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

[anliteralidiot]

Por que no los dos?
Chop and prop some of it, leave some in soil. Use it as an experiment.

I'm just scared. It's my first big houseplant, and while I know propagating works, and how to do it, it's the leap of faith that gets me. And the lack of a handsaw, I need to remember to ask where it is. It's a really thick stem.

 

[NoReturn]

I'm just scared. It's my first big houseplant, and while I know propagating works, and how to do it, it's the leap of faith that gets me. And the lack of a handsaw, I need to remember to ask where it is. It's a really thick stem.

That makes sense, and if your first big prop is one that involved a handsaw and not just scissors, that's a whole extra level of intimidating.

 

[Snack Cracker]

Ladies! We’ve got blueberries finally!

 

[Emo Supremo]

so i scattered crimson clover seeds in a little makeshift flowerbed i have at work, but the seedlings coming up now don't look very cloverish and i'm wondering if pulling out weeds and raking the soil just gave whatever seeds that were already there the opportunity to grow instead. google lens suggested it's dead-nettle, but it also reminds me of virginia threeseed mercury, and neither of those are what i'm aiming for.

 

[Swagstika]

Ladies!
I want you all to say hi to Steven the stephania erecta. He would love to show how excited he is to meet you, but today he was finally (cruelly) restrained.
After his crazy single tentacle growth spurt back in June that grew comically long and tall before going flaccid, he has been busy growing multiple grabby tentacles and getting himself into trouble.
Steven managed to grow so long that the robot vaccuum could grab a tentacle and partially amputate it, but that only spurred him on to grow bushier. I started snipping the tips of his tentacles after that, but Husbando made the same face as after he learned what it means that my horse is a gelding.
So Husbando came up with this idea and even supplied the little heart stick from his Valentines flowers to help restrain Steven. Husbando says he thought Steven the stephania erecta would approve of the choice of stick.

 

[a hapless toad]

So my new house has a fence that is absolutely covered with overgrown Virginia creeper. What's the best way to terminate it with extreme prejudice?

(Okay I know I am unlikely to truly get rid of it forever, but I really am not looking forward to fighting it for the rest of my life...)

 

[Emo Supremo]

So my new house has a fence that is absolutely covered with overgrown Virginia creeper. What's the best way to terminate it with extreme prejudice?

(Okay I know I am unlikely to truly get rid of it forever, but I really am not looking forward to fighting it for the rest of my life...)

whenever someone talks about virginia creeper like it's a god-hating vine ala kudzu or greenbriar, it just confuses me because it's the most gentle, inoffensive climbing plant i know of. if you need to clear it i'd assume pulling it off, digging up the main root, and removing new shoots as they show up would work fine, unless yours is a mutant that's situated right in the perfect conditions for exponential growth.

 

[a hapless toad]

whenever someone talks about virginia creeper like it's a god-hating vine ala kudzu or greenbriar, it just confuses me because it's the most gentle, inoffensive climbing plant i know of. if you need to clear it i'd assume pulling it off, digging up the main root, and removing new shoots as they show up would work fine, unless yours is a mutant that's situated right in the perfect conditions for exponential growth.

I am sure it's a lovely plant, but It's not native to my area, although it seems to really like it here given how quickly it grows and spreads.

I would prefer it not spread further around my region via birds and I'd rather not provide a host for leafhoppers, which are a fun new pest in vineyards.

It's all along a 50 foot fence line and I have a bad feeling it's coming from the other side, too. Digging up the main root(s) might be easier said than done.

 

[Stupid Lisa Garbageface]

I'm a noted plant-killer so please forgive my ignorance here.

I've managed to keep alive a ZZ plant for several years now. I live in a very not-sunny climate in a very not-sunny apartment, and the poor thing's getting kind of leggy. It grew a new super-tall shoot in the winter, about a third taller than any of the other stems, so it must be doing decently well, but should I move it to my much sunnier office? Is legginess just an aesthetic thing, or is it hurting the plant?

 

[anliteralidiot]

pulling it off, digging up the main root, and removing new shoots as they show up would work fine

What do I do if the vine is coming from the house next door? The church next to me keeps infecting my tree on the fence line, and it's literally the chicken shit vine. Paederia foetida, skunk vine.

That makes sense, and if your first big prop is one that involved a handsaw and not just scissors, that's a whole extra level of intimidating.

