Your houseplants and gardens - Yellow leaf means underwatered AND overwatered?! What a country!

[AnOminous]

They wiped out my big yellow Argirope spider population too. I used to be a big fan (I even raised a few generations myself years ago from an ootheca I bought off eBay) but after observing them closely I’d say they’re marginally beneficial when they’re small and they’re a real threat to the native bugs (and hummingbirds) when they get big.

Native ones are our friends.

I wouldn't put up with anything killing Argiopes spiders. Those are the best defense a garden can have. Also they're beautiful and so are their webs.

They are the guardian spider of gardens. Never harm one of these spiders.

 

[one_time_user]

The ladybugs are sounding mighty appealing now, did not know any of this about praying mantids.

Normally I wouldn’t care about the wasps, but the wood wasps have taken up residence in the corner post of our fence that’s behind the tomatoes and berries.
And the little crackers do not care how many times I tell them to stay calm, because wasps can hear elevated heartbeats and noise and motion makes them angry.
Lil crackers are starting to not want to come out to water with me, which is sad.

Bees of course are friends, truly don’t even care about yellowjackets because they’re not around like wasps are.

I get my garden and lawn stuff from these guys https://www.naturesgoodguys.com/collections/all-products I got my beneficial nematodes from them and they have ladybugs and anything you may need for your garden

 

[Aunt Carol]

As in good, tall timber frame, quality glass, growth lights maybe, maybe dig the foundation up in places to get better acces to dirt inside, heating, an automated curtain system etc. I think we could get a lot of use out of it all year round if it was made really nicely. I could see it with some solar powered string lights, a little fountain, some lounging sofas and maybe a mediterranean theme with olive trees and lemons trees and lots of spices. It would be a outdoors-indoors area we could grow stuff in and use year round for relaxing in.

That sounds really nice. I think you should go with it; the person who's most excited about their plan should get that taken into consideration.

Do you guys cook outside much now, or is the grill plan an "it'd be nice if" thing, where it sounds good in theory but a patio might not actually get used? From your description, you'd be making this into a serious-business sunroom, basically another room in the house. Like you said, usable year-round, and usable not just by the plant-crazy, but also by an older kid who wants to sit somewhere else and use the wifi.

I'm picturing General Sternwood's hothouse in The Big Sleep. Go for it.

eta: by which I mean you could put a bar in it

 

[Emo Supremo]

The ladybugs are sounding mighty appealing now, did not know any of this about praying mantids.

Normally I wouldn’t care about the wasps, but the wood wasps have taken up residence in the corner post of our fence that’s behind the tomatoes and berries.
And the little crackers do not care how many times I tell them to stay calm, because wasps can hear elevated heartbeats and noise and motion makes them angry.
Lil crackers are starting to not want to come out to water with me, which is sad.

Bees of course are friends, truly don’t even care about yellowjackets because they’re not around like wasps are.

that's a tough one. i'm a big wasp simp so i want to encourage keeping the nest regardless, but i also don't want one of the little crackers to get stung and have that negative experience define their view of certain bugs for the rest of their life, which wouldn't be fair because wasps are just as important for pollination as bees (and of course they're good pest management too).

maybe you could tell the little crackers that they don't have to join you in the garden, they can just hang out at the perimeter away from the nest? that way they'll hopefully see you walk back and forth without being harassed and figure out that wasps aren't always scary jerks, especially once they get used to your presence since they're smart and can recognize individual people. it's also important to teach why stings happen; they're very protective parents who just want to keep their own kids safe, and to them we look like big, lumbering, half-naked kaijuu.

edit: wanted to clarify, i'd totally understand if you end up choosing to knock the nest down. paper wasps are hardly endangered, they can always just build a new nest somewhere else, and their stings hurt like a motherfucker -- i'm a bleeding heart hippy but i also know how bad a half inch long bug can ruin a fully grown adult's day. if you do decide on this, make sure it's after dark when the workers are asleep, and immediately haul ass back inside before they realize their shit just got trashed. usually taking down a nest is enough to make the queen relocate elsewhere so you probably won't need to invest in mantises or insecticide.

 

[NoReturn]

What would you guys do?

I personally would make a new greenhouse, but from how you've written this, it sounds like you secretly want the outdoor area, so I think you should do it.

The ladybugs are sounding mighty appealing now, did not know any of this about praying mantids.

