Where did Fall go?!

Well... as you can see it's been very difficult for me to do much of anything other than work. I haven't done any posts since I started work. Hopefully I can change that and up-keep this blog more. I want to, but I find that I don't even have time to water my plants while I'm working! Not good for a aspiring gardener!

So, a while ago, I can't remember how long, I actually made my own garden. It's on the side of our house - the North side. So right now, in the winter, it gets probably no sun at all. Quite a few of my plants have been struggling the whole time, and the others have simply stopped growing.

Since I had so much space, I bought a few new plants to add to the garden. I bought a Hydrangea, Black Bamboo, and 2 different types of ferns.

First, this is the old garden, filled with weeds and brush:



Here's what the new garden looks like now:


I would say the garden is about 10 feet long and 3 feet deep. I found out right away that we have clay soil here. I was planning on digging up 6-8 inches of ALL the soil then amending it all and then putting it back, and then planting in it. But digging up any of soil took such a long time that i decided, per Ryan's advice, to dig up only the necessary holes and amend only that soil to plant with. Even so, I had to have Ryan dig most of the holes. I wasn't heavy enough to get the shovel in the soil very far. Yep.... definitely all clay soil.

There are 10 plants in the garden right now. Here are close ups. I don't know the names of some, but will say if I do.

This is the Black Bamboo. The culms are supposed to turn black as they mature and grow. They start of green and yellow but will eventually turn black with bright green leaves. A very cool contrast.
The first picture is of the half that survived. I wanted to cut the plant in half to have more tall background plants. Well... after about an hour of laborious work, I had it divided. But one half actually survived. I guess the other half didn't get the "good roots".
The second picture is what's left of the other half. I trimmed all it's branches and leaves in hopes that it would grow stronger roots and eventually grow back..... not sure it will survive at all:


Haha, just a stick in the ground, basically!! Maybe it's roots are still good?



This is the "survival" tree. Ryan's had it since before we were married. I used to keep this one on the porch in an 8" terra cotta pot. Thought it would do better in the ground. It actually hasn't grown or died an inch. I am hoping that's because of the lack of sun and cold weather - so hibernation?

This is my Hydrangea.... my poor, poor hydrangea. I bought this brand new, along with the bamboo, and it was so beautiful when I first bought it! I trimmed down some of it's leaves and limbs so it would promote stronger root growth. And it was doing SO well!! The trimming didn't affect it at all. Then, one day it started getting small purple-ish dots on it's leaves. I ignored it for a long time, since it was difficult enough to water the plants. Well.... when it started covering almost the entire plant.... I decided to get a fungicide. I think I was too late. The fungicide I got was Ortho brand, "ecosense" garden disease control. The type of disease it has is Cercospora leaf spot. At least, according to pictures on the Internet and my research. And this "ecosense" spray is supposed to help with that. But I think I let it go on too long and the spray didn't seem to help at all. I haven't sprayed it in probably over a month, and this picture was taken about 2 weeks ago, and it looks significantly better then than it does now. It's leaves are now curling up and turning brown or black. :( Sources say that this leaf spot doesn't usualy kill the plant, but I think this one was so "young" and new and I didn't do anything about it when I first saw it. Bad combination I guess. Any suggestions or knowledge about this would be helpful - but I may be too late to save it. I've kind of "let it go". The purple leaves are the fungus... it started as spots and turned the whole leaf purple.

Maybe I will try spraying again. Also, I haven't watered it in over a week... so I will try that too. haha! i'm not a very good care taker of plants yet, especially while I'm working. It's just so tough. And now, when I get off work, it's already dark.


This is one of my ferns. It's really pretty. I think it's a little hard to see in this picture - but It's really elegant, in my opinion. The ferns grew really strongly at first, probably because they were getting a little bit of sun when i first planted them. Now that they don't get any sun, they have stopped growing. But at least they're not dying.



This is a plant I bought at Home Depot. My Hosta died, and I had extra space in my garden, so I bought it. It is a shade plant and requires "bright, indirect sun". So I thought, perfect. I also thought since Home Depot was selling it - it is meant for my southern california climate.


