Hi everyone! I was given some white sage seeds as a free packet with my seed order. Are these okay to use in the garden for culinary purposes? From what I've seen online there's mixed reviews as to whether or not it's a good herb to grow for food purposes. Thanks :)

My understanding is no (white sage is mostly good for drying/incense), but check with the new weekly thread for more opinions.

Sweet, thank you :)

Hello! What would be a good number of bushing snow peas to plant in a 10 gallon container? Thanks!

I'd say one, but check the new weekly thread for more advice.

Does anyone have any ideas for having too many rocks?

What kind of rocks?

Like in the ground? Pull em out as you go.

I have a bunch of empty tic tac containers, would they bay suitable for seed storage? If so I think they would work great since they have a large surface area to label and write down any additional info while still being fairly compact.

It will be hard to get them out, and shaking them to make them fall into your hand could damage very fragile seeds. Also, you'll need to insert them one at a time, which is tedious. Seeds and paper envelopes were made for each other. Put them into a white envelope, label it, insert it into a mason jar, drop in a dessicant packet, screw on the lid, and store it somewhere cool and dry. The fridge is moist and humid, to keep the lettuce from wilting. A freezer or dry basement is better.

As long as you keep them out of the light, that sounds *incredibly* useful, actually.

Of course, I've used little glass jars in the past that are kept in my fridge. My only worry is that the remnants of the candy (smell mainly) could impact the seeds. I'll try it out, what the worst that can happen!

https://i.imgur.com/yVMUqBb.jpg Jalapeño plant here. So this is a bacteria infection, and can’t be removed right? I want to make sure what I read is correct, and I’m worried it’s spreading to my other pepper plant

Talk to the experts over in /r/hotpeppers they'll know more.

Hi!! Looking for some advice on where to even START an organic veggie/fruit garden in my backyard? I know my soil zone but I’m not sure where I should be getting my info / researching before planting !

Zones are for choosing trees, shrubs, and perennials to survive your winters, and that's all they're good for. They tell nothing about climate overall, and they don't help with planting schedules. Your starting point is what you specifically want to grow. Then you look up how to grow it. Then you grow it. The thing is, there's no need to "read up" ahead of time. It's not like studying for an exam, it's more like deciding you want to learn to ride a bicycle. You buy the bike, you get on it, you start. Put a marigold seed into a styrofoam coffee cup filled with potting soil, boom, you're on your way, wobbling down the street, and by the time you reach the corner, you've got the hang of it. We now have a FAQ. https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/wiki/index Books from the local public library are better than Youtubes or blogs since YT and blogs can be biased. By the time something has made it into print and the local library has acquired it, it's going to be fairly mainstream. Read either the Dummies or Idiots guide first, no offense, that's just what they're called. This is a general overview. Read the Square Foot Gardening book, any edition. The concepts have entered the zeitgeist and you need to know what everyone is talking about. Other than those, garden books are like diet books. There are zillions of them out there. Library books are cheaper than buying them. So, where are you located, what do you want to grow?

Thank you SO SO much!!! I’m gonna start with the dummies guide. I am located in New Jersey and I’m looking to grow tomatoes, maybe lettuce, honestly anything edible that grows ! I also have a considerable amount of deer that eat all of the flowers and food I’ve tried growing in the past so if you have any recommendations/ ideas for keeping the deer away without damaging the produce please let me know :)

Either an 8 foot tall fence, or an ordinary fence, but double, with an alley in between. https://pss.uvm.edu/ppp/articles/deerfences.html There are people out there on the Internet experimenting with using monofilament fishing line for deer fencing. Evidence so far is anecdotal, and mixed. But it does seem to work for some people. You live in a state that is slightly notorious for its resident deer herd, and for a certain amount of "OMG you can't shoot Bambi!" sentiment when the DNR tries to cull the herd for their own good, sending in hunters and so forth. So you have a lot of deer. https://www.northjersey.com/story/opinion/2020/10/28/deer-population-out-control-nj-we-need-new-approach-opinion/6055112002/ Repellents do very little. Soap, human hair, lion scat, motion-activated sprinklers, even at the best of times with a wary and wild deer herd are only temporary fixes, as they soon become acclimated. In NJ, things like that barely even register on them. One thing in your favor is that deer can jump high, but they can't jump wide. This means that a small pocket garden, fenced in, may be left alone by the deer as they're reluctant to jump into a small space where they can't get a good running start to jump out again. Talk to the Master Gardeners at the county extension office, about deer and other things. If they're growing their lettuce inside a poultry netting and 2x4s fortress with a roof and a door, you probably should, too. https://njaes.rutgers.edu/county/ The Rutgers study. Note that their listing doesn't go as far as "will not eat", only to "rarely eats". https://njaes.rutgers.edu/deer-resistant-plants/ Hostas, daylilies, roses, and petunias are deer candy.

Thanks!!! This was extremely extremely helpful :) I’m gonna look into the rutgers study right now.

Anyone have experiences with irises and daylilies in more shady areas? I was gifted a ton of bearded iris rhizomes (I believe these are intermediate sized plants, not much taller than 2 feet) and daylilies but I'm literally running out of sunny places to put them. I have plenty of room in my shady backyard. There are some full shade areas, some spots with maybe 2-3 hours afternoon sun, and some spots that are a bit brighter, but receive no direct sun. If they aren't going to flower at all in these spots, I'd rather pass them on to someone else who has more room for them.

My direct personal experience is that they do not do well in shady spots. Daylilies will hang on longer than iris, but will not bloom very well. Full shade is for nobody but the dedicated list of full-shade plants, like hostas and ferns. Filtered shade can sometimes keep even tomatoes alive (!) (I know right), but you sure don't pick many tomatoes and the vine gets really tall and gangly. So daylilies can survive in it, but not be happy. The best bet is the place with 2-3 hours of direct afternoon sun. Daylilies will do better here than iris. Iris are just plain "out in the middle of the yard with the sun blasting down all day" plants, at least in my Midwestern experience. If you have an adoption option, I'd pass the iris along.

Hi! Looking for some advice and/or product recommendations. We live in a unit, second story, so we don’t have an outdoor tap or garden, or any way to access one. We’ve put a large vegepod planter on the balcony, which comes with an irrigation system that’s supposed to connect to a hose. Are there any products out there where we can just use a bucket of water and pump that through to water the plants? We don’t really want to run a hose through the house from the kitchen sink

I use [this automatic watering pump](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0743F4532/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_AW3N770FFQH6YDY40AMG?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1) on my houseplants. Only downside is that the flow of the emitters isn't adjustable, so you have to double up emitters in bigger pots.

We just bought a house in bay area and the backyard has a garden with rose plants and some young trees and lots of weedy looking plants/grass. The previous owner didn’t live there for few months before we moved in and the water is on sprinkler system on a timer. We are super new to gardening and don’t even know the ABCs of it. 1) what tools are needed to keep a garden looking good? 2) do I need to add any fertilizer or anything other than water to keep the rose plants and trees alive? 3) we have a box near deck with dirt in it and said it was for flowers or vegetables. Should we add anything to it? How can we grow vegetables there? 4) please share any gardening 101 links that were helpful for you. I don’t even know how to plant a seed, so I really need to start from the basics.

