At times, I want to throw up my hands in despair. Gardening is a constant challenge. If it’s not munchers eating my succulents, Kale or cannas, it’s sickly plants demanding my attention, roots breaking through a wall to access the raised vegetable area, and then there’s lichen.
- Poorly Orchid – I ignored this outdoor orchid all summer and left it to rest in a shady corner of the garden and it was doing just fine. This week, I decided to repot it in a slightly larger pot as it looked potbound. Yes, I did use orchid soil and the pot was only slightly bigger than the original. This is how it rewards my efforts about five days later. It is dying.
Invasive Roots – Several years ago, we added a concrete base to the raised vegetable bed to provide a root barrier from the melaleuca hedge. Only when Mr. P was digging over the bed a couple of weeks ago so I could plant the carrots did I notice lots of roots. I groaned. It didn’t bode well. These thick roots weren’t from any of the veg I had grown. I dug down beyond the gravel, and sure enough, melaleuca roots had found their way into the veg patch via a crack in the wall.
Munchers and? The canna leaves are going brown. Has it outgrown the pot and needs to be either split and replanted or provided with a much wider pot, or is it a sign of something more sinister? I wish plants could speak.
4. More munchers – Flipping snails.
5. Why are the leaves on one plant yellow, verging on white, and the other plant is green? The pale leaf plant grows almost in full sun, while the plant with green leaves grows in the shade. Would that make a difference?
6 Lichen – whenever we see lichen, it is a sure sign the plant is distressed. We always remove it. Yes, I know it is a sign of clean air but it also grows on dead wood and the plant needs attention.
That’s my six for this Saturday, folks. For more Six on Saturday, gardening bloggers, check out Jim’s blog.
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Gardening can be an exercise in determination, but it’s also a joyful experiment that never ends. Keep learning and growing!
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I love winter. Nothing grows here nor needs attention. My succulent pot comes in and gets watered once a month. Nothing else to worry about. I am not sure I would want to garden 12 months of the year. I love the break away from the constant work and struggles.
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Gardening and challenges kind of belong together…I have a gut feeling that we are going to get a lot of rodents to deal with next year. I hope all goes well for you.
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Oh yes, always so many challenges. Every year has its unique ones. I know that there are always a lot of naughty little creatures that want a tasty snack, but sometimes I wonder if part of the problem is from whatever my neighbors are doing in their yards. I often wonder, if my neighbor is using pesticides and I refuse to do that, does that increase the number of bad insects in my yard? Not looking to be angry at my neighbor, but I do wish people would stop using poison, and it makes me wonder about that.
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I do not to resort to chemicals unless absolutely necessary … we had an infestation of fruit flies in some house plants and in my strawberry bed this year which was getting worse by the day so I had no choice to spray the soil to kill the eggs as everything else failed. 😦 I am always worried about the bees when people spray.
I think the bugs love my garden as they can always enjoy a tasty meal 🙂
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Being a gardener is always challenging, that´s why we do it, right? This wind that now blows hard in the garden, I hope the newplanted avocado trees remain standing after it..
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Hi Anna, Yep, gardening is challenging but when things go well like the abundent crop of black tomatoes this year … rewarding.
the gusts of Southerly winds here are very strong and apparently we have another windy night to look forward to.. We have already had two chairs in the pool and only just rescued one of the potted hibscus that had fallen over and was about to tumble in the pool.
The windchimes under the terrace are jingling away.
What about you? Any casua;ites?
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No casualty here at all actually. The avocado trees looks well. Took away approx 10 kg of leaves from the pool though.. hahah. Got some rain this morning, very much needed, even if it woke me up early! I even had to water the raised beds yesterday. We are still quite porly here.. so maybe we have to aim for the next week.
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Hey, sorry to hear you are still poorly. No rush if we don’t get up to you this side of Christmas. I also had to water plants and veg yesterday. the wind is drying everything out. Like you, pleased to see rain last night.
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Plenty of challenges there for sure. I don’t envy you your roots problem (I had to look up what melaleuca was and thought ‘that sounds lovely’, sorry!). Good luck!
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Hi Frogend, the Melaleuca as you probably saw is a thirsty hedge. Great as a windbreak and very common here.
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For the orchid, did you water it well after you repot? That plant looks like one of those that requires more water. As for the plant that it half white and half green, it is very possible that the plant received too much sun and it got sunburned. Is it a succulent?
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Hi Capentalc, yes I did water well after I repotted it. I am not sure if the brown because the ends of the leaves are black. At the moment I have taken it out of the pot to rest.
As for the white leaves on the other plant I am also wondering if it got too much sun. I don’t know what type of plant it is but it is not a succulent.
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I admire you for persevering despite the challenges, Carole.
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Thanks, Terry. ‘Stubborn’ is my middle name.
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The joys of gardening!
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Exactly, trowel. There is never a dull moment!
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Sorry for your garden woes. Those sneaky roots!
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hi Rebecca … yes, those sneaky roots!
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Lots of unanswered questions but for the cannas, here they look like yours. The cold, short days give them that browning leaf color. I have the same orchid, the old bulbs are like that and will certainly give new shoots. (Maybe you should have young shoots next to them? ) Tight roots = guaranteed flowering for next season
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Hi Fred, there are a couple of new bulbs next to them.. I never realised tight roots = flowers next season. Good Tip, thanks.
Canas good to know the leff colour is normal.
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Oh, good to know. I had cannas for the first time this year. The giant leaves were very nice, helped to put a bit of a barrier between our house and the cars whizzing by on the street. They did turn brown at the end of the summer, but I thought it was because it was extremely dry here from August through just last week.
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