All things green, outdoors, and nature-y. Whether it's animals in their natural habitat, hiking trails and mountains, or planting a little garden for yourself (and everything in between), you can talk about it here.
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I was under some physical restrictions and bed rest orders last week, so this week has been a flurry of planting and weeding to get some more summer veg gardens up and running.
Our squashes and pumpkins are pretty much ready to be planted
And my front gardens are absolutely popping off now
What's growing on with you all?
Heyo! So recently we got some new plants, and thank you for the tip a while ago to re-pot my aloe, it's doing much better now, I think. The middle is still brownish red, but the rest is very strong and green, and there are still parts of it growing out of the center.
I'd post pictures but I'm on mobile, maybe when my power comes back on!
My mom bought a tropical hibiscus which I'm not sure will survive but we'll see. It seems to be doing well enough. I managed to get an english lavender and I've been told by a friend who knows more about plants that it looks very healthy. And roses have been really hard to grow for us but one of the two rose bushes my mom bought seems to be doing well too!
Questions, though. I've read that lavender wants pine needles over leaf mulch, are they significantly better? I'm also wondering how much I should be watering it, we've had a lot of storms lately but I want to stay on top of it.
Thanks for any more tips and thanks for the thread!
I'm so glad it's doing better, yay!
In my experience (I live among white pines) pine straw as a mulch holds less water than aged bark mulches or leaf mulches. I do tend to use the pine straw for my Spanish lavenders - several years ago I did some trials between the two and the pine straw ones fared better than the leaf or wood chip ones did. I'm unsure how the difference in native climate changes their water preferences but they tend to appreciate drier soils overall based on what I've read and experienced. Hopefully someone with amazing English lavender can weigh in on this.
I'll just say climbing plants are as good as having a pet! I love watching my cucumbers, peas, and squash reach out their lil grabbies - it's so cute!
On a not-as-fun note I have Three-lined Potato Beetle on my potatoes. They haven't done a huge amount of damage so far and don't seem too interested in my other plants yet but if anyone has mitigation strategies let me know!
I love vines too! 
Those guys would eat your Goji berry plants too, if you had them... Jesse from No-Till Growers had a video about potatoes in which he recommended taking a potato and cooking it, mashing it a little, and placing the mash and some compost - each in their own breathable bag - into a bucket of water and letting it ferment for a day or two. Then take that and water your spuds with it. It should give a microbial boost to your plants to help them be less attractive to the beetles. I've also read that the beetles can be a sign of nitrogen imbalance in the plant. In the past with small crops of potatoes I've just manually picked them off but that can be a hassle with more than a few plants.