Gardeners of AW, unite

Amadan

Banned
Joined
Apr 27, 2010
Messages
8,649
Reaction score
1,623
Can anyone tell me how to save a money-tree plant that seems to be dying? It's thrived for years in a variety of sub-optimal environments, but now, for some reason, it is withering even though it's getting no less sunlight and water than before. Repotting (according to recommended schedule and growth) has already been tried. Only thing I can think of is it may be too near a heating vent and is not getting enough humidity?
 

Captcha

Banned
Joined
Jan 27, 2010
Messages
4,456
Reaction score
637
There are a few different kinds of plants I've seen labelled "money trees" - you don't happen to know the botanical name for yours, do you?

That said, most plants will be challenged by being close to a heating vent, so that could be it, for sure.
 

CoffeeBeans

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 5, 2013
Messages
1,499
Reaction score
433
So... who's getting ready for the return of gardening season?

We got 3+ inches of snow Friday, but I'm thinking about how soon I can get back to my garden. Year 2 of asparagus! Almost time to plant garlic! (the garden has been under quite the snow blanket for months.)

Those of you in warmer climes, please tell me all about your more immediate plans :partyguy:
 
Last edited:

Captcha

Banned
Joined
Jan 27, 2010
Messages
4,456
Reaction score
637
We got fresh snow last night, so I'm crooning to my barely-started seedlings and trying not to cry.

Months away, still. MONTHS. Waaaaahhhh!
 

mrsmig

Write. Write. Writey Write Write.
Staff member
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 4, 2012
Messages
9,884
Reaction score
7,173
Location
Virginia
I'm reading catalogs and dogearing pages - does that count?

We had a combination of snow/rain/wintry junk a couple days ago, and it's very squishy out as a result.

I am hoping to get my garden in early this year, but first I have to address the issue of protecting my plants - my veggie patch in particular, which was decimated by deer and gray squirrels last year. I don't think I have any choice but to fence it in, along with my baby fruit trees. Haven't started any seedlings yet - it's a bit early yet for Zone 6b and I've been up to my eyes in work anyway. Things won't settle down on that front for another couple of weeks, but I do have a day off on Thursday and really want to spend some time strolling around my various garden plots and taking stock. I already know the perennial herb garden will need some new plants; my rosemary is definitely dead and I'm waiting to see if the rhubarb and horseradish will come back, since both may be big enough to harvest this year.
 
Last edited:

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
10,839
Reaction score
2,426
Location
St. John, Kansas
Website
shakey6wordsmith.webs.com
Great weather here but I am hardening my heart because I know there will be more snow. Late March blizzards are common here. The tulips and daffodils that I planted two years ago are well up but not many buds showing. Not sure how many made it but i planted more than 100 and I planted the naturalizing kinds so fingers crossed. Not sure about the trees that I planted last fall. There was a very early hard freeze. The two redbuds might be goners. My apricot has a few blooms but the May frost last year left it crippled. I did plant four pots of violas for my porch. They don't mind the cold and I do love them so--s6
 

Captcha

Banned
Joined
Jan 27, 2010
Messages
4,456
Reaction score
637
I've got some trees I'm worried about, too, Shakey. Young fruit trees that are SUPPOSED to be hardy in my zone, but I planted them last spring and they just had SO MUCH lovely new growth over the summer, I wonder if they spent enough energy hardening themselves off for a ridiculously cold winter. I haven't fought through the snow to check on them yet - probably too early to be sure, anyway.

Stupid trees. Why can't they just hide under the snow like everything else does?
 

Ari Meermans

MacAllister's Official Minion & Greeter
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 24, 2011
Messages
12,854
Reaction score
3,057
Location
Not where you last saw me.
Spring finally tip-toed in last week and the pear tree is awash in white flowers today. Since we moved into New House January 1st, there'll be no inground garden this year, but the stairs to the deck are now flanked by our container garden of herbs, tomatoes, green onions, cukes, the lemon tree, and the lime tree. The dewberry patch is now fenced in to protect it from our berry-eating dog and it, too, is full of blossoms.
 

