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Post by casimira on Feb 8, 2022 20:20:45 GMT
Some interesting ideas there BJD. We have a narrow space that could be used as a driveway but have chosen to allow it to be only partial in the invent of an emergency. I could go on about how differently I would use that space. Some are very appealing, yet others are downright mundane. (taking up all that space in one with a single bed of impatiens seems such a waste when other annuals could be interspersed in between. The other one with the pavers with grass that has to be mowed is downright ridiculous. Why bother?
I can see how the different utilization of that type of space is appealing allowing amendments applied with plants that are conducive to our environment and climate zone as well as maintenance, light, and most of all aesthetic.
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Post by tod2 on Feb 9, 2022 8:31:53 GMT
Yesterday I said goodbye to one of my Maroela trees. They were bought in Kruger Park about three years ago now. I have waited until now to plant them in their final place. I will plant two somewhere out of the way on our property ( where they may not suffer the fate of being chopped down in the future) and this little one went to a new home across the road to Briar Ghyll Farm. It has many exotic and foreign trees growing on the farm - like those Pacific Redwoods I look at every day. The owner. (a specialist anaesthetist) was delighted to accept my gift. I'm sure it will have a long and happy life.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 9, 2022 17:13:29 GMT
To have the option of viewing one's garden from different angles and be able to draw one's eye to a plant that otherwise may be overlooked if planted in the ground can make such a huge difference. I realize that you're speaking specifically of one benefit of using a pot(s) in the garden, but it also brings up a crucial aspect of creating a pleasing space. Too often, people attempt to impose balance by making a patchwork of symmetry throughout the courtyard or garden. For that matter, you see the tyranny of symmetry in home design as well. But repeatedly standing back & viewing a space from different angles will finally result in deploying plants, pots, furniture, etc. in a way that is organically balanced & automatically pleasing, even though we're constricted by the light, water, etc. needs of each plant. That's a "middle-size garden"?? The guest lady in that video obviously has quite a large garden. But I applaud the host for featuring her because almost everything she proposes can be translated to a much smaller space. (By the same token, I look at lots of tiny home videos because of the often brilliant ideas they have for utilizing space.) The side yard video in interesting in how many of the contributors treat their skinny spaces as courtyards, rather than as the narrow pathways they could so easily become. Irene, at 9:52 really achieved wonders by getting rid of the grass altogether & by not making an arrow-straight point-of-view. Robin's skinny side yard at 12:28 really spoke to me, as she made something beautiful despite having to keep the straight cement walk. Ditto Lystra at 13:33, who again kept the imposed cement walk, yet created a lush and inviting vista. I know it's winter where many of you are, but photos of cold season patios can be informative. Still waiting to see what Questa has done in her new home, where I believe it's now sunny summertime. Also, anyone who's out and about with the camera, do think of snapping good ideas in other people's properties.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 9, 2022 18:44:40 GMT
Bixa, unless you are planning on moving, you are just hurting yourself by drooling over some of these massive gardening plans. Your limited space is already excellent and probably quite sufficient for your needs. I can't really imagine you as Miss Marple on your knees with a trowel (I think she was past her trowel days -- sorry to incorrectly imply that you are at that stage!).
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Post by casimira on Feb 9, 2022 21:26:11 GMT
I fail to see how the use of a garden trowel can be "outgrown" or ascribed to being used as a "phase". It's a tool with a specific purpose just as a screwdriver or hammer etc.
Also, most seasoned gardeners look to make changes and draw inspiration from viewing other gardens no matter the size. No garden is ever ""finished". It's an ever-evolving process and adapting or incorporating changes from ideas from different sources. Giving one's garden space, a new and different look is exciting much like acquiring a new and different piece of artwork can alter the look of a room. Otherwise, for me anyway, it would be a boring and staid pastime.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 10, 2022 6:14:38 GMT
The trowel image came to mind thinking of the tile and cement patio and how useless it would be.
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Post by tod2 on Feb 10, 2022 7:57:24 GMT
Bixa, I missed out last year in congratulating you on such a splendid haven of potted tranquility in your patio space! Just so lovely. My garden is too spread out and wild to incorporate pots that would need regular watering. As it is I have had to move all my containers around the pool so I can keep an eye on them water-wise. My herbs in pots in my back courtyard are suffering from the unrelenting hot sun but they also did not do well in a shady area. Just cant win.
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Post by casimira on Feb 10, 2022 18:18:37 GMT
Years ago, one of my clients had the brilliant idea of growing her culinary herbs in pots and placed them in a child's wagon (Radio Flyer). It allowed her to move all of them at once to different locations and accommodate their growing conditions.
I did it for a couple of years growing spinach and it saved me so much time and I was able to harvest a nice portion that met my needs. I would then stagger the planting of new seeds in order to have a crop available during most of the season.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 10, 2022 18:22:03 GMT
A pot wagon sounds like a wonderful idea. We need to start some crowdfunding to get a wagon for Bixa.
