Let's Talk About Plants

[SummerO]

i've been wondering about growing edible plants. it sounds like it'd be a lot of fun, and a good way to feed myself and save money, but my #1 concern is that it doesn't sound easy to do in an apartment room (which i'm planning on renting in the future). maybe i could get one of those devices that grows mushrooms, but does that really count? - rnottelovesowls

I got back into plants (after a hiatus) after moving home to the UK from Japan by growing Japanese Shiso leaves on my apartment windowsill. You can eat those.

Any herbs on a windowsill are a lovely way to start growing something you can eat. The next level up would be a growing set up with grow lights - I have seen some people online have converted IKEA display cabinets to grow rare plants by adding lights and a fan and those would allow you to grow lettuces.

Like this:

I don't have one though.

However, in my case (I live in an apartment) I am based in the UK, so I rent a UK allotment and just started growing other things, lots and lots of other things. I have a basic allotment blog here: https://allotment-diary39.blogspot.com/ to keep track of what I've planted.

Your flower pictures are brilliant!

I love taking flower photos too, sometimes I think it's silly when I see my camera rolls on my phone are full of them - so much space taken up with flowers - but the memories of taking them are precious.

[Pseu]

Woah those are really beautiful flower pictures! Love it!

I have seen some people online have converted IKEA display cabinets to grow rare plants by adding lights and a fan and those would allow you to grow lettuces.

That is awesome! I wonder if you could use such a thing with a light on a timer to grow some smaller edible crops all year long.

[Karkalicious]

Hi Karkalicious!

*quote shortened for size’s sake*

Sorry for such a late response! (Although on such a chill forum I probably shouldn’t worry about it )

I don’t currently have a cat but otherwise catnip would have been fun, my last cat never had a reaction to it though. It’s actually a 50/50 on wether cats do, but I’ve met some who loved it and it’s pretty entertaining. Unfortunately that means it would just attract neighbours’ cats right now, which I don’t mind at all, but my flatmate would.

I think rosemary might also not be great for cats but my memory is a bit rusty on that. Love that plant too though. Some of my neighbours have rosemary and lavender. When we walk past we’ll usually give them a smell (the plants, not the neighbours xP).

The other suggestions are awesome though. I never really thought about sunflowers but we get a lot of sun here so those fit, might be the first I give a go. It is winter where I live right now, as well so I know some stuff would be harder to grow. I would also love to draw in more bees, I know some plants attract bees a lot better (we have some bottlebrush trees that are fantastic for it, when not disturbed) but of course my flatmate would also be in the way of that. (It’s complicated. Regardless I’m definitely looking into plants for when I have more freedom, then I’ll be going crazy as much as my budget allows )

Also the trust properties sound fantastic. I definitely have to find wether we have an equivalent here, it might be a little bit of a travel for me, but it’d be worth it.

[Pseu]

Hey plant people!
I recently updated my garden page if anyone is interested in a detailed update with pictures!

Do you have any updates? How are your plants doing?

[study3600]

The other week, my friend and his granddaughter and I planted some little seeds with care in a big planter pot outdoors after we worked up a sweat weeding raking and hoeing it. First we measured, planting in concentric circles, making little shallow holes in the dirt, planting our seedlings, covering them slightly with the soil, watering each seed or seeds with barely a capful of water, then covering each hole again with the soil. This week the plants are starting to come up. It took water, sun, love and care.

[pichi]

Hello fellow plant parents! I recently picked up the hobby of houseplants again after the passing of my pets, because I found that I had this anxious energy to keep caring for them, or at least caring for something, but I refused to look after more pets as I was grieving. As such, the idea of caring for houseplants to help me transition away from caring for pets came about, and I'm so happy to have taken the dive into plant care again!

You can visit this rough start of a blog here: https://allotment-diary39.blogspot.com/?m=1

Summer, your allotment diary is super inspiring, since I'd like to build my own greenhouse situation at some point in the future. Growing fresh fruit and veggies sounds like so much fun, especially considering I can eat the literal fruits of my labor at the end! How are you finding the allotment? Is it a lot of hard work/effort? Maybe on the initial setup, but I imagine you get into a rhythm or sorts with it?

Everyone's little garden escapades are so fun to read about, especially with the wide variety of chosen seedlings to plant... I'd love to grow some potatoes, carrots, spinach, basil, onion, cabbage, and cucumber!

