I hope there isn’t another thread like this. I saw a couple other gardening threads for specific questions, I was hoping for just a general discussion thread, perhaps where brown-thumbs can get a little help from the green-thumbs. I put it in MPSIMS for that reason.
Every spring I get into a gardening mood but I’m just not very good at it. I need a little advice or tips on a couple things;
I have a Bird of Paradise but it hasn’t had flowers for a few years now. It’s fairly large. I had problems with choking vines attacking it, but I have those under control now. It gets some full sun for part of the day but it also has a shade tree on the other side of it so it’s not getting too much sun. I haven’t given it any plant food for a while and I’m not sure what kind it needs.
I bought an upside down hanging plant grow bag. I was going to try it for gowing container sized tomatoes. Has anyone tried these? Should I use a special potting mix, how much sun do tomatoes need. Keep in mind I’m in Florida so full sun all day long can be like a desert.
I’d reallu like to start composting food scraps and lawn clippings but I don’t want an open bin. I’ve been looking at some sites for converting a garbage can to a composter, has anyone tried this?
If you can’t answer my questions just tell me about any gardening experiences or tips that you have.
I have not tried the upside-down tomato thing, but I have not heard good reports on them. In theory it seems like a great idea, it just doesn’t seem to work out well in reality.
I am in SE Wisconsin, and we have been having unseasonably warm weather lately. I finished building the last of my garden bed boxes last week and the temptation to put something in the ground has been maddening, but I know in my heart the weather won’t stay warm and anything I plant now is doomed. Soon it will be time to plant potatoes and other cool crops, so I must be patient.
First and foremost, you live in the best possible place for gardening. Florida is like one gigantic greenhouse. I’d go ahead and give the upsidedown tomatos a try, I’ve known people who have success, but as soon as you get your first green tomato buds, pinch the ends of the new growth. Immediately. Or you will end up with a hanging piece of yuck, which will eventually break apart. Is this going inside or outside? If outside, put a bird net around it… If inside place it in indirect sun. Mist daily.
Composting, you are in Fl, your compost bins can get nasty quick…the upside: You can get some very good compost to use in the garden in about 2 weeks…the downside: If you do not turn the compost regularly, 2 times a day at least you may run into the compost creating too much heat. I’ve never used an enclosed composting bin, I have a 10-ft by 5-ft horseshoe shaped area where I do all of my composting. I live in CT, so I only turn it every couple days…
As for the plant food. I feed all of my plants, a mix of fish meal, and compost, or I buy spirolina and use it. It is a complex algae that gives the plants all the nutrients they need. For your Bird of Paradise, I’d use spiralina. It comes in tablet form at your pharmacy or some greenhouses carry it. Put a 2 tablets in a quart or two of water…it will change to DARK green…then feed at base of stem. You’ll see results in two to three weeks.
Can’t help much with Florida - way out of my experience. (Michigan/Minnesota here). I tried the hanging tomato thingy two years ago - what a bust. No way to get the soil moisture stabilized.
Our compost heap is still frozen… so is the pond.
I specialize primarily in organic and native plants for this area - I did see some shoots on the Rigid Goldenrod and Pussytoes. Other than that, my summer garden/landscaping job starts on Monday, so I’ll let you know if anything else interesting is happening!
Gardening houses offer a compost roller drvice, but it’s realy just a glorfied trash can. Get a sturdy can with a good way to lock the lid on. Fill it, lay it on its side, and roll it a quarter turn every day. As pjilosphr said, in Flo’da, you may have to do that more than once a day. You need a mix of various stuff. I once tried to compost just grass clippings, and I got foul smelling muck. I turned it with a pitchfork every coupla days, but in the end, I had to promise the neighbors I wouldn’t do it again.
How fast do radishes grow? Jim Crockett said he was exaggerating a wee bit when he said you can plant a row of seeds, then go back to the start of the row to start harvesting.
Sweet corn is wind-pollenating, so you need at least a 4-foot x 4-foot patch to get good, filled-out ears.
“But you have to take some zucchini! You’re relatives!”
You have to keep a wary eye on a little patch of muskmelons, or they’ll take over your whole garden, climbing merrily up your sweet corn.
The first year I had my big garden, double-dug the hard clay myself. The second year and thereafter, I hired a guy with a big Troy-Bilt. Money well spent, I tell ya.
Last summer, I tarried too long before cutting the flowers off my tiny chive patch. They went to seed, and now I have little chives everywhere! :smack:
My father-in-law gave me a little bag of Donut Tree seeds. They were Cheerios, with a very serious set of planting instrustions.
Compost tip: You need a mix of green stuff and brown stuff. Grass clippings are all green, thus the yuck – you need to mix in brown stuff (e.g. shredded dead leaves). If you don’t have any brown stuff ready to hand, you can shred newspaper and use that – b&w only, not the color sections.
My bougainvillea looks like dead sticks (I live in the desert Southwest – we had a couple of freezes, but I covered the plants whenever the temperature even approached freezing).
Is there a right time in the season to prune and how much should I cut off?
When I lived in Southern Nevada, I grew tomatoes every year from the time I was about eleven until I was 23. It’s much drier there than in Florida, but the heat seems to be fairly similar, aside from the (blessed) lack of humidity. We grew them in the front yard facing east, in the center of the backyard facing west, and along the southwest corner.
The ones that got eastern exposure were in sun from sunrise until around three in the afternoon for most of summer. After that, they were in shade. They seemed to do quite nicely.
The tomatoes in the center of the backyard got sun from around noon until sunset and did fairly well. They stayed very compact, though, and didn’t spread out much and the fruit tended to be somewhat small.
