Continuing the potting shed thread here with Part 2. The thread was started by Sunbear to talk about any and all things to do with gardening.
Lots blooming in my garden and lots of bees :)
We hung a hummingbird feeder on our deck, they are so much fun to watch!
Yesterday I did some gardening - mostly cutting a few plants back that have stopped flowering so that I can see those that are still flowering when I look out the window. I don't have to go down into the garden to see them, though I do that too. There are light blue chicory, deep yellow evening primroses as well as hot pink cranesbill. There's lots of green in between so the colours don't clash ;)
Today I took a deep inhale from my one blooming pink/white variagated rose. Lovely scent :)
My one rose is still blooming. Yesterday I inhaled the scent deep into me. There are more buds opening.
Sweden is dark now, and I am actually enjoying the darkness, even my shadowest of jungle plants have found it difficult however. I have huge windows and an extra table that is the same height as the window ledge, so I put some boards across the two, sewed a tarp around it with a door at the front as a giant play tent for my little one and moved all the plants onto the top of my now huge radiator heated windowsill, tent house :) I look forward to expanding my indoor jungle now. I'm imagining a combination of frons and vines. That makes me happy.
We have begun prepping a garden plot for the Spring. We are trying a new method which will be interesting to try. We are laying down cardboard onto a plot of lawn (where the chickens have lived recently :) ) and then getting decomposed leaves and a little dirt from the woods to pile on top of the cardboard. And we are trying to keep the plot moist so it will continue to decompose. And any weeds beneath the cardboard are supposed to die. It will be really interesting to see how it works. I think we're all excited about a garden. We have visions of growing all kinds of crazy vegetables and fruits ;D We likely won't get around to all of them this year, but it will be interesting to see what comes of it. I feel a bit excited.
Pioneer your garden sounds lovely. I have also tried that method and it worked amazingly. I used to have a permaculture fruit forest that I used no-dig practices with and I found the cardboard barrier to be really great to keeping the creepy crawling ivy vines at bay. If it works for ivy, I imagine it would work with most anything.
I am so excited. On my ledge in front of my four metre high window, I've started setting up a Kratky hydroponic system, aka some storage bins and extra lights. I purchased so many seeds to test. I will perhaps start with trying to grow grasses like lemon grass, caraway, clary sage, and holy basil. I just imagine this very tall brush in my window, and the thought makes me so happy. And the smell! My house will smell amazing.
Bermuda, your grasses and spices sound really lovely - yes, I can imagine they will smell really good! I hope they love the spot and grow well.
Also, thanks for mentioning your experience with no-dig practice! That's encouraging and exciting. It makes sense that it would work against viney things, too. We have lots of viney thorns that like to wrap around trees around here, so I will have to keep that in mind! It gave me an idea for possibly putting a cardboard barrier around the house in places, particular in places where the grass gets overgrown. Thanks :thumbup: :)
Quote from: Bermuda on December 22, 2020, 04:30:35 PM
I have huge windows and an extra table that is the same height as the window ledge, so I put some boards across the two, sewed a tarp around it with a door at the front as a giant play tent for my little one and moved all the plants onto the top of my now huge radiator heated windowsill, tent house :) I look forward to expanding my indoor jungle now. I'm imagining a combination of frons and vines. That makes me happy.
;D
Your description reminds me of a recurring dream I have that my whole bedroom has outdoor plants growing in it, with soil underfoot and everything. During the dream I love the cool greeness and being able to see the window through and round those green stems but I know I sometimes wonder as well. I'm not even sure what I wonder, but I do. How the plants got there? Where they go when they get too tall??
Yesterday - first day working in the garden this year. Just cleaning a few things up, cutting a few plants back where I didn't before the snows came, making space for the spring bulbs. Much prefer that to cleaning up in my apartment.
Good to be out in the fresh air. :)
I saw 2 new posts on the old Potting Shed thread, so checked here. It's so long in gardening terms since I've written here, though I have written about my garden in my Journal, I think.
The garden is now showing a fair amount of colour: mini daffodils, hyacinths, the pink of what might be 'lung wort' in English. Too lazy to look it up. Little white and purple violets. And lots of green - some of that being dandelion, ground elder (weeds) which I pick for myself and my little pets to eat raw. There are also nettles, which I may pick later to steam or make tea. Both lilacs are budding, so is my wild rose. I've done a fair amount of clearing of plants which have been spreading too much, many of which I have given away which feels better than throwing them in the compost bin. I have bought 3 new herbs, which I need to plant, and I also have some bee-friendly wildflower seeds that need to be in the soil quite soon. Though they actually can be sown anytime between now and June. It's meant to be sunny and warm this coming weekend so I hope to take some time on Sunday to do some more garden work :excited: :sunny: Maybe I can even put my pets out.
