This video shows what actually happens inside of a birdhouse. You will be absolutely amazed!
Beginning a Gardening Business in Mongolia
TheGardenLady received this question from Odmaa all the way from Mongolia.
I am writing this from Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar. My country is in Asia, between China and Russia. Winter is harsh and lasts more than 4 months. I am intersted in planting room plants and help people to have them in their homes. I have more than 15 different room plants in my rooms. I am not a specialist in this area. Could you give me an advice to begin my business? During winter in my contry it reaches minus 30-35 degree centigrade. We who live in houses and apartments during this time do not face cold because we have central heating system. So room temperature is usually between 17 to 30 centigrade degrees.
How exciting to know that TheGardenLady.org column is read around the world in Mongolia. Though I have never been to your beautiful country, a good friend spent her summer vacation visiting Ulaanbaatar and other parts of Mongolia. I enjoyed viewing her photographs. Much of her vacation was spent on horseback.
I have read that Ulaanbaatar is the coldest capital city in the world. But your indoor temperature is perfect for certain plants.
TheGardenLady also has been interested in Genghis Khan and recommends a book called “Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World” by Jack Weatherford. He was a fascinating person.
TheGardenLady does not really know that much about starting a business venture and is not quite clear on the type of advice you are seeking.
My suggestion would be to study as much horticulture as you can. See what plant books are available in your libraries or book stores. Or go on line to read as many gardening sites about the plants that you are interested in growing.
In Eastern Ulaanbaatar there is a botanic garden, The Botanic Garden of Mongolia. See here.
Continue reading “Beginning a Gardening Business in Mongolia”
Cold Protection for Encore Azaleas
TheGardenLady received this question about planting Autumn Coral Encore Azaleas:
I’m planting Autumn Coral Encore Azalea in Zone 5, St. Louis and will follow suggested mulching program this fall. Has anyone had success with this or other Encore varieties in Zone 5? It’s hard to believe that this evergreen azalea wants 4-6 hrs of direct sunlight. St. Louis summers are brutally hot and very sunny overall. Standard evergreen azaleas usually perform best here in eastern or northern exposure or under large shade trees. Any thoughts on amount of sunlight?
The response to this question is comes directly from Encore Azalea.
For More Cold Protection
Mulch well (about 4 inches deep) in the fall. Reduce water for a month or so before the first frost. Then, after a couple of hard freezes, water well to provide moisture. This will help the plants to go dormant, or “harden off”.
As you would with any outdoor ornamental plants, Encore Azaleas may need some extra protection during sudden freezes and extremely cold weather. Sudden, drastic drops in temperature are more damaging than a gradual decline, especially to newly planted shrubs.
Burlap, old blankets, or sheets (any cloth material) can be used to cover upper plants. It is recommended that you drive stakes in the ground around your Encore and drape the cloth cover over stakes. Foliage in contact with the cover can be injured, so try to minimize cover contact with plant.
You can also try Encore Azaleas in containers, so that you can bring them inside in extremely cold weather.
I suggest one of the hardier varieties for zone 5. Try Autumn Amethyst , Autumn Cheer , Autumn Royalty , and Autumn Ruby and Autumn Twist . You also want to plant in spring or early summer.
As Encores mature and get more established in their environment, they will be better able to withstand cold temperatures. Young plants are more susceptible to sudden, drastic drops in temperatures, and sustained cold weather (25 degrees or below).
Encore Azaleas will thrive in your zone 5, although they will need a bit more protection. Encore Azaleas also need to receive at least receive at least 6 hours of sunlight per day in zone 5. Since all 24 varieties of Encore Azaleas have been bred to bloom in three seasons, they need extra sun to do so.
Video: Massive Underground Ant City
Ants are amazing. Watch this video and marvel at their underground structure. It’s remarkable!
Read here for a post on ants by TheGardenLady.