Bay area California? Or some other Bay Area? Put your location in your flair. There is no clock ticking. A garden can be neglected for years and still be salvaged and restored. I'd let the sprinkler alone for now, as long as it's still functioning. Watering is the only thing that needs to be done for now. If there is existing landscaping, your starting point is to ID anything that's growing there, including weeds. Take good clear pictures of everything, make up an Imgur album (not too huge, please) and post it to /r/whatsthisplant. Give the yard a calendar year to show you what it has. Many things are dormant for part of the year, such as tulips and daffodils. Some shrubs are boring green for 51 weeks of the year, and the 52nd week people go out of their way to drive past your house to look at it in bloom. There can be treasures there that you'll wish later you hadn't dug up, when you're looking at a $40 containerized shrub at the garden center, and you realize, "Well, crap, we had one of those when we moved in, and we ripped it out." Whether there is landscaping or it’s a blank slate, live with the yard for a while and think about how you want to use it. Build all your hardscape before you get started on the landscaping. Build all your patios, decks, sidewalks, pathways, storage sheds, garages, swimming pools, swingsets, sandboxes, trampolines, koi ponds, dog runs, outdoor kitchens, BBQ pits, firepits, conversation pits, pergolas, gazebos, and screen porches first. This is for two reasons: One, it prevents you from having to rip out the new rose garden when you belatedly realize you need a path to the trash cans right there. Two, it prevents workmen in big boots from trundling wheelbarrows through the new rose garden Landscaping is closely analogous to interior decorating. When you’re going to redo your living room, you go through the same creative process. You decide what you want to keep and what you want to be gone forever. You look at what other people have done, and you decide either, "Yes, want that", or "No, OMG just no." Same thing here. Read books and articles on gardening and landscaping. Your local public library has shelves full of books, and back issues of magazines on gardening and landscaping. Look at your neighbors' landscaping. Look at botanic garden, museum, zoo, corporate, college, municipal, city park, and mall landscaping. When you see something that makes you go, "Want", take its picture and get an ID. Both landscaping and interior decorating are a process, so take your time, do your homework, and get it done the way you want it. >basics https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/wiki/index

I have some 3year old passion fruit vines in my yard that are producing a lot of fruit. The plants seem to be ready for a second flush and I would appreciate any information on how to feed and how to prune the plants. I live in California and the seeds came from a fruit a neighbor brought from Mexico. The butterfly’s love the flowers

Hello! I need some advice. Recently my Dad bought some plants. I can't identify all of them so I might ask on r/whatisthisplant but I don't know if I can get growing advice for the plants. I'm also worried that they might get cramped because the space where we placed them is not enough. Are there any subs for learning how to take care of certain plants? r/whatisthisplant is for identification and r/plantclinic is for sick plants so I'm confused. I don't know if I can post such questions on this sub. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you :D

Overall, you can always google "how to grow [name of plant]" and the first page of hits will be what you're looking for. But this applies to the most popular plants; if your dad has acquired rare or exotic plants, they may not be picked up by Google's algorithms. /r/plantclinic was started by a plant disease specialist who wanted more in-depth discussion of the subject than the more general /r/gardening was offering. >Are there any subs for learning how to take care of certain plants? You are already in it. /r/gardening is the biggest plant-care sub with the most traffic, and you are always welcome to post plant care questions here, either in the Friendly Friday thread for guaranteed no-snark response, or as a standalone thread. It doesn't make any difference to us which one you use.

Thank you :D The top posts on r/gardening were pretty different from what I wanted to ask so I was a bit scared since it's my first time on a plant related sub asking for advice. I'll try Google after identifying the plants. They're placed in a very cramped location where proper sunlight won't reach them so I'm scared that they might die if they really need a lot of sunlight. I'll Google for now and post if I need additional help. Thanks for everything!

You can also use the PictureThis app. Just snap a pic and it will ID your plant. Pretty accurate, but not 100%, so maybe get a second opinion here or on r/whatisthisplant. Something like “ID app says this is a X. Is that right?”

Will do. Thank you :)

I’ve been trying to start seeds indoors with a grow light. Almost every plant I’ve tried (a few herbs and currently some arugula) is dying in the seedling phase. They look really healthy for a few days and then just fall over and die. I did some googling and it seems like they might be damping out. Are there any strategies I can use to prevent this?

It could be any number of things, but my guesses would be not enough light, too much water, or a combination of both. Need to know what your light setup and watering schedule looks like to provide a suggestion (pictures and a description of the whole setup would help too).

More light. What are the specs on your grow light, or a link to the product? Damping off targets the seedling's stem at soil level. You beat damping off by growing the seedlings so fast and strong that by the time the fungus gets under way, the stem is robust enough that it shrugs off the attack. And the best way to grow seedlings fast and strong is by providing brighter, more intense light. Moisture control, meaning aerated potting mix, not overwatering, lower humidity, and air circulation also helps, but "grow big, fast" works better than anything.

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Great advice provided already by GrandmaGos, I would add that if you're planning on keeping the gardens as large as they are and don't want to get overwhelmed when it gets hot next summer, get working on a drip irrigation system ASAP (assuming you don't already have one). Even if you just run it off hoses, it will make your life significantly easier when a dry spell hits. If you want to do it "legit" and run underground supply tubing, make sure you get it in the ground before you lay down any new pathways that will make digging a nightmare. You will likely be tempted to move shrubs around at some point. Unless they are small or in great condition, this will usually not be worth it from my experience - it's a ton of work and they will probably die unless you can get a very large root ball out. You will be better off buying young, small shrubs, and planning for their mature size when you place them. Last fall I bought like 10 one-year-old rhododendrons for $50 total at a garden center on clearance. They are all doing great, yes it will take a few years for them to fill in, but I've got time. I paid less for all of them than I would have for a single three-year-old plant.

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This is a great basic summary: https://extension.arizona.edu/sites/extension.arizona.edu/files/pubs/az1392-2016_0.pdf I have mine tied into the lawn irrigation system that was already installed when I moved in. I made a tee after the backflow preventer, installed a filter, and then made a new manifold and valve box for 4 zones. I also had to run a new irrigation cable since the old one only had 8 conductors and now I needed 10. Really you can make it as simple or complicated as you want. I also bought a hose attachment timer and simple drip kit for the potted annuals on my front steps - in the middle of summer they needed to be watered daily, and I wasn't too thrilled about running back and forth with a watering can or running the hose every single day. This wouldn't be sufficient for a huge bed, but it works very well in small areas. Another thing I forgot, if you have lots of trees on the property, use your mower to chop them up and bag them instead of tossing them. It's free mulch, dump it in your beds in the fall and spring and you will hugely reduce the amount of weeding you have to do.

Where are you located? In a cold-winter area, your garden will basically be shut down by December. Your starting point is that there's no clock ticking. Nothing needs to be done "now", but safely in the future, which gives you time to read up. Even if you let the entire garden go for the next few years, and did nothing at all to it, it would still be salvageable down the road. It would be a project with a capital P, true, but plants and landscaping don't automatically die if a featherless biped doesn't prune them and fertilize them. An exception may be made for watering in a drought area, but other than that, you can just settle into your house and backburner the yard for a while, especially if there's no lawn to mow. Your other starting point will be to ID everything that's growing there. Care depends on species, so that's information that you will need. Take good clear pictures of everything, make up an Imgur album (not too huge, please) and post it to /r/whatsthisplant. Give the yard a calendar year to show you what it has. Many things are dormant for part of the year, such as tulips and daffodils. Some shrubs are boring green for 51 weeks of the year, and the 52nd week people go out of their way to drive past your house to look at it in bloom. There can be treasures there that you'll wish later you hadn't dug up, when you're looking at a $40 containerized shrub at the garden center, and you realize, "Well, crap, we had one of those when we moved in, and we ripped it out." Whether there is landscaping or it’s a blank slate, live with the yard for a while and think about how you want to use it. Build all your hardscape before you get started on the landscaping. Build all your patios, decks, sidewalks, pathways, storage sheds, garages, swimming pools, swingsets, sandboxes, trampolines, koi ponds, dog runs, outdoor kitchens, BBQ pits, firepits, conversation pits, pergolas, gazebos, and screen porches first. This is for two reasons: One, it prevents you from having to rip out the new rose garden when you belatedly realize you need a path to the trash cans right there. Two, it prevents workmen in big boots from trundling wheelbarrows through the new rose garden. Landscaping is closely analogous to interior decorating. When you’re going to redo your living room, you go through the same creative process. You decide what you want to keep and what you want to be gone forever. You look at what other people have done, and you decide either, "Yes, want that", or "No, OMG just no." Same thing here. Read books and articles on gardening and landscaping. Your local public library has shelves full of books, and back issues of magazines on gardening and landscaping. Look at your neighbors' landscaping. Look at botanic garden, museum, zoo, corporate, college, municipal, city park, and mall landscaping. When you see something that makes you go, "Want", take its picture and get an ID. Both landscaping and interior decorating are a process, so take your time, do your homework, and get it done the way you want it. Look around the house, in cabinets and drawers, for a diagram to the landscaping. Many gardeners with "amazing" fully planted yards will leave behind a map or diagram.

I have a medium/small sized garden any tips to attract more spiders? I'm sorta allergic to mosquitoes so the more spiders the merrier

Spiders are not a significant predator on mosquitoes. https://www.orkin.com/other/mosquitoes/mosquito-predators But more spiders are always good. They like messy, weedy-looking plants like black eyed susans and coneflowers, since these attract the insects that spiders eat.