When you get the ladybugs, put them back in the fridge for like an hour if your drive home is more than an hour from where you get them, and when you release them, make sure there's some water nearby, they're gonna be thirsty. I recommend either a bee-waterer-type or just spraying all the surrounding leaves with water.

 

[Anasa Tristis]

The ladybugs are sounding mighty appealing now, did not know any of this about praying mantids.

Normally I wouldn’t care about the wasps, but the wood wasps have taken up residence in the corner post of our fence that’s behind the tomatoes and berries.
And the little crackers do not care how many times I tell them to stay calm, because wasps can hear elevated heartbeats and noise and motion makes them angry.
Lil crackers are starting to not want to come out to water with me, which is sad.

Bees of course are friends, truly don’t even care about yellowjackets because they’re not around like wasps are.

If you go the ladybug route, see if you can find an angelica plant. Ladybugs love angelica. I was amazed by how many adults and larvae I found crawling around on an angelica one summer.

No judgement about the wasps. If they’re in a lousy place they must go. I just discovered a smallish nest yesterday that’s near the compost pile. (Argh.) One of the little bastards stung me while I was just standing there gawking at it like a moron too. So it’s getting knocked down with a long pole ASAP. They can rebuild elsewhere.

Native ones are our friends.

I don't have any native mantids in my region. The smaller introduced European mantids had been around for hundreds of years with no negative impacts. They max out at about 2.5 inches and tend to stay low to the ground. Unlike the Chinese ones who like heights and get up to 4+ inches.

I wouldn't put up with anything killing Argiopes spiders.

I used to have a pretty stable population. I'd see at least 2 or 3 webs per summer. A few years ago I noticed the mantids hanging out near their webs but I figured they'd be ok. I was wrong. Last summer I saw only one web and its spider was gone a few days later when I went back to check on it. Very sad and alarming. Now I have to figure out where to find some Argiopes and (discreetly, heh) catch and relocate them to my place. And maintain Total Chinese Mantid Destruction so they can build their population back up.

 

[Lichen Bark]

50'es original villa in a large and quiet 50'es villa area

As long as the 50's house doesn't have asbestos.

If I had a house with the option to have a glass greenhouse I would go greenhouse. If it's nice you can get warm days in the fall/winter/spring in there which would be nice just to sit in and relax depending on what you have growing in there. It also depends which way the building is facing, you have to take into account where the sun comes from that time of year, if there are trees that might block it. Also make sure no old trees are going to fall on it. I'd be thinking about airflow, but also what spec screening you might use, sometimes the standard hole size might be large and let certain insects through, but if you spec something finer you can have the airflow without the bugs. Fine metal screens are pricey though. I'd probably want a concrete footing around the exterior, just so that the pests have a hard time getting in. You want to think about how your going to keep various things out, but also think about the future possibilities. Do I have enough electrical access (lay some conduits for future use?), do I have proper access to water (are the water lines easily drained)? Do I want a french drain of some kind to get rid of water easily from the inside? Does rainwater have a good path away from the buildings? Roof pitch/snow loads to think about? Sometimes a steeper pitch is nice because the snow can fall right off. I like the glass idea, not a fan of plastic myself. Barbecue shmarbecue, we have a sweet greenhouse.

 

[std::string]

if you do decide on this, make sure it's after dark when the workers are asleep, and immediately haul ass back inside before they realize their shit just got trashed. usually taking down a nest is enough to make the queen relocate elsewhere so you probably won't need to invest in mantises or insecticide.

I wish. Paper wasps in Florida are like cocaine-fueled real estate developers building beachside condos. I knock one down and they'll be back rebuilding it the next day.

Eventually I just started spraying the nests with a mix of Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap and water which seems to fuck up their ability to figure out where their nest even is.

 

[ephermeral]

Is anyone here into cacti? I had to move some plants to a significantly less sunny location and noticed today that they've become pretty etiolated. I kind of am into the shape they've developed. Is this bad for them? I can't help but feel like I am transing my plants, especially since etiolation is also irreversible.

 

[bliblblblbbllb]

Etiolation is neither here nor there, no matter what people say. It's a plant. It IS a sign of low light for that plant but I think some people think it inherently means your plant is going to die from not enough light.
The issue is just that "plant is dying from not enough light" will obviously result in etiolation. So just be aware that you're somewhere on the spectrum between "the cactus is skinny because it's looking for light" and "The cactus is actively dying from not enough light."