Stark Brothers Nurseries and Orchards
TheGardenLady received this question from Wanita:
Can you provide some nurseries that sell espaliered apple trees? Â I live in
southern Michigan and would like to plant in the spring. I have a small yard and
would like a couple apple trees and a peach tree if possible in my space.
One of the really good places to get espaliered apple and peach trees in the United States (they ship everywhere in the US except Hawaii) is from Stark Brothers Nurseries and Orchards. See here. After 200 years this company knows their business. They have a number of espaliered tree choices that they sell.
There are many English orchards or nurseries that sell espaliered trees but Stark Bros. told me that espaliered fruit trees is becoming more popular in the US.
You do know that you need at least 6 hours of sun for the trees to bear fruit. Stark Bros. will send you free planting instructions that should include pruning techniques. You will have to prune espaliered trees yearly. Because fruit trees often need lots of pesticides, ask for the most disease resistant trees when you buy. If you have any problems with the trees, they will be able to help solve them.
I do not know your temperature zone- I guess it is zone 5- but you should ascertain what it is before ordering. When buying trees, tell the nursery your temperature zone to get the best trees for your area.
Fall is the best time to plant espaliered trees and Stark Bros. is presently shipping orders of espaliered and other fruit trees. They may also giving a discount if you order online.
So call and order your trees immediately if you are serious about wanting espaliered trees in your yard next spring. If you order through Stark Bros. you can get their cataogue online or call for it at 800.325.4180
Next spring you will enjoy your garden. TheGardenLady and her readers would love to have you share photos of your espaliered trees with any comments you have to tell about your experience with them.
Submerging a Wandering Jew Plant
TheGardenLady received this question from Jonathan:
Can a wandering jew be completley sumerged in water and still live?
The plant commonly called Wandering Jew or Inch Plant, Tradescantia Zebrina is considered one of the easiest plants to grow as an indoor plant and if you live in zones 9-11 as an outdoor plant as well. One only has to pinch off a piece of the stem with some leaves (you can even start new plants from the leaves) and stick the stem part in water and it will root. Leave the rooted stem in water, do not let the roots dry out and the plant will grow to be a beautiful indoor hanging type plant and even may produce flowers. It thrives in bright but indirect sunlight- the brighter the light the more flowers it will produce, though it is mainly grown for its lovely foliage.
The Wandering Jew is not an underwater plant, so it does not want to be completely submerged. The plant really wants light on its leaves. If you want to keep it in water, you might get root rot. Either toss the rotten plant out or cut off and toss out the rotted root part and put the healthy plant in fresh water to start new roots.
Of course the plant will do better in soil. So now that your plant has made roots in water, plant those rooted pieces in potting soil. Keep the soil moist all the time. The plant even likes its leaves misted daily for added moisture. See here. However, TheGardenLady never bothered with the daily misting and the plant is so hardy, it thrived. The plant enjoys diluted liquid fertilizer, especially if it is grown in water, for extra nutrients.
This is an ideal plant for dorm rooms and for people who want green plants but feel they have “black thumbs”. And it is an attractive plant for your home. TheGardenLady can almost guarantee that you will have success with this plant. Keep on cutting off small stems with leaves and putting them in fresh water to start more plants.
If you go to buy a Wandering Jew plant, you will often see it sold in a large hanging basket. No one I knew ever bought one. People just pinched off stems from someone else’s plant and started growing the plant successfully.You can almost go into business with all the plants you can start so easily. Starting a plant is called propagation.
I have read that for some people handling the plant can get an allergic reaction. So use gloves when cutting the stems and don’t handle too much. This Garden Lady has never known anyone who had a problem.
The Purification Power of Plants
Once again TheGardenLady is recommending having plants in your house, especially now during the cold and flu season. It is important that our houses and offices have good air quality all the time so you don’t suffer breathing problems, but it seems doubly important when you are gasping for breath with a stuffed nose: you don’t want to worry about breathing in poor quality air if you can help it. According to Dr. Woverton, “Only recently have many physicians begun to associate the increase in respiratory problems with exposure to poor indoor air quality.” Read this.
