Gardening and Plant Thread

[mold]

Went out of town and asked my family to water my plants while I was gone as we are in a drought. Came back to find my plants watered with such enthusiasm that large amounts of soil had been sprayed from their pots and onto the ground. Also there was a massive chunk of watermelon in my mint pot. Wtf.

awww they tried

 

[femboy fart huffer]

Man idk if this is exactly the right place, but what the fuck is up with boomers and lawns?

Spoiler: long again

Well I got a chance to properly take a look, I only looked out from the back window and it's been raining constantly the past few days so I haven't had a chance until now. I'm even more just frankly fucking confused than anything. Not only did he decide to mow the lawn but he has done such a fucking abysmal job that genuinely a child could do much better without any question. Not only does the grass now have the consistency of a balding man who tried to shave his head while drunk, but it also has the equivalent of a mullet. Instead of mowing the entire lawn, mowed maybe 90% of it and then just fucked off and left the last part how it was. I said originally that the best part was looking out the front and seeing how shit the council has made the verge look, somehow he has made my actual garden look worse; a genuine accomplishment. For privacy reasons I stuck the images I took before and after through an anime filter and edited them slightly to remove details just in case, I did not instruct the AI to change any of the grass parts, just the background parts, the grass is a perfect recreation of the actual photos.

Spoiler

Here's what it looked like before. Nice lush and long green grass. Nicely varied and textured.

Here's the shitshow he left. The grass has several different lengths, most of it is browning with some random patches of green shit. It's somehow just as uneven as before, god only knows how you can mow a lawn and it not be even.

And here is possibly the most confuddling part, he just fucking didn't bother to mow in front of the shed????????? He did everything up to the side of the shed and then just left a shed's width along the side of the garden for a reason that I cannot grasp.

That's confusing, but that's not the strangest part. Our garden used to be much smaller, the shed and the pond is actually in the middle, at some point it was lengthened so there's actually more garden behind the shed, there used to be one big lawn cut in half by a path, but I removed one of those halves for the wildflowers. The half that is still grass is just as long and that's along the neighbour's fence. That's the only fucking part of the garden that they can see. They can't see the part from those images, the part that now looks like dogshit. For some unbenownst reason he decided to not mow that part. THE ONLY FUCKING PART ANYONE ELSE COULD SEE. The back part the neighbours can see is the same as it always has been; 'ugly and in need of mowing, something they will judge me for'. The other side has a full 6ft fence along the entire garden. Essentially the only person that can see the shit he has done is me, also the only part that my dog is allowed on so she doesn't jump over the neighbour's 3ft fence or eat any of the crops, just in case they're bad for her. So the neighbour's will still think I'm an unkempt slob or whatever the fuck, but now when I look out the window I get to see the dogshit part, and the dog now doesn't have her grass to play in. If I wasn't so sure he was at least aspergic, if not autistic, I would genuinely assume actual malice in how it was literally just the parts that affect me.

And much more annoyingly, not just annoying but actually dangerous and unfathomably retarded; I didn't notice until just now but he fucking left the door unbolted. I know enough about locksport to know that the lock I have is openable with a fucking stick and a gust of wind and that the bolts are the only thing keeping it actually secure. So he basically just left the fucking back door open, also the bolts pull the door closer in to the frame as the door doesn't fit great and lets more cold air in if you leave it unbolted. I live remotely enough that realistically there isn't any real risk and even if there was I think my pet polar bear is getting to be old enough that anyone would quickly turn around if they broke in, but then again if I only drive at the speed limit is it ok for me to get drunk and not wear a seatbelt?

