Garden Plants and Gardening Forum - The Grow Spot http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/ The Grow Spot is a gardening community with forums on Urban Gardening, Organic Gardening, Growing to Eat, and more. The Grow Spot is also resource for information on all sorts of garden plants, flowers, trees and all things that grow. No green thumb required! en Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:04:32 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/images/evomisc/rss.jpg Garden Plants and Gardening Forum - The Grow Spot http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/ Trinidad red cross kiddies carnival 2010 http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f9/trinidad-red-cross-kiddies-carnival-2010-a-56287.html Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:40:12 GMT This content is syndicated via RSS from the blog: Caribbean Garden (http://caribbeangarden.blogspot.com/) All photos taken by and copyright... This content is syndicated via RSS from the blog: Caribbean Garden

All photos taken by and copyright Stephen Broadbridge, Caribbean Discovery Tours





Read more at Caribbean Garden... ]]> Gardening Around the Web A Caribbean Garden http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f9/trinidad-red-cross-kiddies-carnival-2010-a-56287.html Raindrops http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f9/raindrops-56285.html Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:27:02 GMT This content is syndicated via RSS from the blog: Garden Amateur (http://gardenamateur.blogspot.com/) Beggars definitely cannot be choosers,... This content is syndicated via RSS from the blog: Garden Amateur



Beggars definitely cannot be choosers, and as a gardener who only recently begged Huey for a bit more rain I can hardly complain that he/she has left the tap running. Our average rainfall for February is 117mm; it's Feb 8 and already we have had 141mm. Hardly a deluge, but it's plenty. This morning there was a gap in the rain and it all looked so pretty that I whipped out the camera and came back with some snaps a few minutes later, because it had started raining again.


The berries on my curry leaf tree are turning black, and I really should get out there and remove them all, as these trees are gaining a reputation as a weed. Birds eat the berries, fly a few kilometres and while in some native bushland, leave a berry behind as birds naturally do. But right now it's too wet to harvest berries, and besides, they look so pretty.
The native floating fern called nardoo, which is thriving in my potted water garden, holds onto raindrops in much the same way as nasturtiums do – as if each droplet is a little pearl.

My goldfish, John, Paul and George don't care much about the rain, but I do worry a bit when the water level in the pot gets right up to rim-level (they're frisky little fellers), and so I bail out a couple of inches of water each morning.

Most people understandably think of succulents as dry-climate, waterwise plants, but these are often at their prettiest when wet. This is Agave attenuata.
And I'm not exactly sure what this person is. I suspect it's a 'graptoveria' but it could be an echeveria, maybe a graptopetalum. Frankly, I don't really have a clue, but its light blue colouring looks lovely in the wet morning light.
The potted cumquat tree is covered in white, gently fragrant flowers and green baby fruits, not to mention glossy green leaves. And raindrops.

The soil's getting the good soaking it badly needs, I've enjoyed a weekend of rest because there's nothing to do out in the garden, and all the plants are loving the deep drink. If anyone up in heaven reads blogs, please remind Huey to turn off the tap over Sydney. We've had our fill, thanks, but surely there's somewhere else which is bone dry and needs a good drink right now.







Read More at Garden Amateur... ]]> Gardening Around the Web Garden Amateur http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f9/raindrops-56285.html Rain Means Snails! http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f9/rain-means-snails-56281.html Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:53:28 GMT This content is syndicated via RSS from the blog: Scarecrow's Garden

Scarecrow's Garden Log: 06:02:2010:

Guarding the Rockmelons


Temperatures this week:

Lowest Min 9.8C
Lowest Max 28.1C
Highest Max 35.6C
6mm Rain

What's the weather been like in the garden?
Some more rain and very humid conditions! Relatively cool conditions for February!

There was enough rain to bring out the Snails!

Propagation:
Potting up:
Red Choi, Purple Flowered Choy, Celtuce, Tatsoi and Lettuces into punnets as Mixed Greens
Red Choi
Romanesco Broccoli
Purple Sprouting Broccoli
Nutri-Bud Broccoli
Lacinato Kale
Thousand Headed Kale
Red Ribbed Dandelion
Ethiopian Cabbage
Violet Sicilian Cauliflower
Mini Cauliflower
Rainbow Mix Silverbeet
Ageratum
Sweet William

New in the Garden This week:


My Gardenate email arrived early in the week to help plan this month's seed planting. I follow the Cool Mountain chart from now on as I prepare for our frosty winter growing period. If you visit the site Here and choose you zone (for Australia, New Zealand and UK), sign up, (for free) and they email the chart you need early each month!


