Gardening Thread

Well, I worked for a plant nursery for over six years (and I am Mexican. Get it They work on lawns and gardens. No?) so I guess I could I can try and answer and basic questions if they arrise.

That's cool, what all did you do at the nursery?

I too have spent the past 10 years in the retail, wholesale and personal gardener industry. I used to have my own business called [I]Growin' Crazy[/I] in which I was both a personal gardener and also a teacher of perennial gardening.

I am also a plant collector, hosta mainly. I have 53 different varieties of hosta including a one of a kind sport developed in my garden. I'm in the process of naming it and patenting it, but the patent is pretty expensive to obtain.

I'm knowledgeable of many plants that can be grown from zone 4 north, but my main interests lie in shade gardening.

Now Frank, do you/did you deal primarily with nursery stock or bedding plants?

I actually was a manager at the now defunct nursery chain called Frank's Nursery (name is just a coincidence). I did everything from unloading trucks full of trees, bushes, perennials, annuals, landscape cover, etc. to assisitng with lawn problems (like fungus, clovers, poor soil, grubs) and even lanscape ideas.

I dealt with both nursery stock and bedding plants. I am a few years removed from this practice but still can recall alot of what I learned.

[QUOTE=Smartazboy]I actually was a manager at the now defunct nursery chain called Frank's Nursery (name is just a coincidence). I did everything from unloading trucks full of trees, bushes, perennials, annuals, landscape cover, etc. to assisitng with lawn problems (like fungus, clovers, poor soil, grubs) and even lanscape ideas.

I dealt with both nursery stock and bedding plants. I am a few years removed from this practice but still can recall alot of what I learned.[/QUOTE]
Ah, the retail industry. I loved working in this gret little garden center in Monticello called Musall's Lawn and Garden. I was perennial and nusery stock manager, but the best part was working with the customers. From here I could help them design their gardens, and then they'd invite me over to see the end result. It was very satisfying. The ironic thing here is that the majority of these customers were from Chicago. Monticello is a small tourist town with an amusement park called Indiana Beach, and most of the summer homes there were owned by out-of-towners from Chicago. **you guys have a strange accent** But, boy, can they spend the money!

I don't work in the industry anymore, but I do still care for the very large gardens that make up my yard. I keep photos every year of most of the plants to keep track of their growth, and this has been a very good reference for me with my hosta collection. The photos also help me to remember where I transplanted something from the year before. It really sucks to accidently dig up something because you forgot that it was there.

And Mike, you mentioned to me something of container gardening? You can successfully grow lots of veggies in containers. Just make sure that you have a large enough pot to accomudate their root system. Tomatoes will need a 5 gallon container at the minimum. So be prepared to have very large containers and don't use clay pots if you can avoid it. They are too porus and will dry out very quickly causing you to need to water them 2-3 times a day come July.

this is a nice thread. i want to work out some window boxes this year. i'm a little nervous that my cat will eat my plants, though. she eats EVERYTHING. my mom brought over a daffodil yesterday, and i had to send it away pronto.

[QUOTE=Cindy Weston]
I don't work in the industry anymore, but I do still care for the very large gardens that make up my yard. I keep photos every year of most of the plants to keep track of their growth, and this has been a very good reference for me with my hosta collection. The photos also help me to remember where I transplanted something from the year before. It really sucks to accidently dig up something because you forgot that it was there.[/QUOTE]
Thats very interesting about your hostas. Thats one of the plants I would recommend the most since they thrived just about anywhere, well in more shady areas, anyways. I was a fan of the varigated variety as well as the blue hostas.
My mother loved that i was employed there. She liked that I was able to get her plants and flowers at a discount.
Also, Indiana Beach is always fun, because as the singing blackbird used to say, "There's more than corn in Indiana."

[QUOTE=vidalia]this is a nice thread. i want to work out some window boxes this year. i'm a little nervous that my cat will eat my plants, though. she eats EVERYTHING. my mom brought over a daffodil yesterday, and i had to send it away pronto.[/QUOTE]
the best method to keep my cats aways from the plants it to pick them up show them the plant and then tell them in a firm voice that it's not for kitties, sometimes I will still comehome to a flower torn up on the floor though, so to be safe make sure to have plants that are not poisonous to cats

[QUOTE=mr_hash]the best method to keep my cats aways from the plants it to pick them up show them the plant and then tell them in a firm voice that it's not for kitties, sometimes I will still comehome to a flower torn up on the floor though, so to be safe make sure to have plants that are not poisonous to cats[/QUOTE]
i've been doing that with my ankles, and it's not a winning method for this little number over here. she's immune to the law.

