Wondering what things you did in the past year that you are continuing
5 years ago
Featured Answer
Sort by:Oldest
Comments (36)
- 5 years ago
Related Discussions
Did you ever wonder what that 4' pot you were about to buy....
Comments (23)Billy Rae, they grow wherever they can, LOL. I started collecting plants seriously when I lived in Los Angeles between the years of 1985 and 1992. I was able to bring a few here to Florida when we moved here in the summer of 1992. The house we moved into initially and lived in for 11 years was a 1920's Historic Home that had a 240 sq ft sunroom, what is called here a "Florida Room". Almost every house built between 1890-1930's has a Florida Room, which is basically a large screened porch where people would sleep in summer because it was cooler there and there was no air conditioning. The people who we bought the house from had glassed in the screen portions with 8x8 plate glass windows and it was climate controlled. The room had a tiled floor with a drain in the floor and an indoor hose spigot so in the old days they would just wash the sand that blew through the screen out via the floor drain. Of course I immediately started collecting plants once here, LOL and ammassed a huge collection very quickly of orchids, bromeliads, heliconias, and many others that could not stay outdoors in winter and had to be drug into the house and into the Florida Room. We outgrew that house, and in 2002 we moved out to the "country" to a 5 acre property and I was able to build this greenhouse. The Florida Room we have here is very small and gets poor light, but I do keep some houseplants in there year round. Everything else that would have had to be a houseplant, or and "in and out" plant, became a greenhouse plant. I didn't want the artificiality of benches and shelves, the plants that I had did not lend themselves to that anyway, I had 30+ gallon tubs of 15-16 ft tall heliconias and ultratropical gingers that needed to be planted. SO I decided to use the greenhouse in the style of a botanical garden tropical conservatory. It is in its 6th year and I tinker with it constantly. I have collected shells, driftwood, rocks, and all sorts of stuff to use to make it look like a natural setting. I have planted everything I can, mounted as many of the orchids and bromeliads as I can, and tried to minimize the use of containers, but there are still a lot of containers, especially hanging ones, because floorspace is, well, gone now. I can only plant new stuff if I remove other stuff. So I Have had to be creative. I wanted water in there so I have a 20 ft stream and a pond, and am building a drop fall/fountain that goes into a stone basin now. Here are a couple more photos...a prime example of why I can't keep some of this stuff in my house (and its not hardy here)...this is a rare palm called a Salacca magnifica. It is heavily armed...the undersides of the leaves have large rigid spines. Its what is called an "entire leaf" palm...there is basicaly no trunk. The leaves at present time are approaching 10 ft in length, at maturity a single leaf can be 20 ft tall/long. I have only had this palm for a little over 2 years, it is very fast growing. It would be way too dangerous in the house, and I would not be able to move it. So I had to plant it! This is another example...this is a photo from last year about this time when the Jade Vine was in bloom. This is a very highly sought after rare Tropical liana, Strongylodon macrobotrys. Tons of people want this vine, and are willing to spend $50-100 for a plant, thinking that they will be able to keep it in a pot on a trellis and bring it in the house in the winter. But in reality, that can't be done. This vine is a tropical creeper, its name in Phillipines where it comes from is Emerald Creeper. It will engulf everything in its path (I have to prune mine constantly) and won;t bloom until it gets a big woody trunk (usually 3 years after planting). I got mine as a trade when I still lived at the old house, and would never have been able to see it bloom like this as a houseplant: I don't look at my greenhouse as separate from my house. My original dream was to build this kind of place ONTO the house, where you would just open a door and step from the house into the greenhouse, and they would be continuous. We tried to figure out a way to do that when we moved here, but the renovation would have cost over $100,000. It just wasn't doable. So, I consider this my "second Florida Room". I just have to walk a few steps down the driveway, not out a door, LOL....See MoreWhat did you plant this year that you will definitely plant again
Comments (32)Something I propagated this year were 18 cuttings from my Walker's Low catmint. The other day I decided to look at them to see if they had rooted and 3 out of the 4 I looked at had really nice big healthy roots so I transplanted them into the garden. I think most of the others will have roots as well but it started pouring rain so I quit! Yah, I'm a wimp, but the mosquitoes came out full force when it started raining. I'll definitely take more cuttings next spring as I'd like to edge some of the beds with it, especially my rose garden....See MoreWhat new things are you planning this year?
Comments (7)I just walked outside to have a look, another hard freeze tonight. So many of my roses have buds, which are drooping this morning, and lots of new growth. It will be a few days before we can access the damage. I've been working on taking out a bed in my front yard, almost have all the plants out of it, and trying to add more beds to my back yard. This is going to be my year for rearranging. I'm taking out all my cannas, I've decided they aren't a favorite. Moving a lot of my daylilies to edge beds, I did a lot of this last year so I don't have all that many still to move. I still have about 6 roses to move from my front yard to my backyard. Too much shade in the front. I have a low spot in my backyard that I have been using as a compost pile for the last 3 years hoping to build it up, it hasn't, so I've decided it would make a great bed for Siberian and Japanese Iris. Mostly I want to bring things together instead of having so many things helter skelter around the different beds. The only plants I plan to purchase this year are Million Bells, I planted only a couple of these last year under my roses and the impact was huge, so this year I plan on buying several. Other than that my gardening money is going for mulch. I have all these grand plans, with only the weekends until daylight savings time, so of course it has rained almost every weekend and this weekend the hard freeze. Betty...See More11/2/15: New things you learn & wonder about & what you hope for?