Judging by the fact that both the bottle of weedkiller and the sprayer has moved I will also assume that he took it upon himself to spray the 'weeds' (wildflowers growing in places where they 'shouldn't' be). It has been raining pretty heavily so maybe that all washed off but I don't know and honestly doubt it. I'll soon know if I start finding bee corpses laying around, or when the plants start to die would probably be a better sign now I say that outloud lol. Also I don't know if I've mentioned this before but I HAVE A FUCKING DOG, and she's only just past puppy age, you know something that might be curious and nibble or lick plants because that's what dogs do sometimes, I now have to restrict her from basically all of the garden so she doesn't accidentally eat something that should be completely fine but is covered/filled with fucking toxic shit. I have the stuff because the back fence loves to grow actual weeds through the fence, so it's hard to pull them out and easier to just spray them, which is fine because she cannot get to those because of the fence down the middle of the garden. But even then it's shit, I never understood the appeal of any herbicide, ok yes it will kill the plant but then you just have brown dead shit everywhere. You still have to go around and manually pull all the weeds out so why don't you just do it to start off with instead of spraying indiscriminate toxins everywhere for no reason? I also make sure that the sprayer is back in the shed where she cannot get to it instead of fucking leaving it out in the open because apparently putting things back where they came from is too difficult for some people? I say as if I'm surprised at all, yea comes and goes directly against my wishes and ruins things he doesn't own for no reason and can't even be bothered to properly lock the door, leaving the sprayer out is perfectly in character.

There's a plant that is idk halfway between a shrub and a tree that I need to stake up, I keep meaning to get some metal rod to drive into the ground to use as a support, it's kinda floppy and wants to grow sideways instead of upwards and does genuinely get in the way sometimes. Didn't try to fix that, could have stuck a bamboo cane in the ground or just tied it up, that would have been helpful. Didn't pull any of the plants out from between the paving stones which would have actually been helpful. Didn't even cut down any weeds that I can see at all. Almost certainly didn't kill any of the wildly recognised agricultural pests that I keep finding on some of my berry bushes either. He didn't even fucking put the weed sprayer back in the shed. There were things that could have helped or been useful that he just did not do, even then I wouldn't be thrilled if he just did shit without asking anyway. All around did absolutely nothing helpful, not even remotely, just fucked absolutely everything up in every single way. Thank you so much, please never return to my house. I will remain positive because getting pissed off at someone who is now a several hour train journey away is frankly pointless. Hopefully with the recent warm weather and decent amount of rain it will just force the grass to regrow quicker. Kinda like how when you badly prune a tree in the middle of summer it will force out a load of new branches to grow as quickly as possible. And I will just lie to myself and say that whatever was sprayed with weedkiller had already finished flowering and it's just killed off the early bloomers to make way for the late bloomers. Though I am going to have to basically demand an entire list of things that was sprayed for dog reasons. Though the forecast is looking grim enough that I doubt she'd want (or be allowed lol) to play outside for a while anyway. Don't know if you've seen a great Pyrenees before, looks a bit like a golden retriever, a polar bear and a sheep all had a baby together. Imagine walking a sentient sponge. She has a coat for going on walks but thank fuck the entrance to my house is tiled and not carpet. Delayed posting so I could actually ask to see what he'd sprayed. Remember how I said:

I would ask him but he's the type of person that turns any non 100% positive discussion into a heated argument in about 2 sentences and it's just not worth the effort.

Yea, I asked him. Couldn't even do that without him getting annoyed and then me hanging up on him. Not like 'hey which parts of my garden will now kill my dog' is a serious question or anything. He said that if I don't do what he did my garden will look like 'an ugly mess'. Because dead patchy grass is clearly neither ugly or a mess. I take back what I said earlier, fuck not getting pissed off, if I had not written this post beforehand it would have a very different tone. Can't even go sit by the wildflowers and have a drink to relax because it's still pissing it down as well.

Nice to see my mother after a fair while again at least though.

I did notice that despite raining pretty heavily a birdbox I made over winter seems to have dealt with it pretty good, first time I've been able to check, it's either not rained or been so fucking miserable that I just stay inside and don't check until everything has dried up. The outside is a bit damp but the inside is completely dry, I wasn't too sure because I just completely fucking made it up without any plans and I'm not the best so there's a few gaps I was worried about. Not got anything in at all but I think that's a problem with the positioning mainly. One of the perks of working with builders, half the time if you ask them if you can take one of their old pallets or some wood out the skip they'll go and give you a load extra.