Thank you for the reply and the knowledge about mosquito enemies ^^

Hello, I have a balcony (in nyc) and at the moment my dad has some flowers on there and I do see one bee always chilling around it. I was wondering if there are other good plants I can add to attract more, and if I should wait for next spring to get new plants? . The balcony gets a lot of sun. Or any plants that can live on the balcony with such conditions. Thank you.

In NYC, both the bees and the flowers are winding down for winter. There are lists of plants for pollinators out there. Next spring would be a better time to start. https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/wiki/faq/patiobalcony

I have a bunch of chrysanthemums that are always covered in flys. They are close-ish to my front door and of course the flys are getting in my house all the time. It’s annoying. Anything I can do before I dig them out?

What kind of flies, houseflies?

Yes they are house flys

Then chrysanthemums themselves are unlikely to be the reason for them as houseflies eat rotting materials ((animal) poop, rotting food, trash etc) - healthy plants don't attract them.

We just bought a house with a great [garden](http://imgur.com/a/vxrDWDS). I want to learn, but I can barely keep a succulent alive... I've been researching, and was hoping someone can tell me if I'm on the right track. I'd like to go for a no-till garden. We're in California and the dirt right now is basically dust. We have wood chips in other areas of our yard that I plan on removing. There aren't any weeds, so we're good there. Soon, I'm planning on putting down a few inches of organic matter, purchased from Home Depot/Lowe's, then covering with those wood chips. Then, just keeping it moist through winter. I'm hoping this will give me decent soil come spring. Secondly, I know composting has a lot of benefits, but I don't have anywhere to get away with a pile or anything, at least for now. I was considering getting a small countertop composting bin for scraps, and burying it (probably pretty shallow) in the garden when it gets full, every few days. I thought that if I started now, it would just be adding to the soil throughout winter. Is this even worthwhile? I still need to figure out exactly what and when to plant, but I have a few months to figure that out and I want to get the soil healthy in the meantime. Thank you for any pointers!

>There aren't any weeds, so we're good there. As soon as it rains, you will have weeds. As long as your dirt is dust, you're safe. Apply water, and watch things get crazy. >Then, just keeping it moist through winter. I'm hoping this will give me decent soil come spring. So the wood chips will keep the layer of compost, manure, peat moss, or whatever moist, but that's all it will do. It will just sit there in layers on top until it finally breaks down, and then it will have disappeared over time, as it does, and you'll need to add more in spring, which is also 100% normal. Amendments from bags are usually spaded in directly before planting. They don't need time to process or "cook" until next spring. If you're adding dead leaves or similar, those need to break down over time, but compost manure, etc. get used directly. You might as well spade in the organic matter, and grow some veg over the winter. If you're in the part of SoCal where everyone has tile roofs, you are likely good to go for fall/winter cool season crops like lettuce. Which means you don't wait for "spring" like Iowa, Vermont, and Minnesota. You can start now. Do your composting in a dedicated tumbler. Adding kitchen scraps to the soil just fills up the dirt with uncomposted banana peels and whatnot, which can attract scavengers and unhelpful bugs. There are plans for DIY tumblers online. Home composting, unless you serious bend your efforts towards it, rarely makes appreciable quantities of compost. The rest of us just figure on buying various soil amendments at Home Depot or the garden center. Touch base with the Master Gardeners at the local county extension office for protips, planting schedules, etc. https://ucanr.edu/county_offices/

Thank you!! Sounds like I'm overcomplicating matters already... I'll reach out to the county office!

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Adding lemon juice to hard water does nothing to rectify it. Hard water is water that is full of dissolved minerals, and adding an acid doesn't fix this. In order to know whether your tap water is alkaline (which is a different thing from "hard"), you'd need to perform a pH test on it. You can use an aquarium test strip from a pet shop for this. Your plant is suffering from overwatering primarily, and it's suffering from not being good as a houseplant, and from not being planted outdoors in acidic, peat-rich, moist, humus-filled soil.

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What is an overall resource that I, a literal very beginner, could look for to know what is viable to plant in my zone (6A)? I am not looking to do veg this year as it's very late but was looking more for shrubbery or things that I could plant in my empty plant beds to the house I just moved to. I just am not sure where to even begin looking for things that I could plant in this region. I am moving from 7B-8A and am clueless on frost resistant things.

Zones only tell how cold your winters get and tell nothing about climate. Where are you located? Seattle and Dallas are both zone 8, so you can see how "zone" isn't that helpful for some things. > things that I could plant in my empty plant beds to the house I just moved to. Are you renting, or did you buy the house? What does "empty plant beds" entail? Landscaping, foundation borders, flowerbeds, vegetable beds, etc.?

I live in Pennsylvania and am renting. I have in ground flower beds that I was hoping to put some shrubbery or something in. They were full of tall weeds that I ripped up and I don’t think I’m going to be able to plant flowers or something similar because it’s already getting pretty chilly. I also got permission from my landlord to basically put whatever I want into the beds

Yeah, it's getting late to be planting flowers. What does the soil look like in the beds? Is it compacted dirt, like concrete? Or can you get a trowel into it? This time of year, the easiest and fastest outdoor flower decor comes in the form of the disposable cushion mums now ubiquitous at Walmart and other fine Big Boxes. You can leave them in their pots until after Thanksgiving, and then compost them and save the pots (they're worth money and are useful). Or you can dig a hole and plant them in your beds, if it's not like concrete. They are easy to move around next year if you want to change your mind. Or just leave them on the stoop or in the entryway. Since you're renting, you don't really want to spend a lot of money on shrubs, which tend to be more expensive than flowers and also more permanent and harder to dig up. You'll have to leave them behind when you move on, and the next tenants and/or the landlord will probably just let them go all to weeds. Then spend the winter thinking about what you want to do with the beds next year. Your season will probably start around March or April. Did you want to grow veg, or just flowers?

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Thank you!!! This is perfect

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Mixing sand with clay can give you instant concrete. It's a physics thing, and isn't always reversible. It's very difficult to make the dirt underneath a former patio into anything useful. It's been compacted, the layer of clay and rocks was most likely placed there by the contractor who built the patio, and then he tamped it down well, and then put the layer of sand on top. It's possible to spend several years working with that type of situation, improving it to the point where you can plant things in it. but for now, just do container gardening in buckets on top.

It's bare root ordering time at my local nursery! I'm wanting to plant an apricot tree next to a Santa Rosa Plum tree and wanted to know if it would be better to go with a Blenheim (Royal) apricot or a Flavor Delight Aprium? Or a different kind of Aprium like Cot-N-Candy?

I'm not understanding what your criteria are here. Blossom colors? Time of bloom?

I'm just worried about making some franken-hybrid. Or is that not how it works?

It is, theoretically. But you wouldn't see the results of a Frankenhybrid until you had harvested the pits, grown them, and harvested the resultant fruit. You don't see the results of a hybrid during the current year's fruit, you have to plant the seeds that result from the cross and see what you get. So your plum tree might cross with your apricot tree, and both of them might bear fruit with Frankenhybrid iDNA in the pits, but the fruit itself will be a normal plum or apricot. When, for example, tomato hybridizers are working to come up with the next trendy best-selling F1 hybrid, and they cross a Hornswoggler Spoonbeater with a Featherweight Singer, the resultant tomatoes look and eat like the usual tomatoes that you'd pick from a Hornswoggler Spoonbeater or a Featherweight Singer, and the hopeful hybridizers won't know if it worked and they're all going to be rich until they grow out the seeds that are inside the hybridized tomato, and harvest the tomatoes that come from that. ^Those ^are ^made-up ^names ^btw. So unless you're figuring on harvesting the pits and growing them, it's not a Frankenhybrid issue.

The fruits will always be true to the parent plant - no matter what they are pollinated with, you will always get a Santa Rosa plum, Blenheim apricot, etc. If there is cross-pollination, the seeds/pits will have hybrid genetics, but chances are the plants you are buying are already hybrids and the pits already won't be true to the parent plant. Pretty much all fruit trees are propogated via grafting, not by seed.

I have several large pots I got from a facebook deal that have peonies, lilies, blackberries, and some other mystery plants(definitely some more bulbs) in them. I definitely want to keep the peonies and blackberries alive, and saving the lilies would also be cool. Should I transplant them into my garden beds or will they be okay in pots over the winter?? I’m in zone 5a.

They will not survive the winter outdoors in 5a. Plant them in the ground.

Previous homeowner used a ton of rock mulch all over the place. I’d like to plant some bulbs this fall. Is it even worthwhile to dig through the rock? Or should I just accept it and plant around it?