[QUOTE=Smartazboy]Thats very interesting about your hostas. Thats one of the plants I would recommend the most since they thrived just about anywhere, well in more shady areas, anyways. I was a fan of the varigated variety as well as the blue hostas.
My mother loved that i was employed there. She liked that I was able to get her plants and flowers at a discount.[/QUOTE]
I also enjoyed the discounts, but most people called me the palnt nurse and my car was the ambulance. I took home whatever wasn't doing well at the nursery and made it all better (most of the time). I'm a poor gardener, so if I can get them free then I will gladly take them home. But I am also a friendly gardener, and if you come to my house this summer you will not leave empty handed! I love to share.

Because of the "poor" part I've taught myself everything I know really. I know most forms of propagation from seeds to dividion to cuttings (cuttings are my ideal). I know some about tissue culture, but don't have the environment to take on that kind of task. Someday, when I get my own greenhouse, I will have a tissue propagation room.

As for the hostas...........I love them so much that if they were to be taken from my yard I would call in a theft report! If we were to move from this house.........shit, I'd have to have a seperate U-Haul to get them out of here! Most of my hosta have come from my own propagation. Very few of them were baught as potted plants.I have developed my own little process of propagating them that many said couldn't be done, but I have about a 75% success rate with it.

You know, although a hosta is easy to grow, the farther south you go with them the less chance you have of successfully getting them to live through the summer. But the same goes for a tulip down there. You Southerners may be able to plant earlier than us, but you have to put you tulip bulbs in the refigerator every year. We just leave ours in the ground. But you can grow a nice big aloe in your back yard and I have to bring my tiny little one in every fall. There are pros and cons to the warmer and cooler zones in our country.

[QUOTE=Cindy Weston]And Mike, you mentioned to me something of container gardening? You can successfully grow lots of veggies in containers. Just make sure that you have a large enough pot to accomudate their root system. Tomatoes will need a 5 gallon container at the minimum. So be prepared to have very large containers and don't use clay pots if you can avoid it. They are too porus and will dry out very quickly causing you to need to water them 2-3 times a day come July.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I'm wanting to grow tomatoes, plum in particular. I was thinking of getting a couple nice, large clay pots, for tomatoes and maybe peppers. The herbs can probably just stay in smaller pots or containers.

Considering I'm going to be eating these, got any advice on making a good batch of soil?

i started planting back in october.

since the ground is still hard i cant start my vegetable garden- or really anything else- but i do have all my fresh herbs setting themselves up on top of my refrigerator.
cherry tomatos, hot peppers, bell peppers, eggplant, pumpkins, gourds, beefsteak tomatos, cucumbers, spinach, chamomile, apples.... all part of my garden.

and i just saw the little daffydowndillies peaking out the other day.

im so excited.

[QUOTE=Undertow]

Considering I'm going to be eating these, got any advice on making a good batch of soil?[/QUOTE]
2parts peat moss, 1 part perilite. Don't forget to mix in some good time release fertilizer like Osmacote, or something similar.

Now, DO NOT put them in clay pots!!!! Get a good plastic one that looks like clay if that's the look your going for, but do bypass the clay. Besides that, a 5 gallon clay pot can be pretty heavy too.

And, tomatoes need staking, so get a nice trellis that will fit into the pot that is about 3-4 feet tall. This works well with cucumbers in pots too.

Peppers of all kinds grow fine in pots too.

[QUOTE=Cindy Weston]2parts peat moss, 1 part perilite. Don't forget to mix in some good time release fertilizer like Osmacote, or something similar.

Now, DO NOT put them in clay pots!!!! Get a good plastic one that looks like clay if that's the look your going for, but do bypass the clay. Besides that, a 5 gallon clay pot can be pretty heavy too.

And, tomatoes need staking, so get a nice trellis that will fit into the pot that is about 3-4 feet tall. This works well with cucumbers in pots too.

