Rainy garden show-off

[Mandy Onderwater]

I've been loving everyone else's gardens, but haven't given an update on mine. We've had a couple dark, rainy days sp forgive the photo quality.

I am currently a container gardener, and the plants that I put in the ground are a first-time try ever for me.

I call some plants "experiments" as they are my learning plants. I put them in different situations to see what happens and I don't expect them to survive necessarily. This is all part of my way of learning and so far it's helped me tons in keeping other plants alive for many years now. It's also part of me simply enjoying my garden, rather than having high expectations from it.

The pictures aren't necessarily in the right order as there are so many. Please forgive the mess, haha.

 

[TNTreehugger]

I've been loving everyone else's gardens, but haven't given an update on mine. We've had a couple dark, rainy days sp forgive the photo quality.

I am currently a container gardener, and the plants that I put in the ground are a first-time try ever for me.

I call some plants "experiments" as they are my learning plants. I put them in different situations to see what happens and I don't expect them to survive necessarily. This is all part of my way of learning and so far it's helped me tons in keeping other plants alive for many years now. It's also part of me simply enjoying my garden, rather than having high expectations from it.

The pictures aren't necessarily in the right order as there are so many. Please forgive the mess, haha.


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I am speechless - and green with envy! You may be young, but you definitely have the green thumbs of a Master Gardener!

The pineapple!!
The lemonade tree blooms!! (I have GOT to find some for myself)
Everything looks lush, green, and healthy!
And the tomatoes!
I watched Mark's video on tomato seedlings yesterday, and how he planted whole tomatoes.
I've got to give that a try, too.

I love what you did with the water bottles! Just this week I experimented with one of mine for some African Violet cuttings... I made a mini terrarium.

And, I also have great luck with orchids. "They" say to cut off the flower stalk after the blooms fade, but I don't cut them until they start to fade from green to brown - they can and likely will produce new blooms from the next node down on the stalk... multiple times even.

My inside plants (all in one window getting morning sun) are violets, orchids, two different Hoya plants, and a big crown of thorns.

Your collection is Amazing!!
How much area do you have to work with?
You said you have a problem with weeds... looks like maybe you could lay down cardboard and cover with mulch and make your entire backyard a garden, just strategically place stepping stones so you can walk through and get to everything?

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I would say I started gardening around 2 years ago. I've had the odd plant here and there, but I never really took care of them so they often died. And then Woolworths came out with some action where you got a little pot with seeds with every $20 spend or something. I grew a tomato which... well... did alright. Looked rather sickly though, so I gave up for a little bit. And then my partner convinced me to buy a bag of soil and some seeds from Bunnings and try again. And here we are today.
Turns out that my tomato did so poorly because just digging some dirt from the garden and dumping it into a pot is not a great way to go. Yikes. Now I've got plants that are literally refusing to die. I didn't showcase it but I have a cherry tomato plant creeping and crawling throughout all my pots. I grew it intentionally, but decided I didn't like the taste so I cut it at the base and removed the pot to plant something else in it. It decided to sprout new roots from the stem straight into the ground, and now I can't get rid of it. I keep pinching the tomatoes open and leaving them on a plank high up so the birds may snack on them.

I've killed plenty of plants, but as you may have seen I garden mostly for joy. I don't need it to give me great produce, though it feels really satisfying when I can snack from my garden. I find that I really enjoy "experimenting", and testing out new things. My biggest joy is growing a new plant from a cutting and propagating it. My houseplants have only been a recent thing (think 4 or 5 months ago), because I wanted to liven up the house. ANd I'm hoping to keep propagating from them to make more and more plants. It's like a plant addiciton, haha.
I do this with edible plants too, having many successes with tomato plants.

What you did with the waterbottle I have done too! It actually works really well. I've started some plants that way as I could keep them in sunlight without worrying that they would dry too quickly. It's such an amazing way to recycle. I re-use them too, they last surprisingly long. I haven't had to replace any yet.