Comments (46)Thanks so much for the info on these amazing beneficial herbs Strawberry Hill, I will definitely plant all of them for my cat friends. I will cover the catnip with a small cage contraption so that they'll only be able to get to the new growth... :-) That is such great news - that after so much rain still no BS on your potted roses. We also had mega liters of constant rain for 2 days and I decided not to use the corn flour dusting, and there is not one BS leaf on any rose....just as you said, the soil is the key....I also gave the BS prone roses an extra teaspoon of Gypsum as you advised (along with the Potassium Sulfate) ...just before the rain started falling. I watered in in very quickly with alkaline tap water, the rain did the rest. I think that's another great idea - to keep feeding them Gypsum and Potassium Sulfate to keep them BS-free during winter - until our next spring. many thanks :-) I won't give any Nitrogen either, seeing that they stop blooming anyway during winter. Carol, maybe you can try wrapping just a tiny piece of any citrus fruit peel around the area where the aphids are worst? I did that over here and the aphids jumped of like flies... but the Hydrogen Peroxide sounds like a great treatment for the aphids plus it adds oxygen, I think that is the best solution, as advised by Strawberry Hill...I will also try that...I think clay can do with some oxygen.... thanks for liking the Nguni cows, yes they are so beautiful...and quite docile... we have another breed here called 'Afrikaner'-cattle...they are quite strong as well but not so docile...used in the beef industry. They are also much bigger than Nguni's. I hope you enjoy your snowy winter wonderlands, I hope you, Jim, and Strawberry Hill will post winter photo's. Today it is 96.8 F and a strong warm berg (mountain)- wind is blowing. really magical. I decided to look up the definition of a berg wind: Berg wind (from Afrikaans berg "mountain" + wind "wind", i.e. a mountain wind) is the South African name for a katabatic wind: a hot dry wind blowing down the Great Escarpment from the high central plateau to the coast. When the air that has been heated on the extensive central plateau flows down the escarpment to the coast it undergoes further warming by adiabatic processes. This accounts for the hot and dry properties of these off-shore winds, wherever they occur along South Africa's coastline.[1][2] Although berg winds are often called a Föhn winds, this is probably a misnomer, as Föhn winds are rain shadow winds that result from air moving over a mountain range, resulting in precipitation on the windward side. This releases latent heat into the atmosphere which is then warmed still further as the air descends on the leeward side (e.g., the Chinook or the original Föhn).[2][3] Berg winds do not originate in precipitation, but in the mostly dry, often arid central plateau of Southern Africa. On the other hand, katabatic winds are technically drainage winds, that carry high density, usually cold air from a high elevation down a slope under the force of gravity.[3] These are thus "fall winds", which occur most typically down the coastal ice slopes of Antarctica and Greenland. Berg winds blow off the African escarpment in response to large scale weather systems in the South Atlantic Ocean, the African interior, and the Southern Indian Ocean....See More- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
- 5 years ago
Related Stories

HOUZZ TVWhen a Day Care Owner Retired, These Parents Did an Amazing Thing
Watch a California community thank Dina Saari for taking care of its kids by surprising her with a renovated condo
Full Story
ORGANIZING10 Things to Remember When Decluttering in the New Year
Fast-track the process and ease the stress by making a plan before you begin
Full Story
LIFE10 Things to Declutter Before the New Year
Fight off the cookie-induced lethargy, set a timer for 20-minute bursts and get started
Full Story
HOUZZ PRODUCT NEWSPros Share How They’ve Adapted to Challenges of the Past Year
Read how remodeling and design pros have stayed in the loop with vendors and worked with clients during the pandemic
Full Story0

LIFEWhat We Love (and Don’t) About New Year’s
Here are our favorite and least favorite things about ringing in the new year. What are yours?
Full Story
KITCHEN DESIGNGet Ideas From This Year’s Top 20 Kitchen Tours
Smart storage, functionality for cooks and families, vintage touches and lots of personality mark your favorites of 2015
Full Story
NEW YEAR'S EVEDIY Silver Stars for a Glittering New Year’s Eve
Here’s a simple and spectacular decoration to delight your guests on winter holidays
Full Story
HOUZZ CALLTell Us Your New Year’s Resolutions for Your Home
Share your plans and dreams for your house this year — whether they involve organizing, remodeling or redecorating
Full Story
KITCHEN DESIGNIdeas From the Year’s Top 10 Kitchens of the Week
Get inspired by the found objects, reclaimed hardware, efficient storage and work zones in our top kitchens of 2016
Full Story
HOLIDAYSPorch Decorating Ideas From Thanksgiving to New Year’s
Long-lasting wreaths, potted plants and more can cheer up your entryway from fall through winter
Full Story
marilyn_c