The fascinating transformation from a tomato slice to a thriving seedling in this time-lapse. ???? pic.twitter.com/DkwvxQ3NPj
— Tansu YEGEN (@TansuYegen) September 19, 2023
Been saving this video clip as a Keep hope alive! reminder, and a weekend when much of the country is under a winter storm seemed like a good time to share it.
Also, an intriguing article from the Washington Post — “Indoor houseplants come with a cost to the planet. Here’s how to minimize it”:
There are plenty of benefits to raising indoor houseplants: They beautify your home or office, they have been correlated with lower levels of stress and anxiety, and they may slightly improve air quality.
But, ironically, greening indoor spaces can also come at an environmental cost. The trucks that transport plants spew carbon emissions, plastic pots and synthetic fertilizers are made from petroleum and the harvesting of soil components like peat can tear up slow-forming habitats.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t grow potted plants, according to Susan Pell, the director of the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C. But she has a few tips for minimizing the environmental harm of indoor gardening…
Find plants locally
Before you order a trendy plant you spotted in an Instagram ad or even take a trip to your local nursery, take a moment to think about where those plants come from.“A lot of major nursery suppliers are located in Florida and in California,” Pell said. Depending on where you live, that can be a long way for a plant to travel in the back of a truck — and a lot of carbon emitted along the way.
To save some money and carbon emissions, Pell suggests looking for local plant swaps or garden clubs in your area, which are often organized online or on social media sites. Other gardeners are often happy to give you cuttings of their own plants, which you can propagate and grow into plants of your own…
Sustainable soils
One of the least sustainable soil components is peat, a rich brown substance formed from partially decayed plant matter at the bottom of bogs and other wetlands. Gardening guides recommend using peat as part of the soil mix for many plants because it retains water and adds structure to the soil…Pell recommends trying out peat alternatives, like coconut coir or biochar, which also retain water in soil mix with less of the environmental baggage. Your local nursery or garden center may sell peat-free potting mix…
Pick your plants wisely
Don’t just pick a plant for its looks. You should choose house plants based on the conditions in your home — such as light and humidity — as well as your level of experience and commitment to gardening…Some plants need bright, sunny windows and others need plenty of humidity. If you put the wrong plant in your dim, north-facing window or above your apartment’s radiator, you may need to use a UV lamp or a humidifier to keep it alive, which will cost you money and use extra electricity. Or, you may simply kill your plant, wasting all the resources that went into bringing it into your home…
If you have a plant that’s in distress, Pell invites you to call the U.S. Botanic Garden plant hotline: 202-226-4785.
Pell is the director of the U.S. Botanical Garden, and yes, they do have a plant hotline, and also a page on their website:
You can send us your plant questions by selecting the “Plant Hotline” option in the form below. If you want to email photos of a plant for identification or to show a plant health issue, email the photos to [email protected].
I’ll admit, my first reaction was to roll my eyes… but then, our indoor plants are a row of weedy pelargoniums descended from garden cuttings, some of the 25 years old. But it seems like this information might be useful to some of you!
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We’re currently in the middle of our first snow event of the season. Therefore, the Spousal Unit & I spent the first part of the weekend scurrying to relocate the (heavy, frozen) tomato rootpouches & clean up fallen leaves from our driveway, so that the car could be relocated to the paved ‘pulloff’ that serves as my tomato garden every summer, giving our contracted snowplow guy space to clear the driveway properly. And, of course, I’m rethinking whether it’s worth the labor of growing our own tomatoes… or, at least, looking into wheeled dollys for next year’s plants.
Anybody got suggestions on a dolly big enough for a 20gallon planter that won’t break the bank?
What’s going on in your gardens (indoor / retrospective / planning), this week?
Pete Mack
Take cuttings from friends, or clones when spreading plants are repotted. Wild plants are trickier, because you may end up with jumping worm or something similar.
eclare
That time-lapse is fascinating, thank you Anne Laurie.
lowtechcyclist
IOW, it’s just like everything else these days.
raven
The Growers Outlet in Loganville, GA. I cannot testify as to where they get all their plants by my wife makes the 50 mile (round trip) there quite a bit.
Charluckles
I’m really happy with my Rubbermaid construction and landscape dolly. I used it for moving large planters as well. It wasn’t cheap but now the neighbors know I have it so they borrow it as well. It’s been a worthwhile purchase.
raven
@Charluckles: We have on old hand truck but , damn, that looks good.
NotMax
Better delivered by truck than by meteor.
;)
eclare
About the dolly, can you rent one from Home Depot or Lowe’s? I have no idea about the cost of renting vs buying.
satby
Anne, I have an old fashioned hand truck I use that I don’t even remember how I acquired. But if I was looking today, I’d get this for the convertible handle. It would let me move more than one pot at a time.
satby
It’s snowing here too, and will off and on for the next few days, occasionally switching to rain on the warmer ones and then back to snow. The week after this is predicted to be frigid, with highs only in the teens. Glad I took that one off from the market too.