In preparation for Autumn planting
I've tested the soil pH in each of the Wicking Beds.
All measured between 6.5 and 7.5
Minimal amendments are needed.

100% germination with the peas I planted last week! The Golden Beetroot that was potted on are thriving too. They have been planted into loo roll holders to encourage longer roots ready for planting into the Wicking Beds. Their roots will be able to reach the damp zone straight away and I won't have to water from the surface as I do when I plant seeds.

Weekly Harvest Tally:
Doesn't include Greens fed to the chooks on a daily basis or herbs picked for use in the kitchen for cooking or tea making.
Amaranth Leaf***56g
Carrots Chantenay Red-cored***289g
Ceylon Spinach***10g
Eggplant Casper***87g
Parsnip Hollow Crown***182g
Pumpkin Baby Blue***242g
Parcel & Sea Celery Mix***7g
Silverbeet Rainbow Mix***99g
Tomatoes Roma***432g
Blackberry Thornless***533g
Mulberry Black***1463g

Eggs
24 from the Farmyard Ferals

To see how the various Garden areas fit on our half acre block check out the newest Map of our place HERE


Read More at Scarecrow's Garden... ]]> Gardening Around the Web http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f9/rain-means-snails-56281.html Making plans http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f9/making-plans-56280.html Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:53:28 GMT This content is syndicated via RSS from the blog: Garden Amateur (http://gardenamateur.blogspot.com/) The rain is doing its best imitation of... This content is syndicated via RSS from the blog: Garden Amateur



The rain is doing its best imitation of Madam Lash at the moment, telling Sydney "take that, Sin City" with successive whippings of rain. And so poor innocent gardeners, who've done nothing to deserve this punishment (apart from praying for rain) are sitting with their wet, squishy noses pressed against the window pane, looking out at a super-soggy garden, doing the only thing they can do right now – dreaming up what to do next.


This is definitely one of those "click on the photo to make it readable" photos. This is how the garden looks today, after 78mm rain (three inches) yesterday, and 50mm (one inch) spread over the two days beforehand. That's enough, Madam Lash, I can't take any more! Anyway, what follows are my plans for autumn plantings – probably beginning in March at the earliest. Let's start with the foreground, left – "brodiaeas in here".Until last Sunday night I'd never heard of brodiaeas, but now I own 50 of them. Aren't catalogues wonderful? After a recent posting here, blasting away at how much I dislike spring bulbs, I've gone ahead and ordered some spring bulbs. I just figured that I wanted to see something different next spring, and as soon as they finish flowering, I'm pulling them all up and, shock-horror, tossing them all away. Total cost is $12.50, roughly the price of an indifferent bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. But it wasn't me who picked the brodiaeas.

That was Pammy's job. Pammy is a wonderful shopper, and also a magician with restaurant menus, able to find something amazing on a menu which everyone else misses. I suspect this is because she reads menus from cover to cover, same too with catalogues. Anyway, I tossed her this catalogue with her brief to choose something interesting, and the next morning it was on the kitchen table, with helpful pink sticky note thingys indicating the brodiaeas. Blue flowers. I love blue flowers!
By the following Friday, the postman dropped off the package. Parcels in the mail, one of life's simple pleasures!
Little buttons they are. Currently they're staying in the crisper bin of my fridge until planting time, which won't be until April. I asked my resident horticultural expert, Geoffrey, for some tips, and as well as telling me to wait until Anzac Day (April 25) before planting he helpfully added that the growers incorrectly list brodiaeas as being from South Africa when in fact they actually come from Northern California. So thanks once again to Geoffrey for his growing tips and advice, which is invariably spot-on.
Once Pam had set me off with a blue theme, I wondered what else might I grow that's blue-flowered, down the other end of the garden. It has been about 15 years since I last grew the old-fashioned cottage plant, love-in-a-mist, so I ticked the box for one packet of love-in-a-mist seeds while browsing the online catalogue of another major seed supplier, Digger's. (This photo is pinched from Google Images, by the way).
In the spot where currently I have an Asian eggplant producing a crop, I've decided to grow a dwarf Tibouchina 'Groovy Baby' which is only 60cm tall and 80cm wide. I'll plant this dwarf shrub in April, once the eggplant has finished. This is more of a summer and autumn flowerer, so it'll keep my favourite blue-flowered thing going a couple of months after all the spring blues have gone up to heaven. If all goes well, this will become a permanent planting here, a summer patch of blue in a lovely, sunny spot.