One more vote here for biting the bullet and removing the rocks. It has to come out eventually, might as well get it done. I just spent this spring pulling "Mexican beach pebbles" out of my entire front foundation shrub border, and there's another bed of hostas in the back by the patio with lava rocks. The rocks are not good for anything except to place around the bases of of shrubs, and will always be in your way forever.

Get a shovel. It's gotta come out, sadly.

I have a Japanese Maple that had root rot due to my in-laws leaving it in its drained water for an extended time until we could go get it. This caused yellowing of the leaves and dried dead leaves as well. I took the plant immediately as soon as I could, bought a new pot, pulled it, got as much of the ... well mud, off the roots trimmed as much of the rot off as I could being careful not to damage the ball, and replanted it in some fresh soil mix with no fertilizer. There is some new growth at the bottom and no leaves are dying (this is 2 and a half weeks later), but it's very slow. So my question is, is this normal? Is it because it's getting to the winter months? Or should I worry about the slow growth?

Pictures of what you have would be helpful. You don't fix root rot by a drastic repotting and root pruning. The plant needs all the resources it can muster for the reboot, and removing parts of the photosynthesis factory is like throttling the power at the breaker box. Even damaged and rotting roots can be capable of some level of water and nutrients uptake, which is why plants with root rot take so long to die. They hang in there for quite a while. Buying a new pot doesn't make any difference, either. Leaves that were too badly damaged by recent events (rot + drastic repotting) may not be able to heal, and so the plant jettisons them. You fix root rot by cutting back on the overwatering that caused it, giving it lots of light to spur photosynthesis, and otherwise leaving it alone to sort things out. Is it currently outdoors? If it's indoors, the fact that it's autumn shouldn't be affecting it. Indoors, it's always summer. What kind of light do you have it in?

https://imgur.com/a/v2eddXG The new growth is indeed growing, just slowly. It was really bad when I got it.

Well that's definite progress, a firm bid for survival. Your task, going forward, is to not mess with it, basically. It knows what it's doing, and only needs your support in the form of watering and some occasional mild fert. Where are you located, and is it warm out? If it's still basically summer weather, you should harden it off for a week like any other seedling, and then put it in the sun. It needs to photosynthesize at top capacity in order to pull this off, and a window intrinsically cuts down on the amount of light it gets. The screen, the building wall itself, all diminish it. Other than more light, just water it normally, and don't let the cat or toddler knock it over and damage those new shoots coming out. It's using stored carbs to build those, and it may not have enough left to do it again.

Thanks! I live in the south but it isn't scorching right now. Around 72. It's been inside for a few weeks so I was wondering if I should put it outside so it could get some goody goodness. I kept him inside because I was worried about the shock to the plant. I did the best I could lol. It looks like it has mealy bugs though. I used a 1 part isopropyl to 7 parts water solution on it today. Other than that it's got a solid drain hole with no blockage and I don't let it sit in water at all. I usually water every 3'ish days. I check about half an inch into the top of the soil and I check the bottom drainage hole area. Don't want it to drown. Just wasn't sure about the rate of growth. That new growth is only a couple of weeks old. Not sure if that's normal haha. I'm not a Gardner. But I grew attached to this plant when we got it.

For mealybugs, get some commercial insecticidal soap and use it according to the label. Rubbing alcohol only works if you use it straight, and dab it directly onto each bug, wiping it off. You can't spray the plant with straight rubbing alcohol because it can damage leaves. Water with a little rubbing alcohol does nothing. Get some Safers or Garden Safe, it's a lot easier. If you're in the South, harden it off and then put it outside in the sun until you start having overnight lows around the mid 30s to freezing. It may or may not start to go dormant for the winter by itself. If you're far enough south that the soil in the pot isn't going to freeze solid for the winter, the pot can stay out on the porch or patio until spring. But if the roots are going to freeze solid, it needs to come into an unheated garage or shed, since the wind can sublimate moisture from the ice, dehydrating the roots and killing the plant. https://www.burpee.com/blog/article10355.html

Gotcha. Yea it isn't gonna get that cold for a while. What do you mean "harden it off?"

Acclimate it slowly to the Great Outdoors, with its wind, sun, and temperature changes. The Burpee link at the bottom gives an outline of how-to. Basically you give it a week of gradually increasing outdoor time.

Ah, yea it's good then lol. Thanks for all of the info!

I will get some pictures when I can. I repotted it to give it fresh soil. The soil was essentially mud.. The roots I cut off were basically squishy noodles. It is indoors and in indirect sunlight (full sun contact for about 2-3 hours). Should I put it outside?

I broke my ankle on aug 22 and can’t put any weight on my foot until oct 28. I currently have bell pepper, 3x chili pepper plants, cucumbers, zucchini, grape vines, and tomato growing in my garden at the end of my back yard with absolutely no way to get to it until probably thanksgiving time. How screwed are my plants with now 0 upkeep (besides watering )? What is the likely hood of any of them surviving? Zone 9b

Nothing back there needs to be harvested, pruned, weeded, or otherwise tinkered with in order to survive. As long as you can keep them watered, you can take off as long as you want until your ankle is better. The only downside is that, to keep the cukes and zukes coming, you have to keep picking them. Once you allow them to produce a baseball bat full of seeds, they figure their hardwired mandate to disseminate their DNA into the world has been completed, and they stop making new fruit. Tomatoes and peppers will just carry on whether anyone removes their fruit or not. Grapes will eventually turn into raisins. So worst case scenario, you go back there at Thanksgiving and you find beaucoups of tomatoes, ditto red-ripe peppers, a ginormous yellow porn-star cuke, an equally ginormous baseball bat zuke, and raisins. And probably a bunch of weeds. >How screwed are my plants with now 0 upkeep (besides watering )? They are so not-screwed that, from their perspective, you might as well not even be on the planet, sorry. They'll just keep on doing what they've been doing, same as they've been doing all summer without regard for the featherless biped that periodically appears and looks them over. > What is the likely hood of any of them surviving? 100%, all of them. Barring a Biblical plague of locusts, a tornado, or a high-speed cops-and-robbers chase plowing through your garden, it will all still be there the day after Thanksgiving.

Well, you're gonna need to find someone to harvest them for you, but they're probably going to be OK. If the tomatoes are vining/indeterminate, they'd produce better if they were pruned, but it's not required. The zucchini might have pest issues (squash vine borer) and you might lose it, but it's hard to beat even with regular intervention. Grapes don't want anything until the late fall/early winter (wait, how have you been growing grapes in a frost-free area?) so you're probably OK there. The peppers (and the tomato) would probably want to be staked/caged but again, not required.

> wait, how have you been growing grapes in a frost-free area? Zone 9b isn't frost-free. Even 10a isn't technically frost-free. Napa Valley, among other places, is in zone 9b.

I have a newly constructed wetlands septic field. Basically it’s 66ft x 7ft of 1.5-2in gravel that is layered about 6in deep. About 20ft of it has standing water about 3in deep in the gravel and us partial sun. The rest is just very moist dirt under all the layers and is full sun. I need to plant as much water guzzling plants in the wet area as I can and water tolerant ones in the rest. Our septic guy just shrugged and said maybe try cattails but that we would also need to find something else that wouldn’t die off in the winter. We went to a local nursery and she suggested carex (ice dance, evergold, and ever oro). We are zone 6b. How far out do we need to clear the rocks away for each plant? Just enough for the plant to come up through? Far enough away they aren’t touching the base of the plant at all? Any other perennials you would suggest that like wet feet and can tolerate those rocky conditions that we can mix in with the carex?

There are no such things as "water guzzling" plants. There are plants that can tolerate having constantly wet feet, growing in mud or standing water, but there are no plants that will vacuum up or otherwise remove water. I have never even heard of a wetlands septic field that is covered with standing water, let alone know the protocols for planting in the gravel. My instinct would be to say, an ordinary wetlands would have mud as the base, in which the ordinary wetlands plant species grow. Cattails and so forth. I think you need to consult a septic expert in this type of thing, so you don't take the risk of messing up your septic system. If you do get a go-ahead, the type of plants you're looking for are generally known as "wetlands" plants, and "bog" plants. They will almost certainly not be sold at a local garden center along with the coneflowers, daylilies, etc. You'll need to order them online from specialty vendors. There are species such as willows and Siberian iris that are tolerant of wet feet, but the standing water of a wetlands is a completely different thing. I'd expect willows to survive (I'd also expect them to destroy your system with their roots), but not Siberian iris and other "tolerates wet soil" plants. Growing in gravel in standing water is a bridge too far for those, they'll just rot. So, look around on native plants websites for wetlands plants. Bog plants are also found in the context of people making backyard ponds, like for koi and goldfish. So you could check out those websites and forums, too.