Peppers of all kinds grow fine in pots too.[/QUOTE]

I will keep that in mind. Thanks! As for the pot, I don't care what it looks like as long as it holds dirt and grows my veggies.

[QUOTE=Undertow]I will keep that in mind. Thanks! As for the pot, I don't care what it looks like as long as it holds dirt and grows my veggies.[/QUOTE]
that's good, because if you use clay, then you'll be watering it so much and you'll actually have a hard time keeping it wet. July heat will suck the water right out the sides of the pot.

Ok, so it's spring here now, finally! About 3 days a week I spend working in the gardens and I've just about got them all cleaned up. Some are even mulched in. It's nice to know that the big work is behind me when it comes to the gardens, but I know that it will never be completely finished. No garden can be [B]done[/B] so to speak, because they are constantly growing (or dying, it happens) and this leads to constant care. I love all the steps to this process. I love creating a new bed (mine are rarely ever smaller than 300 sq. ft.), planting it, watching it's progress through out its first year, and then uncovering it again the next spring just to see what is coming up first. This is what I've been doing here at home this spring, and I'm very satisfied with the way my newest bed is coming along now that it has come through its first winter.
I always have this small glimmer of hope that I will see my favorite genus of plant this time of year, but I know it's too soon for it to even consider emerging from the soil. It will come soon enough, and when it does it will dominate nearly all of my gardens. My favorite is the hosta, and as I mentioned before, I have 53 varieties that inhabit this shady land I call my gardens.

What is your favorite plant (pot doesn't count although it is one stately and majestic plant when it is mature)?

Hosta: Moonlight Sonata
[IMG]http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y55/c_w_daisy/MoonlightSonata5-20-04sml.jpg[/IMG]
In the upper right is another hosta (variagated green and white) called Night Before Christmas. To the lower right is a gold leaf of another called Gold Standard. The silver that appears to be speckled all about is Whie Nancy Lamium which is a fantastic ground cover that I will never do without.

I'm not really a gardener - I actually kill most of my plants. But I can remember when I was little one of my favorite things in Spril was looking at all the seed packets and helping my mom pick out what we would be planting that year.

[QUOTE=dzudzu]I'm not really a gardener - I actually kill most of my plants. But I can remember when I was little one of my favorite things in Spril was looking at all the seed packets and helping my mom pick out what we would be planting that year.[/QUOTE]
Oh, I love doing that. And nice avatar.

Stick everything you love (plantwise) in a plot of earth and let it go wild if some stuff gets choked pull it out, move it or toss it. thats my gardening technique.

[QUOTE=morey]Stick everything you love (plantwise) in a plot of earth and let it go wild if some stuff gets choked pull it out, move it or toss it. thats my gardening technique.[/QUOTE]
In a nutshell, that's about all it is really.

Water the fuck outta them, because if you don't they will die. That's how Leon died. That's my plants name, Leon. He's dead now of course.

[QUOTE=Cindy Weston]In a nutshell, that's about all it is really.[/QUOTE]Sure but some (most) people are all anal about it and have these shit looking gardens.

[QUOTE=morey]Sure but some (most) people are all anal about it and have these shit looking gardens.[/QUOTE]
I have the philosophy that if it doesn't make it a year then it simply wasn't meant to be there. But sometimes I like the plant so much that I will struggle along with it just to keep the scraggily looking thing alive well past it's short life. I can't stand to watch them die. Now, if they just don't come back the next year then most of the time it's "out of sight out of mind"

[QUOTE=Mr. Brown]Water the fuck outta them, because if you don't they will die. That's how Leon died. That's my plants name, Leon. He's dead now of course.[/QUOTE]Unless they're tropical, then you can over water them and kill em that way. or cactus

I now have a tomato plant. Hopefully herbs and some peppers will follow and dominate my porch.

Over the summer I built my SO a garden in the yard with 8X8's. I basically stacked them on top of one another then bolted with braces, then cut a few for the sides making a box coming out from my garage wall. then got some rocks on the bottom for drainage and 2 yards of some good garden dirt. Its about 24" high, 16' long and comes out about 3' from a wall. So far we have some flourishing Swiss Chard, some Rosemary, Time, Sage, and some shallots started to spring up now.