This is my first ever orchid. It was gifted to me about 1,5 months ago. I'm not sure what to do, but it seems like the tip has new buds growing, so if I had cut the stem those wouldn't have grown! I actually may have forgotten to water it so when I took the picture I watered it for the second time since I got it. Most of the moss was rather dry, but the plant still seemed pretty happy. I've got it sitting on a table in the shade outside, as per granddad's suggestion.

Sadly the biggest (and most sun catching window) is actually with the loo! And the windowsill is too skinny to fit anything, so no luck there. Ah well. I have considered getting grow lights as my 2nd indoor plant looks rather sad; perhaps because it gets no light at all. I think I should move it elsewhere.

Since I technically live on granddad's property there is actually a ton of ground to work with. Most of it is for the two pet cows he/we have though. It's very lumpy and bumpy down the back, so the cows help keep the grass down.
I've been thinking of turning an area behind the house into a proper garden with raised beds. It's right next to the septic tank though, so I'll have to look up if that could cause problems or not. Currently it's being ravaged by 2m tall guinnea grass and we've already tried cutting it, burning it and poisoning it. It just keeps coming back. Now I'm trying to figure out how to let the cows up there so they could maybe wreck some havock in there. My biggest issue is then ensuring they don't escape or figure out how to keep getting into there even after I don't want to. Hmm.

 

[TNTreehugger]

All my orchids came in a pot just like yours. The newest addition, the one with yellow blooms, I moved to the larger container last weekend... simply moved the other three to one side and set the new one in a space on the end. Took it outside and gave the roots a good soaking, then drained out all excess water and brought back in. NEVER put them in full sun, the leaves will burn up. I made that mistake years ago and lost several nice plants.
Some are at least five years old and are still in the medium they came in, haven't fertilized at all or added new medium. I water all my house plants with plain tap water from the kitchen faucet.

You can see from the photos all the new growth at the roots and new flower buds forming in just a week.
The bottom of the container has pea gravel and sphagnum moss in it. I water about once a week, but go by the weight of the container - if it feels light, I add enough water to soak the moss.
Idk why, but orchids are easy for me to grow and at least one or another are always blooming year-round.
Right now there is one new flower stalk growing up from the bottom, and new flower clusters emerging from two existing stalks that have already bloomed.

I would suggest repotting yours. When you take it out of the pot you will see how root-bound it is. All of the roots don't need to be contained - in fact mine are growing like the hair on cousin IT (from Addams Family )

 

[TNTreehugger]

After looking at the photos I posted, I noticed two more flower stems sprouting - one from the tip of the yellow flower stalk and the other at the tip of another that has previously bloomed. Don't cut those stalks off until they look brown and dead!

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I'll have to have a look when I've got some time. I think it's on a pot with spaghnum moss at the moment, I did notice some roots as it's in a clear pot when I watered it.

 

[Darrieb]

Mandy,
That garden of yours is gorgeous! Only two years?!! Definitely got a double set of green thumbs on ya, girlie!

A couple of things to note for you, especially as you're a newbie at this stuff... Lemon Balm, Dill and Oregano will all quite happily take over your yard if you let them. The volunteers will be everywhere ... cracks, other pots, containers, garden beds... you name it. They'll be there. Garlic chives are almost worse, but, not quite as bad as the Lemon Balm. Anise Hyssop is another one.

The mint will also take over and be hard to get rid of if you plant it in the garden instead of a container. The runners are very prolific and quite happily make their way deeply embedding themselves hither and yon. Keep 'em in pots and make sure you prune the escapees regularly!

On another note... You have a Phalaenopsis orchid. Likely a winter bloomer. Phal's are ephiphitic plants, meaning that in the wild, they live attached to trees, not in soil. Watering should be done when the plant needs it, as in the roots are all silvery dry, the medium feels dry to the touch or the weight of the pot tells you it's dried out. Folks vary on how much or what kind of fertilizer to use, but, generally speaking orchids need little to none except for Calcium and Magnesium during active growth.