Not garden related, but season 3 of Astrid is out. They do such a great, subtle job in portraying the lead character’s humanity with her autism it’s really worth watching.
eclare
@satby:
That show sounds interesting, I’ll have to check it out.
OzarkHillbilly
You can always make a flat one with 4 pieces of 1×4 and dolly wheels from the local hardware store. Stand up dollies are cheap enough. I made an extension for the foot of mine out of plywood for moving larger items and cordwood.
satby
@eclare: It’s so good. In French, so I use subtitles. I just really appreciate the depth of the characters they build, even in peripheral players.
Betty Cracker
Bill is the gardener in the family, but last winter, someone sent me an orchid, and not only did I manage to keep it alive and repot it successfully but now it’s budding out! Very exciting. 😊
Geoduck
My only plant is a fern I’ve been trying to kill for 30 years now, but it refuses to die.
They are threatening snow later in my area, but right now it’s just cold and foggy.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: that’s awesome!
Mrs. Fro has a few orchids that are doing quite well here. She claims it’s because she talks to them every day, but she talks to me every day too, and I’m not blooming. =)
Anne Laurie
@OzarkHillbilly: Actually, we have a couple of proper dollys (& a very handy sledge from Gardener’s Edge), but it’s hard to hump the rootpouches onto them.
Spousal Unit is moderately handy, and I’m gonna have to executive-function on him over the winter, get him to research the *exact perfect* wheels to attach to plywood squares before I refill the pouches next spring.
(One reason our relationship has lasted forty years is that he’s never satisfied with less than a ‘perfect’ solution, and I’m very much ‘whatever’s available *right now* will just have to do’… in the long run, we balance each other out.)
OzarkHillbilly
@Anne Laurie: Heh, I’m more like you but when I build a thing and something is just not quite right, I have to point it out to anybody looking at it.
I guess it bothers me but not enough to do anything about it.
Scout211
AL, we have a small dolly similar to this one. It works well, very sturdy and the handle is collapsible for easy storage. Amazon has several others that are similar. This one is less expensive.
We also have a pot lifter similar to this one that works well if you are moving the large pot a short distance.
ETA: The pot lifter can also save your back as you lift the large pot on and off the dolly.
Geminid
Harbor Freight probably has a decent two wheel, fat-tired dolly at a fairly low price. Ed. Always good to have a strap to secure the pot to the dolly back.
I bought an air plant at the Stanardsville farmers market back in November. It’s a spiny, sea-green ball about 3″ in diameter. Every week or so I slosh it in some water and put it back on the window sill.
The young Mennonite guy I bought it from said the plant would need to be fertilized every couple of months, so I bought a small bag of water-soluble fertilizer along with the opant.. He had about 40 air plants of various types for sale; an interesting small business.
mrmoshpotato
@satby: Pretty sure that’s the one I bought years ago. It’s good. Sturdy construction.
narya
I managed to keep a rosemary plant alive several years ago–and now I have two HUGE plants I grew from cuttings (and the original one is still hanging on). Lately I’ve been taking a bean out of every bag (I’m in the Rancho Gorda bean club) and putting it in one of the bigger pots, and they’ve been growing; one of the plants has even produced beans, thought they’re not ready yet. I am a little surprised, tbh; it’s a south-facing window, but it’s still dark around here this time of year. But it’s also cool: it hasn’t cost me anything more than a bean from a bag. I get “completed” compost from the people who pick up my compost scraps, and I have dirt. I also have a ton of aloe and spider plants, both of which have been around forever, and a kalanchoe that I rescued 20 years ago that is starting to bloom. That is, I do not get in the least bit fancy, but I do like having some greenery around.
Marmot
About the dolly—you can build a skateboard type of thing cheaply. Get a thick piece of plywood and four casters with brakes for each container, and just keep the containers on them all the time.
Jeffg166
I got rid of my house plants over the summer. I sold off the goods one to people who will probably kill them. The rest I put on the street walk wall with a free sign on them.
Gvg
I would get castor wheels and attach them to the bottom of a frame of pt 2x4s for each root pouch. Those things can get heavy, and even moving them onto a dolly could wrench a back. If you have to move them ever, I’d plan from the beginning for them to be permanently mobile. My arthritis is getting worse, and I have good days and bad days which tend to be bad when weather is changing. Weather is never convenient and predictions are never perfect. So I think planning ahead to save labor is the way to go.
harbor freight is one option. So is the local junk yard (they like to call it recycling around here) or Craig’slist.
MelissaM
I just googled and got hits with “pot lifter plant moving dolly” and it’s similar to the “forearm forklift” type straps.