Across the path from the love-in-a-mist, I'm going to grow another crop of broad beans, my favourite home-grown vegetable to eat. This is a photo of the previous crop, which was a tall-growing variety tied to a nice bamboo frame. This time round I've picked a dwarf plant which only grows 1m tall, but as I still have the bamboo poles in the shed, I'll make up some kind of support for the floppy old broad bean plants with them.
This is just the tiny photo pinched from the Diggers catalogue. It's what they solemnly promise their red spring onions will look like, and I liked that look so much I ticked the box for a packet of seeds of these, and they'll form a border around the broad beans.

Of course I am going to grow poppies again for Pammy, in the same spot where I grew them last year, and I hope they'll be every bit as lovely this time round, too.

I've run out of photos for the rest of my autumn planting plans. But on the left side, near the house, I am going to replace my rather dreary big potted bay tree with a far more exciting and interesting potted 'Black Genoa' fig. I'm really looking forward to having a fig in the garden again. When we moved here an old in-ground fig tree struggled along for the first 15 or so years, producing bumper crops every summer, then it just fell over in a storm one day, its branches full of rot. And so 'Son of Fig II – the Black Genoa' will be starring at this blog fairly soon.


And that lovely big grevillea on the left needs pruning soon. Big tip for anyone growing grevilleas: prune them often, do it twice a year, after each flush of flowers. Take off up to a third each time if you like, but that's not compulsory, although some kind of pruning is. Roses and grevilleas have a lot in common - pruning makes both of them flower much better. But grevilleas hardly need feeding. Just pruning.


On the right side of the pathway, I am going to grow a leafy patch of flavours, combining flat-leaf parsley, coriander (cilantro) and some celery leaf plants, which produce lots of celery-flavoured leaves for cooking. Celery is a notoriously tricky vegie to grow, but I do like the flavour of the leaves, etc in making all sorts of sauces, so I'll give the seeds of these leafy relatives of celery (which I bought recently in an Asian food store in Darwin) a try this autumn.


Finally, on the centre, right side of the pathway, yet another crop of mixed 'mesclun' salad greens, a crop which, along with herbs, is probably the most useful, practical crop I grow here.


One thing I can say in favour of extremely wet days is that they slow you down enough to help you do some planning. So Madam Lash's ministrations aren't all bad, but she can stop now.











Read More at Garden Amateur... ]]> Gardening Around the Web Garden Amateur http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f9/making-plans-56280.html Promenade Gardens Part 2 http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f9/promenade-gardens-part-2-a-56279.html Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:53:28 GMT This content is syndicated via RSS from the blog: Caribbean Garden (http://caribbeangarden.blogspot.com/) The very architectural looking blooms... This content is syndicated via RSS from the blog: Caribbean Garden

The very architectural looking blooms and spent fruit stalks of the cannonball tree


We now pass thorough the bougainvillea arbour to the Bandstand. This is very typical of the design in the mid-eighteen hundreds. There is are very similar bandstands in the public gardens and parks in Trinidad.

Statute of Mahatma Ghandi
Come into the flower garden
fragrant old fashioned roses, Plumeria, red and pink Pride of BarbadosHeliconia rostrata


more towering palms, such lushness...
Elegant water lily pads



Read more at Caribbean Garden... ]]> Gardening Around the Web A Caribbean Garden http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f9/promenade-gardens-part-2-a-56279.html The bee-loud glade http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f9/the-bee-loud-glade-56278.html Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:52:26 GMT This content is syndicated via RSS from the blog: Garden Amateur (http://gardenamateur.blogspot.com/) Wandering down my street the other day,... This content is syndicated via RSS from the blog: Garden Amateur



Wandering down my street the other day, a poem by the great Irish poet YB Yeats came buzzing into my head, for reasons fond enough to me. The young street trees planted by our green-tinged local council, God bless 'em, were coming into bloom, and the bees were voicing their approval loudly and busily.