I now have a big chunk with two nodes, and I'm letting them scab over before putting it on moist soil (I don't remember the correct term). I removed the rotted, yellow leaves from the node left in the pot, and the remaining leaf isn't getting any worse. So that's good.

And in better news, I got a monsters bit for Christmas from my sister, and it has its first baby fenestration!

Just the one.
It's so cute!

 

[one_time_user]

What do I do if the vine is coming from the house next door? The church next to me keeps infecting my tree on the fence line, and it's literally the chicken shit vine. Paederia foetida, skunk vine

do what I did, get a step ladder, get some concentrated roundup and very very carefully pour the mixed with water roundup on th3 vines on the other side of the fence. fuck irresponsible neighbors.

 

[AnOminous]

(Okay I know I am unlikely to truly get rid of it forever, but I really am not looking forward to fighting it for the rest of my life...)

I hate to suggest it and you might reject it for various philosophical and other reasons, but one of the meaner varieties of Roundup might handle it. Yes, I know that is some evil shit.

 

[a hapless toad]

do what I did, get a step ladder, get some concentrated roundup and very very carefully pour the mixed with water roundup on th3 vines on the other side of the fence. fuck irresponsible neighbors.

I hate to suggest it and you might reject it for various philosophical and other reasons, but one of the meaner varieties of Roundup might handle it. Yes, I know that is some evil shit.

Honestly, this is what I was considering, depending on what I find after I give it a buzz cut with the hedge trimmers.

(Not down to the ground, I know glyphosate is absorbed through foliage, but also I need to know what I'm dealing with and all I can see at the moment - still in escrow - is a cascading mass of vines.)

 

[anliteralidiot]

do what I did, get a step ladder, get some concentrated roundup and very very carefully pour the mixed with water roundup on th3 vines on the other side of the fence. fuck irresponsible neighbors.

Understood, buying a water gun tomorrow.

 

[glioblastoma multiforme]

I have found out that the spray I use on my drive contains glyphosate. I feel like a total dumbass for not checking earlier. I remove what I can by hand or trowel but some things just don't abide by anything but a good spray. I only use it maybe once every 2 months.

I do have a lot of pollinators around my flowers so I can't have destroyed them, but I feel awful. Any better suggestions? I'd be happy to leave the drive as is tbh but the things that grow on there are incredibly invasive and if I don't keep a handle on them my beds will be overtaken.

In better news, I have 3 orchids flowering. Sorry for shitty pictures:
:

Edit: added pics of non dying plants for once.

 

[Anasa Tristis]

the deer are now eating my mom's hibiscus and a potted bandana lantana i moved into the garden why why why why why why why why. i also did more research on butterfly bush care and i might've fucked up worse than i thought:

guess who's the retard that amended the shady, compacted, gravel-clogged clay beds with compost earlier this spring because she read about amending and assumed you can do it with every plant. i want to transplant these poor bastards so badly already.

in other news however, not everything is a shit. i put more dirt in the foamflower window boxes so they have better access to sun and they're loving that. meanwhile my blue mistflowers are almost doing too well. their pots are wide but shallow (these are the exact ones they're in) so i'm concerned about root binding; maybe i should divide them up, give the extras away, and/or replant them out in the wild?

edit: oh and i got loads of partridge pea seeds in, which i'm very excited to sow when i get the chance. they help low quality soil, look exotic but aren't, and have adorable yellow flowers that bumblebees fall all over themselves for.

of course they're eaten by like. every single herbivore in the local ecosystem, but that's been the trend for this year anyways, so i guess it's officially time for me to try out liquid fence.

Two things about deer- they will not approach anything that threatens their eyes or their ankles. When I prune my apple tree in the early spring I stick the long water sprouts/suckers I cut off the apple tree into the day lily patch. It looks a bit odd then, but the deer will not stick their faces into a spiky area to nibble the tender new day lily growth later. When the day lilies get to full size the deer aren't interested. So I pull the sticks out then. If I remember, kek.

I've had remarkable luck with what I call flag fencing. I drive a few 4 ft t-posts around my garden and run a line along their tops. I used to use baling twine but that stretches and rots out before the summer is over, so wire, especially #9 wire, is better. Then I hang old "floating row cover" on the line with clothespins. Row cover is very light, UV resistant, etc. It's pretty breezy where I am, so the row cover flutters. Bambi will not put his face near it.

