Gardening and Plant Thread

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Salade Nicoise said:
Oh gosh my grandmother had so many camellias and now I think I have to plant them. What's the pruning situation like? Do they need dead-heading?
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Not really. In the first few years you are meant to completely leave the plant alone. Then, after it's bloomed and only after, you can prune some of the branches that stick out, but never touch the plant proper. It hates that. It likes acidic ground so will need mulch around the roots. It likes shade though.
 
Bepiswife beheaded my minature orange-red rose, but part of the crown remains and it has stayed a nice fresh green color so I think I'm going to leave it. Wasn't even mad because the blade missed the amaryllis bulb not three feet away and I was kinda impressed. Roses are cheaper to replace now, anyway. Even if it was grafted, it'd still be nice to have some color of rose there.
-I wonder if I should plant an even more minaturized rose nearby just in case it doesn't, tho.
 
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Prince Vegeta said:
I've made a front garden in September 2020. Took out all the tiles, dug out the yellow sand, put down some good soil and planted a bunch of plants good for bees 🐝 and butterflies 🦋 and put down an old hybrid acer almatum (one part ukigomo) my late grandfather bred.

View attachment 2166026I've even made a wooden gate! It's been a real pleasure watching my plants start to bloom this spring.
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My back garden, small because I live in a city, I've been transforming into my personal collection of odd plants, aiming to please insects and supply me with herbs.
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Some weeding required. I'm saving that for the weekend. Grow my new garden grow!!!!
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Is that Sambucus black lace?
 
Updates: veggies are growing. Next report might include tomatoes.
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Aaand I boiled a bunch of plants in my portable greenhouse because I forgot to open it on a sunny day and accidentally created a hothouse of Venusian proportions.
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Had a visitor today. Like I just learned, every language points out its weaknesses. In Slavic languages and German they call it "blind", in English it's accused of being "slow" and Latin labeled it "fragile". All true, no idea how they're still around.
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So I was wondering - is there anyone here whose gardening is actually saving them money? I started a few years ago and I've been clearly in the red every season, no matter how generously I estimate my organic jams would cost if bought from a store. It's not a big issue financially, but perhaps setting up some rules and limits would make me adopt better habits and become more result (rather than process) oriented.

I've already mentioned the "no decorative plants for a full price" rule I made for myself. The other thing I'm aiming for is being more systematic about harvesting my own seeds and cuttings - I've done it before, but more as an experiment. Limiting all the overblown curiosity projects (I start a whole bunch of chili peppers each year, because there are so many exotic looking ones and I like to observe them, but I'm not even a chili enthusiast). I also overdo initial investments all the time, justifying everything as projects with long term returns and learning opportunities. Got obsessed with canning, spent quite some time on research, and ended up with three different types of jars and various other equipment because I kept changing my mind on which way is the best, as I was reading through different sources. I do use them. But I'd have to have a fruit orchard to see an investment return anytime soon.

I think I need to do gardening more like old people do. Pre-Roundup old people.
If anyone has any tips, I'd appreciate.
 
shameful existence said:
So I was wondering - is there anyone here whose gardening is actually saving them money? I started a few years ago and I've been clearly in the red every season, no matter how generously I estimate my organic jams would cost if bought from a store.
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Basil is actually pretty expensive so I think I'm marginally saving money, but really, I just so prefer what I grow myself that I don't really care. I can't buy anything of equivalent quality, so there is really very little cost-benefit analysis. I either grow it myself or I don't have it. Same with tomatoes. What you can buy in a grocery store is an absolute insult to the very concept of tomatoes so, again, grow it yourself or don't have anything remotely acceptable.
 
shameful existence said:
Yeah, I'm just being a bit paranoid that instead of actually curbing some of my less fortunate tendencies, I just move them where they're untouchable.
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This is all you really can do. You can't get rid of these tendencies. All you can do is sublimate them so they become harmless. This isn't actually bad. Become a serial killer? Or have an herb garden. One of these is objectively the better choice.
 
