your remedy works. Here it is called white oil. You spray it under the leaves. You will have to keep spraying every 2-3 weeks.

The pests like warm weather. Part of spring and summer goes to pest control. :thumbdown

I get leaves which are too dry or all curl up. The leave miners really damages the leaves. They make the leaves look like they have bumps in them. The leaves can also get more brittle and looking rather thin.

My leaves fall off the plant easily. Could it be diseased or inequate fertilizer or water?
Maybe you can advice me on that. Thanks in advance.

ps: some plants (I'm sure that you are aware) are prone to certain pests :(

Well, I'll leave it as that (the post) for now.

good luck. see u soon.

Starjasmine89

[starjasmine89]

Hi Jana,
I thought of "popping by" to see how your garden is doing. I hope you and your garden are doing well and that the challenges of baby sitting some of the plants are well conquered.

My garden is surviving the early winter days. The pansy that I repotted is not doing so well. Maybe you can advice on how to revive it. Thanks in advance.

Also when can plants be potted. Is winter a bad time to repot most plants?

Any help is welcome. Thanks in advance.

Starjasmine89

[jana]

Hi! Well, my plants still aren't all that happy, although I think the whiteflies are gone. I sprayed them with a mixture of oil, soap and water and it seemed to get rid of them. It's getting pretty hot here now, and I can't believe it's almost time to start thinking about planting for the fall!

I'm sorry I don't have any ideas or info about repotting. I'm still new to the whole gardening thing! This was my first real attempt at trying to grow any plants. I would imagine that if your plants are outside in the cold, they wouldn't be too happy if you repotted them now.

I'm so jealous that you're in early winter. I could use some cold weather again! When we moved to NZ, we left at the end of our summer (which was actually pretty mild, for once) and arrived in spring. When we came back, we were right in the middle of winter here. It was perfect! And now here we are in summertime again...ugh!

[suzieq728]

Apple viniger! Thats what it is and cats hate it! I bought it last year and i put it in a spray bottle, half apple viniger, half water, and I spray my plants. Granted the back yard smelled a little funky the first few days, but it did the job. My cat stayed away.
As long as I dont go into the veggie bed, my cat wont either. But once she sees me in the bed, she runs in and wrecks havoc. Strange cat :rolleyes: lol

[jana]

Interesting! Apple cider vinegar is cool stuff, although it, um, smells like vinegar. :biglaugh:

If you can stand the smell, it makes a nice conditioning rinse for your hair, too. Just remember to wash it out afterwards!

[starjasmine89]

Thanks Jana,
I repotted some small aloe vera recently. They look fine. Hope they survive the winter.

I'm glad to hear that your remedy of white oil worked on the white flies. For me the aphids or leaf miners are some of the problematic pests. They like my chives.

I have some info on companions for plants if you want. I 'll list some of them in the next post.


bye for now.
good luck.

ps: summer here can get very hot as well :)

Starjasmine89

[starjasmine89]

Hi Jana and everyone,

I looked through a book called "The Pleasure of Gardening vegetables, Fruits and herbs" by Mary Moody and found a section on companion plants. The companion plants (in general) are helpful in protecting other plants from pests, loosen the soil by their deep root systems and enrich the nutrition of the soil.

Here are some of the helpful companion plants

1) basil grows well next to tomatoes as it repels pest/s that attack tomatoes and strangely also mosquitoes.

:confused:

2) borage repels tomato worms. can be grown next to tomatoes, squash and strawberries.

3) camomile :cool: grows well with cabbage and onions

4) chives: next to carrots

5) horseradish: next to potatoes; repels potato bug

6) marigolds: excellent for nematodes, bettles and others insects ( exude an aroma that helps to repel insects)


7) rosemary: next to cabbage, beans and carrots; repels cabbage moths and carrot fly.

hope that provided some ideas as to which plants can work together.

Thanks for reading
feel free to add to the list. I'm keen to know more and surely looking forward to any contributions. Thanks in advance :)

Starjasmine89

happy planting!

[jana]

Neato, thanks! :)

[starjasmine89]

Hi Jana,

you're welcome. Thanks for replying.

Starjasmine89 :)

[starjasmine89]

Hi Jana and others,
I have managed to revive my almost gone plant by placing it next to garlic chives plus adding liquid seaweed.

I'm happy to say for sure that the seaweed has helped mantain many of my plants. hooray!

:thumb2:

I'll just have to work on the snail issue. :(

Starjasmine89