Comment by Desilu on July 24, 2012 at 1:22pm

Yay, thanks for joining Voodoo Bettie!! I was being to get worried! So how are you keeping your garden alive with all of this horrible weather this summer? Any tips & tricks? Here in LA, there's been both humidity from hell and straight-up Hades heat, which is not helping things at all here. Where are you and how is your garden doing?

Comment by Voodoo Bettie on July 26, 2012 at 9:36am

Well I just moved house so I'm on the verge (gotta unpack first) of sowing some kale, apparently it grows well around here - I'm in Vancouver and jealous that you have had hot weather at all, we've had only a couple of weeks of warm days (moving day was the hottest, of course)!  Another reason I want to live in LA!

A few years ago I was living in another place with a yard and I grew potatoes (which went gangbusters), spinach, carrots and some herbs. Right now I just have a little herb garden with chives and basil, a strawberry plant in a pot (which produced one measly little berry) and a few pots with shrubs. I had some celery growing too but it was stolen & destroyed by squirrel.

Our new house has some neglected rose bushes that need some major pruning because they're all "leggy" (which is for once a bad thing) - plus they seem to have some kind of blight but I'm hoping to rehabilitate them so I can have lots of roses blooming next year.

|The only tip I can think of right now is that if you compost that it's great for feeding your garden.

Comment by Desilu on September 6, 2012 at 9:28pm

Hey Bettie -

I gave up on trying the composting and have relegated myself to a small container garden outside of my room... Hoping for better weather next year to increase the kind/amount of plants there! Right now, I have an orchid & elephant ears that my son gave me, a bromeliad, some african violets, and a spider plant. Right outside of my room is mostly shade, with very little direct sun. What I would LOVE to grow is peonies, but I've been told by the one nursery that does carry them around here that they don't do well here... Lisianthus is another that I'd love to grow, and apparently they DO grow well here. So that's my goal for next year. And fresh herbs... I miss having fresh basil to throw in sauce, chives for asian food, rosemary for chicken... *sigh* Hopefully we have a true winter and then a true spring... How did your kale do??

Comment by Desilu on September 6, 2012 at 9:32pm

Forgot to mention: I do the fertilizing for a family friend's garden (along with whatever else she needs done there - she's 92, and her hips and eyesight have finally decided to give up slowly...) and she LOVES her roses. I mean LOVES. What I usually do (at her guidance) to fertilize and grow some lovely blooms is to fertilize with Miracle Grow (which really does do wonders) as well as give the plant an extra shot of nutrients with epsom salts. Yep... the stuff for muscle aches that you bathe in... sprinkle a generous amount around the base of the plant, then fertilize with the Miracle Grow. I just checked on her blooms today (I did them last weekend) and they are definitely coming up roses! (couldn't resist, sorry!). Hope that helps with your roses at your new home.

Comment by cathy birch on March 18, 2013 at 9:16pm

love my garden    must be i love pretty things    like to share my interests

can i post pictures?    i live in australia     cathy

Comment by cathy birch on March 19, 2013 at 2:24pm

changing some of my garden at present getting rid of vegies and replacing with more roses they give me more pleasure picking up 6 new ones this week end
love to my garden friends have pictures on cathbch@gmail.com

Comment by Desilu on June 5, 2013 at 7:27am

Hi Cathy -

I've been absent, and I so apologize. Absolutely post pics! I will be soon - I have been very busy working on the front gardens of our house (sounds bigger than it really is!), and will post once things settle in...

I do have a great tip for growing seeds though: here in the US, we can buy our fruits/veggies/lettuce in plastic containers that have lids and usually little holes on the sides/bottoms. I've been using these to start my seeds this year (as opposed to buying those that the store sells) and they make a fabulous little greenhouse, and the seeds do really really well. I'll take a pic of them and post them later this week...

Hope all is well down under, and chat with you soon (hopefully!)!

Jenn

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