I bought this plant at Home Depot too. A long time ago, though. I came in a cute 1 1/2 inch pot and I put it in my 3 inch terra cotta pots. It did really well when i watered it frequently. And it was really pretty. However, It hasn't grown AT all. I've probably had this since before I went on disability - so before August. It seems to like being watered often. But it's supposed to be a shade plant, full shade. We'll see.

This one too I bought at Home Depot. I bought it the same time as the yellow and gold spikey one. This one seems to be doing OK. No growth, no dying. Same old story. Story of my gardening career. haha :)



This is one of the plants I ordered online, probably at the beginning of the year. This was first in my wine barrel pot on my porch (recognize it?) and I decided to move all of those to my garden. This is the only surviving one. And it hasn't grown since the day I bought it. The only change that happened when I transferred it, was it turned more of a red/purple color instead of it's pretty caramel color. I thought that might be due to it getting more sun than the porch. But... hasn't changed. I'm hoping it won't die - I think it has potential to be a really pretty plant.



This one, oh this one! This comes with a story! This is one of the plants that was in the garden before I did a "make over". It was all brown and ugly, and I thought it was a weed!! My neighbor, whom we don't really like or get along with, saw me digging up all the plants on the side of the house. I happened to be "trimming" this one to prep it for digging up. She asked, "Oh, are you taking that plant out of the garden?" and I said, "yeah.. .it's a weed. I'm digging up all the weeds so I can plant here." and she said, "it's not a weed... i planted it there over a year ago." I was shocked! And I didn't know what to say. I said, "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry, I had no idea, i thought it was a weed!" She said it was OK, it wasn't doing well anyway. She left in her car and I went in the house to tell Ryan. He said I should keep it in the garden anyway. I didn't really want to since it was right, smack, dab in the middle of where I wanted to plant. But, Ryan was right. So when she came back, I told her I was going to keep it in the garden. She said, "Oh... thanks. I brought it over from my grandmothers house to plant here." ....... wow. I sure would have felt stupid and horrible if I had actually dug it up. So I said, "Oh.... well I'm glad I'm keeping it. I think it needed a little pruning anyway, and it might grow back really well." she agreed with me and went in her house.

Lo and behold... it turned out to be one of the best growing and prettiest plants in my garden. With the pruning and a little watering, it sprouted bright green leaves and bright yellow flowers. Who would have thought !?!? It's such a pretty plant for a shade garden, and seems to do really well without sun.



Lessons learned:

- Plants can come back to life, sometimes more beautifully than before, with a little care.. but not all will.
- Treat suspected diseases and problems when they first arrive, or you risk losing the plant.
- Watering really does help plants grow! :P
- You have to have failures before you have success... at the rate I'm going - I expect to be a very successful gardner in the future!!

I hope that when I quit and am home more, I will have more time and incentive to take care of my garden better. I still have a passion for it, and a desire to learn more about it. I try to not let my failures (due to my lack of effort sometimes) discourage me.

Keep pushing forward!!

Fungus???

So, about a month ago I noticed some yellow shoots growing up out of my soil.

I immediately dug them up and a few days later this, full blown "mushroom"? showed up! And in a completely different area than the original shoots.


This died in 1 day, it showed up that morning and was dead by the end of the day. Weird, I know! Then the next day I noticed these different "mushrooms" growing in another completely different spot.

(oh and in this picture you can see it's right next to the Hosta.... so maybe that's what's killed it?)

Anyway... the yellow, spongy mushrooms have shown up regularly now. They only last a day or two then completely dry up. I have NO idea where they came from - and they don't seem to be harming any of my other plants... so weird. I haven't looked up what it is yet. And I plan on mixing in compost soon anyway, so I will do a good "digging up".

Any ideas though? Has anyone seen yellow, spongy mushrooms before?

Porch Garden Update

So, these pictures are a little old - but they're the most recent pictures I have.

The tree:

So, the "tree". As you can see the "grass" is dying. So what i've done is moved it to more shade (actually, mostly shade but with plenty of natural light), pruned it of all it's dead leaves, and then consistently watered it. The side that gets the most sun is doing much MUCH better now. But this is about as bad as it got.

(Grass & Evergreen)

(Total)


Porch:

The porch is doing OK. For the most part it hasn't changed, which probably isn't really a good thing. I've just read that if you have too much bark, or "barky things" in the potting soil, it competes with the plants for nitrogen. And my homemade soil is 70% bark. So I"m going to start fertilizing it with compost (which is nitrogen enriched) and maybe something else.


