STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

small fry · Chanel

do you like to plant/garden

Aurora · Marc Jacobs

I like to grow herbs but i haven't planted any this year. I'm new to gardening so I don't know when the right time to plant them is or where to put them when I plant them. I think I'm going to get 2 window boxes and grow basil and rosemary for sure but not sure what else. Anyone have some good suggestions or tips?

Aurora · Chanel

Aurora
where do you live? Not sure what kind you like but kalanchoes are very hardy in my area and they can go with out watering and can take the cold and heat.The blooms last for weeks.

-- Edited by kaykay at 16:18, 2006-03-12

Aurora · Marc Jacobs

I'm in Houston. It looks like your plant isn't in a window. It still blooms without being in the window?

small fry · Chanel

I moved it outside where it gets sun/shade. It needs light to bloom. Are you looking for some for the house or outside?

laken1 · Hermes

I have a black thumb. Any plant that comes home with me is prone to suicide.

Ally S · Kate Spade

Oh boy do I love to garden!

I really got into it a few years ago. I have a postage size garden but I use every inch and have the prettiest yard/patio area.

I have recently gotten into perenials and will be adding 3 more Bleeding Hearts in pink. I am also starting annual seeds but will be buying flats as the weather permits.

I have loads of containers and do tomatoes, peppers and other herbs in those as well as flowers. Or sometimes flowers and veggies.

I had crocus blooming today, its 75 here but will be 42 on Weds. My tulip leaves are 4" tall, my daffodils are about to bloom and I have weeds everywhere!

I love this time of year. I am planning on taking a master gardener's course next month and I am really looking forward to that!

small fry · Chanel

Oh another garden lover Allys I have been wanting to get a bleeding heart- could you let me know how it does? Wow a master gardener course that sounds like fun

I have this part of my back yard that gets shade and stays bare, I love Hostas and thought about putting some in that area. I saw some blue Hostas and they looked awesome

RyanJ · Coach

I really love to garden. My mom is insane about plants. We have all these garden groups coming through our yard every summer to see our gardens. I know that when I move out of the house I will definatley do a lot of gardening. I love to help my mom, but since it is her yard I don't really have much say in what goes where. Not that she doesn't care about my opinons, but ultimatley it is her yard.

She loves plants, but herbs are her thing. I can't belive how many there are. We go to these herb farms and they have so many freaking plants.

NCshopper · Hermes

I LOVE to work in the yard. I probably spent a good 5 hours in the yard this weekend just cleaning things up and whatnot.

Right after we moved in here, I tore out a bunch of icky old plants and put in some pretty rhodadendrons and planted some bulbs. The rhodadendrons are growing and looking really healthy and the daffodils are blooming and the tulips are about to bloom. I also have hyacinths and crocus that are blooming. I think next up to bloom after that are the dogwood and the rhodadendrons and azaleas (yay!) and then the crepe myrtle later in the summer. My pansies are looking gorgeous right now, but once it gets too hot for them I'll plant impatiens in their place.

Last summer I tore out a TON of english ivy that was covering the backyard and we've planted a bunch of herbs where the ivy was and now I'm planning what else I'm going to plant, since its a HUGE area and it's all natural and wooded. I'm thinking hydrangeas.

We also have a ton of herbs in pots on the deck. We have mint, rosemary (a total of 6 bushes of rosemary, I believe), parsley, tarragon, sage, thyme and maybe one or two others that I can't remember.

Aurora--as far as planting goes, you'll probably want to get some terra cotta pots and put a few handfuls of styrofoam packing peanuts or river rock in the bottom (for drainage). Then add your potting soil and seeds. Cover the seeds up with about 1/4" of potting soil. Water them every few days, but don't soak them. You'll want to leave the pots inside in a window sill until the seeds germinate, otherwise the birds might eat all the seeds. Once they've germinated, you can leave them outside. Rosemary's pretty easy to start out with. It's pretty hearty and you can start out with a small plant from Home Depot or somewhere instead of starting with seeds. Also lavendar is great because it smells soooooooooooo good and is good in baths and stuff.

-- Edited by NCshopper at 19:07, 2006-03-12

Elle · Hermes

I

gardening! I'm a patio gardener for now, unfortunately, but I use every square inch I can. Our frost date isn't until May though (and it's currently snowing right now

) so I haven't started planting yet. I'm doing a bunch of herbs this year (chives, catmint, basil, tarragon, rosemary, etc) as well as begonias and sweet potato vine because they grow really well here. I can't wait to have a big yard to plant in someday!