Now, as to that flower spike... IF you let it stay on and re-flower, @TNTreehugger is correct... that's perfectly fine. You may get a keiki (baby clone plant) or you may get more flowers. If it does flower again, it won't be as much of a show as the initial flowering was, but, it'll still have the wow factor. If you cut it off after the first flush of blooms have finished, you'll get a better show next year - and yes, most Phals bloom only once a year... unless you have a summer bloomer like @TNTreehugger has. The key to stimulate new blooms for the "winter" Phals is a drop in temperature for about 2 weeks in late fall/early winter. Say from 25C to 15C. This will trigger the plant to shift into flower production mode. For "summer" or "eternally blooming" Phals, it's the warming temperatures that trigger the spikes, and they can bloom for months! The summer bloomers are also the most frequent to be found with a scent and it's usually lovely.

Anyways, I could go on for days about orchids so I'll stop here! Let me know if you have any questions!!

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I'm not at home so I'd love to answer to this better at a later date, but I did take a picture of my orchid yesterday. Admittedly I did only water it the daybefore, so don't be too surprised that it looks quite wet. When I watered most of the moss had dried.
I don't think it's rootbound, but I might be an amateur. There are no roots tipping out the top or the bottom.

 

[TNTreehugger]

I'm not at home so I'd love to answer to this better at a later date, but I did take a picture of my orchid yesterday. Admittedly I did only water it the daybefore, so don't be too surprised that it looks quite wet. When I watered most of the moss had dried.
I don't think it's rootbound, but I might be an amateur. There are no roots tipping out the top or the bottom.
View attachment 7704

Nope. not at all rootbound.
When I bought mine, the roots had filled the clear plastic container. had grown out the holes at the bottom, and were growing back up between the two pots.
Yours looks good.

 

[Darrieb]

Agreed! No rootbound to be found! Looks like it's planted in straight Sphagnum moss. That's fine except it is very prone to algae. Keep it (the moss) well-shaded and water it when the sphag sounds crunchy. Sphag moss is a natural wicking agent, so any water you introduce to the pot will be distributed equally throughout. You don't need to wet it all, it'll take care of that itself.

And @TNTreehugger Out the holes and back up between the pots?! Sounds like one very happy orchid!!

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Cheers on the tips that those plants spready so much @Darrieb . I didn't know dill and oregano were that bad too! The only plant that I planted "in ground" is the spearmint that I've got. It's in a "mini raised pot" as I've cut the bottom off of a broken plastic nursry pot. Whenever it gets out of hand I simply put the whippersnipper on it though. I did notice it's a very hardy plant and it'll grow like crazy when I water it. For some reason it absolutely loves having wet feet.
I was actually interested in growing Anyse Hyssop, but I don't know where to get it. I couldn't find it in our local Bunnings sadly.

I think we actually may have orchids (or whatever they are) growing on two of our trees. I've never seen them flower, though I don't frequently check them either. They've been there for longer than I have.

Our water comes from a bore, which is ridiculously high in calcium (you don't want to know what the shower looks like). Is that sufficient for the plants? I water all of them with this water, and I haven't seen any issues so far.
My orchid was flowering when we god it (month and a half ago) and it's got new buds on the tip of it which suggest to me that they might flower again. I'm excited to see what'll happen.
Since about a week ago, temperatures have rised significantly. We had an average of 10C at night, but not it's more towards 15C. Which may not seem like much to some, but it also means that daytime temperatures have been significantly higher. My lettuce has bolted and I've noticed some plants (like my Roma tomatoes) have started fruiting.

Cheers to both of you for helping me out with the orchid! It indeed seems like it was in pure spaghnum moss, and I'd actually watered it aaaaall the way through, as I would often do with most of my pots that have holes on the bottom. Good to know that that's not needed. Perhaps I should take it out of it's stone pot so there's some airflow at the bottom where the holes are...
P.S: This orchid came from a local supermarket so I was happily surprised it's doing so well. I don't usually expect much from supermarket bought plants; when walking through the store it always annoys me that they aren't getting the care they need and are often bone-dry.