GinJones

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 7, 2013
Messages
2,176
Reaction score
2,525
My garden is still under two feet of snow, and the gate is blocked by a mass of snow pushed there by the plow that cleared my parking area, and that mass is about four feet high, by six feet deep and six feet wide. I'm thinking I'll be EXTREMELY lucky if I can even get into the garden sometime in April, when my onion plants are due to arrive.

But, yeah. I am SO ready to be out puttering in the yard, if only I could. It's not just the snow, but also the snow-melt, which is likely to have the paths in my low-lying garden serving as water-filled canals between the raised beds for quite a while yet.
 

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
10,839
Reaction score
2,426
Location
St. John, Kansas
Website
shakey6wordsmith.webs.com
Gus, my middle daughter, and my sister went to a yogurt making workshop last Saturday. I don't spend a lot of quality time in my kitchen so I declined the offer to attend. We did sample the home made yogurt this week and it was much tastier than the stuff my roomie and I turned out in college with a heating pad and a semi-sterile jar of curdly milk. The sampling included peach, blackberry, strawberry, lemon and raspberry.

I grow great peaches, apricots and strawberries so we can partner them with fresh yogurt but now I want to try raspberries. I have a friend who grows them and then makes a syrup to pour over shaved ice--very yummy on a 100* July day. They are floppy and gnarly with stickers but there my yard is big and I do have a place for them--any one else do raspberries? Any advice? --s6

PS--next workshop is home made cottage cheese and no, I will not be attending but can provide green onions, tomatoes, peppers--s6
 
Last edited:

blacbird

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
36,987
Reaction score
6,158
Location
The right earlobe of North America
We here in Alaska have had a disturbingly warm, snow-free winter. Which makes me itchy to start planting stuff, which I know I can't really do for at least another two weeks, except for maybe some slow-to-start things in little seedling pots indoors.

But, every year, i try to grow something I haven't grown, or haven't had much success with, in previous years. This year, it's green beans. For some reason, years ago, those always failed me. This year i make a concerted effort on them. I really like eating fresh green beans, and want 'em in my garden. Peas i do fabulously with, every year, but they are much more tolerant of cool weather than are green beans.

caw
 

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
10,839
Reaction score
2,426
Location
St. John, Kansas
Website
shakey6wordsmith.webs.com
bird, do you grow bush or pole beans? Bush beans--wax, purple, all kinds grow well for me but pole beans are another story. Have you tried scarlet runner beans? The nuns in Iowa used to grow them. They were so pretty and edible but it is too hot here. They like cool nights.

We also had a relatively snow free winter. More dust and tumbleweeds than snow. It is the dry, freezing wind that does the most damage. I live on the very southern edge of town. There is a mile of wheat fields and pasture between my yard and the next trees so winter is always hard on my yard.

There is a magnolia tree in bloom a few blocks from here, in the more sheltered part of town. I love that tree and want one of my own someday. The ornamental pear trees and forsythia are also in bloom in the center of town. Once I can get a few trees established in my yard there will be more shelter, although I have to say I enjoy the wide open view. And it is nice to sit out on the porch and watch the weather roll in.--s6
 
Last edited:

blacbird

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
36,987
Reaction score
6,158
Location
The right earlobe of North America
bird, do you grow bush or pole beans? Bush beans--wax, purple, all kinds grow well for me but pole beans are another story. Have you tried scarlet runner beans? The nuns in Iowa used to grow them. They were so pretty and edible but it is too hot here. They like cool nights.

I think I'll try bush beans first, see what they do. I actually did grow runner beans a few years back, but mainly for decoration. They have really pretty blood-red flowers. But never produced beans.

As an aside, I ate tonight maybe the penultimate potatoes from last year's crop; I have a few left. They have kept magnificently over the winter, in a big garden pot covered with black garbage bags, in the garage. If you live in an area where you can grow potatoes, you should. They are ridiculously easy to grow and produce a lot of food that stores very well.

caw
 

Captcha

Banned
Joined
Jan 27, 2010
Messages
4,456
Reaction score
637
I think I'll try bush beans first, see what they do. I actually did grow runner beans a few years back, but mainly for decoration. They have really pretty blood-red flowers. But never produced beans.