It's good that you're into the shape they got because there's no going back LOL. Another risk of etiolation is eventual structural collapse i.e. it won't be able to support itself. This is where you get the cursed pictures of people propping up their plants in various ways. So when you ask about the risks, that's the risk I guess.

I'm not really a cactus person, but I've watched my family kill a few dozen over the years.....

 

[Emo Supremo]

Native ones are our friends.

I wouldn't put up with anything killing Argiopes spiders. Those are the best defense a garden can have. Also they're beautiful and so are their webs.
View attachment 6124791
They are the guardian spider of gardens. Never harm one of these spiders.

can confirm they're lovely gentle giants. so far i've only seen a single yellow garden spider in the wild, but she was a pivotal point in helping my kid self conquer arachnophobia and i'm still hoping i'll find another one some day. who knows, maybe when my garden is more established it'll happen.

I wish. Paper wasps in Florida are like cocaine-fueled real estate developers building beachside condos. I knock one down and they'll be back rebuilding it the next day.

Eventually I just started spraying the nests with a mix of Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap and water which seems to fuck up their ability to figure out where their nest even is.

ohhhhh, you're in florida. first of all, i hope you get better soon. second of all, i live in a state that actually has seasons, so paper wasps here are more cooperative in the sense that they don't like revisiting locations that've been disturbed before. they'll try looking for the nest -- and the perpetrator -- immediately after it's knocked down, but when they figure out it's gone they give up and move on.

 

[Emo Supremo]

yap yap yap

i'm doubleposting because i can't edit my previous message but i'm baffled and also pissed. i just noticed a foamflower blooming right next to the air conditioning unit even though these plants normally stop putting out flowers after april. since i got ten foamflower bare root systems earlier this year, my only guess is that one of the cuttings i threw out under the assumption it died in the mail actually ended up establishing itself wherever it landed, i.e the goddamn air conditioner. it's so tempting to dig this little fucker up and move it into one of the window boxes like a native wildflower speedrun any%, but i feel like the second i try it it's going to die on me. whatever. i'll just look into harvesting any seeds it makes so i can hopefully raise some little ubermenschen foamflowers.

 

[ephermeral]

little ubermenschen foamflowers.

One nice thing about all the abandoned storefronts where I live is seeing the mighty plants growing in front of the "For Lease" signs. The plants are like, "Nah, I live here now." At least when all the specialty stores leave my neighborhood I get to be whimsical about it.

Anyway, are pink ice plants super divas?

 

[bliblblblbbllb]

Is anyone here into cacti? I had to move some plants to a significantly less sunny location and noticed today that they've become pretty etiolated. I kind of am into the shape they've developed. Is this bad for them? I can't help but feel like I am transing my plants, especially since etiolation is also irreversible.

Fresh from the houseplantcirclejerk subreddit.

I would laugh so hard if I saw this in someone's house. It really is impressive, though. It wouldn't last ten minutes in my house without being knocked over by an animal with zoomies.

 

[Swagstika]

My mom has this goth flower, and, well... What is it, and how do I propagate it to steal?
View attachment 6091494
I think she got it from a property our extended family used to live on, and it's from a great-great grandma/aunt's abandoned garden.

I'm officially getting too much into plants because yesterday I saw this and thought "Wait, where have I seen this plant?"

 

[Null]

I've opened a board for self-sufficiency which includes gardening as food security is important. This thread would probably belong there, but it's in the BP. Please vote in the poll if you'd like it moved.

 

[LabourRace]

I think the gardening and plant thread in general discussion would work better than this thread, as many houseplants aren't edible.

 

[bliblblblbbllb]

There is a big difference between gardening for food or microfarming or farming, and sperging about begonias and houseplants, however I still think a single, busier and broader thread is better than splitting it at this time.

 

[(The REAL) Jack Torrance]

I think the gardening and plant thread in general discussion would work better than this thread, as many houseplants aren't edible.

I second this. Sometimes people talk here about their outdoor gardens but the focus tends to be on decorative houseplants. I think the other thread would be a better option.

 

[NoReturn]

I agree with you guys, but won't mind if it did get moved if only because some of the tips itt are helpful in other ways.
@Null maybe the OP of the other gardening thread could be edited to include a link here that says something for "For houseplants, please see __________"?