A scientist Dr. Bill Wolverton who worked for NASA is the author of the book “How To Grow Fresh Air- 50 Houseplants That Purify Your Home or Office” and another book called “Eco-Friendly House Plants-50 Indoor plants that purify the air in homes and offices” and he is coming out in December 2009 with a new book coauthored with Mr Kozabura Takenaka “Plants -Why You Can’t Live Without Them” where “the authors delve into the latest research involving the use of plants to improve indoor air quality.” This book will be interesting to read because it discusses “how plants grown in hydroculture (soil-free) are more effective in cleaning the air than plants in potting soil.” Dr. Wolverton says that “hospitals in Japan are adding plants to take advantage of their air-cleaning properties.”
Besides the role of the plant’s leaves and their root microbes removing impurities from the air, just by having plants in the house brings added moisture to the indoor air. So many houses are so extremely dry indoors when the heat comes on, so by watering the plants and or having them sit on stones over water or if you keep your plants or bouquets of flowers in water, you can breathe so much more easily.
Any of the plants you already have indoors or ones that we have discussed on TheGardenLady blog are helpful. For example, the Sanseviera, Mother-In-Law’s Tongue plant. If you have low light or if you have good light, how about considering the lovely fancy leafed begonias. TheGardenLady will be writing about these begonias in a future post.
Now that you have beautified your rooms with plants, TheGardenLady hopes that you will be able to enjoy the atmosphere and that you don’t get sick with a cold or the flu. But should you become ill you can rest easier knowing that you have done something to help the environment in your home.
If TheGardenLady’s readers wonder what the signs of the flu are, below is an easy chart to check to see if you have a cold or the flu. If you are sick, stay home and take loving care of yourself. Make yourself happy with pretty plants in your rooms. TheGardenLady hopes that none of her readers comes down with the flu.
H1N1 flu is about to be upon us and we need to be on top of information regarding it. Here is a comparison to the normal cold symptoms that was sent to me.
Know the Difference between Cold and H1N1 Flu Symptoms
|
Symptom |
Cold |
H1N1 Flu |
|
Fever |
Fever is rare with a cold. |
Fever is usually present with the flu in up to 80% of all flu cases. A temperature of 100°F or higher for 3 to 4 days is associated with the flu. |
|
Coughing |
A hacking, productive (mucus- producing) cough is often present with a cold. |
A non-productive (non-mucus producing) cough is usually present with the flu (sometimes referred to as dry cough). |
|
Aches |
Slight body aches and pains can be part of a cold. |
Severe aches and pains are common with the flu. |
|
Stuffy Nose |
Stuffy nose is commonly present with a cold and typically resolves spontaneously within a week. |
Stuffy nose is not commonly present with the flu. |
|
Chills |
Chills are uncommon with a cold. |
60% of people who have the flu experience chills. |
|
Tiredness |
Tiredness is fairly mild with a cold. |
Tiredness is moderate to severe with the flu. |
|
Sneezing |
Sneezing is commonly present with a cold. |
Sneezing is not common with the flu. |
|
Sudden Symptoms |
Cold symptoms tend to develop over a few days. |
The flu has a rapid onset within 3-6 hours. The flu hits hard and includes sudden symptoms like high fever, aches and pains. |
|
Headache |
A headache is fairly uncommon with a cold. |
A headache is very common with the flu, present in 80% of flu cases. |
|
Sore Throat |
Sore throat is commonly present with a cold. |
Sore throat is not commonly present with the flu. |
|
Chest Discomfort |
Chest discomfort is mild to moderate with a cold. |
Chest discomfort is often severe with the flu. |
The only way to stop the spread of the epidemic is to spread the awareness!