As an aside, I ate tonight maybe the penultimate potatoes from last year's crop; I have a few left. They have kept magnificently over the winter, in a big garden pot covered with black garbage bags, in the garage. If you live in an area where you can grow potatoes, you should. They are ridiculously easy to grow and produce a lot of food that stores very well.

caw

And they're so much fun to dig up! It's like looking for buried treasure!
 

CoffeeBeans

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 5, 2013
Messages
1,499
Reaction score
433
Seconded, and thirded Blacbird and Captcha -- I love growing potatoes. They are also pretty much my favorite food, which helps, but the growing/harvesting is really great.

One year, I want to grow them in a barrel instead of my raised bed, to give them more "down" to go, but the time I tried that, someone dumped the barrel at the community garden because they thought there was nothing in it...
 

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
10,839
Reaction score
2,426
Location
St. John, Kansas
Website
shakey6wordsmith.webs.com
My brother grew potatoes when he lived with my dad. He also grew garlic. At the time I was growing a little red onion, can't remember the name. The potatoes and onions were great together, quartered, drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with rosemary and slow roasted in the oven. Torpedoes? Maybe the onions were torpedoes.

My sister, brother and I own the house together. My sister lives there now and is digging up the potato beds to make more room for her flowers, horseradish, basil and asparagus.

Crazy thing, living in a gardening family, we each make a different statement. And we remember past gardens: My mom's day-lilies, my step mom's roses, my great grandmother's rows of scarlet cannas, my grandfathers asparagus and new potatoes.

When I gardened there I bordered that bed with the tiniest nasturtiums, then thumbelina zinnias, carrots (very pretty in a flower bed) then 2 rows of bush beans,1 of peppers, rocket snapdragons at the back. It was easy for dad to weed and he liked picking the beans and letting my girls pick flowers for the table. Now it is my sister's turn to take over the gardens. --s6
 
Last edited:

sunandshadow

Impractical Fantasy Animal
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 17, 2005
Messages
4,827
Reaction score
336
Location
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Website
home.comcast.net
I'm growing potatoes by accident this year - bought a bag, used half, the other half sprouted before I could use them, so I potted them up and put them on a windowsill. It will be a race to see if it gets warm enough to move them outside before they outgrow the pots.

Here in Pittsburgh PA I have had a lot of success growing stringless green beans, except that they tend to get bug-bitten. (These probably count as pole beans, though they seemed halfway between bush and pole in growth habit.) On the other hand in the same dirt I could not grow peas or spinach - they sprouted but stayed really small, and seemed to take damage on hot sunny days.
 

stormie

storm central
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
12,500
Reaction score
7,162
Location
Still three blocks from the Atlantic Ocean
Website
www.anneskal.wordpress.com
Snow is still covering the area where we will be planting Big Boy tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and peppers (jalepeno and Bell). But that will be around the second week of May anyway.

Our rosemary in the herb garden did well all winter. I even dug through the snow to snip some when roasting chicken.

Spring--where are you?!
 

Teinz

Back at it again.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 20, 2010
Messages
2,440
Reaction score
186
Location
My favourite chair by the window.
Ready to start planting overhere. Back in januari, I shoveled in a cartload of nice and ripe cow manure. Let's see what it does. Last year I used horse manure, but my garden just didn't take off the way I was used to. Someone told me it was the horse manure. Many plants don't seem to react well to it. Back to cowshit it is. My berries are starting to produce leaves and I found some fresh green on my strawberries aswell. It's still pretty cold at night, though, with the occasional frost. Need to be careful.
 

dirtsider

Not so new, really
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 8, 2008
Messages
2,056
Reaction score
166
Can't wait to get back into my garden. I'm part of a community garden and the season "opens" in April (at least that's when we pay up for the year). I was going to stop in this past Sunday to start working the dirt to get ready for planting but the wind made it too cold. The temps were only in the 40's during the day. This weekend, I'll probably stop in and get started if the wind isn't too bad.

Speaking of potatoes, I've been seeing some seed potatoes for sale. I'm thinking of picking some up and trying that this year, provided I pick up something to confine the plants to they grow up, rather than horizontally.
 

CoffeeBeans

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 5, 2013
Messages
1,499
Reaction score
433
Spring--where are you?!

No idea, but if you see it - give it a shove in this direction too!

Speaking of potatoes, I've been seeing some seed potatoes for sale. I'm thinking of picking some up and trying that this year, provided I pick up something to confine the plants to they grow up, rather than horizontally.

