A gardening tip...of sorts

Most nursery owners/growers will tell you not to overwater your begonias. They will tell you that begonias do not like to be too wet.

Believe them.

Even if you seem to be having excellent luck with a begonia that you are watering daily. Even if you are blithely watering it from the top and it is thriving.

The day will come that your begonia will go away to that great greenhouse in the sky. When that day comes, you will repent that you overwatered your begonia. I tell you now...don't do it!

Note: This begonia is doing well. Its brother is in ICU. One can only hope...

The Garden Chronicles--A Video Post!

I have fallen down on my resolve to post garden tips. Perhaps it has something to do with the heat...not sure. Anyway, here is the first of what may be a series of the Garden Chronicles, where I take you on a video tour of our gardens. Enjoy!

I got the idea to use a Kyte video from Susanna over at The Wardrobe Miser. She has some great tips. Check out her site, one and all!

Gardening Tip: Don't Kill 'em All!

Can you believe the infestation??
When thinking of the title for this post, I was reminded of the phrase, "kill 'em all and let the Lord sort 'em out." It's a very cowboy-esque kind of ideology, usually without any really good results. In the garden, you especially don't want to kill them all...all the bugs, that is.

Just this weekend, I was giving my garden a thorough going over when I noticed a ginormous colony of aphids on my backyard fennel. I was horrified! I was aghast? Did I go for a bottle of "kill 'em quick"? More effective, did I grab my blowtorch? You bet your bottom dollar, I didn't. I immediately began to hunt for my red and black spotted friends. I didn't have to look too long before spotting one, either. Even better, I noticed a momma ladybug repopulating the fennel. How exciting is that? I have found ladybug larvae, but never seen the eggs! Sadly enough, I remember the day that I squashed a ladybug larva. These days, I am very slow with the squishing. I have to see proof that harm is being done...and then some.

Closer inspection yielded another ladybug (hence the repopulation) and a mighty colony of ladybug larvae. So, be on the lookout for these helpful beetles! When you find those pesky aphids, don't go searching for those high-powered insecticides, give the ladies a chance to do their job.
daddy ladybug
don't kill those just yet! the furry white ones are good ladybug babies!
what a nice lady...

Gardening Tip: Week#4: Save Your Seed!

I have wanted to save my own garden seeds for several years now. for some reason, though, I would look at those flowering plants and couldn't figure out how to go about the business. Seed saving tips never helped me either. How could something so simple as a plant producing seeds be turned into the event of the season? What did I have to do with selective pollination and different colored ties?

Ah, but every planting season rolls around and I gaze with longing at the organic seeds. I wonder why I didn't save my seeds from the year before and then remind myself of the difficulty. Well, last year, I grew my own snapdragons from saved seed. After that small miracle, I convinced myself that I could do it! This year, I have saved lettuce, calendula, fennel, coriander, snapdragon, broccoli, marigold, forget-me-nots and the list goes on. When next fall rolls around, I will be more than ready with my small arsenal of organic goodness--and for a price that can't be beat!

How did I accomplish this feat? Actually, it was really pretty simple. I pulled up whole flowering stalks of broccoli and put it in a bucket to dry completely. Only last week, I "shelled" the seed pods (just like you would beans) and out popped little broccoli seeds! I used a mortar and pestle to remove most of the chaff. What I couldn't remove, I didn't worry about. It will just work as organic matter in the soil. Some things like coriander and fennel are so easy to gather that they will plant themselves. You have to be quick to gather the coriander or it will happily reseed itself for you. Come to think of it, same thing goes for tomatoes.

So, if you've never before saved your own seeds for planting or giving away, get started today. Carefully removed dried seed pods from the plant, make sure the seeds are completely dry before storing them away (mildewed seeds don't sprout well) and put them where birds and mice can't reach. Happy planting!

Gardening Tip: Week #3: Nothing Ugly!

I must confess: I'm a plant baby-er. I am guilty of having kept mostly dead plants in pots for long past their compost time...hoping and praying that they would somehow miraculously spring to life. These plants were a disgrace...brown and withered or just barely hanging on. How many of you have been there? You're trying to raise a tropical in Tennessee and it's just not working.