There's also a wren nesting in one of the bushes that picked a bit of a bad spot imo, I can pretty easily see the nest by moving just one branch lol, those eggs have just hatched which is nice to see, they're so young their eyes are still shut. I think they look fucking ugly as sin but it's cute in an emotional sense. I'll see if I can get my mate who's into fishing to get us a tub of those bait worms next time he goes to wherever the fuck you buy boxes of worms from in this country, just as a way to supplement her diet now she no longer has a big lawn and it's endless buffet of bugs to eat.

Spoiler: Also as a slightly unrelated but light hearted anecdote.

My grandma used to call me 'her little woggie' for ages, I didn't really know what she meant by that, she'd also do this little hand dance too, I can't really describe it other than she would put her hands up and kinda flap them around and move her head, like she was a puppet dancing kinda. Apparently she meant that because I had the typical (today's, not the 80s) metal musician's hair she thought I looked like a gollywog with an afro somehow? But I had no idea. We also call gooseberries guzgogs, I think it's from my non local grandad because no one else around here knows what the fuck that means until you tell them. So one day I go to school with a little tupperware container of them, my family was pretty friendly with one of the teachers so she would talk to me more, one day she asked me what I was eating. I told her I was eating guzgogs, she proceeded to flip her shit thinking I had just randomly said yes I am eating gollywogs for some reason and tells me that it's a bad word and that I should not say it. In the innocence of a roughly 8 year old child I then proceed to say oh my grandma calls me that all the time and proceeded say "I'm a little woggie" and do the little dance at the teacher who is now fucking mortified that I have not only basically said I enjoy eating eating niggers but also said that my grandma loves to call me one. I just had that come back to my mind because our bush is fruiting currently and I tried one, absolutely fucking terrible though, tasted like eating cotton wool soaked in lemon juice with seeds thrown in there for fun. Might need a couple more weeks before they're ready, not that I ever really harvest many of them just because it's such a ballache to do without losing several pints of blood.

 

[Honored guest]

Looks like I accidentally put my pepper seedlings to close to my growlight and fried most of them womp womp. Make sure if you guys have growlights that you pay close attention to your plants and if the lights have instructions follow them.

 

[Big Miss Steak]

Found more Gulf caterpillars on my corkystem and moved them to the cuttings my grandma gave me. Have found two more Monarch caterpillars on my swamp milkweed and moved them to the larger plant. Found a handful of little yellow aphids on a small milkweed and blasted them off with water.

My rose plant is doing alright but I have noticed the blooms pale and wilt within a few days. Wonder if it's the heat or something else.

 

[Leather Gliscor]

Garden update, since it's been like half a year: Everything is growing! I've had two seed packets fail me (chives and canterbury bells), but the rest are growing well. I've got tomatoes, onions, a singular sweet potato, plenty of lathyrus and marigolds, zinnias, black-eyed susans (from years old packets somehow), an overabundance of sage and basil, thunbergia, morning glories, cali. poppies, and more. It's bountiful! I've never had a more successful year by seed and all I did was set the trays and containers outside after germinating and let the rain do the watering.

 

[GungusDingaling]

Garden doing well. Mini super sweets are ready to pick (~3 a day on 5 plants - learned that we need a significantly larger trellis than what we got and more separation). First Big Jim pepper is ripening and turning yellow, jalapeños are growing but not quite read, mini bells are growing the same as the penos.

We accidentally killed (I assume) our mustard plant by spraying it with peppermint oil/water solvent that was intended to keep ants/grasshoppers away. May come back but doubtful. I have never had mustard leaves before but they were great, will have to try again.
Herbs are growing and habenero is starting to get bigger but needs a bigger pot.
Planted some cucumbers and squash, they look good as well. I think we’ll start growing some pumpkins from seed soon so we can have a pumpkin patch with friends in the fall.

 

[Lucius Aelius]

My mulberry seedlings are still growing at about the same pace. I also went out and dug up a younger tree that the deer ate about half of. I think this one is probably about a year old? It's putting off new growth, so it doesn't seem that fussed about getting uprooted. One thing I really need to figure out is how to less destructively dig up plants. The clay around here tends to fracture and crumble when you apply too much pressure, which means you inevitably end up getting just the roots of whatever you dig up.