Sorry posted in wrong thread. Copying here...
Oh I'm so happy to find this thread!! I too love gardening, though I am MUCH downsized from my 150'X150' veggie/herb garden I had at one time. Now I have a tiny little garden with some basic veggies I can freeze or can (what I don't graze my way through!! :bigwink:). And flowers I tried planting some very old seeds to use up and not surprisingly few germinated but we will see what I can do with those.
Blueberry so love your 'weeds' that you eat!! My grandmother used to say that a weed was only a plant growing where you didn't want it to grow so I don't think of a lot as weeds and so happy to find someone else that grows and eats non-traditional plants :)
Hope you're still on here Blueberry and that your 'weeds' are growing well this year!
Catching up on missed potting shed posts has really cheered me up. Thanks! I do love weeds so.
My indoor permaculture jungle has been thriving. The weediest of plants is the mint, which is bursting out of its container desperately asking to be rehomed. It needs seemingly endless water, and the smell it releases reminds me to make sun tea every morning.
I have a calamondin tree that is fruiting nestled in the shadow of it's mother. When I water the calamondins they release the most pleasant dusty odor that is exactly like a summer rain storm. I would wear it as a perfume.
The largest monstera must be five meters tall by now. Even in the jungles of Guatemala I have never seen one like the one in my study. It outgrew its mosspole long ago so it trellises around a rod hung above the pocket doors and cascades from atop the bookshelves.
My plants make me feel loved.
Hi all,
This is a great idea for a thread. I love my plants :sunny:
I have a staghorn fern that has at least doubled it's size in the three months I've had it. I think it needs to be repotted and maybe split. Something bigger shouldn't be an issue if it's a basket as it won't be too heavy. Not sure about ferns mounted on wood...but maybe something to consider.
I have a speckled begonia that's new too. It had a new leaf but the stem has just shrivelled. I think it was overwatered before I got it and needs to be repot as well. It was so happy last week!
The orphaned alocasia I found also has a new leaf and looks like a piece of giant kale.
Oh Dollyvee, those plants sound so lovely.
I will be moving soon, but not far. I have to find a way to transport my jungle. I posted on a forum saying that I have to cut back my largest plants and got several tiny cuttings in exchange.
In my new home I plan on creating a cascading waterfall of vining plants. I've been dreaming about my new interior and just imagine an old crumbling factory that's being reclaimed by nature. That's what I want. A thousand plants, old strange objects, and clashing textures of iron and moss.
Sometimes I fantasise about my plants taking back my building after a huge disaster. The thought brings me comfort, like I'm making a positive difference in the world. I don't think it would take too long, just a couple years without humans and vines would reach into every cranny. I imagine the rats making their way from the basement all the way up here to the fourth floor. Rats living out their days in peace with the silverfish in their post-urban oasis.
Self sustainable gardening brings me joy.
I like that idea Bermuda. It's a good metaphor for the healing process and growing through it with all the "darker/hidden aspects" coming up that no one ever wants to face, but finding new life.
Today I discovered the basil in my window has flowers. In February! And I live in fairly northern climate.
Perhaps it's trying to tell me it's possible to bloom in the unlikeliest of conditions ;)
(Attached pictures)
OwnSide, flowers in February are a thing of joy!
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I'm feeling more at home in my new place and in the garden/yard. LL went through the whole garden with me on Monday, showing me places where I can put my own plants or sow wild flower seeds. He also pointed out what work other than lawn-mowing needs to be done and/or could be done. Now that I've had a proper tour of the garden, I can see how nice it is and how much potential there is. Also, I now know that some spaces are not mowed at all - that's where I can put my wildflower seeds. LL and I are on a similar wave-length as far as gardening goes. That's cool. He doesn't live in this building anymore but he still cares about and cares for the garden.
A couple of hours ago I went down into the garden to do one job I'd had my eye on and which LL confirmed needed to be done sometime. Some way it reminded me of being at one of my grandmother's when I was in my early teens. It was a good memory and so doing the job also a good feeling in several different ways.
I read Blueberry's recent post and it made me think about my little balcony garden and actually just how good the season feels.
I thought for sure my balcony plants died over winter. They became shrivelled and grey and snapped like kindling, so I just stopped watering them at some point.
To my shock they are alive! I have sea buckthorn, and a gooseberry bush, a calamondin, and a fig. Today I bought two more sea buckthorns and a blackberry bush for my son. He is semi-verbal and said, "That me happy mama!" Heart-melting.
The weather in Sweden is so great this time of year and the sun is out most of the night so we stay up until sunset to watch the bats from the balcony. I am thinking of moving further north to really be in nature. It's such a magical part of our routine, to stay up until sunset to watch the bats, to awaken to seagulls, to water the plants together, to look up random facts about spiders we see.