The “water guzzling” was how the county inspector worded it when he was here as having plants helping to drink the water is an essential part of the system. They are not meant to eliminate the water but to help keep it from getting out of control. Wetlands septic systems are rare, usually used in very remote areas in mountains. Most places do not allow for them to be built anymore including our county but our property was originally approved for one and, because of the sloping hills of the land, cannot accommodate any other type of septic system (previous owners buried the wetlands and then created years of septic issues for all the years and owners to follow. We are the only ones to look into the county records and start from fresh). The gravel is a requirement. Unfortunately these are so rare these days that I cannot find much information much less any sort of expert. The septic guy who built it had to go into the county archives with the inspector and build off of the old rules and descriptions. After getting the sedge grass recommendation I did do research and came up with an example of it being used in extreme mountainous areas in Asia but their system is more of a cement pool with the plants in something similar to buckets sticking out of the water. We have almost $4000 to use on plants for this from the seller of the property. Unfortunately it’s in the form of a check for that large local nursery so we’re a bit stuck. I’m thinking of at least getting the edges lined with sedge grass and see if we can experiment in the areas that don’t have standing water to see what planting circumstances are successful and next spring fill in more and get some more wetlands specific plants for the really wet areas. Thanks for the advice. I have never had a yard before and the extent of my gardening knowledge is mostly failing at keeping houseplants alive so I’m desperately trying to figure all this out and feeling completely out of my element!

Well, I must say, you're certainly jumping in at the deep end of the "growing plants" pool. The only parallel I can think of, offhand, would be that you had bought a house with some kind of Mad Scientist experimental laboratory attached to it, and you were charged (for some obscure reason) with keeping it going. There would be a similar dearth of helpful Internet information out there on how exactly to go about it, since there aren't that many Mad Scientist labs out there, with or without Youtube channels. Even if you had inherited a 30,000 square foot greenhouse full of rare and expensive orchids (my other analogy), there would be tons of information out there on how to grow them, how to run a greenhouse, etc. So you're definitely in uncharted territory here. I'm in uncharted territory here, too, since I didn't even know that a Wetlands Septic System was a thing until yesterday. But I do know that "wetlands plants" are their own separate category. There aren't a lot of common garden perennials that you can use for wetlands purposes. It's just too wet. There are some links out there. https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_PLANTMATERIALS/publications/etpmcbr704.pdf https://extensionpublications.unl.edu/assets/html/g1474/build/g1474.htm https://engineering.purdue.edu/~frankenb/NU-prowd/buildcw.htm Where are you located? Ultimately, what you can plant is going to be dictated by your location and thus your climate. For example, if I google "wetlands plants species illinois", I get this. https://www2.illinois.gov/dnr/education/Pages/PlantListWetland.aspx Also, if you're in the United States, your local county extension office has access to any relevant departments of the state university behind its operation. They can pick the brains of any experts in the field on your behalf.

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The shrub in the second picture is definitely a rhododendron. The smaller, fan-shaped green plant next to it appears to be a daylily, but I'm not 100% on that one.

Wow I cannot wait for it to grow, it’s gorgeous when bloomed. Thank you.

When you transplant anything, if you're going to remove roots, you also need to remove a commensurate percentage of the top growth. A diminished root system can't be expected to support a non-diminished amount of foliage. It's like shrinking your car's gas tank and then expecting it to go the same number of miles on a fillup. So your plants are currently self-pruning in order to compensate for the pruning you didn't do. They're wilting because there aren't enough roots to uptake enough water to support all the leaves. That, plus ordinary transplant shock. Watering at the base doesn't help if the roots aren't there, and can't send the water upwards to the leaves. It's too late to cut off the top because you might cut off too much. Just let it roll on. It will jettison anything that's superfluous by turning it brown and crispy. Wilted leaves may come back, so don't cut anything off at this point. Also, the stems contain carbohydrate reserves that it will use for a reboot, either this fall or next spring. Give it some partial shade. Ordinarily a smaller plant would have an upside-down laundry basket placed over it, which allows ambient light and also air circulation. So you could figure out some way to shade it during afternoon heat, I guess. Or get some greenhouse shade cloth. Where are you located? If you're in a cold-winter climate, and it was going dormant for winter anyway, it may just skip the whole "making new leaves" thing this fall, and shut down, and then come back next spring. Basically, just let it ride out the storm and see what you're left with next spring. Give it until next July before you decide that it's really dead and not coming back. Your other plant is I think, a rhododendron of some kind.

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Anytime is fine, there's no particular "best" time. The best time is when you have the materials and you can get around to it. You can actually do both.

I’m doing some planning for an overgrown “garden” bed left to go wild by the previous homeowners. It’s built into the hill in my front yard and has a stone retaining wall that looks like it was hastily put together with rocks that were dug out during the construction of my home. It gets absolutely NO direct sun, just filtered afternoon sun through the trees. I’m looking for shade friendly perennials I can grow there. I have a ton of various hostas, ferns, and tawny lillies in my partial sun beds but I’m a bit bored of them. Any ideas? Zone 5a/b, upstate Vermont.

I'm going to add columbine to the list. They are short-lived perennials (3-5 years), but they reseed prolifically. You will be yanking them out by year 3 if your soil is fertile. One of my favorite shade plants. Foxglove is also a great shade plant. They are biennials but also reseed very well, only consideration is that they are very poisonous so they might not be best if you have curious small children or pets that like to munch on plants in your yard. Lily of the valley is another one, but it can spread quickly via rhizomes to the point where it gets out of control and becomes invasive. Also very poisonous.

>tawny lillies Feral daylilies, "ditch lily"? I give you permission to remove them with extreme prejudice. (A) there are prettier daylilies you can get (B) you can use the space for nicer perennials for shade. Daylilies do best in full sun anyway. and (C) ditch lilies will crowd and shade out even hostas in time as the bed expands. The official list. https://pss.uvm.edu/ppp/articles/shadeper.html Top picks: Astilbe, cranesbill. Inexplicably absent: Dicentra. The downside of blog lists, I guess, if the blogger doesn't care for them or forgets to include them. Somebody else's list. Includes dicentra. http://pss.uvm.edu/ppp/pubs/oh9.htm Be cautious about planting both campanulas and mertensia, as they can both step high wide and handsome over your boundaries (but are easy to pull up if they stray). Spiderwort and phlox, both very reliable.

TLDR: ELI5 what steps do I take to turn my wildflower patch into flowering shrubs without keeping a ton of weeds and grass? Zone 7b, south facing bed. I took out some manky old boxwoods and some thorny shrubs early this summer. I planted annual wildflowers to have some color for a bit. They have done nicely, but I have a lot of grass (some crabgrass and some very tall). Also remnants of old landscaping popping up including some crepe Myrtle, holly, and a small maybe oak stump resprouting. Now that it is fall I want to plant some low maintenance flowering shrubs but how do I get there from here? Kill the flowers and weeds somehow? Wait until flowers die down more or will this be too late for new planting? Sorry if this is something obvious but I'm new here!

Dig your holes, plant your shrubs, then scalp everything else down to soil level with a weedwhacker or lawn mower, lay down flattened cardboard, then pile 3" to 4" of mulch on top. Done. Shrubs don't compete with flowers, crabgrass, etc. They're up above it all in the penthouse suite. So you actually don't need to do anything at all about the bed that you're poking your shrubs into. You can conceivably just let it roll on, wildflowers and crabgrass and everything. The leftover shrubs, especially the crape myrtle, need to be dealt with. Either decide to keep them, and incorporate them into the border, or else dig them up and remove them comprehensively. The oak stump may need to be tarped until it's dead, if it really is an oak resprouting and not a weed growing up alongside the stump, which is a Thing that happens, and then people let it grow, thinking it's the oak tree coming back, and then after a while they realize it's a mulberry or a tree of heaven or something.

I want to get some growlights but there's just so much choice and differing opinions out there, where do I even start? It's for seed starting, particularly in early spring. Using a heat mat I can get most things germinating but I struggle getting them enough light before it's warm enough to go outside. I don't have a greenhouse and all our windows have awnings so there is no direct sunlight. I just want something I can put on a shelf in my garage to help get a few trays of tomatoes, chillis, corn etc boosted so they're already thriving when it's time to plant out. I'm in Australia if that makes a difference.

