The BIC Plant and Gardening Thread

[sister13]

Hello BIC friends and fellow gardeners! Whether you have a container on your balcony, some indoor plants, a whole garden, or even if you just happen to visit a botanical garden or see a lovely space or plant in your neighborhood you want to share, this is the place! Please share pics, tips, plans and tricks about all things gardening!  

For many years I had a container balcony garden with mostly flowers and herbs (when travel allowed), and I am now embarking on my first backyard landscaping and gardening journey. 

I am often taking inspiration from the natural world around me and have recently had some spring inspiration for the Makeup Challenge of the Week and have loved chatting about gardening in our other threads, so I thought a new thread would be nice. 

It’s always so interesting to me to see plants and gardens from different regions and countries, so I hope you’ll join the conversation!  

PS: if you create a makeup look based on some plant or garden inspiration, please feel free to post your look or flat-lay here, too! 

Here are a few pics of my spring bulbs to start and I’ll share more soon (kindly ignore the weeds)! 

 

 

My old balcony (from the outside) - I’ll try to find an internal pic too:

[JoSometimes]

What a great garden @Margalee! It’s so amusing to watch bees doing their thing when they find flowers they like. 🐝

[Titian06]

Your flowers are so pretty, @Margalee ! 🌻  It's great that you have bees! 🐝

[JoSometimes]

Incoming potatoes! I like growing them containers. Just dump them out, pick up the harvest, and put the soil back for next year. It’s also the perfect opportunity to amend the soil and get every mixed up nicely before returning them back into the containers. 🥔

The daylilies are doing very well and are showing off all their pretty colours. 

My kids love these balloon flowers. Or rather, they love to POP them before they’re ready. 😤🎈

And the hostas are on full display. I almost love the leaves more than the flowers. It’s so interesting seeing the light and dark variations in them. 

[Ispend2much6]

@JoSometimes   Wow!  Containers are a great idea!  I tried that one time, just using straw, but I think I didn't know how to do it correctly.  It sure beats digging up dirt!

[JoSometimes]

@Ispend2much6 They’re great for any root veggie, as long as you get ones that are deep enough for them to grow. I did carrots a few years ago. It was so easy to harvest them! Another option is those big construction buckets from Lowe’s or Home Depot but you have to drill out the bottoms for some drainage. 

[Ispend2much6]

@JoSometimes  I did use the construction bucket trick one year!  I felt very powerful using a drill all by myself. 🙂

Maybe I'll have to try carrots again.  I love them when they're fresh, but they seemed kind of finicky the first time I tried.

[JoSometimes]

@Ispend2much6 Yeah, power tools have a way of doing that!

I found my carrots weren’t bad. Just thirsty. This year, I’m just doing potatoes, berries, and an experiment with some peppers. 

[sister13]

Everything is beautiful! Those grow bags seem perfect! My mom had 10 million hostas, she was always letting people come take some. I just saw some balloon flowers in the Lowes for the first time, they are pretty! @JoSometimes 

[JoSometimes]

Thank you @sister13! I discovered grow bags from a YouTube channel called Epic Gardening. I’m jealous of his ability to grow dragon fruit like they’re dandelions!

[Titian06]

Your daylilies look great, @JoSometimes !  I didn't know hostas (or some varieties?) flowered!  I've only ever seen them as foliage and used in landscaping for the color of their leaves.

[JoSometimes]

@Titian06 These ones bloom mid-summer here. Most of the time they’re just leafy foliage but the green/white makes them look really interesting.

[Ispend2much6]

Yesterday’s harvest. I have a lot of work ahead of me!

 

 

[sister13]

Oh wow! Incredible! I have some cherry tomatoes to make a caprese salad,  but I also keep eating them first, lol. @Ispend2much6 

[Ispend2much6]

@sister13 Why didn't I think of that? With burratta!

[sister13]

Oh yes, as long as you have basil, too? It’s soooo good! @Ispend2much6 

[blackkitty2014]

Oh man I’m so jealous @Ispend2much6 👌👍👏. We only have Armenian cucumbers so far. My husband is trying to figure out why our tomatoes has no fruits so far this year. 😩 

[Ispend2much6]

@blackkitty2014  I love Armenian cucumbers!  This may be our best tomato year ever- very few cracks in the cherry tomatoes, and we actually have some unblemished full-size tomatoes which never happens.  They're very tricky to grow.

I'm using this brand of fertilizer for the first time; I wonder if that's why the tomatoes are doing so well.  I also sprinkle all the plants with "fairy dust," (Epsom salts,) and that seems to help.

[blackkitty2014]

Thx you @Ispend2much6 . I send the info to my hubby 🌹♥️

[blackkitty2014]

@Ispend2much6  My husband just got the very same one a week back and he said after feeding the tomatoes they started making fruits now, thx so much again 🌹♥️

[Ispend2much6]

@blackkitty2014   I'm so glad!!  Yes, it must be good because this is the very first year we've harvested large tomatoes with no blemishes.

[Titian06]

This is awesome, @Ispend2much6 !  It all looks so tasty! 🤗