The tomatoes in the southwestern corner got sun in the morning and sun in the evening, but didn’t get any in the middle of the day, thanks to the neighbor’s house. They were watered heavily and turned into a fantastic tomato jungle. Big, juicy, delicious.
So, I’d wager a guess that you don’t really have to worry about getting too much Florida sun on your tomatoes, Wile E. I wouldn’t have them somewhere where they’re in the sun all the time without any kind of break, but since it doesn’t sound like you’re planting in a field I’m betting that there are going to be trees and buildings around that will provide shade at various points no matter where you plant them. Just keep them well watered.
Cut and prune your bougies now before they bud back out. Remember that they only flower on new growth, so don’t be afraid to cut the thorny little buggers back a good bit. If they are lanscaping plants feed the bougain which is made just for them, they’ll be back in flower before you know it! Be sure to give 'em a good drenching every day after the freezing has ended until they start to bud. After that their natual tolerance to drought seems to kick in just fine.
I have 2 of them and love them! One of them is still giving me tomatoes from the same plant I put in it last spring (ok, only 1 or 2 at a time, but still).
The radishes are up and some lettuce, but I need a couple sunny days to get the lettuce sprouting good. The green onions are in. The established chives have been growing for about 2 weeks. The pussy willows are white now and the catkins will soon be to the yellow pollinating stage. The weeping willows are flowering now and the ground is covered in a yellow gold from the sheaths that dropped from the willows. One peony is up, and I’ve started 36 vinca vines as cutting in pots outdoors. You could buy some flowering pansies now and be fairly safe. The poppies ar 12 inches high and the holyhocks are starting to grow. My big holyhock reached 10ft. 8 inches last year. The daffodils are up in the main bed and starting to open. The main bed has 262 buds in it so far. You might find some wild violets flowering already. My perrenials in the cold frame I put up this year are sprouting fine and growing good. The iris are growning well at this point. The tiger lilies are about 4 inches tall. I had to move a couple out of the delphinium bed, and a double bulb was 6 x8 inches in diameter. I know when they reach that size I get 25 or more blooms on each plant. The deliphinium ar about 6 inches high and have been up a week.
Tomatoes like lots of sun, though extreme sun can scald the plants in a place like Florida. It’s not likely to occur in Wisconsin, but it can. I wouldn’t think a hanging tomato plant will not do as well as a tomato on the ground. I have the best bush cucumbers though letting them grow down hanging in the air. I don’t use a basket though, I have done this in more anchored containers. Composting requires a certain mass and correct portions of nitrogen, cellulose, and moisture, oxygen, and soil. I wil heat up and sterilize the seeds and most other stuff during a hot composting, and take a week or two . Time varies. Most people get a cold slow compost going theat takes months or years, and doesn’t sterilize.
My husband and I joined the Arbor Day Foundation. For $15, they will send you 10 trees suitable for your growing zone at the correct planting time.
We now have a “tree nursery” in our backyard, fenced off from the peeing dog, where the baby American Redbud, Golden Raintree, Crape Myrtle, etc are currently sprouting. Of the 10, only one has yet to show life, and we’re still hopeful. In a year or so we will move the trees to their new homes in other parts of the backyard.
Best $15 investment we ever made. Buy good garden soil, pull up all the weeds, and water regularly.
I’m mostly going to be container gardening this year, again, though I have a little spot I rented in our complex’s courtyard for gardening. I’m a total gardening newbie, though.
I want to pull out all the gunk in the little plot, but I don’t know what to put in, or if there’s anything I should be careful about, or what to grow, or anything like that. I’d like to grow strawberries and lettuce and things this year, but I am a little frazzled with my work. I suppose playing in the dirt is good for that.
What I really want is to plant things that are edible. I have some seeds from a couple of years ago (before I knew you were supposed to freeze seeds) that I kind of want to try to start, but I’m not sure it’s not too late. I know I want to try to grow eggplants, tomatoes, cantaloupes and edible flowers. I also have to decide when to put my rosemary back outside.
I’ll probably weed the little plot next weekend, sometime. I’m going to get a nice big strawberry pot and strawberry plants from the nursery then too. After that, I just don’t know.
Oh, and can anyone tell me anything about recycling soil? I had a huge container garden last year, and when I tore it down for the winter, I saved all the soil in a big metal trashcan. I’d like to reuse it, but I’m not sure if it’s sufficient for growing this year. I’ll also see about finding a website to do free photo hosting, and I’ll put up the photos of last year’s garden (only two or so of them, I think).
Going with a lot of plants when you don’t have the time for up keep is not a good way to start. Less area and plants with more attention will get you something you can enjoy, and not make you regret the effort. Lettuce is a cool weather plant, so plant it in spring, and not in something that gets the noon to 2:00 PM sun if you can help it. It will turn bitter and bolt once the heat gets to it. Bolt is to start rapid growth and form a flower cluster. Radishs and cole crops are cool weather plants, as are peas. You can plant them all very soon. Strawberries are not very productive for what you will grow in a strawberry pot, and should maybe be tried after you garden a bit. Strawberries are normaly grown on a three year rotation in the garden, and are a bit of work. For an inexperienced gardener, try the cole crops, tomatoes, peas, green onions, and plant some nasturtiums. Nasturtiums grow in less fertile soil very well, and the flowers and leaves are edable. They have a peppercorn taste. Plant some herbs they are nice for the smell even if you don’t cook with them. Squash, cucumbers and beans are good for covering a large area you don’t want to put much time into upkeeping. I like growing small decrative gourds when I have extra space.
I’ll try here, since my own thread isn’t getting replies: Tips for growing kiwis? I planted the vines last year and they seem to be doing well. Anything I should do at the end of Year 1?