As for my indoor plants, I have quite a few! In no particular order, I have... A dieffenbachia, a tricolor dracaena, two chamaedorea, a weeping fig, a kimberley queen fern, a moses-in-the-cradel (oyster plant), a zebra calathea, and a baby rubber plant! All are thriving so well, but especially the dieffenbachia and the chamaedorea's! I'd love to purchase some cat grass... Not because I have a cat, but because it's my favorite looking plant! Reminds me of those grass heads I used to have all the time as a kid...

so, you want to talk plants? ohohoho! one of my niche hobbies is taking photos and videos of flowers. there's something about their colors, shapes, and movements as they sway in the wind that captivates me. they're some of my favorite things to animate as a result. in this blog post, you'll find a few of my photos

Your flower images are so stunning! Thank you so much for sharing them, they're so peaceful to look at... Do you have a favorite flower perhaps? I'd love to know!

[SummerO]

Summer, your allotment diary is super inspiring, since I'd like to build my own greenhouse situation at some point in the future. Growing fresh fruit and veggies sounds like so much fun, especially considering I can eat the literal fruits of my labor at the end! How are you finding the allotment? Is it a lot of hard work/effort? Maybe on the initial setup, but I imagine you get into a rhythm or sorts with it?

I have a friend helping me with the allotment (an elderly lady named Bee) and she does so much more than me and things I wouldn't do, for example digging manure into the beds and digging out stones, meanwhile I mow the grass and play with the raised beds and cut things back like some perpetual spinach that had at one point gone to seed and grown to my height!

We grew a lot of things from seed in Bee's greenhouse at her house which certainly helped and I could never have grown as many things as I wanted in the little ramshackle shed-like greenhouse on the plot.

The initial set up is still ongoing and Bee against my wishes bought a £30 plastic bench, I was hoping to get a more substantial wooden one, or a plastic storage one but now she has I think I will likely leave it. Plants don't need to be an expensive hobby and they eat time and attention.

As for my indoor plants, I have quite a few! In no particular order, I have... A dieffenbachia, a tricolor dracaena, two chamaedorea, a weeping fig, a kimberley queen fern, a moses-in-the-cradel (oyster plant), a zebra calathea, and a baby rubber plant!

Wow pichi, that's so much stuff! You must live in a jungle. Do you have some plant lights too to keep them away from windows or are they clustered around windowsills?

I have been looking at this plant light called the Pianta, I think it's by siemens, and it fits into any lamp, but I haven't got one yet.

I have a mystery plant I was given as a gift and haven't identified yet, a monstera and a kentia palm.

I think this image might disappear in a few days (and I will edit this out) because it's a temp hosted image but here's a picture of my palm, which has some dry patches as you can see.

[pichi]

I have a friend helping me with the allotment (an elderly lady named Bee) and she does so much more than me and things I wouldn't do, for example digging manure into the beds and digging out stones, meanwhile I mow the grass and play with the raised beds and cut things back like some perpetual spinach that had at one point gone to seed and grown to my height!

Everyone say thank you Bee! Jokes aside, I'm so glad you have some help around for the allotment—it sounds like a whole lot of work! It's always useful to have someone with a little more knowledge around, or more prepared to do the dirty work per se. So sweet of her to gift you that bench too! So thoughtful...

For my own greenhouse plans, I'd be doing it from scratch with no help LOL so any tips are more than welcome if you'd like to share!

Wow pichi, that's so much stuff! You must live in a jungle. Do you have some plant lights too to keep them away from windows or are they clustered around windowsills?

They're all still pretty much babies, I prefer helping and watching them grow from their little tot stage because it feels more rewarding. So all of them still fit on my windowsill at the moment! I'll try to get a pic of them all soon once I repot a few; I bought these cool clear pots so that I can see their roots and manage their repotting easier from just a glance! But I am interested in something similar to the IKEA cabinet display you shared earlier. I see a lot of people with a set up similar, and I think they're so neat! Especially with the ability to attach grow lights! All of my guys are thriving just fine for now, but I'm eager to help them thrive even further if I can! Thank you for sharing about the pinata light, happy to know this exists now for future ref!

Your palm is sooooo pretty omg... I can't wait to see if/when mine grow that big! And monstera's are always soooo gorgeous, but I don't have the space for a big guy yet... Perhaps in the future! Thank you so much for sharing and showing me!

Now, it's repotting day !!!

[cnroddball]

So, the live stream of one of the University of Rhode Island's Corpse Flowers, Morticia, ended a few days back, after fully blooming! Anyone who's been in the chatroom has seen me going on about it over the last couple of weeks. About half an hour ago, they posted a time-lapse of Morticia's full bloom cycle. Hard to believe that what I watched unfold over so many hours was condensed into just 55 seconds!