anyone here into gardening?

[deltatahoe]

since moving into a house with a little outdoor space, i've discovered the joy of gardening. similar to the marvel of the intricacies of a mechanical watch movement, there is something fascinating to me about planting something and watching it grow.

anyways, i spent some time over the last couple days working on the garden in my back patio, so i figured i'd see if there were any other people here that enjoy gardening and share a couple pictures of my back patio.

my first foray into gardening began back in june when i first planted a white mandevilla on a trellis on my back patio. this plant has really thrived (i am continually amazed at all the blooms), so i've been excited about adding some additional plants to complement the mandevilla and make the space feel a little more complete. however, as a complete noob to gardening, combined with hundreds (thousands?) of different plants to choose from, trying to decide what to plant in the space was a pretty daunting task

so in order to get some inspiration, i went on a walk around my neighborhood to see what types of things seemed to thrive in the area. there were lots of rose bushes everywhere...

but everyone knows roses are for sissies --->

so i went off to the nursery in search of something a little more masculine

after a little searching, i ended up finding a plant that i really liked -- apparently in the summer it takes on a whitish color, and in the winter it is a rich dark green. the plant also has some nice rich maroon accents that i thought looked pretty unique. so i picked up a couple of these guys and paired them with some hairy looking grasses that i think work pretty well with the plant:

next up on my list: something to go in front of the mandevilla. i was told that when trying to plan a garden you should try to have several different textures, so i found something shiny that seemed to fit the bill nicely:

here is a closer up view of the plant i like to call mr. shiny:

now you may be wondering what the patchwork of squares surrounding mr. shiny is all about. if all goes as planned, eventually these little squares:

will grow together and look something like this (from a picture i took of another garden in my neighborhood):

the final thing that i wanted to do was to figure out something for a planter that is located along the west wall of my patio (this wall separates my patio from the walkway to my neighbor's house). given the wall is made of cinder blocks and kind of an eyesore, i decided to put something in the planter that would climb the wall and eventually cover it up completely. so i ended up getting a couple climbing fig plants to put along the wall, and topped it off with a red bushy guy.

here you can see the ugly cinder block wall:

hopefully this little guy will go to work and cover it up soon...

finally, here are a couple pictures of the (almost) finished project:

i'd love to hear any thoughts or suggestions, and be sure to post pics of your own gardens

thanks for looking

deltatahoe

[lanikai]

Dunno about roses being for sissies.. ..

I used to grow roses that had 8 inch blooms, Crimson Glory was ma fav.... actually learned how to grow prize winning roses.. fromm the day's of pakalolo farming, the fertalizing "numbers" use the same principles..it's all in the numbers in the fertilizers to achieve what you want from the blooms..

I enjoy growing .. always have..it's creating of the best out of nature that does it for me...

recently I came across a rare ginger.. the "hapu" was brought in from the Big Island of Hawaii.. the only other island I saw this.. it's called "Kahili" ginger.. resembling the Kahili's the Royalty carried..there must have been a "runner" in the hapu.

what looks really cool indoors as part of your design is a banana plant.. a dwarf one is the perfect size and adds to the look of a room..

if I come across some "Pele's hair" I'll send you some.. you just drape it on whatever and it thrives on the moisture that is in the air..I dunno what it's called in Florida .. but it looks cool even indoors..

don't worry about "feminine" stereotypes.. it's not easy to grow roses it's a microcosm of life.. beautiful blooms but thorns along the way. .

get some colour !! Impatiens.. make really good looking potted plants and adds amazing colour to you horticulture..

I'll try and pick up some Tea leaf plant for you red ones are cool looking..

AC

Lani

[Demsey]

Wow! Nice start there. Love it!

I would love to have success in 'ornamentals' and have tried, but I have a 'brown thumb'. I have suffered such financial loss and frustration that I had to go in another direction.....................

Although very unassuming an not impressive, this shot of my front yard was actually 'planned and landscaped from scratch'. The Live Oaks were standing on 'open lawn' when we moved in. All the shrubbery (save the one Sego Palm, center) and a few specie trees are all native to Florida, and I harvested them myself. Discovered on nature walks from the rural. As they were native 'over there' they thrive 'over here'. I actually do zero for them. They are happy to just do their thing. The price was right too

You may want to consider such an approach? It's fun, especially if you have kids and get them involved. It's like a treasure hunt. You bring a field guide along and you learn buckets. Some 'weed' varieties do well also in this vein, like Morning Glory and Moss Rose, good ground covers.

My only other suggestion to the general is fragrance. An often overlooked aspect to landscaping. I use Sugar Magnolias for this as they are native, but you may want to try a Jasmine (climbing/vining), Gardenia or similar. Just go light. A little wafting by every once in a while ttrough an open window is heaven. Getting smacked in the face by it walking into the back yard can actually turn your stomach!

Good luck. Keep posting the progress!

[Toadtorrent]

This is a very "Samurai" post.

[dluddy]

We're totally into gardening B and we have a number of different perennial gardens and a rose garden on the property.

I'll have to take some Pics to post...

What you did looks great by the way. Did you do the brick work?

[deltatahoe]

thanks for the responses guys -- i really appreciate the advice & feedback.

@lani, i was joking about roses being for sissies -- honest but i was relatively serious about wanting a masculine looking garden -- i'm a single guy and the last thing i need is potential girlfriends raising an eyebrow because of my fabulous, colorful garden. i have considered adding some color with something like impatiens in a couple pots though. also, interesting idea re: the the dwarf banana tree inside -- do they do well with indirect light?