For me, it has always been peonies and lavender and maidenhair ferns. I can't grow 'em. Unless I forget about them, they will begin dying the minute I load them into the van to cart them to my garden. I even bought peony roots one year from a gardener on GardenWeb. I'm sure her peonies are lovely. I'm also pretty sure she was from Illinois or Michigan or some other such place. Those little roots got one whiff of our humid Florida air and they commenced their last rites.

So, what am I trying to say? Cut off the dead weight! Throw the offending plant onto your compost pile and put something in its place that will be grateful for your multitudinous attentions. Here's a little secret: you put those mostly dead plants on your compost pile and they might just spring back to life. Just this spring, I ripped a non-responsive (I mean, dead to the roots) fig tree out of the ground and tossed it on the compost heap. About a week later, I checked the heap for soil. Lo and behold, the fig tree was sprouting! I brought it back into the fold and it shot up two feet in one month's time.

The conclusion: gardening season is too short to reason with ridiculously fussy and recalcitrant plants. Pull them out, compost them and find something you really can enjoy!

about that watering

After yesterday's post concerning watering of the garden, I proceeded not to water our garden. Ever so often, I would scan the sky, hoping for the rain that I saw written there. In order to encourage the rain, I washed several loads of clothes and hung them to dry on the outdoor lines. Still nothing.

Around 11:45 a.m., the rain began. Soon, it was falling in earnest. Gleefully, I dashed to the backyard to retrieve my damp towels and clothing. I am sure I did some kind of little raindance. I must tell you all, the rain continued until close to 7 p.m. last night. It was wonderful. Nothing died in the garden from lack of water. All the little plants were smiling brightly at me this morning. Lovely. All of that excellent rain made me think of another gardening tip. We'll call this tip 2A

Gardening Tip 2A: Weed after watering

After a soaking rainfall or heavy watering session, get out your gloves! Now is the best time for weeding. Those ornery weeds that refuse to leave the ground when it is dry, slide right out of the moist soil. Of course, one must be even more careful not to injure nearby plants because their roots will slide right out as well!

Gardening Tip #2: Water and Mulch!

I will be the first to admit that I hate watering my garden. Why? I really can't be sure. I just don't like the long hoses with kinks and lengths that just don't quite reach where they are needed. The hose gets dirty, water leaks onto my birkenstocks. What a complainer I am! In my opinion, this watering is a necessary evil--lessened drastically by the presence of mulch in your garden.

For example, even with temps reaching 100 degrees farenheit, I rarely water the plants in our front yard. Honestly, I don't have time for plants that need to be coddled. If I need to water it daily, it's probably not the right plant for my yard. If it can't be happy swaddled in oak leaves and rich compost, it probably needs another home. With the water shortage in NW Florida, my theory is really being tested. It's hard to justify extensive watering of roses and lilies when I know that our water table is being depleted. My solution? Three to four inches of oak leaves and watering maybe once a week. It really works well for us. An added bonus, is the reduction in weeds because they're not getting water either.

Anything that gives me fewer weeds to pull is a winner in my book!

Gardening Tip: Week #1: Take photos!

How many times have you stood back from a particularly grueling gardening project, sighed with relief and then thought ruefully that no one would ever believe what that plot of ground looked like before you cultivated it? James and I have learned to take before, mid-project and after pictures. We forget too easily. It's so easy to take for granted our fertile and abundant flower beds. I have to go back to those photos of when we just moved into the house. Then, I'm impressed!

Way back in January, La Tea Dah over at Gracious Hospitality posted this article about her grandmother's gardening scrapbook. You all, it is beautiful. If you missed that post, please be sure to click on the link. The pictures, clippings and tidbits about the garden are treasures.

Garden scrapbooks are an excellent way to remember and share your gardening experiences. With our digital camera and printer, I have been able to print out photos for my own scrapbook. It's such a fun project and I will look forward to showing it when it's finished. However, none of it would be possible without the photos I have taken throughout the season.

Get snapping!