 

[Darrieb]

Hi, @Mandy Onderwater!!! You are most welcome! I'm glad I could give you a heads-up on those. (I failed to mention Chamomile is another one. Literally thousands of seeds per flower, so it's another one to watch!) As for the Anise Hyssop? Are there any good online herb seed companies there in Oz? I bet they carry it! And it sprouts very easily from seed if it likes the conditions. I had one I bought as a young plant. Within a couple of years, I had at least a dozen and routinely pulled them out after that. The birds LOVE it tho, especially in the winter, so, I was loathe to remove too much of it.

If you get a picture of the possible two orchids, I may be able to help you identify what species they are so you can maybe provide some care for them. Your choice tho! The change in temperature may be why your new orchid is re-flowering, but, it may also trigger something in those two in the trees as well. Hard to know until they're identified a bit better.

As for your water... the short answer is no. The calcium in your tap water is not a good resource for your orchid, simply because it's the wrong type for almost any plant that doesn't grow in soil to use. I'm linking here a gentleman who was a wonderful source of knowledge about this sort of thing. Sadly, he passed a couple of years ago, but, his family has adhered to his wishes and kept his Youtube channel available for anyone to see.

Orchids...Tap water - If you don't want to watch him tour his orchid room, skip ahead to ~4:00. But, do wait for the part ~:36 when he shows the impact using the right type of calcium can have on new growth. It's only a ten-minute video, but, he's very good at explaining why tap water isn't the best idea for long-term care of your orchid. Let me know if you have any questions after watching it! Also, know that if you're the curious type, like I am, he can open a rabbit hole into knowledge you never knew you wanted to have! Lol!! And, remember... orchids are epiphytes. They LIKE to be dry. Just not indefinitely. The important thing to remember is that they need both water AND air. Taking it out of the stone pot is a good idea, more because then you can better see what's happening with the roots and stop any problems before they start! Bone dry isn't bad, as long as it doesn't go on for too long!

P.S. With the change in your temps, you may also see a new spike forming on your Phal. Don't be surprised..! It looks kinda like a green mitten forming, as opposed to the arrow shape with the silver collar of a root, and usually starts beneath the upper two leaves. It may, it may not. Depends on how happy the orchid is! Also depends on how many nutrients it's gotten in the past year or so. We shall see..!

I'm off to respond to your other post!

See ya!

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I haven't bought any seeds online yet as I could usually find what I want in local nurseries and Bunnings, but some more specific (or unusual) things can be quite hard to find. We do have birds in the area, so hopefully they'd keep their beaks off of it, haha. But then again... I love seeing the birds too.
We've also got a tree growing that attracts Ulysses butterflies, I've got to repot it yet though. We had two, but one died after both got swarmed by aphids. I eventually had to basically poison the whole plant because no matter what I did, they came back. Very frustrating.

I've only got the one orchid (as pictured above). Perhaps I worded something incorrectly.
The video is very interesting! A lot of information that I didn't know. Now let's home my brain can retain it... haha.
I always messed with the two orchid my mom had in the windowsill back in the Netherlands. They'd get full morning sun and always did really well. They'd get replaced every 2 years or so, just because of lack of space and my mom was gifted some new ones every once in a while. I'd always be poking at them, splashing water towards them and play with the roots that came out over the pot. They never showed signs of damage or struggle that I, as a then non-gardener, noticed.

I should get to repotting, but life has gotten rather busy as someone hit my (parked) car and now refuses to pick up their phone. Sigh...

 

[DThille]

This has been a learning thread….

Your tomatoes look much like ours in the country…a thick enough bramble to make picking challenging.

I’d be tempted to see if I could find a pot that will fit that narrow windowsill, or set up a hanging pot / pots near that sunniest window. A bathroom tends to be a humid room, which can be positive for some plants. Also, as they exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen and filter out some indoor pollutants, having indoor plants is positive, especially with the prevalence of synthetic materials in our homes off-gassing.

Keep up the good work!

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Haha yeah!