This is one of them. It's an ivory curl tree, Buckinghamia celsissima, a native tree originally from Queensland, but totally at home here in Sydney. It'll grow to at least twice this size, and when it grows up it should be completely covered in long, white blooms, as many of the older ivory curls in various other streets of our area are right now.
Every single bloom of the row of young ivory curl trees was occupied by two, four or six busy bees. Each bloom is about six to eight inches long. They don't last all that long, probably a month at best, but they're a summer treat nevertheless.

Their happy hum could be heard from some distance away. However, about 18 months ago, one extremely young ivory curl tree attracted more bees than anyone expected...
A swarm, of approximately a zillion or so bees. This large Mardi Gras of bees suddenly appeared one late afternoon, set up quite a din in the ivory curl (which wasn't in flower, as it was late winter) and stayed the night. The next morning, around 10 o'clock, the whole swarm took off at once and flew across our house and off to who knows where, sounding like a low-flying aircraft as it swooped away en masse. Quite inspiring and pleasing, seeing as how it all ended peacefully.

While that memory of the bee swarm came and went, and the happy soundtrack of the much smaller company of bees went about their business the other day, I struggled to remember all of the Yeats poem which I have always loved so much but haven't read for many years, and so here it is.


The Lake Isle of Innisfree


I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.


And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evenings full of the linnet's wings.


I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.


By William Butler Yeats.










Read More at Garden Amateur... ]]> Gardening Around the Web Garden Amateur http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f9/the-bee-loud-glade-56278.html Thinking outside the box !! http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f9/thinking-outside-the-box-56277.html Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:52:26 GMT This content is syndicated via RSS from the blog: KeeWee's Garden

I very nearly drove over the center line, as I drove past this Toyota with the two window " bumper boxes" attached to the rear of the vehicle.

I drove around the block, found a parking place, and walked back to see if my eyes had been playing tricks on me. No, they are most definitely planter boxes attached to the bumper of this vehicle.






Read More at KeeWee's Garden... ]]> Gardening Around the Web http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f9/thinking-outside-the-box-56277.html It is time for primroses http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f9/it-is-time-for-primroses-56275.html Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:12:47 GMT This content is syndicated via RSS from the blog: KeeWee's Garden

I swung by my favorite garden center to see what was happening, and as I entered the greenhouse area my senses were assaulted by the most intoxicating perfume. I did not know some primroses were perfumed. It appears it is the double variety which have the most scent, so of course, you know me, I had to have a few of these beauties. These lovely bi-colored flowers took my eye and they now have pride of place in a large pot by the front door so the beauty and perfume of the flowers is there to enjoy as I come and go through the front entrance.

The Hellebore are also making a splash in the darker corners of my garden.


As I was on my knees, camera set to take closeup photos of the Hellebore, this little guy/gal hopped right up to me and almost had it's nose on the lens of the camera. Who can resist such a cute furry face. I admit that I feed bread to four rabbits every morning, and they are not afraid to come up to me. Whenever Mr C. or I go outdoors there will be rabbits hopping from all directions looking for a handout. The one in the photo we have named baby, as it is the smallest in the bunch and the most friendly. The other day I was out in the garden, when I felt something on my pant leg, I looked down, and saw Baby standing on it's back legs, front feet on my leg, looking up at me with the most cute begging look in it's eye. Yes I know I am a pushover, but I like the critters in our yard, except of course if they eat my plants, but practically everything in the gardens is fenced, so there really isn't much of a problem.