Wine Barrel:
(Primrose)
I had moved this to the porch steps thinking it would get more sun there.... I was wrong. And it wilted and turned dark. This is only 1 day after moving it back to it's original spot - and it perked right up. However, it's now wilted again. Maybe because it's hot and it's in a terra cotta container (which evaporates water through the walls). I might try watering it twice a day.


(Hanging)
As you can see the hanging pot is growing slowly. I think because it only gets 1 hour of direct sunlight. It might also be because of the soil! (goodness that soil!)





(Heuchera)
Seems really perky and the leaves aren't dying, so I'm taking that for a good sign. However, no new growth is coming in.


(Hosta)
This plant... this poor hosta.... is almost completely dead now. Worse than this picture here. These leaves in this pictures are big compared to the small 3 leaves that are left. I'm hoping I can still save it by mixing in compost with the soil. That is my goal!



(Brunnera)
This was doing really really good for quite some time. New growth coming in the center, spreading out, etc. But now it's stopped and all the leaves, not just the big ones are browning. So I'm thinking it may be too hot for them and I forget to water it every day.



Moms:
I did my very, very best to try to bring this back to life. It's not happening. I tried pruning it of it's dead leaves and branches and watering it when I was supposed to, and I even fertilized it with the other plants. Absolutely nothing has happened. It may have already been dead by that point though, but I didn't know because some leaves were still waxy. I think I am going to chuck it... sorry mom!



It's a little frustrating with the growth rate and dying ratio, but I do sometimes laugh about it. I keep reading and will try new things. I just feel like so many things are going on in my life it's hard to focus on gardening. But I always come back to it.

I just read about succulents...

I have a subscription to Better Homes and Gardens and the last one I read talked briefly about succulents. The article was mostly about pretty containers, but there was some brief introduction to succulents. So thought I would share, because they sound like just what you need!

"Succulents are the perfect plants for forgetful gardeners. Molly grows them in cactus mix for good drainage and gives them a thorough soaking every week or two; more water than that risks killing them... Succulents grow slowly, so a combination may last years in the same pot".

Some they list with pictures:

- Fuzzy Echeveria setosa
- Smooth leave hens and chicks (Sempervivum tectorum)
- Pink flowered Sedum matrona
- Kalanchoe 'Flapjacks'
- Kangaroo paw (Anigozanthos)
- Euphorbia 'Sticks on Fire'
- Sedum spectabil 'Brilliant'
- Echeveria 'Perle von Nurnberg'
- Echeveria imbricata
- Sedum morganianum 'Donkey's tail'

I think they would look great!! And less watering :D Good luck, i'll let you know if i find more information.

Succulent Garden

So I am trying to figure out what to do with a couple of places at my house. The first place is by the street (outside the gate) on a hill. I need to do a sprinkler system down there, but I want it to look nice...instead of dead. So I was thinking succulents. Do any of you know anything about succulents? Can they stand full sun all day long? And what about drought tolerant? I don't want to have to worry about it. I have never done succulents, but I know a garden of them can be gorgeous. Any help would be awsome!! Thanks

Abby's Plot of land

Abby that's awsome!! There are a lot of pretty shade plants that could work there. Are there automatic sprinklers? or would you have to water by hand? also, You could use a shovel to get the bush out, but eventually I think you will have to use your hands. Maybe you should spray some spider killer on it REAL GOOD and wait 24 hours before you pull it out. I have some landscaping books you can look at some time. All you need is the measurement of the area, how much sunlight and you're good to go. So..............you're good to go! HAHAHA! You can come over some time and look at my books. It's fun!

A plot of land...

I'm not sure why I haven't thought of this before... but there is an extremely shabby "garden" outside my door. It wraps around to the front with only a few sorry looking rose bushes and weeds.

My neighbor, who lives in the front, just started putting new plants on the part closest to her. So, I thought "Hey! If she can do it, so can I!." In the 4 1/2 years that Ryan has been here, no one has done anything with this dirt. We used to have a manager who tried to take care of the rose bushes, but that's it.

So, i have a plot of land to garden on now!!! I'm going to seriously garden! I'm going to dig up all the weeds, and turn out all the soil and get going.