So beautiful, Bermuda. That's melting my heart, too.
I half garden. I plant stuff but dont always tend well. Its a little funny cause a couple weeks ago my T said "you like to garden, don't you?" And I replied vehemently "no. I don't garden. I just kill stuff." But my blueberry and mandarin orange trees are going bonkers this year. And I have some gladiolas coming up now that I planted a couple years ago, but they won't bloom till summer. And a snapdragon that me and my D stole. It was this little maybe 6 inch snapdragon that was dying in a public space with no water. So we stole it and brought it home a few years ago and it is now this giant shrub up to my thighs filled with happy yellow stalks of flowers. The only thing I've stolen and I'm proud I did. After going home and remembering this I picked a bouquet and took a photo to show T and to remember myself. I do garden, some.
You rescued that snapdragon, Armee! Your garden sounds lovely!
I plant stuff that can mostly look after itself. I've still got a bunch of stuff to plant from my old garden. Today I've been weeding instead, mostly stuff I said I'd do for LL. Weeding is easier today.
I love your Snapdragon story Armee. :applause: :thumbup: I think it speaks to the type of people we (survivors) tend to be.
Snowdrop shoots were up last week. Now they're blooming :) Yellow crocuses are in bud. Another little yellow spring time flower is open - might be aconite, I'm not sure.
I like flowers that tend themselves and come up again, year after year ;D
Blueberry, that is very exciting. We also have snowdrops, and the tulips have shot up too just patiently waiting. I am planning my kids' "spring holiday" baskets, and my son is really into flowers, and my daughter it into throwing dirt, so I got them really large pots, and it will be filled with their own little gardening tools, gloves, birdhouse building kits, diy windchimes and suncatchers, and heaps of flower seeds... My son really is into giant sunflowers right now. I'm going to put florist foam in the bottom of the pots, and stick in a large flower windmill toy in the center and cover the base in paper grass, put all the gifts on top, and I'm going to put another stick into the foam and wrap it in blue tape and hang a little watering can from it's spout as if it's watering the flower.
I hope that it ends up as amazing as I am imagining it to be. I'm happy that spring is coming. Spring holiday is rough, but the thought of rebirth and reawakening as a thing to celebrate makes me happy.
Flowers, leafy buds, bees, butterflies, and if I am so lucky as last year the sighting of a hummingbird moth, that would make my year. Things to look forward to.
I love how special you make things for your kids, Bermuda.
Lots blooming here too. My favorites are the wild plums.. like cherry blossoms. Gorgeous. And we have some snowdrops too though I never knew what they were called! Daffodils have popped up randomly including pretty white and yellow varieties and I even saw a new flower out here and looked it up...a "Bermuda Buttercup!"
And the whole yard is completely carpeted in a wild leek that is just starting to bloom. Those white flowers will be prolific in a few weeks.
That all the stuff that just grows wild. I have a fenced off plot of land that I planted poppies, irises, Fava beans, and ranunculus, also gladiolus...but to be seen if any bloom. My yard is shady in the woods with lots of critters and strangling clay soil.
So, being in Canada the only thing growing are icicles. I love hearing about what's happening in all your little corners of the world though! :sunny:
It snowed the other day but there's just a little sprinkling left on bits of shady lawn. The yellow crocuses are blooming now, in other people's gardens purple crocuses are blooming.
The sap is rising in trees and it's especially visible in the thin branches of certain bushes which turn reddish-purple in spring.
I see a few new posts on our Healing Porch thread, so I'm bumping this thread too. It's not the same, but I thought there might be some interest in gardening or plants in general on the recent Healing Porch posts. The Healing Porch is definitely different though. It's magic. So I don't want to distract from it at all, but just add this thread too, appropriate time of year for it in the northern hemisphere.
So friends in warmer parts of Canada are telling me about all the lovely spring flowers, trees leafing out, etc and here we are just growing snow. We do get to be a bit smug during the winter though because we have lovely warm Chinooks that break up winter and teases us that spring is on the way (it's not).
Soon though, soon. :sunny:
I bought some Turk's Cap lily bulbs this fall and potted them in small containers on my indoor window sill with some mix from my outdoor containers that, FYI/TMI, the neighbour's cat has been using as a au plain air loo. I wanted to see if I could force the bulbs for indoor planting. Having no idea what I was doing, and lacking follow through, they sat on my kitchen counter until March (?) when I decided to plant them.
I've developed a collection of what I'll call rebel flowers/plants. I don't really want to call them weeds as one as these pretty pink flowers. Weeds suggests something that's not supposed to be there that you have to take out and kill, when all along, they have just been floating on the wind, trying to find a home. Maybe I feel some affinity and connection to things that survived like that. Who am I to be a judgemental gardener? Something that I'm now learning through one of Patrick Teahan's videos was probably the result of a boundary crossing growing up.
