This thread is not good for my wallet. Waiting on mattress delivery with nothing to do, so went on amazon looking for extra planters if I needed to move some of the stuff around. Found this. Oh hey! Strawberries!! My boys and wife love strawberries! And what's that? The climate we live in is ideal for them and they grow from spring until winter?? Don't mind if I do buy 20 of them!
There are creative ways to make planters from repurposed things. It really just depends on how stuck on a specific aesthetic you (and wifey) are. My aunt has a fuckton of tree sized hibiscus plants that she rolls into a greenhouse over the winter. They are all in split barrels. You can also repurpose things and paint them so they look nice and not out of place.
yeah I tried that with an old wheelbarrow that was broken. My first thought as soon as one of the handles snapped. My wife laughed at me told me to get a pot if I wanted it.
Some people buy little wheelbarrows purely to be planters! It's a thing. I buy a lot of stuff used off fb marketplace and goodwill. I have so many plants I'm starting from cuttings and seeds that they just need a temporary home. If I have a planter somewhere permanent, I don't mind purchasing something but even then I'll often wait for sales since the pretty, heavy duty ceramic planters are really expensive. I'm so lucky that the previous homeowner left a bunch of planters in the important locations: front door, corners of deck, near firepit.
Yeah I'm thinking I might experiment a little come fall. I want to see how my first season does with the basics. I have that personality where I'm either not into something, or into it all the way and obsessive. If I am able to keep up with the dozen plants we have by the end of this season, then ok, time to have fun. I have an office at a food distribution center. Access to a lot of pallets. I'm thinking it'd be cool to take some of their old broken ones and plant in the slots between them, let the veggies or flowers or whatever grow through and around and over the wood.
It's definitely better to start small and add things as you go if you enjoy it. Gardening is a lot of maintenance before production. Personally I get a lot of enjoyment out of that but some do not. You have kids who may or may not want to participate. If they love it, great. If not, the burden falls to you. Plants/the garden is kinda like having pets. Some people enjoy the care they take, some find it to just be a chore. You can't count on kids who promise to feed, bath, and walk them to do so, and be prepared to pick up the slack when they fail.
Be aware that cilantro is a bitch to repot. I’ve given up because I always fail at it. I just plant seeds in a big pot right from the start.
Yeah if they want to help, great. But I never count on it or plan for it, and honestly even when they do try to help it largely consists of me explaining to them that if they keep watering the plant it's gonna drown.
It can be tricky. Too much light, too warm, too dry, and they shoot up and get all gangly. And the taproot doesn’t transplant. I’ve been able to start them indoors after some experimentation and have been pretty happy with the results.
this might be a dumb question, but what's the advantage to starting plants from seeds rather than buying them as small plants? Beyond saving a few bucks.
I personally enjoy the challenge, and the fact I can start growing stuff way sooner than plants are generally available for sale.
The satisfaction and joy it brings. The varieties I can grow that may not be available at the store. The scale matters too. If you only want a couple plants it makes sense to buy them from the store. If you want a whole garden and enjoy it anyway, it is little effort to start from seeds. It's more of a time/planning thing at that point. Like anything, you can dump a lot of money into gardening. Lights, fancy pots, irrigation systems, expensive soils or additives. People have been growing stuff forever and at its bare bones, it doesnt have to be complicated. You just have to understand some basic needs and then figure out how to meet them. There's a lot of ways to get from point A to point B.
What he said plus the variety of different plants you can find online is much better than what the stores can supply. Even the big nurseries can’t stock specialty varieties. I tell you I used to dread potting up 30+ tomato plants but I’ve got a system worked out and only takes like an hour. Damn beaten to both my points. Seriously doing thirty plus plants is really cheap too. Pennies on the dollar. I kept it simple and the biggest investment I made was a 4 shoplight set up at Lowe’s. I used to fret about best soil and amendments but I found a potting soil I like and a 5 dollar bag is enough for all my plants. It goes peat pellets >solo cups> Ground.
I may have gone a little nuts last season with the seeds I purchased from Parkseeds. I got a lot of cool seeds for ornamental plants for the garden and some planters/baskets. Black dragon coleus, raspberry ice petunias, several interesting varieties of salvia. Several other flowers too. I'd be lucky to find even one of those in the store, even at the specialty nursery. And a single plant would probably cost about what I spent on a pack of seeds. Then, you can save seeds and cuttings and try again the next year. It never stooooppppsss.... Oh, found my order from last June. This is why I went to the Bi-mart for seeds this time. I'm not a seed hoarder, I'm a collector...
Never mind just the great reason to unplug and do something dirty and manual and offline that has such a rewarding result. And it gives me an interesting focus for my electronics hobby with various automation, etc. The fact I can pretty well plant seeds and leave it be for weeks (other than the occasional check-in) is pretty appealing.
Just potted up the jalapenos and CA wonder bell peppers. Germination took way longer than it should have for these two, but maybe temp was at play here. I thought my super old cayenne peppers were sprouted and then upon further look saw fucking maggots in there. I thought it was a little root coming out but noticed it moving. So those are in the trash. I only have the chile de arbol left and will warm them up in a last effort to get them going.
You're probably aware, but just for info sake: Peppers take significantly longer to get started than your tomatoes. We sow ours about four weeks on average ahead of the same timed tomato crops. They also do better with a light covering. We use a little vermiculite spread across the top of the tray.
I didn't realize they took that much longer. I thought I had the temps too cold. Mine eventually germinated but some of them took almost 6 weeks.