 

[LowlyPheasent]

I also went out and dug up a younger tree that the deer ate about half of. I think this one is probably about a year old?

If you have issues with animals like deer eating stuff off you should fence them in, and it's not bearing fruit you intend to eat you can spray it down with repellents or a bitrex solution. These are usually non-toxic, bitrex in particular isn't but it makes it smell and taste bad. You'd have to re-apply it after some time but they can help.

One thing I really need to figure out is how to less destructively dig up plants. The clay around here tends to fracture and crumble when you apply too much pressure, which means you inevitably end up getting just the roots of whatever you dig up.

Do you wet the soil enough before digging? I know the nurseries here wrap the roots in burlap as well when transplanting or uprooting to sell stuff. Probably should look at the plants in particular though, I'd not want to over water and manage to root rot something in the process.

 

[Honored guest]

My mulberry seedlings are still growing at about the same pace. I also went out and dug up a younger tree that the deer ate about half of. I think this one is probably about a year old? It's putting off new growth, so it doesn't seem that fussed about getting uprooted. One thing I really need to figure out is how to less destructively dig up plants. The clay around here tends to fracture and crumble when you apply too much pressure, which means you inevitably end up getting just the roots of whatever you dig up.

Have you tried taking a pitchfork and loosening up the soil around the tree. I Moved a pretty large wild gooseberry by working up the soil in a wide area around the bush before finally lifting up the rootball. If you're working with compacted soil or clay you're going to damage or pull off alot of the feeder roots when transplanting a larger bush or tree so it might be best if you tag the tree and dig it up when it goes dormant.

 

[Lucius Aelius]

If you have issues with animals like deer eating stuff off you should fence them in,

I moved it in this case mostly because the deer are extremely unwilling to approach the buildings proper. My original plan was to let it grow in place alongside the other half dozen just like it, and dig it up in the winter. However, when I went to check on them, they were all gone, so it became more urgent that I do something immediately.

Do you wet the soil enough before digging?

I'll try this next time, alongside the suggestion of working the soil further out. Generally it's already pretty soaked, though. Most soil here is dense, wet clay. It does mean that anything that survives these conditions is probably immune to root rot.

I've attached a picture of four of the saplings in place pre deerpocalypse. The one I dug up is the furthest to the back and to the left.

 

[Spaced Outside Cargo]

Pole beans are pretty cool.
First one finally ready to pick and the bean is as long as my arm.

 

[Sperg_rancher]

hello kiwi friends. I come to you with a garden mystery.

something is cutting off grape leaves from my vines! I can't figure out what, and I need the help of those more experienced than me.

the leaves seem to be cut in clusters, and right at the point where the stem meets the leaf. the cut seems clean, like some scissors or shears cut it. I'm attaching photos.
at first I thought it was the local waterfoul, but the leaves have been removed anywhere from 4" to 3' off the ground, aka the tallest point my vines currently reach.
I'll get 10 leaves removed in one night, once a week or so.

what do you guys think?

photos:

one stem that was cut:




another stem, same plant

 

[Alpacawitz]

hello kiwi friends. I come to you with a garden mystery.

something is cutting off grape leaves from my vines! I can't figure out what, and I need the help of those more experienced than me.

the leaves seem to be cut in clusters, and right at the point where the stem meets the leaf. the cut seems clean, like some scissors or shears cut it. I'm attaching photos.
at first I thought it was the local waterfoul, but the leaves have been removed anywhere from 4" to 3' off the ground, aka the tallest point my vines currently reach.
I'll get 10 leaves removed in one night, once a week or so.

what do you guys think?

photos:

one stem that was cut:

View attachment 7482046
View attachment 7482048

another stem, same plant

View attachment 7482049

Could be rats or possums. You could get a cheap trail camera & mount it nearby to see the culprit.

 

[Drive-By Comment]

Repotted my avocado like 1½ weeks ago. It has been dying since. The smaller and younger the leaf, faster it went. Last night it has 2 big leave that clearly have not been completely cut of water. Everything else gone.