Double clothesline fencing can work with deer too. Just install one 4 foot high clothesline fence about 3-4 feet away from the other. Flag both in spots with small pieces of row cover so Bambi sees that there are two barriers set 4 feet apart that he's gotta clear. If Bambi can't get over and across easily, and land safely (having a crowded garden helps here, or pointy sticks again) Bambi won't leap in.

That business about "don't amend" before planting shrubs is kinda bullshit. But not 100%. It depends. If your soil is hard and tough to penetrate, if you make a small space directly under the shrub composed of soft and penetrable soil, when the roots get past the soft soil area and hit the hard wall of regular soil, the roots will start wrapping. Over time it gets to be pot bound. And it will suffer. Some shrub roots fan out, and stay close to the surface (for all I know butterfly bushes do that which explains the caution against making a softer area right under neath 'em) but other shrubs' roots go pretty much straight down.

Tried to grow beans this year but they never grew up the poles and sit about 8 inches high. Yes they are climbing beans.

I gotta ask- were they "heirloom" beans? Heirlooms get crossed. Or they suffer from inbreeding depression. Sometimes with heirlooms you get unwelcome mid summer surprises. Which is why I prefer a well developed hybrid, myself.

 

[Major]

I gotta ask- were they "heirloom" beans? Heirlooms get crossed. Or they suffer from inbreeding depression. Sometimes with heirlooms you get unwelcome mid summer surprises. Which is why I prefer a well developed hybrid, myself.

I don't know. I was given them by my parents. They also had a bad year. I did get some beans but the plants are about 8 inches high. The first lot were eaten by slugs but the second I started inside which fared better

 

[one_time_user]

So, maybe I don't /won't have to burn the entire field down with roundup come fall? I had sprayed weed and grass specific killer over a portion to test it. Nothing actually died and I gave up hope BUT have noticed that that entire areas grass is turning a reddish purple. It's really pretty and I couldn't figure out why it was just in the field not the yard. upon googling I read that grass, prior to dying, sometimes turns that pretty color! I am going to try spraying it again a few times and see if that works (after the rainy week we're supposed to have) and if not, then roundup the entire area.

Also, roundup isn't the devil. it's not great for general use but it definitely has its place and I am perfectly comfortable using it after first frost.

 

[Major]

So, maybe I don't /won't have to burn the entire field down with roundup come fall? I had sprayed weed and grass specific killer over a portion to test it. Nothing actually died and I gave up hope BUT have noticed that that entire areas grass is turning a reddish purple. It's really pretty and I couldn't figure out why it was just in the field not the yard. upon googling I read that grass, prior to dying, sometimes turns that pretty color! I am going to try spraying it again a few times and see if that works (after the rainy week we're supposed to have) and if not, then roundup the entire area.

Also, roundup isn't the devil. it's not great for general use but it definitely has its place and I am perfectly comfortable using it after first frost.

roundup takes days or even weeks to work. It will kill anything in the ground around the plant it was sprayed on and will break down in the soil. Ordinarily it is never used on lawns.

 

[NoReturn]

Ladies!
I want you all to say hi to Steven the stephania erecta. He would love to show how excited he is to meet you, but today he was finally (cruelly) restrained.
After his crazy single tentacle growth spurt back in June that grew comically long and tall before going flaccid, he has been busy growing multiple grabby tentacles and getting himself into trouble.
Steven managed to grow so long that the robot vaccuum could grab a tentacle and partially amputate it, but that only spurred him on to grow bushier. I started snipping the tips of his tentacles after that, but Husbando made the same face as after he learned what it means that my horse is a gelding.
So Husbando came up with this idea and even supplied the little heart stick from his Valentines flowers to help restrain Steven. Husbando says he thought Steven the stephania erecta would approve of the choice of stick.

View attachment 6266396

Cute!

I have found out that the spray I use on my drive contains glyphosate. I feel like a total dumbass for not checking earlier. I remove what I can by hand or trowel but some things just don't abide by anything but a good spray. I only use it maybe once every 2 months.

I do have a lot of pollinators around my flowers so I can't have destroyed them, but I feel awful. Any better suggestions? I'd be happy to leave the drive as is tbh but the things that grow on there are incredibly invasive and if I don't keep a handle on them my beds will be overtaken.

In better news, I have 3 orchids flowering. Sorry for shitty pictures:
:View attachment 6271004View attachment 6271006

Edit: added pics of non dying plants for once.

GJ attempting to remove glyphosate from your life.