Bulb Planting Hack Update

Back in May I wrote "Bulb Planting Hack" and posted about an experiment I was going to try out when planting tender bulbs in my garden that had to be dug up in the winter. The idea is really simple and I'm sure had been thought of by many gardeners before and I wish it would have occurred sooner to me.

The problem I had in my garden was trying to find bulbs I planted once the foliage had died down. You can easily add plant markers and stakes in the ground to mark where your plants are planted but when you go to dig up the bulbs, tubers or rhizomes you may end up damaging the plant with the trowel or shovel.

It occurred to me that what I need was something that surrounded the bulbs and gave me a visual clue when I was getting close to the bulb. What I did was place one of those plastic baskets that strawberries come in at the grocery store in the ground and then placed my Calla Lily bulbs inside that. You can see an image of what I'm describing at the link above.

A few days ago when I went to lift my Calla Lilies from the ground to store them for the winter I was easily able to locate them in the ground and bring them out of the soil without damaging them as you can see from the photo above. I noticed this also made it easier to locate any offsets or "bulb babies" produced by the plants I did this to. I'm going to do this in the garden again next year and expand it to include more bulbs-but I'll make larger trays with chicken wire so I can add more bulbs and lift them all at once.

How To Repot A Cacti

On my other gardening blog I wrote a post explaining how I repot a cactus to give new indoor gardeners an idea on how to do it without getting pricked by the spines. If you haven't seen that post click the link above and read that entry and look at the photo of the cacti that I'm repotting. Follow the instructions on that entry because everything is the same.

The only difference in that repotting example is that I used a strap I fashioned out of newspaper to keep the spines of the cacti from stabbing my hand. The photo above shows how you can use a chunk of Styrofoam to protect your hands from the cactus spines by pressing the spines into the chunk of Styrofoam. If the cacti soil is dry you can easily lift your plant by gently pulling the Styrofoam up and setting your plant into the new pot.

If the cactus doesn't easily lift out of the pot you can place your palm over the barrier and tip your cacti over and slide the pot off. If your cactus is too large or a columnar shape take two pieces and create a "sandwich, " by placing the plant in between the two barriers and lifting the plant out of the pot.

Always make sure that the pieces you use are thick enough so that the spines don't pierce through and go into your skin. When you repot your cactus I suggest you use a terracotta pot and that you only go one size larger when choosing a pot. If you use a pot that is too large you'll have trouble keeping the soil of your plant evenly watered and eventually your plant will suffer.

Non Toxic Slug Control Hack

Garden slugs are a pest that just about every gardener has to deal with. Not only do they leave a gross slime where they walk but they cause plant damage and frustration. For years garden hackers have been discovering non toxic methods of slug control. The following are non toxic methods of slug control and that can be found in your kitchen. Natural -pest control solutions work best in an eco garden or a garden where kids and pets spend a lot of time.

Coffee grounds and egg shells:

Create a barrier for slugs with coffee grounds by pouring them in a circle around plants you are trying to protect. If you aren't a coffee drinker places like Starbucks package and give away coffee grounds to be used in the garden. Similarly save your eggs shells and place the crushed pieces in the same manner as the coffer grounds around the plants you are trying to protect

How this works:

When slugs crawl over the coffee grounds and egg shells their soft undersides are torn and they eventually die before they can cause damage to the plants in your garden. A couple of websites I read in preparation for this post state that it is thought that caffeine is a neuro-toxin to slugs. It is believed that the slugs absorb this as they crawl over the coffee grounds.

Cornmeal and Bran:

Take an empty jar (like a mayonnaise jar) and pour in a few tablespoons of cornmeal inside. Set the jar with the cornmeal on its side near the plants that are being attacked by slugs. The jar keeps the cornmeal dry during rain fall. Bran can also be used but it is pour on the ground near the plants you are trying to protect similar to the eggshells and coffee grounds. The Bran ring will have to be reapplied after rain.

How this works:

Cornmeal is suppose to be a tasty treat to slugs which they will happily eat and eat. Once consumed the slugs swell up and die. Bran is said to absorb the slime that slugs create and since there is no slime the locomotion of slugs is halted.

Salt:

Pour salt around plants you want to protect or in areas where there is high slug traffic.

How this works:

The salt technique works in the same fashion as Bran in that it is suppose to dry out slugs and cause eventual death. The problem with this hack is that adding salt can damage your soil and plants so this should be done sparingly if at all.

The "Beer Plate":

This is probably the older garden hack related to slugs control. Bury an empty aluminum pie plate just below the soil surface and fill 75% full with cheap beer.

How this works:

Slugs are said to be attracted to the yeast and barely in the beer and will happily crawl into the plate to drink and eventually drown. Because beer is a liquid you may have to check on the plate daily and refill as necessary.

Direct Sowing-Gardening Terms Hacked

Direct sowing has to be the easiest and least expensive method of seed starting for any garden. When you don't have time to make soda bottle greenhouses or use the sandwich bag method or don't want to spend money on buying soil or peat pellets direct sowing your seeds is the way to go. Simply sow your seeds according to the recommendations for planting depth and spacing in your garden or container garden where you would like for your plants to grow. Many of my seeds that require stratification I will just place in the ground where I want them to grow and will let the natural freeze-thaw-cycle do the work for me. There really isn't a more fool proof method of seed starting than direct sowing.

Amaryllis Pollination Hack

If you have an Amaryllis you can easily hack it to produce seeds which you can then sow and produce even more plants that you can share with others, keep for yourself or sell.

Look at the image on the right. The stamen is the slender white stalk that's holding up the anther. The anther is the sack that holds the pollen. These are considered the male parts of a flower. This usually matures before the stigma.