But guess what. I had dream of it sprouting new growth like crazy... And you wouldn't believe it but dreams are just fucking dreams.

That thing dying hurts a little.

 

[Spaced Outside Cargo]

Repotted my avocado like 1½ weeks ago. It has been dying since. The smaller and younger the leaf, faster it went. Last night it has 2 big leave that clearly have not been completely cut of water. Everything else gone.

But guess what. I had dream of it sprouting new growth like crazy... And you wouldn't believe it but dreams are just fucking dreams.

That thing dying hurts a little.

If it makes you feel any better avocados are very difficult plants to keep, hence why they are so expensive.

Also when a plant i have starts dropping leaves i usually wait until the branches turn brittle to pronounce them dead. Odd environmental factors caused my kiwi plants to drop all leaves and effectively go dormant for 6 months before growing new ones. Almost dug them up until i noticed the branches were flexible.

 

[femboy fart huffer]

If it makes you feel any better avocados are very difficult plants to keep, hence why they are so expensive.

Also when a plant i have starts dropping leaves i usually wait until the branches turn brittle to pronounce them dead. Odd environmental factors caused my kiwi plants to drop all leaves and effectively go dormant for 6 months before growing new ones. Almost dug them up until i noticed the branches were flexible.

I kinda like plants like that. I live in England so I have never had any success with any sort of exotic plant outside of orchids grown inside in a grow tent, that honestly I'm surprised never caused any legal trouble considering the purple glow was visible from the street. I mean, disregarding the emotional and time investment, plants like avocados are basically free if you grow them from seed. If you have something like that then you might as well plant it and enjoy watching it for however long it lives. I've never managed to keep anything like that alive over winter, but I enjoy watching them come up and live for the summer or two, I always find those thin oval leaves of avocados and mangoes pretty anyway. I normally just throw pits and seeds of exotic fruits in a planted vivarium I have to give everyone something new to see what's going on and remove them when they get a bit too big, that's normally where they die just the change from bright warm light to well English windowsill.

Some plants really hate being transplanted, that might be what killed it, could just be root shock. Sometimes it happens. From what happened it sounds like that might be the most likely cause. Any sort of deficiency would take longer than that to set in. Something that instant was probably shock. Best thing to do is just try again. There's no reason to give up, avocado seeds are literally waste, if you have family and they eat avocado then they'll probably save the seeds for you if you mention it. Having just one plant is always a bit of a risk anyway, as resilient as it is sometimes nature just decides to not work. If they never work then it might just be where you live, in that case, trust me you will find some amazing fruit that you can grow from seed that you never knew about before. And if it's any consolation avocado seeds normally don't grow true to type anyway.

 

[AnOminous]

Repotted my avocado like 1½ weeks ago. It has been dying since. The smaller and younger the leaf, faster it went. Last night it has 2 big leave that clearly have not been completely cut of water. Everything else gone.

Sucks. I repotted a mere basil plant and it died and I still feel guilty. I kept its little corpse in the pot with the other basil plant in the hopes it would come back to life from the roots but no. I killed my basil bro. I suck.

 

[mold]

I have a crazy number of volunteers this year. Two tomatoes, a bunch of california poppy, a bunch of really pretty mystery flowers, and so many beneficial weeds with medical uses I feel like I'm turning into a ghibli cartoon.

on the other hand none of my corn came up wtf

 

[MorallyGreyFrog]

Maybe out of topic, but I want to share my victory.

I wanted to plant some trees in my yard. I spent a good deal of time planning out the geometry, only to find that the place where I wanted to plant the last tree was just a tangled and solid mass of tree roots that had grown together, remnants of a water oak tree that was cut down a few years ago.

I set to work against it with shovel, pick, and axe. Through much labor, I eventually achieved endsieg.

Well, I didn't remove all of the roots; that would require I dig up the whole yard, just about. I did dig out a space several feet across which should give the new tree I am planting enough space to grow while the old roots decay.

In any case, I am feeling pretty accomplished.

 

[AnOminous]

My one previously thriving basil plant (the other is suffering) got blown over by a severe thunderstorm and now lies, prone, on the ground. How can I save this poor plant?