I grow mine in a community bed as well. mine have only ever grown "up" really. If you grid out your bed before planting (I am not too fastidious about it) I doubt you'd even get many potatoes at the end outside of the plant's square. I've never needed to fence or isolate my potato plants, but maybe other variations grow differently.

I'm trying to plan out a big group order for my community garden at the local nursery. They have amazing seedlings, so I'd love to just be able to pick up a carload (okay, maybe not with my tiny car, but with a full size car) of seedlings and let everyone plant their things. It would really make for a jumpstart on the season (and maybe even cut down on people stealing specifically from MY bed...) I'm just not sure I'm ready for the drama again. How can people be so cranky when all we're doing is gardening?
 

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
10,839
Reaction score
2,426
Location
St. John, Kansas
Website
shakey6wordsmith.webs.com
Drama? Community garden? They go together like horse apples and flies. Captcha, we had a community garden for one summer here in my small town. The city provided a plowed field at the edge of town, seeds, utensils, water (always a crippling expense here in the GReat American Desert) fertilizer, fencing. It cost 25$ for a very decent sized plot and after the first 25 a gardener could take on another plot or two for no fee. There was a request to grow only annual plants but other than that no restrictions. I checked that out because I wanted flowers. You should have seen my plot: Cleome, zinnias, cosmos, pole beans, peas, Brussels sprouts, tall sunflowers.

You would think it would be a great idea in a town of 1,000 mostly retired. lower income people right? But NOOO. It was drama from the first town council meeting. Many people, being red state conservatives, were upset about the GOVERNMENT taking over gardens.

The 25$ fee brought on a boycott led by this nasty old bat who lived across the street and deputized herself to be the Garden Police. She didn't have a plot but sped around in a motorized wheel chair turning in complaints to the city council. She tried to tell me that I could not plant flowers, that the GOVERNMENT said the plots were for low income people to grow FOOD, not rich ladies like me --I am a widowed high school teacher!

I, of course, laughed and told her to putt putt to hell. I did not flip her the bird. Others did. By that autumn all the infighting and squabbling scrapped the whole project. When I cool down I plan to write a Eudora Welty style short story about the experience--s6
 

Marlys

Resist. Love. Go outside.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
Messages
3,584
Reaction score
979
Location
midwest
Last week when it was warm and sunny I got all excited and went and bought a bunch of flower seed packets. Since then, the temperatures crashed back down, bringing sleet and even a little snow with them. But I'm determined that spring will come eventually, so I started some of the seeds yesterday (most of the others are "sow outdoors after frost").

My bulbs are unperturbed by the changes in weather--crocuses all over the place, still some snowdrops, daffodils up and budding.
 

CoffeeBeans

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 5, 2013
Messages
1,499
Reaction score
433
Shakeysix - this is so much like our situation. We have 12 plots, all free to the first people who join.

The garden budget is set on the combined donations from the community organization, and the local university. That goes to repairs, shovels, rain barrel, new tool chest, etc.

Half the people in the garden think it should also go toward buying them plants, seeds, gloves, and having someone else tend the garden.

If we paid a small fee (this was debated hotly), I'd be okay with the garden buying the plants/seeds. However, I know I'm one of two people who actually tend the garden. If people want to make a fuss about what they "deserve" for "being part of the garden," then they need to actually show up!

We get more help from passerby who think having the garden in the area is cool than we do from people who are actually part of the garden itself.

Don't get me started on the kids who tear things up or the adults who consider it a junkyard....

This. All of this is why I don't want to organize the group order.
 

mrsmig

Write. Write. Writey Write Write.
Staff member
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 4, 2012
Messages
9,884
Reaction score
7,173
Location
Virginia
Between bursts of rain yesterday, I took a walk around my garden plots. Lots of new growth popping up - the narcissus around the dogwood tree and some small daffs in the ornamental garden (which I don't remember planting). The weeping cherry is budding but I haven't uncovered the fig yet to see if it survived. The rosemary is definitely dead, and no sign yet of the horseradish or the rhubarb, although it might be early yet for them. The big surprise is that of the three collard plants I left in the veggie patch, two have put out fresh leaves!