AnOminous said:
This is all you really can do. You can't get rid of these tendencies. All you can do is sublimate them so they become harmless. This isn't actually bad. Become a serial killer? Or have an herb garden. One of these is objectively the better choice.
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You can't dangle a question like that in front of us and not give us the answer.
 
shameful existence said:
So I was wondering - is there anyone here whose gardening is actually saving them money?
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It's kind of a question with many answers. Overall - probably not, because I kind of go all out on things, and trying to be an all organic dickhead plays into that. I'm always trying to grow something new, trying to support that little independent garden centre/supplier that might cost a little more. I'm mostly in containers as well, not raised beds, so that soil maintenance takes more effort. I feel like I always have a need for a bag of soil... and if I don't, I'll find one.

But in spring/summer my grocery bills are definitely less. Like without a shadow of a doubt. I'd say my little backyard patch is providing 90% of our fresh veggies. But I try and be smart with it and grow high density/high yield things. For instance, I love sweet corn, but it takes up so much space to grow for relatively small yield... and I can get a box of it from the farmer's market for $5, and it's delicious. So where the corn should be I'll have 3 more pepper plants, or a couple more tomatoes and life will be grand.

Where you make a killing is on growing herbs. The prices they charge for small packets/bunches of herbs is insane. And especially if you grow things that are a little more 'exotic' or trickier to find. I'd hazard I've got at lest $100 worth of red veined Sorrel in one of my beds at present... for about a bucks worth of seeds.

If you cut it all back to the bare bones and abide by a few golden principles I think you'll end up saving in the long run: grow what you eat the most of, grow what you can't get cheaply in stores, and grow for yield.

I'd like to say I'm breaking even, but I'm probably spending more. But I'd rather it be spent pottering around my garden than, idk, getting gunted on Makers Mark every night of the week.
AnOminous said:
I can't buy anything of equivalent quality, so there is really very little cost-benefit analysis. I either grow it myself or I don't have it.
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This is a huge factor too. Nothing tastes better than what you grow. Potatoes are another big one for me in this category. It's a fucking travesty having to go back to store-bought spuds.

ETA: There's a guy on Youtube, MIGardener, that speaks a lot about frugatlity and making the numbers add up in your garden. He's a total dork and definitely loves Jesus, but his advice and growing guides are top notch.
 
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My tomatoes have started to produce fruit. Wish I didn't have to spray the plants with alcohol every two days to deter nigger aphids though.
 
shameful existence said:
So I was wondering - is there anyone here whose gardening is actually saving them money? I started a few years ago and I've been clearly in the red every season, no matter how generously I estimate my organic jams would cost if bought from a store. It's not a big issue financially, but perhaps setting up some rules and limits would make me adopt better habits and become more result (rather than process) oriented.
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I think if you save the seeds from the plants you grow and dry them for next year, it will save money from buying new ones. Also, making your own compost to use as fertilizer could lower cost to a degree. I've been lazy, but I've been thinking of making compost to use for next year at some point.

Hope it's not too late, but I started planting some Chinese chili seeds I bought from a store. They also had Chinese rape, but that wasn't something I wanted to mess with.
 
Salade Nicoise said:
This is a huge factor too. Nothing tastes better than what you grow. Potatoes are another big one for me in this category. It's a fucking travesty having to go back to store-bought spuds.
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Tomatoes are big for me because they do utterly terrible shit to grocery store tomatoes to make them travel better, but it renders them as inedible as wax fruit, so it's either farmer's market or grow them yourself. There are some rare exceptions when a store buys local or imports really expensive tomatoes, but these definitely cost more than growing them.
 
AnOminous said:
Tomatoes are big for me because they do utterly terrible shit to grocery store tomatoes to make them travel better, but it renders them as inedible as wax fruit, so it's either farmer's market or grow them yourself. There are some rare exceptions when a store buys local or imports really expensive tomatoes, but these definitely cost more than growing them.
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I genuinely thought this was just something people said for a long time. Then my wife got a variety of cheap tomato plants from Lowe's, and holy shit I never knew how delicious tomatoes could be.

For simply economic reasons, I think it's reasonable that the shorter a food's shelf life, or the more delicate it is, the more worthwhile it is to grow yourself.

All the same I'd like to grow some winter wheat and make my own flour, just for the joy of making an autarky of my home.
 
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