MomSense
@Betty Cracker:
I love orchids. I had some that I had kept alive and blooming for years. Of course my mom put her fingers in the pots, determined they were dry, and then watered them to death Ugh. She was so sneaky about it, too. I kept trying to explain their natural environment and how I water them but she apparently didn’t believe me. The worse they looked the more she watered.
Anyway I’ve given up for now. I’ll start again with new orchids at some point.
Gvg
Trying to get up energy to go to the camellia show. Weather is beautiful again. But mother needs more help weeding in her garden…the Florida betony has taken over one bed and the tubers need digging out.
I have been spending the last month looking at online catalogs. Very bad for me. Picked up my camellia order yesterday morning. I know the show is going to be bad for me too. I am sure to see a few more new ones. Trying to find time to go for a walk in the university garden to see the blooms now.
MomSense
There is a man I follow on Instagram. His name is Armen Adamjan and his handle is something like creative explained. His videos about plants are wonderful. He recently wrote a book which I plan to order once I get settled. If you are on Instagram, check him out.
MagdaInBlack
@narya: I have a big rosemary I bought “pandemic summer” that is doing well. Ruby the Giant Geranium is one I bought for my mother in 2010. I cut her back in the fall, and now have 5 smaller ones from the cuttings. Ruby herself is big enough she got ornaments this Christmas. The Thanksgiving cactus is so old I’ve forgotten when I got it, but it blooms like crazy every year. And aloe…….lets not even talk about how many or how big. They’re impossible to kill, and I have a hard time tossing cuttings, so…….anyone want some aloe ?
narya
@MagdaInBlack: I currently have SIX pots of aloe . . . as well as six spider plants, all of which are extremely pot-bound. Oh–and two snake plants, and a cutting/rooted leaf for a third, waiting for me to get around to planting it. THAT has its origins in finding a single leaf on the ground at a plant sale when I was in college, so it’s, let’s see, at least 40+ years old.
Rosemary can be quite finicky–the ones I bought kept dying, so I tried rooting my own, and that worked. I also remembered to put the new ones in huge pots; transplanting is what seems to kill them for me, so I wanted to avoid that.
Another Scott
@MomSense: I’ve got an old orchid by the patio door, south facing, leaves always seem Ok, but it hasn’t bloomed in years. I recently learned that repotting it in a much bigger pot (as I did years ago) was a bad idea and made it unhappy even though I used the magic orchid potting mix and spray food. They like tiny tight pots, apparently. Who knew??
Temperamental beasties, if you don’t know what you’re doing. ;-)
I’ll repot it again in the spring.
Good luck.
Cheers,
Scott.
MomSense
@Another Scott:
I stopped cutting the stems after they finished blooming because I noticed that several rebloomed from the old stem. I think orchids do best with benign neglect.
I water them in the sink so the water can run completely through before putting them back in the pot. I also add orchid fertilizer to the water every now and then.
schrodingers_cat
Gardeners of New England or those familiar with the weather. What suggestions do you have for dwarf conifers I can plant in front flower beds that will give some color to the yard in winter. The front flower beds are south facing and get full sun.
Thanks.
schrodingers_cat
@MomSense: What orchid fertilizer do you use?
MomSense
@schrodingers_cat:
I bought it at my local garden center. It’s a liquid. Not sure if the brand.
MomSense
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m not crazy about planting conifers around the house especially on a south facing side.
I’ve had to pull out way too many inherited conifer over the years.
schrodingers_cat
@MomSense: What would you suggest for some greenery and color in winter?
MomSense
@schrodingers_cat:
Hard to say without seeing it. I think it’s worth it to find a reputable local nursery. They will sell better quality plants and shrubs and won’t sell invasives like some of the big box stores. They can help you plan your beds and suggest what you need to amend the soil. Good soil is so important.
If you want to do something in the short term you could always plant winter cabbages which have a beautiful shape and provide some lovely purple and green color.
The Ilex family (holly) and boxwoods can be nice in winter but they need to be in the right place and might be boring in the summer. You are probably in zone 5 or maybe 6’so it can be tricky especially with south facing beds.
I think it’s worth building a relationship with a good nursery. For instance I like to put a wide drip edge of crushed stone next to the foundation and then plant outside of that. It helps with drainage and keeping moisture and mold off of your siding. No matter how big my plants and shrubs are I can walk between them and the house to care for the plants and do maintenance and painting on the house.
CliosFanBoy
Well, I still have some indoor plants that are over 40 years old. One of them I bought at a K-Mart as a little sprout to put in my dorm room my freshman year, Fall 1977.
Geminid
@schrodingers_cat: Creeping (or trailing) azalea might be worth looking into. They are sometimes classified as a “heath” plant, and there may be other suitable plants in the heath category.
Anne Laurie
Yeah, that’s basically what I’m planning on doing. I cut back to ‘only’ ten plants last year, and that was a success; having to build a separate ‘skateboard’ for each plant will certainly encourage me to stick with fewer-but-better-tended plants!