@dems, your picture isn't working (or at least i can't see it). you should read this thread about image hosting seriously though, throw the pic up on imageshack and repost -- i'd like to see your garden that was harvested from the wild. btw, would you mind explaining to a noob how you go about doing that? i have this image in my head of you digging up fully grown plants out of the forest, but i'm guessing that isn't what you mean by "harvesting". if that is what you're talking about, i'm not sure the state of california would be ok with me pulling up plants from our natural habitats (i know, we're a bunch of hippies). btw, funny you should mention gardenias -- i have gardenias planted on my front patio

@dluddy, you should definitely take some pics -- would be cool to see your garden. re: the brick work, funny you should ask -- when i moved into the house about half of the bricks on the back patio were dislodged and strewn all over the place. so my dad and i re-bricked everything last time he was in town (admittedly he did more of it than me); we were really pleased with how it turned out.

one other thing i forgot to mention was the one thing that has made a huge difference in my garden since i discovered it: the DIG watering system. essentially it is a system that connects to your water faucet that allows you to create a customized watering system for your garden. there is a battery powered control unit that allows you to program your system to water up to four cycles per day (at specific times/intervals) and choose which day of the week you want it to water, and there are tons of different water delivery mechanisms (drippers, misters, etc) that you can use, each of which are individually adjustable (so you can regulate the amount of water that each plant gets). i travel a decent amount (both for work & pleasure) and have a somewhat unpredictable work schedule, so this system allows me to program my watering system and then go about my life and not have to worry about my plants dying if i go away for a long weekend.

anyways, keep the responses coming & happy gardening

deltatahoe

[lanikai]

thanks for the responses guys -- i really appreciate the advice & feedback.

@lani, i was joking about roses being for sissies -- honest but i was relatively serious about wanting a masculine looking garden -- i'm a single guy and the last thing i need is potential girlfriends raising an eyebrow because of my fabulous, colorful garden. i have considered adding some color with something like impatiens in a couple pots though. also, interesting idea re: the the dwarf banana tree inside -- do they do well with indirect light?

hahaha.. are ya kiddin.. friggin girls would go nutz over seeing roses in your garden, it's like carrying a puppy through a crowded mall.. you get literally run over by women approaching you and saying.. oooohhh howwww cuuuute ?? my buddy wanted to "borrow" my pups to take to the beach.. and my GF at the time would not let me alone with them after one episode outside the pet shop at the Mall.. you give roses to women.. why not grow them too .. trust me on this one.. women love that side of a man..plus it makes for a stunning backdrop..roses do take a lot of maintenance though..

.. horticulture has no gender,

the banana plant needs little sunlight .. pick a really cool looking indoor pot .. you don't want to expose it to too much wind the leaves will tear apart ... they look cool when they are solid in one piece..

shop owners use milk to wipe onto leaves to make them shinny.. this was before the coming of "silk" plants..

Me.. I like a lot of colour in the landscaping.... I also like the traditional "Hawaiian" plants... (that's a masculine look) if you want to call it that..

alot of hanging plants on the patio and indoors are great.. imo...

I really get off on "Bonsai".. I've seen Bonsai shows here where the tree is a hundred years old and is in a container the diameter of a small coffee cup.. intriguing to see "trees" that miniature..that look like they do when they are huge...

have fun though it is relaxing to "grow" ... still the pakalolo plant is one of the most beautiful in my eye's.... .not so much for the content ..(yeah right)... but the glory of the buds...

AC

Lani

[docblackrock]

Thanks for the heads up on this B, thought I'd pop my head round the door from my sabbatical and offer my thoughts.

Firstly are there any taboos left unbroken on RWG? We've done metrosexual stuff borne out of Admin's newfound skincare routine (which brought a large group of us out of the closet ). But I never thought I'd see the day the discussion would turn to gardening err, I mean *manly cough* "horticulture" (good one Lani )

As to my own 'experience', well we used to have a long 100-foot garden (bigger than the apartment it came with) with a couple of mature willow trees, tiger grass (grasses are good, very masculine and not at all prissy) with a pond with one fat lazy resident koi, a couple of newts and a frog, not to mention a crack military unit of grey squirrels. Anyway, the garden was great to look out on but my god was it hard work - like every other weekend near enough. And you try nurturing stuff when aside from the ninja squirrels, it's north-facing and you don't have the benefits of 10 months' annual California/Hawaii sunshine, quite the opposite in fact.

Since then, we've lost the big garden (although moving house soon and gaining a share of a large mature one) so been reduced to having a small roof courtyard garden with zinc planters of grasses, and winter jasmine. One thing I can't stand is too much colour, has to be green and white only (JTB would approve if he was still around ) and shades in between. Can't stand anything yellow, orange or god forbid pink . Also prefer the wild natural look, as opposed to a clipped anally-retentive groomed appearance. Nature generally does a good job on its own.

Orchids I've found are a nightmare to keep alive, but like Lani I too have a thing for bonsai. Sadly I lost my beloved little tree earlier this year (I suspected murder but my GF denied it and she plea-bargained manslaughter in the end). But next spring when I have the time and weather has improved, I'll get another as well as an larger outdoor one.

[jfreeman420]

I'm into indoor gardening..

[phaedo]

Spend quite a bit of time out in the garden here, roses, roses, more roses and then the vegetable patch. My grandfather had over 100 roses at one stage when I was a kid, and tried his hand at propogating his own, although I don't think any turned out all that successful. Think I have inherited some of that gardening bug from him. Spring is here and the roses are all flowering.

The chillis are also starting to take off, and somehow have around 20 watermelon seeds germinated, not too sure where they are all going to end up growing to, especially with the suburban size of the back yard... tomatoes everywhere... need a bigger place really, want to try my hand at bananas and other things too.

[Guest HaloArchive]

Me and my plants