Here is what it currently looks like...

This is a bush that I want to get rid of ASAP. It's always full of cobwebs, it's ugly and it's right outside our window and front door, yuck!:

























Here is a picture of all the space I will have.

I plan on planting up to the fuse box which gives me a good 10+ feet long and 2-3 feet deep to work with.

As you can see there are quite a few weeds, some big and small. My only worry is that it's on the North side of the house. I don't think it gets 6 hours of sun, maybe 4. But I haven't paid too much attention to that. My worry is that it will end up being a shade garden :(. But..... if it is - it gets more sun than my porch!

Any suggestions for planting on the North side of the house? It has a lip on the roof that may block sun from above - especially the part closes to the side.

Also! Any suggestions for how to cut down and uproot the bush? I don't want to stick my hands in there to try and break it down manually. (I have MAJOR arachnophobia...) haha :)

When we move - I will simply dig up the plants and pot them. Hopefully this garden will be more successful than my current porch garden.

Any advice is welcome!

Powdery Mildew on Leaves?

Hi Melissa, I did some research and found a few answers...

I got all my information from this website. But I summarized the big points below. For more information you can read the whole thing.

Powdery mildews do not require moist conditions and actually do well under warm conditions. And pumpkins are more susceptible to this mildew than other plants. Which may be why the rest of your plants are doing fine.

Leaves infected with powdery mildew may gradually turn completely yellow, die and fall off. Which it looks like some of your leaves have already done. Severely infected plants may have reduced yields, shortened production times, and fruit has little flavor.

Because pumpkins are very susceptible, it will probably require fungicide treatment. Also, it was suggested to provide good air circulation and avoid using excess fertilizer. Spraying your plants/leaves may help reduce the powdery mildew - but will not control it.

You should use an eradicant fungicide. Oils work best as eradicants and also have some protectant activity. Some examples are Saf-T Side Spray Oil Sunspray Ultra Fine Spray Oil, or one of the plant based oils such as Neem oil or Jojoba oil (a.g. E-rase).

So, oils work best and you might want to look for those at Home Depot. He gives other alternative fungicides besides oil, but he generally says oils work the best.

Good luck, and let me know how it goes :)

What's up with my pumpkins?

So We have early pumpkins. Three to be exact, but I am not sure what's going on with them. The leaves have white stuff on them, and some leaves are turning brown and dying. It's gets enough water cause the other plants in the garden are just fine. So what's up with my pumpkins? If it's fungus and my pumpkins are dying should I pull the whole plant so the other plants don't get affected? I really don't want my other plants to die, but if it will go away with a little help, I want to do that instead of pull the whole plant. Any suggestions? Take a look at the pictures.

Katrina, help is on the way!

Actually, more like suggestions....

I'm no expert. In fact - I'm not even intermediate! But, what I do is read a lot and go from there. And I know I already spoke to you on the phone about my suggestions; but just in case your forget, I think of more ideas, or others want to know - here it is!

1. Find the tags to the plants and research their ideal growing situations. Some may prefer acidic soil, neutral soil, or alkaline soil. Some may actually require watering every day, and others may need to dry out completely before watering again. Also, I remember your soil being sandy - some plants don't grown well in sandy soil (that is why I had you mix soil from the nursery with your ground soil, just in case). This may seem complicated and like a lot of trouble for just plants BUT, it's easy to do a little research about the plants. And you may find that it's a simple fix like watering frequency or mulching to keep roots cool? Who knows!?! Doesn't hurt to try.

2. Soil pH: If your plants require acidic or alkaline soil, here's how to get that: Sawdust, composted leaves, wood chips, cottonseed meal, leaf mold and especially peat moss (found at Home Depot) will lower the soil pH for a more acidic soil. Garden lime (also found at Home Depot) will raise the pH for a more alkaline soil.

3. Try fertilizing. You can probably choose just a general garden fertilizer from Home Depot. Just read the instructions on the back, and if you have a hard time picking one, the Home Depot people can be helpful!

4. Sun Exposure: I remember we found your bushes in a shady part of the nursery. Maybe these bushes aren't supposed to be in full sun? - which unfortunately they are. Not sure what to do in that situation...