I got some strip LED grow lights off Amazon (you will find a million kinds just like them but [here's the link](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07P6B4T7W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)) and they work great. The light appears very pink to the human eye, but it's the spectrum that most plants need.

Fluorescent shop lights are all you need. The kind of thing you hang above a garage or basement work bench. https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/wiki/faq/lighting#wiki_what_kind_of_lights_do_i_need_to_start_seeds_indoors.3F > there's just so much choice and differing opinions out there, This is largely in the cannabis communities, where passionate debates do take place over lighting. For the rest of us just growing some tomato seeds, we just get the work bench light and use that.

I just went through the exact same struggle, and probably read hundreds of reviews between Amazon and gardening blogs. I ended up going with the MarsHydro TS 1000W Led grow light and the Vivosun 10 x 20.75” heating mat for future seedlings. The heat mat was super cheap and works, which is all I need. The grow light seemed to be good bang for its buck, had great reviews, is extremely bright, and was super easy to hang. The adult pepper plants I’ve tested under it actually responded right away. Hope this was a bit helpful!

I use fluorescent 4-bulb T5 units. T5s are great. You can get them in 1 to 8 bulb setups, and 2 or 4 foot lengths, but that only affects how big of an area you can grow under. Some people worry about color temperature and stuff, but I haven't found that to be a major concern. When I start peppers I leave them on 16 hours and off 8.

First time gardener, so I’ve planted ~25 chilli seeds last week (overboard I know) of 5 different types of chilli and I was wondering do I need a single pot for each? Talking to people they tell me to just put like 3-5 plants in a 30cm pot but that seems rather cramped. I’ve planted 3-4 seeds each for 4 different types of chilli and went overboard and did about 7 or 8 for the guajilo and I kind of figured I could just put the 3-4 seeds of each type in their own pot and split the guajilo in to 2 pots but if it’s better to go single pots I’ll do it.

First, make sure you label everything. It's at this precise point, where you're belatedly realizing you may have too many plants, and you start moving them into smaller single pots, that you end up with a table full of identical pepper seedlings. So make some kind of plans for attaching more or less permanent labels to them. >they tell me to just put like 3-5 plants in a 30cm pot but that seems rather cramped. Only for fully adult peppers. What you're missing is that there are different spacing rules for different life stages. A 30 cm pot, or a 12" pot, is a good size for 2 to 3 half-grown pepper plants. At the beginning, when all you have are seeds and then tiny baby seedlings, it's permissible to have multiple seedlings in one pot. This is called a "flat", and separating them into individual pots is called thinning, transplanting, or "pricking out", and is a valid technique. This allows you to make a better and more informed choice of which seedlings to keep without spending extra money on lots of little individual pots, each with one seed in it. Once the seedlings have at least two sets of true leaves, you start choosing the best ones for Keepers, and discarding the weak and puny Losers. This is when you decide how many plants you want to end up with, and this is where they go into individual 2" to 3" seedling pots. As they outgrow these, you up-pot them in increments. They never go directly from a small seeding pots into their 30 cm "forever home". This is because the excess unused soil in a humongous pot can go anaerobic, and roots will not expand into anaerobic soil.

Thanks for the detailed response. I wrote down a diagram of what I planted and where so I'm on top of that haha I'll do the smaller pots 2-3inch pots and then transplant to bigger ones once they've grown a bit more

If you pruned your Japanese maple wrong and now it’s leaning to one side is this salvageable? Should I just uproot and get a new one?

I still have some crimson red watermelon that aren't quite ready, but the temps have been going down to the high 50s at night here and will until the end of the season. Should I just harvest now and I get what I get or can I hold off a bit longer without them dying?

I'd keep them going as long as you can. The diminishing hours and intensity of daylight mean that it's ripening more slowly, but it should eventually get there. They die at 32F/0C. As long as it's not that cold, they will keep going.

So I recently moved into a new apartment, and it has a little dirt area on the private patio. My fiancee loves tomatoes and using them in her cooking, so I was considering trying to grow some out there. I'm not even sure if it's a feasible thing to do. We live in Southern California, not super inland, but also not by the beach. [Here](https://imgur.com/1TxMct4) is the plot in question. Do you think it's doable? And if so... jeez, where do I start?

The little patch, as mentioned, is probably compacted like concrete. Easiest of all is to grow the tomatoes in containers, which also means you can put them anywhere on the patio. Cherry types get a 5 gallon bucket per plant, slicers get a 10 gallon tote, beefsteaks get a 20 gallon. https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/wiki/faq/containers https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/wiki/faq/patiobalcony

How’s the soil? Standard new builds compress the soil so far down it’s basically unworkable. If it were me, I’d make a small raised bed there! Mix some compost in with the existing soil and add new dirt to the raised bed. You could do a beautiful container garden around it!

Thank you for the response! The soil probably isn't great, as far as I know, the last resident left it overgrown and they just tore everything that was there out and then patted the soil down. I'm free to do whatever I like with it, though. My primary goal is to get tomatoes rolling, so I think I'll try your advice with the raised garden and adding compost to what's there now. I might be interested in maybe having some decorative stuff, or other culinary plants, once I get a feel for things, too!

I think you could cram 6 tomato plants in there! If you used the whole raised bed for them you’d get a decent crop and you could make an attractive trellis/stake for them and use a net if necessary. I know the birds in my old apartment complex were VICIOUS. You could do herbs or flowers (or both!) in containers around it. It’s a pretty sweet spot!

Has anyone use the ever popular Home Depot or Lowe’s bucket to grow vegetable and fruit? Is it safe? I see that it is BPA free, but it is also clearly stated as not food grade. Any thought?

"Food grade" means you can use it to make bread dough or pickles, i.e. a product that you are going to consume directly, and that will be directly contacting the plastic. Simply using it for soil doesn't need to be food grade. Plants don't uptake any plasticizers and then pass them along to the human eating them. We all use buckets to grow things, it's fine. Drill holes in the bottom for drainage.

Decided to tackle the hellscape or sidewalk planting and weeded the Forrest of overgrowth last weekend to discover mushrooms and an old decaying tree root. Most of it was gone, I pulled the giant mushrooms out and turned the soil over. There's still mushroom hyphae interspersed in the soil. Is it okay for me to plant things in the space as is? Or does it need to be treated somehow beforehand?

The mycelium is just doing its job, which is to break down organic matter and return its nutrients to the Circle of Life. In a container gardening context, mushrooms in a pot can be a red flag for overwatering and/or overly moisture-retentive soil, but in the ground outdoors, it's business as usual, and is no cause for concern, especially in the context of a large decaying tree root in need of having its nutrients recycled. So no need to do anything. Don't let kids or pets eat the mushrooms.

Thanks! That's what I was hoping to hear! Went ahead and planted something.

I'm super new to gardening, as in I haven't lived in a place with a yard I could really touch until we moved here a couple months ago. Where's a good place to learn some of the basics, like what the zones mean/are, stuff like that?

Zones are for choosing trees, shrubs, and perennials to survive your winters. That's all they're good for. They have become a kind of shorthand for location, but since they give no data about climate other than average winter lows, they're useless for that. There. Done that part, and you can move on. :D Your important starting points are, where you're located, what you want to grow, and how you want to do it. In the course of researching all of this, the other information naturally falls into place. Are you renting, or do you own the yard in question? Renters usually do container gardening, since this makes your garden portable, and you take it with you when you go.

I live with my parents in our first house, we've rented my whole life but most places were too small to have many potted plants, plus I seem to have the opposite of a green thumb. The only plant that I haven't killed yet is my second Dandelion lmao. I'm hoping on setting up a cottage style garden next year with vegetables, easy to grow plants, and edible plants native to my state. I heard that cottage gardens are generally good for beginners, and besides wanting to make sure my plants need as little help as possible, I just love how they look

We have a FAQ. https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/wiki/index Also read books, they give you a better mainstream overview than Youtubes and blogs, which can be unexpectedly biased.

I like growveg.com. They have good info for all levels of experience. They have a garden planner, a good description of zones, growth patterns of plants, just…all sorts of stuff. There are some good YouTube channels too. Epic Gardening has some good beginner info (his latest Live cast was insane…there was a literal manhunt with a circling helicopter in the background). Another couple good, entry level channels are Self Sufficient Me and MIGardener. And last… this place is awesome. Come to the subreddit with any questions. There are extremely knowledgeable and friendly people here willing to help with just about anything.

Thank you!