TheLovelyLady71 · Hermes

I only WISH I had a green thumb, I see all these pretty plants/flowers, and I just don't have it in me. I do like faux plants, they look just as good! LOL

Ally S · Kate Spade

Just watch the tarragon, it can grow like a weed and strangle off other plants in a pot. Plant it alone and clip it back profusely.

Rosemary can winter over inside and don't forget parsleys and cilantro for cooking!

Elle wrote:

I gardening! I'm a patio gardener for now, unfortunately, but I use every square inch I can. Our frost date isn't until May though (and it's currently snowing right now ) so I haven't started planting yet. I'm doing a bunch of herbs this year (chives, catmint, basil, tarragon, rosemary, etc) as well as begonias and sweet potato vine because they grow really well here. I can't wait to have a big yard to plant in someday!

lilyann · Dooney & Bourke

I have always loved to grow vegetables. Living in an apartment for so many years has kind of put it on hold- but am moving soon, bought a townhome- and has somewhat of a backyard- so I will grow what I can stuff back there again. Its funny because I am a floral designer, but I would much rather grow something I can eat. Maybe because Im around flowers all day, or just because growing food is more satisfying for me. I dont know. I do love to grow iris though, and when I moved from a duplex that I had about 15 plants growing, I put them in my moms yard and they are so beautiful!! I like them also because after a few years you can divide them into several new plants. Kalanchoes are great KayKay. I have one that I have had for about 5 years in a large pot. I have found they transform themselves depending on how much you water them. If you water them alot, the leaves are very fleshy, and green with lots of flowers for months! But, if you withhold water until absolutely need it, the base will grow a large sturdy stump and it will branch out with stronger branches- the leaves becoming tougher with less flowers. Kind of like a jade plant. It will take on an oriental- bonsi tree-look. Its facsinating!!

tara t · Marc Jacobs

laken1 wrote:

I have a black thumb. Any plant that comes home with me is prone to suicide.

i suck too.

Aurora · Marc Jacobs

Thanks for the tips girls. I think i want to keep them inside if possible because last year I forgot to water my basil and rosemary when I moved here and they fried in the weather. I think I might get 2 window boxes from ikea or walmart and see how it goes. I love to grow them by seeds and watch them grow so I might do one box of seeds and one box of plants that have started already so I can use them faster.

greendiamond · Marc Jacobs

I LOVE to garden. I have a HUGE garden in front of my house. I actually mentally divide it into 3's so I can tackle it. It has a Hosta border and is filled with perrenials. I just put annuals in pots on the front porch (Zinnias because you can see them from the road, and snapdragons because they are my favorite). The perrenials in my garden are Shastas, purple cone flower (also called echenecha -sp?), wild geranium, actual geranium (not one of my favorites, but a lot of color from the road, I dig them up to winter tehm, and replant the tubers), bee balm, creeping phlox, violets, forget-me-nots, pinks (also go by the name mini carnations), sundrops. That's a majority of it. I have a few lilacs, a daisy looking bush (with yellow "daisys") and some verburnum. It's pretty. I also have crocus, tulips and daffodils for the spring, and mums for the fall.

This summer I am moving my rose garden on the back of the house to a garden that I am making into a cutting garden. The rose garden will be replaced with an herb garden and a few veggies, the cutting garden will definitely have the roses, bearded and siberian iris, lillies in the calla, canna, day and regular variety (can't recall the name right now, it starts with a vowel though, maybe an A) plus I'll put my dahlias in there. Once I move all those things, I'll probably add some carnations, gerber daisy, sword lily, plus a fwe others I am blanking on. It will be as wide as a 2.5 car garage (because it will be behind it) and on an S curve, at it's deepest, about as deep as a garage. I can't wait to begin it.

I'll talk flowers any day, although I garden by trial and error. I have a mostly green thumb. It's becoming intuitive, but I ask my mom a lot of questions. I was considering joining a garden club, but I'm afraid I'll be surrounded with women much older than me (my mom was in one, and she was the youngest, and she was in her 40's! it was in a more uppity neighborhood, but it was more a ladies that lunch crown that a get drity and dig crowd.)

-gd

ps. The "green" in greendiamond is for my aspiring green thumb.

small fry · Chanel

greendiamond I want to come over and see your garden it sounds so wonderful! I just want to come sit in the middle and read a book

Oh I promise not to dig any of them up and take them home

Metric · Gucci

I am going to garden for the first time this year. I want to grow potatoes, carrots, lettuce, beans, onions, strawberries and we have a big raspberry bush too. I am excited, I think I will be a good gardener. I come from hearty farming stock.