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Post by htmb on Feb 10, 2022 18:59:30 GMT
I really enjoy having plants, but it is a pain to find someone to take proper care of them when I’m gone. "Proper" being the key word here. I’ve been trying to pare down my small number of pots. A couple of plants died while I was on my late summer trip last year. I later moved a huge pot of asparagus fern into my somewhat dark garage, trimmed off all the foliage and threw it away, leaving the pot to dry out. I’d planned to let the water evaporate to make it easier to clean out the soil and roots, but the damn plant is still growing, even though I haven’t watered it in at least a month. It makes sense though. It’s quite invasive and hardy. My pot of fern has spread throughout the front beds of my condo complex and on down the street. It’s everywhere and is really difficult to remove. Nasty, thorny stuff. .
With the idea of not repeating the problem, I’ve kept my potted fire stick plant on my screen porch. It acts as a nice privacy buffer, but the sap is toxic and it is supposedly invasive, too. I actually left it outside on the nights we had freezing temperatures, kinda hoping it might die back, but it looks fine and actually has a little new growth. The thing is huge. Much taller than me, but it’s still growing in the small 8" wide pot my daughter used to root it almost fifteen years ago.
I’m now down to a very health balsam fir, a geranium I’ve had for about twelve years. It’s been near death several times, but I’ve always managed to resurrect it. I also have a gorgeous aloe that I thought would stay smallish. It’s not. I’m guessing it might be a soap aloe. Then I have a healthy looking African violet that hasn’t bloomed in a year (it also had to be resurrected) and a few other hangers on for greenery. Nothing worth a photo. The violet is going to be given to my neighbor, and the rest, except for the fire stick, will be left to fend for themselves in a semi-shady outdoor spot at my front door. Hopefully they’ll get enough rain to keep them going while I’m away on my next bit of travel.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 10, 2022 19:03:37 GMT
It is time or me to repot my hibiscus, but it is going to be a huge ordeal.
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Post by tod2 on Feb 11, 2022 11:37:59 GMT
I was thinking.....seeing you are going to buy a new pot from a gardening place...just guessing. Could you not take your "trimmed for transport" hibiscus to the garden shop, buy the right size pot and soil, and get them to help you repot it there. Returning home with a full or empty pot is about the same thing, no? Just a titch heavier.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 11, 2022 17:25:17 GMT
Tod, that was a great idea to consolidate the water-wanting containers around the pool. Surely there must be more humidity there as well. Casimira, the radio flyer idea is brilliant, and would be rather a cute addition to the garden as well. There must be all kinds of carts, etc. for indoor use which could be adapted for the garden. This one, with its open shelves would be pretty handy, for instance, or this kind with sides to hold in small pots. ...asparagus fern... quite invasive and hardy. I shuddered reading those two words. When I lived in south Texas, it seemed everyone had gotten the memo about the toughness of that plant. There was a yellow and straggly asparagus fern on every front porch. I’ve kept my potted fire stick plant on my screen porch. It acts as a nice privacy buffer, but the sap is toxic and it is supposedly invasive, too. I don't think the toxicity would be an issue unless it's placed where people would brush against it. I had one in a pot that I gave to friends to plant in their yard. They eventually wound up pulling it out with a chain & a pickup truck because it was so huge & top heavy. There are some here in the nearby town of Xoxo that look like huge live oaks from afar. Big!I also have a gorgeous aloe that I thought would stay smallish. It’s not. *snorts cynically* I had to give away my Aloe ferox. From a cute little candelabra-shaped thing, it became a giant, heavy, viciously spiny monster. Aloes are often shown in house plant articles as darling little plants which can live on the kitchen windowsill. Ha!I'm deeply impressed by your 12-year-old geranium & the fact that you can resurrect an African violet -- you obviously have a green thumb. That said, keeping plants happy & traveling can be mutually exclusive. Your idea of moving everything to a semi-shady spot seems extremely workable.
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Post by htmb on Feb 11, 2022 21:01:05 GMT
Lol to all of the above.
I farmed out the fire stick plant the last time I traveled. Gave it to a friend and asked her to throw some water on it periodically. When I returned I found she’d put the whole thing inside an empty garbage can because she was concerned it would spread to her yard. I can just picture her googling the plant and then having a stroke.
My other plants were put outside in a semi-shady area and they survived just fine, including the old geranium, so I’ll just do the same again. Hopefully the aloe won’t be as big as a house when I return.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 11, 2022 21:06:07 GMT
Why do we worry about our plants so much? Is the Day of the Triffids coming? Perhaps we are living in the The Little Shop of Horrors?
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Post by htmb on Feb 11, 2022 21:08:28 GMT
You’d probably like having a fire stick plant in your apartment. You wouldn’t have to do anything to it except give it water once a week or so.