TheGardenLady’s Childhood Experience with Chickens
When I was a child, as I told early readers of this blog, my parents had a small farm. They had bought it just before the depression. My father, a romanticist, always dreamed of being a farmer. It was a small farm and the primary reason for its being was to raise produce. But we had two horses to plow the fields and pull the wagon. We had goats. We had two cows so that with all the milk my mother decided to make a small dairy business out of it. Besides the milk, she sold heavy and light cream, sour cream and her delicious homemade cottage cheese. We had pet ducks and of course, we had chickens.
We raised the chickens for ourselves; either Rhode Island Reds or White Leghorn chickens. We ate eggs almost daily and, I am sorry to tell you, we ate the chickens when they were too old to lay eggs or we needed food. After all, the depression hit and everyone needed to eat. But we did not raise chickens as a business.
Every spring my mother would get a huge carton of darling, cuddly yellow chicks. I loved it when they brought the chicks into the house for warmth. I would play with them. Today I guess you would say I bonded with the chicks. But when they grew real feathers, they went out to the chicken coop and the friendship ended. Still I have never enjoyed eating chicken, I guess because of my bonding.
Continue reading “TheGardenLady’s Childhood Experience with Chickens”
Growing Food Plants in the Dorm Room
TheGardenLady received this question from Daniel:
I would like to grow a food plant of some sort in my dorm room. I was wondering what kind of plant you would suggest. I don’t have a lot of time or gardening skill, so an easy to care for plant would be ideal. Also, our room has a window, but does not get direct sunlight. It stays around room temperature year round. Finally, it would be nice to be able to harvest something before the year is over. I don’t know if anything fits the bill, but suggestions would be great!
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could grow our own food in our home or dorm room? I think most of us would convert a floor to a garden just to have fresh produce year round. I know that I would create a garden in my lower level which has lots of windows that are on the West and North sides of the building so they get no sunshine. And to have harvest fresh vegetables at the end of the year, for Christmas dinner, would be a gourmet’s delight. But alas, this dream has not quite been realized in my lifetime. Many of the Dick Tracy comic book inventions have come true (Dick Tracy, a popular comic strip in the 1940’s and 1950’s) and I imagine that some day growing vegetables or food easily in a dorm room will also come true. But today one really needs a green house to have success. Food plants want lots of SUN to produce food- usually at least 6 hours of sun. That is how nature created them. People who have a glass or plastic greenhouse can attempt to raise food indoors. But without that sunlight indoors, you are asking for difficulties.
I am not sure what temperature you say your dorm room is when you say “it stays around room temperature year round.” People regulate the amount of heat in their rooms and it can usually be from approximately 68 degrees to 78 degrees in the rooms. Some plants like it warmer that is why they grow in the hot summer though plants like lettuce prefer a cooler environment. And also, because a plant is in a pot, you will have to be sure that you water the plants enough. Some plants might even need humidity around them as well as to be watered. To get added humidity, put the pot in a tray with water and stones. Site the pot above the water, on the stones not in the water. In many cases the plants will need a pollinator to produce fruit. People do help pollinate when insects aren’t available to do it.
Whiteflies are Annoying Plant Pests
In the last post, TheGardenLady explained one reason why this time of year makes her sad. Here’s another reason, the fear of bringing in plant pests.
Whitefly is of special concern. See here. Whitefly can get on your plants when they are outdoors. But it is a major problem of greenhouses or homes. One of the plants that I bring in for the winter is my Brugmansia or angel trumpet. This is a plant that is prone to whitefly. Friends have thrown out their Brugmansia plants because of the infestation of whitefly on them. Sometimes one has to get rid of plants when the infestation is extremely large but there is no room to properly care for the plant. My house is not very large and some of these plants have become enormous trees which I can’t really spray indoors should they have an infestation. Or you might have to get rid of a pest ridden plant if you fear the infestation will spread to other plants. This is also a fear I have with two dozen other plants in my relatively small place. I have been lucky. In all the years that I have had plants indoors and in the three years I have been bringing my Brugmansia indoors, my plants have never had any pests.