I didn't think the lilies would grow, but maybe a month ago, a shoot started. Everything else looked like they were buried in this brown muck. Somewhere inside, I think I reprimanded myself (oh those familiar voices) for not knowing what I was doing and feeling like I failed; I could have been better, done better. I noticed about a weeek and a half ago that more shoots have started. It is not a lost cause (oh look, another phrase my gf used to call me). I guess sometimes things just need a little space and time to grow.
Turk's Cap lily - lovely! I've just googled so I could see a picture. Too bad the cat has no sense of visual beauty. I think I read somewhere you can dissuade various mammals from using an area by scattering ground pepper around.
I like the idea of rebel flowers :thumbup: I tend to call them wild flowers and I encourage them :)
Thanks Blueberry, I will look into giving that a try. Right now I've covered them over with some old trellis and hope it gets the hint!
Did some work in the garden yesterday, mostly pulling up/cutting off things like stinging nettles, of which there are a lot, to let smaller wildflowers in and around them grow better and be seen better. For instance, water avens (Geum rivale) are now nice and visible, nodding away, with bumble bees bumbling in and out. Water avens just happens to grow there. They didn't grow wild in the garden of my previous place.
I can now also see some nice purply-blue flowers, apparently perennial cornflower, mountain cornflower, bachelor's button, montane knapweed or mountain bluet in English. Also something I dug up from the old garden and planted here last year. Once it gets a good hold, it'll spread, competing well against the stinging nettles and looking much prettier, especially against the dirty white wall of the building behind. They're a very good flower for bees. Less visible and less obvious, but still pretty and worth giving some space to: white deadnettles and one yellow deadnettle.
Then I cleared space (mostly taken up by the stinging nettles) around my remaining redcurrants, raspberries and one blackcurrant I saved last year from my previous garden and planted rather late last year here in this garden. I'm surprised to see leaves on the blackcurrant, I wasn't sure it was going to survive, it didn't look too good by the time I had the energy to clear some ground for it last year... Nor is the soil very good where all my berries/currants are. The raspberries are flowering already. It'll take all of the currants a year or two longer. That area of the garden looks better now and I have the impression that I'm getting somewhere with re-instating 'my' garden here.
My LL here has allowed me this little spot here and that little spot there etc so I've got little bits of garden scattered around, rather than all in one place, which has advantages and disadvantages. One part is hardly set up at all. I started last year and did quite a bit of work but then discovered I'd have to do things differently and need help with that into the bargain, so that's kind of on hold atm. It being on hold makes me feel 'weighted down' somehow, so it feels good to be managing to move forward with another area of the garden, it helps me feel a bit lighter and also as if I'm not always just treading water, struggling to keep up/not let things get worse. I also did some weeding in areas outside my own, where that's part of the agreement with LL. Inspite of everything, I actually enjoyed my weeding and clearing and other odd garden jobs. Going at my own pace instead of rushing helped me with that, as did enjoying looking at various flowers and enjoying their colours, and sniffing the roses :)
BB it's always a great feeling when things survive that you weren't expecting to. :cheer:
I had a little orchid that I bought on sale because it was battered. I didn't realize the roots were *that* bad and didn't think it would make it through the rot, but it's now pushing up a new leaf,
Quote from: Kizzie on May 02, 2024, 02:37:40 PMSo friends in warmer parts of Canada are telling me about all the lovely spring flowers, trees leafing out, etc and here we are just growing snow.
How is your snow plantation doing? ;)
Is it time now to nudge this thread from hibernation?
The sun is shining and I had my first proper look around. Lots of spring bulbs coming up, and at a glance no winter casualties.
I suddenly got in the gardening spirit, looked at the forecast, and rain for the rest of the week! Boo!
Well, plenty of time to make plans and look through my tin of seeds :)
Quote from: WabiSabi on February 19, 2025, 02:41:45 PMIs it time now to nudge this thread from hibernation?
:thumbup: :applause:
Unfortunately, it's still a little early for my corner of the world, tho the winter aconite is up, mostly just buds rather than actually blooming, but the buds will open soon...
One job would be to remove the old dead leaves from those beds to give the winter aconite more space to bloom but unfortunately I injured my foot and garden work doesn't really lead to 'resting foot' which I should be.
Speedy recovery Blueberry :)
I'm sure the aconite will manage, as lovely as they are when spread!
The aconite is blooming, snowdrops are up and blooming and in the sunniest, warmest spot there are even some crocus blooming, yellow ones and purple ones. :) They've all pushed up thru the dead leaves.
There are other areas of the garden to be working in, when my foot feels up to it.