Read More at KeeWee's Garden... ]]> Gardening Around the Web http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f9/it-is-time-for-primroses-56275.html EXTREMELY new, need some ideas http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f3/extremely-new-need-some-ideas-56273.html Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:14:42 GMT Hello all, I'm new to gardening and was needing some help. I am hoping to use the raised beds method. I was needing some suggestions on what to grow? What grows best here I guess? I would love VARIETY. I live in Seminole,Tx.Hardiness 7b. I have a 20' x 5' plot that gets 6-8 hours of morning light in the summer hours. I also have a 10' x 6' plot that gets about 10-11 hours of morning light. I am hoping to do atleast the 10' x 6' in 2 raised boxes 4'x4'. Growing however much corn I can fit in one box along with tomatoes in the other box. I am thinking potatoes and carrots in the bigger 20 x 5 plot. Also I was wondering how much corn and potatoes should I plant? Those would be the most used (corn,potatoes, and tomatoes). Thanks for any help! ]]> Organic Gardening thsee http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f3/extremely-new-need-some-ideas-56273.html Visitors http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f9/visitors-56272.html Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:51:44 GMT This content is syndicated via RSS from the blog: KeeWee's Garden

Two Flickers visiting the feeding station.
The one on the suet was rather nervous as it could see my camera just peeping through the curtains, but was not sure to stay or flee.



Read More at KeeWee's Garden... ]]> Gardening Around the Web http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f9/visitors-56272.html Super Bowl Picks http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f12/super-bowl-picks-56271.html Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:44:56 GMT Who are everybody's Super Bowl picks? My sons and hubby say Saints, so that's who I'm going with. LOL! Not that into football. Will probably just eat and watch the commercials. LOL! I actually work with Cars.com and already got to preview our game day commercial so I'll be pretty curious to see everyone else's. I have the link if anybody else wants a peek - Viddler.com - Cars.com 2010 Superbowl Commercial - Uploaded by nkraft I thought it was pretty good. ]]> Off Topic HappyGirl http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f12/super-bowl-picks-56271.html <![CDATA["Rumors Of My Death..." (Gardenz Own)]]> http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f9/rumors-of-my-death-gardenz-own-56268.html Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:51:38 GMT This content is syndicated via RSS from the blog: Gardenz Own

"...have been greatly exaggerated", to quote Mark Twain.

Like the infamous Pennsylvania groundhog, Punxatawney Phil, or the chipmunks who cohabit my garden along with my resident perennials, we've all been hibernating for the winter. The onset of my dormancy, however, began long before winter's official solstice and may very well prove to be more protracted than Phil's, the chipmunks' or my garden's perennials'.


Frosty white blankets shroud the garden benches that await my return.









For the duration and until my gardening spirit is motivated to rest upon those benches once again and seek solace, respite and renewal of hope with Spring's promise, my only outdoor forays consist of the care, feeding and enjoyment of my faithful feathered and furried garden charges who persist through winter's and Life's harsh realities and encourage me to persist as well.

To proffer another quote, this time from Monty Python:"We ain't dead. We's just restin".


(Disregard "Read More")


Read More at Gardenz Own... ]]> Gardening Around the Web Gardenz Own http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f9/rumors-of-my-death-gardenz-own-56268.html Hi! http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f11/hi-56266.html Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:38:05 GMT Hello. I'm new to the board. My name is Jaycee and live in sunny California. I'm a mother of two, but also work part-time with Cars.com. Ready to chat, share and meet some people. ]]> Introductions HappyGirl http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f11/hi-56266.html The birds know http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f9/the-birds-know-56265.html Mon, 01 Feb 2010 10:39:03 GMT This content is syndicated via RSS from the blog: KeeWee's Garden

I shot this video just outside our front door. There was a huge flock of both starlings and red winged blackbirds, sharing the trees surrounding our house, as they sang their songs, hoping to attract a mate. Whenever I hear so many birds singing at one time, I know Spring is not too far away.




Read More at KeeWee's Garden... ]]> Gardening Around the Web http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f9/the-birds-know-56265.html Treeideas for 4th floor rooftop/Chicago? http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f5/treeideas-for-4th-floor-rooftop-chicago-56264.html Sun, 31 Jan 2010 23:01:18 GMT Hello,

Any ideas for trees that would do well on our 4th floor rooftop deck in Chicago?

Ideally, we'd like something that can do well in a large woolypocket (Knoll - $133.00 : Zen Cart!, The Art of E-commerce). It would need to spend the winter outside, but we would be able to protect it by moving it into a slightly more sheltered area and/or covering it as needed.

Thank you! ]]> Urban Gardening Onepot http://www.thegrowspot.com/know/f5/treeideas-for-4th-floor-rooftop-chicago-56264.html