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Post by htmb on Feb 11, 2022 21:09:37 GMT
Actually, the fire stick was rooted by my oldest daughter and given to me years ago, so it does have some sentimental value for me.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 11, 2022 21:21:23 GMT
To be honest, when I was let back into my mother's nursing home room about a month after her death to collect some of the authorised items (mostly just personal photos and such)*, I saw the horribly wilted hibiscus standing there on its little table and of course they didn't prevent me from retrieving it. So keeping it alive has been a major mission for me. It's not looking too good right now, but I think it will perk up when I repot it. It's already been almost 6 years since I saved it and keeping it alive is sort of like reviving my mother.
*anything of value was forbidden since she was a welfare case and all of her possessions were supposed to be converted to a reduction of her debt.
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Post by casimira on Feb 11, 2022 21:39:56 GMT
I'm not quite sure what a "firestick" plant is.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 11, 2022 21:42:38 GMT
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Post by casimira on Feb 11, 2022 22:01:51 GMT
I suspected it was in the Euphorbia family when there was mention of "sap".
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Post by htmb on Feb 11, 2022 22:02:33 GMT
So, if I go blind, you’ll know why.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 12, 2022 3:43:50 GMT
hee hee.
This may be karmic: Today, after reassuring you, Htmb, that it was perfectly fine to keep a caustic substance emitting plant where you had to brush past it to get in & out of the house, I had a garden accident.
I was trying to tie something together that was on the potting table. Next to where I was working was one of those hanging pots that are held up by thin wires. My hand slipped and whacked into the tiny protruding tip of one of the wires. The tip went into the outside of the knuckle where my index finger connects to my hand. It hurt like holy ****! Even though it was the tiniest pin point of a stab, it bled dramatically. This was several hours ago. The aspirin and the bathing in arnica may have done something, but it sure hurts -- all the way from the index finger to the elbow.
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Post by htmb on Feb 12, 2022 3:56:52 GMT
That doesn’t sound good. Could you have possibly hit a nerve? Is a tetanus shot called for?
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Feb 12, 2022 8:52:25 GMT
I cannot believe that I missed this thread entirely...forgive me! Bixa your patio looks lush, green and a very pleasant place to be. I too have many pots largely because I love the fact that I can move them around and group them in a pleasing way...except for the ENORMOUS pot (plastic) that contains a palm.... At present most of the pots are in the greenhouse for the winter...but in a few weeks it will be SPRING
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 12, 2022 14:32:24 GMT
Thanks, Htmb. I think I must have hit a nerve because the initial pain & the subsequent pain & swelling are out of proportion to the insignificant "injury". I probably should have gone immediately for a tetanus shot, but that would have felt like a big overreaction at the time.
It still hurts this morning & is very irritating as it's my right hand index finger & I can't even pick up my coffee mug easily.
Thank you, Cheery! I have always noticed in your pictures how you have pots deployed around your garden, adding height and form to your beautiful plant combinations. Looking forward to your Spring pictures.
re: giant potted palm ~ I had a monster rosebush in a huge plastic pot, then decided I wanted the ungainly, viciously thorned thing out of my yard. It took two men to shift it, not only because of the weight, but also because the roots had grown out the bottom of the pot and down in between the patio pavers. I have recently added two more giant pots, each containing a Lady Banksia rose. But this time they are setting on heavy iron bases so that the plant bottoms don't touch the patio floor.
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Post by tod2 on Feb 13, 2022 8:55:01 GMT
Bixa you should get it checked out. Besides tetanus ( I believe is from manure) you might even have blood poisoning. I hope you come back with good news. In the meantime I cannot use my left hand properly as I sliced open the tip of the thumb yesterday. Bled like mad - I don't thin I need anymore blood thinning tablets ! That'll teach me for sharpening those kitchen knives of mine but I cannot work with blunt instruments.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 13, 2022 14:59:41 GMT
Oh ooo ouch pain, Tod! Sorry that happened to you! "They" say that dull knives are more dangerous than sharp ones because you're more likely to have to use excess force with them. And so true that dull ones are supremely irritating.
Thanks for your concern about my hand, but it's almost back to normal, only hurting if I press on the point where the wire went in & the swelling is nearly gone.
On a patio note, yesterday evening I was given three plants -- a miniature, spineless bougainvillea, an impatiens, & some kind of Heliconia which looks exactly like the one I already have which does almost nothing. Space! I need space!
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Post by casimira on Feb 13, 2022 19:47:25 GMT
A spineless bougainvillea!!!!!! When I was tending other people's gardens and if there was a freeze, the thing I dreaded most was having to prune back giant specimens of bougainvillea. A nightmare!!
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 13, 2022 20:28:05 GMT
Well, speaking of spines, double-edges, etc., I sort of hate bougainvilleas unless they belong to other people and are spilling artistically over the top of a wall or whatever and none of the spent bracts are blowing into my yard. One of the distinguishing features of this spineless dwarf is that it only blooms at the tips of its branches. This is not a feature I find desirable in shrubs. Here is a picture, complete with original caption, that I took in Havana: I never saw this type of bougainvillea before. It has smaller than average leaves and bracts ~This may all become moot because, when I took the little new guy out to repot, it turned out to only have a very few new roots. We'll see.
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