Well, this is my first time growing Roma tomatoes and they are very bushy and relatively small. I previously have grown tomatoes that would just grow, and grow, and grow... and then grow some more. I suppose that might be the difference between determined and indeterminate. I think I could cut away most of the leaves at the bottom and it'd do well, but frankly I've abandoned those tomato plants for weeks, maybe months and I've not taken care of them very well. When they were about to die I put them in the ground as an experiment and.. well, abandoned them again since. The only thing I've done is sometimes hang my leaking hose near the tomatoes so they get the runoff from that.
I've noticed it's got lots of fruit, though nothing (except for 1) has turned red yet. I'm interested to see if they all turn red at a similar time, or if it continues to fruit and ripen at different stages and continue for a length of time. I've not looked anything up regarding Roma tomatoes as I'm trying to learn from what I see, rather than be ruled by expectations.

I can keep things in small pots and jars, but the second it outgrows them, they have to be moved. On top of that, now that the temperatures are rising, the window will be covered by a curtain non-stop as the lavatory becomes a hot sauna otherwise.
It's the same curtain as on this window, and a similar windowsill. A thing to note is that those jars are really small jars from applesauce. The windowsill itself is probably about 5cm deep, so it's definitely a challenge. Also when I wish to retain the option to open the sliding window, which is on the inside so a bar will sometimes swoop the sill. It's been a fun challenge though.

 

[DThille]

Something like a small potted succulent may work on the sill…my daughter has some in 2” pots.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Good thinking!

 

[Darrieb]

I haven't bought any seeds online yet as I could usually find what I want in local nurseries and Bunnings, but some more specific (or unusual) things can be quite hard to find. We do have birds in the area, so hopefully they'd keep their beaks off of it, haha. But then again... I love seeing the birds too.

The birds don't bother the plant. They just love the seeds! Especially the little birds like the chickadees. They're adorable! Do you have any similar species down there in Oz?

We've also got a tree growing that attracts Ulysses butterflies, I've got to repot it yet though. We had two, but one died after both got swarmed by aphids. I eventually had to basically poison the whole plant because no matter what I did, they came back. Very frustrating.

Aphids can be extremely frustrating! The most effective treatment I've found is simply 2-3ml of ordinary liquid dish soap in a liter of water. Spray them daily and they'll soon be gone! The key is to keep up the spraying because I don't think this method works on the eggs... so you gotta catch 'em when they hatch.

I've only got the one orchid (as pictured above). Perhaps I worded something incorrectly.

You'd said you had a couple of plants growing on the trees... that they'd been there longer than you were, possibly they were orchids. I think my brain did something silly with that and decided they were orchids.

I should get to repotting, but life has gotten rather busy as someone hit my (parked) car and now refuses to pick up their phone. Sigh...

UGH! So sorry! I hope this gets a good resolution for you... and SOON!!!

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I'm not sure! I'm still getting the hang on gardening (and what everything is). But we do have a couple small birds that make these amazing little hanging nests. I've not been able to snap a good picture as they're quite skittish. Maybe I should ask granddad, but he's been having a couple of "bad days" so I doubt he remembers their name now.

To get rid of the aphids I actually retorted to using some liquid ant poison, that I poured all over the stem of the tree and on the soil. This tree just attracts aphids like flies. Any other plant I just jet them off with some water and they don't really return. But this tree, I could do all the jetting I want and they'd come back tripled.

I'll snap a picture of the plants on the trees if I remember. Perhaps you could give me some insight. I've never seen them flower or anything like that, but admittedly I also didn't take care of them (if I have to at all - not a clue).

Yeah I hope so too. RIght now it's a waiting game between insurance, panel beaters, and so on. I had already filed a police rapport, but now insurance was able to track down the adress to which the car is registered. Turns out he was the owner of the car (he said it was a mate's car). If I am correct insurance will handle most from here, but it's an agonising wait. We were actually getting everything ready for a big holiday (my family will be visiting for 3 weeks, I haven't seen them in 3,5 years!) so this is a bit of a bummer to happen now of all times.
But the car drives still, so we gotta take the positives with the punches (or however that saying goes).
Cheers.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Just snipped another picture of my orchid. Definitely blooming a second time