But I guess my main suggestion is, research about the plants!! It shouldn't be too hard to find a plant profile online :D

Good Luck, hope this helps!!

Abby, what am i doing wrong. My bushes i planted are dying. Well one is almost dead and the other looks as though it is heading that direction. I dont water them everyday but at least a couple times a week. My flowers arent blooming either. They may get one flower and then it dies and the other flowers IF i get any take for ever to come up.

I so do not have a green thumb. What am i dong wrong?

PICTURES!!

Pictures - Finally!!

My Porch Garden:

The Wine Barrel: the whole caboodle:

The Heuchera 'Caramel':

Seems to be doing pretty well... hasn't grown too much, but may be becuase of the heat and it's growth rate?*

The Hosta 'Cameo':

All the leaves are drying out and dying. I read that Hosta's don't usually do well in zones 9-11, becuae it's too hot. So that may be why it's not doing well. I will continue to water it and fertilize it and hope it comes back.
















Brunner 'Looking Glass':

Looks to be doing better. Especially since there are so many smaller leaves appearing in the center. So I'm hopful this is a sign it's doing well!

The Hanging Plant:

Hasn't moved an inch. Doesn't look to be dying - but it's definitely not growing...

The Saved Tree:

Ryan actually got this tree from a Free Garage Sale. It was in a small pot with 2 fragile leaves on it. He brought it home with him and started watering it. Then I moved in and repotted it. It remained on our porch (with not much light) for about 1.5 years. It was doing OK. I wasn't very good about watering it. So about 6 months ago I bought a MUCH bigger pot and replanted it. Then I moved it off our porch to the front yard. It's doing the best I've ever seen it. So... when we move - we'll have a tree to plant!!!

I also bought ground covering plants to plant under the tree...

The "grass":

I don't remember what the name of this plant is. It was a lot prettier a month ago. It looks really dried out. I think the bugs or heat got to it. I just put plastic bottoms underneath each of the pots outside my porch, so this should prevent bugs in the roots - so we'll see who the real culprit is shortly, I think.



The green ground cover:

I don't remember the name of this plant either - but it seems to be doing really well. It grows really slow, but it's growing! It gets some shade during the day because the "grass" is taller and thicker next to it.



And last... and least... the plant Mom gave me for my birthday (Pink Kalanchoe)...



It was on my desk at work for several weeks, then I left it inside for several more weeks. Also, it came in a basket lined in plastic - so doesn't allow for good airation. So I repotted it in a bigger pot and put it outside in full sun. It slowly died... so I put it on my porch in full shade and it hasnn't changed in look. I keep watering it not sure if it's dead or not becuase the leaves are still green.....

and there is one flower left on it...

haha! Maybe I will prune off the dead stems and hopefully it will start coming back to life??

This is what it's supposed to look like:

I just found these tips for this plant:

They tolerate most light levels and they prefer temperatures between 50-70 degrees F. Never allow the plant to stand in water or dry out completely. Usually a once a week watering is sufficient. Water carefully near the bottom of the plant--do not water the leaves-- only the soil. (Whoops!!! :D )

After all the flowers have died, remove the stems and cut back to the second or third leaf below the flowers on the side stems (Will Do!). Repot the kalanchoe in late February or early March after the flowers have finished blooming.

The addition of a little limestone will also benefit the plant (Which I have, and will use this week). At this point cut back on the watering and do not fertilize until new growth begins. Then start watering regularly again, and fertilize every 2 weeks with a standard houseplant fertilizer.

I wonder if it should be inside and not outside, becuase it says to use a "houseplant fertilizer"? We just don't have any windows to put it next to!! Hopefully my porch will suffice.

Anyway, that's my small potted garden!

Oh, and as for the BUGS! I put plastic bottoms underneath, after spraying away any visible bugs. Under one pot I found an empty snail shell, 1 inch in diameter... i guess the bugs ate it. But I want to know is how it got there in the first place!! The pot was flat on the grass! Also, underneath the same pot were black spiders, and more on the way (there was a white sac of spider eggs - EEK!). I hosed them all away, but somehow the black spider kept coming back. Not sure if it was the same one - or it's brother - or sister!!! But it seems, unfortunately, it was an ideal place for spiders.... :/ I am hopeful the plastic bottoms will help!