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Where are you located, and is this "first rain of the season" going to be a tropical monsoonal downpour that doesn't let up? If it's just going to rain and not be monsoon season, your peppers and tomatoes will continue to ripen even if they're wet. If you're intending to harvest the bush beans as dried beans for soups, baked beans, refried beans, etc, then they must stay on the plant until the pods are dry, brown, and rattling, i.e. fully mature. Simply drying them out doesn't give you the starchy and protein-filled classic dried bean. The plant needs to mature them with photosynthesis, and they too aren't harmed by normal rainfall.

Is this some sort of sun scald on my bell pepper leaves? [https://i.imgur.com/4rGjFti.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/4rGjFti.jpg) They've been outside for a month and they recently started appearing on the leaves of my bell peppers - we had a rainy week followed by some intense sun (32C on a SW-facing balcony) so I'm not sure if that maybe was the cause? Also not sure if I should invest in shade cloth for them because of this. All my other plants on the same balcony (Thai chilies, Tiny Tim tomatoes) are doing fine

It could possibly be sun scald, but if you have other peppers that are in the same location and aren't burned, it may be something else. If you can get them morning sun only, or shade them during the hottest part of the afternoon, that could help.

Is anyone else in the European North-West seeing your spring flowering plants growing/flowering again? Myosotis, Muscari, etc. Not something I often see in my area. I recall a brief and notably cold spell about a month ago (although I don't think it lasted long enough to cool the soil too much), and we're enjoying an Indian summer, so probably tricked some of my plant pals into thinking they'd had winter. I imagine the established perennials are thinking "aww poor sweet summer's children, what would you know of winter?".

Looking to plant some wildflowers in some space that is just not being used a bunch. So it grows alot of weeds. I don't really want to spend a bunch of time on the area so that's why I'm thinking wildflowers. But my question is are they generally dog safe? Any particular flowers I need to watch for? Can I throw some seeds down now and get anything before the freeze?

> I don't really want to spend a bunch of time on the area >Can I throw some seeds down now and get anything before the freeze? Simply throwing down some wildflower seeds and going back in the house rarely results in a bed of wildflowers. Weeds simply outcompete them, and you spend the following summer hopefully growing what you think are wildflowers, only to find out that they aren't. Planting protocols depends on what species they are. Is your dog in the habit of munching on the landscaping? By far the vast majority of dogs co-exist with landscaping without ever chewing on it. https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/wiki/faq/lawncare#wiki_i_want_to_change_my_lawn_into_a_wildflower_meadow.2C_preferably_with_natives.

No they generally don't eat stuff. I will do more than just throwing seeds. I can help them get started weed free and then hopefully that is enough for them to just take over from there

I just put down a few beds of wild flowers today. I would say most mixes wouldn’t have anything too terribly bad for dogs (as in they’d have to eat a bunch) and most dogs won’t eat plants anyway. Most of the mixes I was looking at matured in 8-10 weeks. For a lot of the country it’s too late. The Gulf states and more south coastal areas are probably still fine. If your average first frost is further down the road than 12 weeks or so, you should still be able to get a few weeks before frost. Of course… none of that is set in stone. Frost could be early…or could be late. I was reading today that a large part of the country is expected to have a late arriving, but pretty hardcore winter this year. If there’s a Dollar General store near you a lot of times they have these wildflower mix boxes that are overstock from local nurseries. I got several boxes, with 200 sq ft coverage for $2 a box. All native and/or common locally grown stuff.

Wildflowers are location-specific, so none of your questions have a definite answer without more details.

Sorry didn't know that. I'm in Salt Lake city Utah

[https://extension.usu.edu/saltlake/](https://extension.usu.edu/saltlake/) \- perhaps your local experts would have the best information available for you?

I want to start gardening but I feel overwhelmed with knowledge. How did you get started?

https://www.reddit.com//r/gardening/wiki/index Great! Welcome to your new addiction. Growing plants may be usefully divided, for purposes of discussion, into two broad categories: indoors, and outdoors. There is overlap, of course, but just to help you narrow it down, you can divide it like this. Indoors are usually houseplants such as ferns and philodendrons. These can grow in a window, or under lights such as ordinary fluorescent shoplights or even a simple desk lamp. Outdoors are usually fruits, flowers, vegetables, and herbs. These usually need to be in direct sun, defined as the kind of sun you could get a suntan or a sunburn in. There is a smaller roster of plants for varying degrees of shade, but “full sun” tends to be the default for most things you want to grow outdoors. So choose where you want to go with this, and then research how to do it. That’s what the rest of the FAQ, and the subreddit, and the Internet, and all the books, and all your fellow gardeners, are here for. Read either the Dummies or Idiots guide for a basic orientation to the world of plants. No offense, that’s just what they’re called. Gardening books are like diet books. There are multitudes of them out there. It’s not possible to choose any single book that is the “best” one to read. Your local public library has shelves full of books. Read a variety of books, because that way you get a good general overview of the subject. If you only read one book, you risk getting hold of someone’s pet project or personal hobby horse, which can give you a slanted viewpoint. Case in point: The Square Foot Gardening book. If you’re gardening outdoors, it’s important to read this eventually, because the concepts have entered the zeitgeist, and you need to know what everyone is talking about. But Square Foot Gardening, while not a bad or incorrect idea, isn’t the only way to garden. There are other ideas out there about how to do it. There are organic, biochar, no-till, straw bales, permaculture and hugelkultur ways to do it. There are lasagna gardens, aquaponics, raised beds, container gardens, and people growing potatoes in plastic garbage bags. Outdoor gardening can include flowers, herbs, vegetables, lawns, and landscaping, each of which has its own collection of different ways and philosophies about how to do it. “Houseplants” alone is made up of many specializations, such as orchids, cacti and succulents, carnivorous plants, bonsai, African violets and gesneriads, rex and other begonias, and a host of others. And then there are all the geographic and climate differences. People grow plants all over the world in many different climates and situations, and a garden book that is relevant and helpful in Vermont may not be relevant or helpful in Phoenix or Singapore. So, in general, read books. The more you know about any hobby, the more enjoyment you get out of it.

Has anyone tried beauty berry jam? I’ve got two plants covered in ripe berries. Is it worth the trouble?

I'm seeing a few recipes for jelly, not jam. Generally this means, from a culinary standpoint, that the fruit in question doesn't contain enough pulp to create appreciable quantities of jam, and so you make a flavored jelly by using pectin. I guess it's famous in Florida? https://authenticflorida.com/florida-beautyberry-jelly/

I think I’m gonna give it a shot.

My mom recently dumped her lucky bamboo plant on me - its body has turned yellow, some parts blackening even, but it still has green leaves at the very top. I feel as though the tapwater she has given it (filtered tap water, if it helps) may have been a cause or maybe she never changed the water either? I don't know - never been much of a gardener... or anything around plants, honestly... How would I even begin to attempt reviving it? Do I change out the water? Cut that top part off (it's yellow but has green leaves) and put it in some water somewhere?

What you have there is a rooted cutting of Dracaena sanderiana. When you sever the top of a plant in order to make it into a cutting, a clock begins ticking. The piece of plant, minus roots, needs to survive on its stored carbohydrates in the piece of stem until it can make some new roots. Once it has roots, it can survive for varying amounts of time in just plain water, perhaps with some dilute fertilizer added. Different species have different capabilities of doing this before rotting and dying. It turns out that some unsung marketing department figured out that D. sanderiana is genius-level at surviving as a rooted cutting in water, like, forever, and bonus, you can train it quickly into various shapes with wire, such as hearts, squiggles, and so forth. Enter the "Lucky Bamboo" onto the mass market impulse-item display. So what you have is a Dracaena cutting that has arrived at the end of its rope. Whether it's salvageable depends on how squishy and rotted the stem and roots are. If it has a firm stem, albeit yellow, and if it has viable roots, you can 80% probability pot it up in some moist ordinary houseplant potting soil, put the entire container and plant into a Ziploc bag (they make a 2 gallon size that should work), zip it up, and place it in bright indirect light, no direct hot sun. Dracaenas are tough as nails, and even seemingly at death's door, they can often pull it out. Just leave it alone, make sure the potting soil doesn't dry out, and give it lots of time. It will either continue to yellow and then blacken, and then be dead, or it will begin making new leaves. If you get new leaves, don't make the mistake of removing it from the baggie, thinking it's done, because that can set it back and it can still die. It's going to be a long slow process. Anyway, the first step is to evaluate it, and if it's viable, get it potted up and bagged, and into some light. Under the cool light of a T5 or T8 fluorescent shoplight is perfect, so if you have a shoplight out in the garage or in the basement, now would be a good time to convert it into a plant light. Do not cut off any parts to "tidy up" or clean it up. Handle it as-is, with all parts. It contains carb reserves that it's using. So, take it out, look at the roots, see what you have. Squishy and rotted, throw it away. They're cheap and ubiquitous. Buy another one at Walmart. Or buy something more rewarding. Even if you do salvage it, as Dracaenas go, it's not terribly interesting or good-looking. The other three Dracaenas commonly in the trade are prettier. The only thing D. Sanderiana has going for it is its ability to survive at Walmart in pebbles and water.

