Wondering what things you did in the past year that you are continuing
5 years ago
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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 MoreWinters of past, last year - what did you lose?
Comments (63)CMK, I remember reading you have drainage issues. We had a little bit of that ‘wet without draining’ in early spring, a couple of times when it rained and the ground was still frozen. I thought I was going to have trouble and I don’t know why I didn’t. I normally have good drainage though, so that must make the difference. I’m sorry you don’t. :-( That must be a particularly aggravating problem. I wonder if you’ve ever considered raised beds? I had plants very slow to show up this spring, so I was considering that I might have lost them, and at the time, I was thinking maybe I should add more conifers, until I visited the Conifer forum in the spring and they were posting long lists of plants they lost! So, if you are thinking about it, I’d read some of their posts on which ones they lost. :-) Mnwsgal, sorry to hear of your losses too. I have never had much luck wintering over in the garage. And the snowplow frequently digs into some edge of the front yard. We have a bed that borders the street, but it has a rock edge to it, which I suppose must help. Of course, they don't actually see the rocks under the snow, and once they did plow into those. Wow, what a noise that made! And 12ft of rock edge had to be reset, but I didn't lose any plants. [g] I wish we had sidewalks....See Morewhat new to you mail order companies did you try this year?
Comments (17)I ordered from Digging Dog for the first time this year. They had a Valentines Sale on the internet, but I screwed up my order, so I had to e-mail, then phone, then phone two more times. When I finally got hold of someone they were very nice and took care of the order so I got the special. Then, they experienced big delays in getting plants from their supplier. This meant my plants were two or more months late getting to me. They gave me opportunities to cancel, but I did not...never thinking that brand new plants going into my soil just as my summer heat comes in is not a good idea. Bottom line, some of the plants died. I don't think it was entirely their fault. I should have cancelled the order. The plants that survived did wonderfully well, and I am wowed with the Rigoletto miscanthus I got from them. It has the purest white variegation I have ever seen on a grass and only gets 4'x4'. I have never seen Nichols Garden Seed and Nursery (Oregon) mentioned on this forum. They have a really great selection of flower, herb, perennial, and vegetable seed, their prices are reasonable and their packets have a generous amount of seed in them. I tried them after reading "The Bountiful Container" a couple years ago. Their seed packets had so much seed in them, that I have pretty well given them my allegiance ever since. I would also give high ratings to Forest Farm, Greer Gardens (the biggest plants I have ever received from any company), Plant Delights, Old House Gardens, Brent and Beckys Bulbs (a few perennials too), High Country, and Lazy S's. All these companies have excellent products and customer service. When I need large amounts of seeds of a kind, I order from Hazzards Greenhouse. They are a wholesale company, but do not have a minimum order requirement. Their seed is of an excellent quality and you can save ALOT of money if you need at least 250 seed of a kind. (With careful storage, I have been able to use one pack of marigolds three years in a row now.) I have also ordered plants from E-bay over the years. Once and only once was I ever dissatisfied. The plants were chrysanthemums, but the wrong variety. By the time I knew that it was too late to complain......See More3/19/16 - Favorite roses & quotes & things that you wonder about?
Comments (22)Carol: One can inoculate with L. Rhamnosus (a strain taken from a healthy person) ... with Culturelle probiotics, or make your own pickled-cabbage. If you scroll up, you'll see the research which listed many good bacteria in pickled cabbage, one of them is L. Rhamnosus ... which suppress other bad bacteria such as E. Coli, Samonella. One pill of Culturelle before bed helps me to sleep better than melatonin, thus help with weight-loss. Innoculation with one pill per day isn't enough ... the good bacteria are constantly killed off by the antibiotics added to beef & milk and poultry, plus junk food like sugar promote yeast, while suppressing the good bacteria. To feed the good bacteria like L. Rhamnosus, one need to consume pre-biotics daily, such as beans, oatmeal, wheat bran, asparagus, or best dandelion greens. From actzqn link (THANK YOU, actzqn for that Scientific American link): http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-gut-bacteria-help-make-us-fat-and-thin/ " In studies of twins who were both lean or both obese, researchers found that the gut community in lean people was like a rain forest brimming with many species but that the community in obese people was less diverse. Lean individuals, for example, tended to have a wider variety of Bacteroidetes, a large tribe of microbes that specialize in breaking down bulky plant starches and fibers into shorter molecules that the body can use as a source of energy. Blaser has shown that when young mice are given low doses of antibiotics, similar to what farmers give livestock, they develop about 15 percent more body fat than mice that are not given such drugs. When Laurie Cox, a graduate student in Blaser's laboratory, combined a high-fat diet with the antibiotics, the mice became obese. Studies showed that the mice carrying microbes from the obese human had picked up some of their lean roommates' gut bacteria—especially varieties of Bacteroidetes—probably by consuming their feces, a typical, if unappealing, mouse behavior. To further prove the point, the researchers transferred 54 varieties of bacteria from some lean mice to those with the obese-type community of germs and found that the animals that had been destined to become obese developed a healthy weight instead. Transferring just 39 strains did not do the trick. A diet of highly processed foods, for example, has been linked to a less diverse gut community in people. Gordon's team demonstrated the complex interaction among food, microbes and body weight by feeding their humanized mice a specially prepared unhealthy chow that was high in fat and low in fruits, vegetables and fiber ... Given this “Western diet,” the mice with obese-type microbes proceeded to grow fat even when housed with lean cagemates." http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-gut-bacteria-help-make-us-fat-and-thin/ *** From Straw: My flu-shot reaction led to pneumonia and led to antibiotics. After finishing antibiotics, I was 119 lb., then I took Culturelle (with R. Rhamnosus), stayed between 118 to 119 lb. for 2 months, plus eating pickled-red-cabbage daily. The minute I stopped Culturelle, finished pickled-red-cabbage, plus stopped magnesium .. I gained 4 lbs. I suspect beneficial bacteria plays a role in deep & good sleep which helps to suppress ghrelin, the "hunger hormone". I notice the night which I take Culturelle plus magnesium before my night-snack .. I sleep really well, and eager to exercise in the morning. I sleep way better with that combo (culturelle & magnesium) than with melatonin....See More- 5 years ago
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