The Plant Thread

[lovesbabysquirmy]

our patio is littered with dead experiments that did not survive.  *sigh*
but the school project plant is still alive and I think the raspberry cane is rooting... I'll accept those wins.

[pinkkittywinks]

It is really sad when you loose a plant.

Love pkw xxx

[Lady Frostbite]

@ Lady Frostbite your chillies sound amazing! My husband loves fancy chillies but I dont' have much luck with them. How about, next year send the spares to me 

Can do!  Chillies are honestly so easy, you just sow them on New Years day, put the seedling tray on the radiator as they need heat to germinate, get a little cheap UV light to help the seedlings grow in the dark days of winter, and they'll take it from there! I find the hotter varieties tend to be more aggressive about growing; my Jays burst out of the soil in something like 10 days!! For soil I just use a John Innes mix with a good amount of perlite mixed in for drainage - I love good drainage in a plant, especially for tropicals - and they soon grow very well in my kitchen window. I get amazing sunlight coverage in the summer, and they're protected from the slugs. Just be sure to water from the bottom to avoid scariad flies!!

  that is quite a bit of technical knowledge!! Thank you I'll try those things. It will be easier to make a proper space for them now we've moved house. I just have a pair of cayenne's this year, but I probably sowed them too late.

LOOOOL I'm the last person in the world for technical plant knowledge!! I just throw seeds into the soil and it works!

Or rather, I mix up the perlite and compost in a plastic Hallowe'en tub on my kitchen floor  I don't measure it, I just go by look/feel. I plant the little seeds about a dimple depth down, put the seedling tray on the radiator and alternate the top on or off (to stop mould growing in there). I also pierced some additional ventilation holes in the sides of the top just in case. Once you get little seedies sprouting, transfer them to successfully bigger pots. I grow indoors so I'm protected from a lot of bugs and such, and I find that the hotter chilliies tend to be more aggressive about growing, which is why I love them! I use Chilli Focus for fertiliser, just once in a while and follow the dosage on the bottle.

Two Peach Ghost Scorpions are ripe!! Going to give them to my hairdresser to see what she thinks! The White Naga is hard at work making lots of fruits, I might need to move her back into the living room so she has maximum space for her arms as they're getting heavy with all those fruits!

[Taffeta]

Plants are little lives, after all.

I moved the spider plants back outside today. Most of the plants survived the heatwave pretty much intact.

We have a dearth of butterflies here this year. Probably because of building nearby, but it's sad seeing the buddleia without them :/

[Beth3346]

i'm glad the plants are doing ok in the heatwave.

has anyone used vinegar as weed control? i have something called Nutsedge taking over my garden beds and choking everything else. apparently pulling them out can make it worse. there is also a huge thistle plant killing my crepe myrtle. so great

[Taffeta]

I know Dad uses salt. I don't wholly approve, but it seems to work on his lawn.

We have rain today I never thought that would make me happy, but it is nice to see it after so long.

[Artemesia's Garden]

i'm glad the plants are doing ok in the heatwave.

has anyone used vinegar as weed control? i have something called Nutsedge taking over my garden beds and choking everything else. apparently pulling them out can make it worse. there is also a huge thistle plant killing my crepe myrtle. so great

Nutsedge looks like a pain. I would try the vinegar, but if it's a large area I would look into covering it in black plastic and chippings, then starting again in a year or two. We bought a chipper and put all our twigs and hedge cuttings through it to use as mulch. We also plan to dig a 2ft deep plastic barrier into the ground around our entire property, so that once we get rid of the weeds they can't come back.

[Taffeta]

A lot of weeds have airborne seeds or seeds that stick to shoes and clothing, so it's very difficult to clear them out completely. Hopefully this isn't one of those.

I was surprised yesterday afternoon, looking out of the window, that there are a couple of blue morning glory flowers on my climbing plant tower. I had about given up on the blue ones, since all the other MG flowers are the white variety, so it was quite nice to see a couple have struggled through even after this long.

The tower is a mad mad world of plant chaos. I think next year we'll stick to just the thunbergia

[Lady Frostbite]

Gave two ripe Jay's Peach Ghost Scorpions to the hairdresser ... Let's see how hot they really are! 

[pinkkittywinks]

oooh let us know!

Love pkw xxx

[Griffin]

My snack cucumber is infested with something, I believe they are spider mites 
I sprayed the plant with water for a start and should go gather some nettles for a brew... I'm not sure if that will work on mites but I suppose it won't hurt either.

It's raining today which should also help, spider mites like dry conditions!

[BlackCurtains]

A sure way to get rid of mites of any kind is to make mosquito bits tea. Amazon link. It won't hurt the plants and won't kill anything beneficial. It's even safe to use around frogs, and they are so susceptible to everything. I don't know if you can get it, but thought I'd mention it.

[Ponyfan]

Here are the mint plants 6 weeks after repotting.


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Mint 2

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Mint 1


I think Mint 2 will need a bigger pot soon.


Ponyfan

[BlackCurtains]

They look great, Ponyfan


You guys won't believe this, but the same thing happened with a rosemary plant that happened with Ben Basil. I wanted fresh rosemary in a package, but they were out so substituted a live plant

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She was so waterlogged, there was water in the bag she was in. I squeezed out some. I need to read up on rosemary. But yeah, another plant has been given to me by Walmart

Also, also, look at this adorable planter mug I got to grow cat grass in! It was a kit on Amazon and you can get soil and seed refills.

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I bought some tomatoes and fresh mozzarella to use some basil up. I also got root veggies to roast and that's what I wanted the rosemary for. I can use some basil for those too. I don't like pesto sauce, or I would make that. Ben definitely needs a new pot already, but I'm broke until next month. The catnip is doing well too, but my cat doesn't seem interested. She likes dried catnip, she eats it. I picked and rubbed some of the leaves for her but she just kind of sniffed them and then cheeked them for a second.

[Artemesia's Garden]

Nice addition! Ha ha. It doesn't look very happy I agree, rosemary hates being soggy. If you gradually intorudeuce it to a very sunny position, hopefully it might recover. The cat mint likes a lot of sun as well and that should help it build up it's special scent that the cats love. Did I say whenever I try to grow it our cat just mows it off to ground level, so we gave up.

It's time for me to transfer my planted no-tech aquarium. I have a 20 litre green glass bottle that cracked some years ago. I repaired it with car windscreen repair kit. It's held on this long. 5L is a lot of water when it finally does break! Luckily, my Mum managed to find an almost identical one to replace it with. It's an outdoor job, so I think I will do that today.