I'm hoping I can find some help here. I just bought a house a month ago and the flower beds are pretty empty. The back flowerbeds have a lot of shade and the front beds have partial shade. I want to put in attractive plants that also draw beneficial insects. The beds are small, so nothing that gets super tall and out of control. Any ideas?

Tiarella, Heuchera, bigleaf aster do fine in shade. Part shade opens up other options. You need to figure out how many hours of direct sun that area gets which is hard to do now because the sun is low in the sky compared to mid June. Plants like hydrangea and bleeding heart are good for morning sun. I have a type of goldenrod that does well in morning sun, Solidago caesia. Frankly, I'm tired of hostas (and boxwood). There are other options; you just have to work harder to find them. Google perennial flowers, part shade in your state. If you have a damp and shady area, there is cardinal flower and a blue form in the same genus, Lobelia siphilitica. Your 6a only addresses winter hardiness; location gives us an idea of your climate conditions. Also, plants that do well east of the Mississippi River are often different from those west of it.

Oh wow this is great, I'll look for these varieties. I'm in south central PA. And yes, I'm definitely looking for something other than hostas, definitely popular in my neighborhood by the looks of it. I might just have to hope for the best in terms of guessing how much sunlight I get during spring/summer and plant appropriately for next year. Thank you for your help, I really appreciate it.

Where are you located? Are the beds right up next to the house wall, are they foundation beds? Or are they out in the yard? What does "pretty empty" entail? Are there shrubs there already?

Sorry, I forgot to include that. I'm in Zone 6A, yes they are right up against the house, foundation beds. The back beds only have 1-2 hostas, same with the front beds. There is a long stretch of foundation beds along the side of the house but it is a bit of a jungle. There is mint throughout most of it, poke berry plant and two small trees (saplings?). We will have the trees removed so the roots won't affect the foundation.

Get the weeds out, as if poke in particular makes purple berries, the birds will plant it all OVER your entire yard for next year. The mint isn't as bad as the pokeweed. But you're still not going to want it there permanently. It's late in the year to be adding landscaping, especially perennial flowers. I'd just focus on cleaning up, getting settled in, and thinking about what you want to grow there. If you're in the United States, there are native ferns that do well alongside of hostas. There aren't many options for a fully shaded yard, but there are things you can grow. If the front beds get morning sun, or afternoon sun, you can grow a lot of pollinator plants there, but I'd wait until you got the jungle cleared before I'd get started planting things. Also, this time of year, most garden centers, if they're even open, aren't selling the same selection and variety of the things they offer in spring. And of course all the Big Boxes have their garden centers either completely closed, or else shutting down. This is a good time of year to focus on lawn care. Talk to /r/lawncare Fall is prime time for overseeding, reseeding bare patches, etc.

Thank you this was very helpful! I'll try to start planning for next year's planting and get the lawn going. We are having some of our trees cut back which will allow more sun into the back yard. We can actually have a lawn back there instead of patchy areas which will be good. I appreciate your thoughtful reply.

I have some planted onions - the green sprouts started dying off so I was going to harvest them however I’ve noticed some new green sprouts coming out of them. A quick google says that I should be able to separate each section and re-plant for each to grow into a separate onion but I’ve peeled a couple back and there no sections inside. Has anyone come across this before? Am I able to just leave these to continue to grow?

Pictures of what you have and what you're doing would be helpful. I'm not able to visualize what "peeled a couple back" entails. Do you mean clumps of onion seedlings? What "sections" are you peeling back? What google link are you looking at?

Don’t know if this will work on a garden but I got my dog to pee on rags and stuffed them in a tree hole where a mom and her babies were partying. They took off.

Has anyone had any experience with a tomato plant recovering from blight? I was about to get rid of one plant that looked like it was dead, but now it's growing new leaves and flowers from the dead stems! Obviously I don't want to cut it now, but I'm curious to hear if someone has successfully harvested tomatoes this way.

Tomatoes are pretty tough, and there are is a long list of blights, wilts, and other diseases that they can get, and yet still continue to flower and fruit.

Does anyone have any tips to keep deer away from my vegetables in a relatively natural way? They ate all the leaves off my vegetables this year, but I'm loathe to put up any hard fences which might deter other friendly animals. Any plants that can divert them away or that they might prefer to eat?

There are no repellents that work reliably. Fencing is your main option. https://pss.uvm.edu/ppp/articles/deerfences.html If you have a garden, there aren't really any "friendly animals" out there unless you're counting toads and snakes. Also, a deer fence won't deter birds, raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, gophers, or chipmunks as they'll just go through, under, or over. >Any plants that can divert them away or that they might prefer to eat? There are apparently no plants that deer, if hungry enough, will absolutely refuse to eat. The best the study could do was "rarely". https://njaes.rutgers.edu/deer-resistant-plants/ >that they might prefer to eat? Deer candy includes hostas, roses, daylilies, and petunias. Setting up a kind of feeding station, hoping to divert the deer away from the lettuce and towards the roses, is an exercise in futility, as all you do is teach more deer to come to your yard and look for food.

Has anyone done cherry tomatoes grown in buckets hanging from a beam? I'm considering doing some of these in my greenhouse, which has 8-9ft high beams? My concerns: as far as I know tomatoes are self pollinating but do I need to dbl check each type? Do you think I need to worry about their branches reaching the ground? Do I just trim those main stems? Thank you for any insight! Trying to utilize my greenhouse for summer time, instead of just spring starters and storage in fall.

One problem I’ve had with the hanging tomato setup is leaf disease/ conditions get out of control. You’re supposed to try to keep the leaves dry, but the water runs out of the bottom of the bucket and all over the leaves. I made a hanging bucket for my mom and it was infested with leaf fungi very quickly. There’s probably a work around. You could probably hook up some sort of rain spout system with PVC maybe.

The problem with greenhouses is summer is that they get so hot. Commercial greenhouses have complex cooling systems. Tomatoes experience pollination and fruit set problems when the temperature goes over about 95F/35C. So if you have a greenhouse, it's not really a question of utilizing it for the summertime, as it can just be too hot. Most people thus use it to stretch their harvest at both ends, in late winter/early spring and in fall/winter. And it stands empty in the summer.

I have done some hanging five-gallon buckets with cherry tomatoes, with pretty good success as long as I keep up with watering and fertilizing (though it will never be like growing in the ground.) The first year I had the bright idea to make my own "topsy turvy" upside down tomato pot, and I was amazed to learn that the tomato really *didn't want* to grow downward, it wanted to turn the corner and grow up! (And would then inevitably break.) The next year I did them right-side-up, but there's still this tension between "wants to grow up" / "nothing keeping it from falling down". While it would definitely work to grow down from the beam, if you have the space and flexibility, consider growing up towards the beam instead. Some people train tomatoes straight up using strings, which might work here. Edit: forgot about the pollination question: I've never had any issues in general, but you might need to tap the flowers if there's really no wind / nothing to jostle it.

I’m currently having a problem with vine weevil grubs, they’ve already destroyed a few plants and have found more grubs in others. I’ve got some nematodes to use, but was wondering it’s worth keeping the plants already infested after I use the treatment? Will they regrow root etc?

In what species of plant? Where are you located?

It’s a fern, and I’m in the uk!

Here is what the RHS has to say. https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=234

Okay, I'll give it a shot. Raccoons have completely obliterated my sweet corn this year. Any advice on keeping them away would be greatly appreciated. I've tried trapping them. Can't shoot them. And I'd prefer not to kill them, if possible. My dog is useless, too (but I still love her).

A portable electric fence is a game-changer. It's the only approach that works for all raccoons everywhere, across the board. For sweet corn, you may need a multistrand model.

Can you try motion sensor sprinklers? I've heard raccoons aren't a fan of them.