The stigma is on the left and it is the tip of the female reproductive parts of the flower. Notice how the ends are curled back, this occurs a couple of days after the flower has opened and is ready to be pollinated.

If you want to propagate your Amaryllis it's really very easy. Cut the white slender stalk that's holding up the anther and tap it onto the stigma when it look similar to the stigma in the image above. If that seems too difficult then just take a small artist's paint brush and rub it up and down on the pollen. Now look at your paint brush and you should see there is a yellow dust like substance. Now take your paint brush and "paint" the tip of the stigma with the pollen you picked up on the brush.

Your flower soon will start to die because it has lived and completed it's purpose. Which was to attract a pollinator, which in this case was you. Leave the flower alone and let it die on it's own terms. If you were successful after a few days you should notice the swelling of the seed pod right behind the dying flower. Leave everything alone and about 5-6 weeks later your seeds should be ready. You'll notice the seed part start to split open and inside you'll find a lot of black paper thin seeds. Don't let them fool you those are the seeds and you want to sow those soon.

Do you have more than one Amaryllis? Are they blooming at the same time? Take the pollen from one plant and place it on the stigma of the other. It's a good way of making crosses of your Amaryllis bulbs. Your seedlings should be old enough to bloom by their third year.

If you start your seeds in soil using something like the Ghetto Greenhouse stand the seeds on their sides, or you can start them using the Baggie Method. I'll post photos soon of what my seedlings look like. When I do at the bottom of this post you should see "Links to this post" to help you keep track of them.

*edit*
On Sunday March 25th my first seed pod opened. I'll post pictures soon.

UPDATE: 

I started www.AmaryllisBulbs.org a blog devoted to growing Amaryllis bulbs and various tips. If you want to know what to do after the seed pods form check it out.


Here's a video I made showing you how to pot an Amaryllis Bulb.



and one showing you how to pollinate an Amaryllis flower.

Do-It-YourSelf-Hack A Garden Design

Ever wanted to someone to design your garden or to see what something you're imagining for your garden would look like but you can't draw a box to save your life? On my other blog I made an entry about Virtual Garden and how easy and kinda fun it was to work with. Even if you're not computer savvy I think you could use this tool to help you map out what your garden could look like without the expense of hiring a designer or landscape architect right away. The program comes with a tutorial to help you become familiar with the program.

It really couldn't be easier. Start a new garden and choose your measurements. Then with your mouse you plot out the shape of your garden by clicking and dragging your mouse. The little points on the screen are reminiscent of graphing paper. If you look at the screen capture above you can see I chose a simple shape just to show you how you I got started.

Once you choose the shape of your garden the default ground cover will be grass and your square will be green.From the right hand side you can choose to draw in dirt areas or paths or decking. I left most of it grass and only drew the brown "L" shape path you see and chose a cobble surface. The perimeter of your garden is automatically a fence but if you click on a line you can turn it into brick, stone or a hedge. I put in a pot in the lower right with a fountain. I added a table and chairs and a greenhouse in the upper left hand corner. A bench that faces the pot and a couple of trellises at one end of my path and an arch at the other.

Once I had that done I started placing plants around to give you an idea. You choose the plants from the button on the upper right hand corner. The plant selection isn't very extensive but you get a good amount of plants From Trees to annuals. You can always add or remove plants or objects you place by toggling back and forth between the buttons above. You can also switch to the 3D view and take a stroll through your garden. Below is a screen capture of this particular garden design.



For two of the four boundries of my garden I chose the brick wall to simulate a house. While you're working on your design you can switch from the overhead view to the 3D view to see how things look as you plant up your garden. When you're done or while your working you can take a stroll through your garden by toggling up, down, left and right. You can zoom all the way out or zoom in to see how something looks up close and see how your garden is going.

I'm sure there are powerful programs that do the same and an even better job than this but this one is free and pretty easy and it didn't strain the resources of my 4 year old computer. If you're looking for free garden design or would like to see how easy Do-It-Yourself garden design can be give this a try. You can use it on the BBC.CO.UK website or download it to your computer where you can save your designs.

Stratification And Scarification-GardeningTerms Hacked

Two terms that sometimes confuse people who are new to gardening and even some old timers are Seed Stratification and Seed Scarification. The words look similar and sometimes one word is used when you really intended to use the other.

Seed Stratification-simply put, is a cold moist period a seed needs in order to germinate. Some seeds cannot germinate immediately after being collected and need to go through a stratification period. You can stratify seeds in two ways; one is to build yourself a seed starter greenhouse using plastic soda bottles during the cold winter months and allow nature to do it's thing. You can place the seeds in moist peat or sand in the refrigerator using a (sandwich bag) for a period of about 3-6 weeks at about 42F and try to simulate nature this way if you can't do it outdoors. During this period make sure to keep the seeds moist because water an integral part to seed germination. Some seeds require a period of cold followed by a period of warmth then another period of cold before they will germinate. Either way is a good Do-It-Yourself method of seed starting when your seeds need a stratifying. This is a popular method people use to start apple seeds.

Seed Scarification- simply put, is the breaking or penetrating of the outer seed layer. Nature have developed many methods to accomplish this task. Sometimes seeds need to pass through the digestive track of an animal before they will break dormancy or be exposed to fluctuations in temperature or exposed to gases. Growers and some serious gardeners may use acids to get the seeds to germinate but that can be dangerous. You can accomplish the same thing by rubbing the hard seed coat with a file or sandpaper. I got past the hard seed coat of several Cannas last spring by boiling water and dropping the seeds in allowing them to soak until they absorbed water and swelled. Once you've scarified a seed it will need to be soaked in water from anywhere from a couple of hours to overnight before you sow them.