Bloom Where You're Planted-Urban Gardening in Philly: Little Bit of This, Little Bit of That

I accomplished more today than I thought I could do. Getting the seed shelf clear enough seemed unlikely but organizing things went quicker than expected. It still needs to be wiped down with soapy water and bleach. Spent the morning doing one of my favorite things, seeing what Home Depot had on sale, and going to the produce market to ooh and aah at he flowers and plants. I wanted a big plant. Settled on a peace Lilly. They were $19.99 at Home Depot and $9.00 at the produce market. You know which one I chose. I've killed one already this season. I was one of only 4 people at Home Depot and the only woman. The others were all men shopping for discounted shrubs like me, smart. Many were huge and only 2-3 dollars. Who says men don't garden? I love to see men garden. I had a neighbor who came to admire my plants every summer. He said if his friends knew he likes to garden they would laugh at him. I tried to encourage him. Gardening knows no gender.

I envision cranberry sauce, a green salad, and the herbs going into turkey parts that'll be baked in the oven. Early for Thanksgiving dinner isn't it? The cranberries made me think of this meal. Can't forget sweet potato pie. The herbs will also go into homemade chicken noodle soup, my daughter's favorite.

Couldn't believe amaryllis are already in the stores. I buy these every year. I could order them, maybe larger bulbs and larger prices, but these are fine for me.

This was given to me by Liz Robinson when I was in Georgia this summer. It lost 2 leaves and has 2 new ones coming out. I'm going to repot it before taking it inside. I did some reading about the plant. I believe it's one variety of an alocasia. Of course it's tropical. I didn't realize it's a tuber. Alocasia's do best in bright indirect medium light and prefers temps from 60-70 degrees. Well-draining evenly moist soil is recommended. It's sensitive to chemicals in faucet water and should be watered with room temperature rain water. Now how will I get that? I will probably use distilled, spring water, or tap water that has been sitting so it won't be as harmful now that I know tap water is not recommended. When repotting, it's recommended not to cover the rhizome (Better Homes & Garden, Indoor Gardening, 2012).

How am I going to keep all these coleus alive until spring? I cleaned off the plant shelf for them but I think they'll go in the kitchen window. Hopefully it won't be too cool. If they don't do well I'll move them to another location.

I'm still undecided whether Ill take this inside. It's still alive but I'm worried about taking a plant inside that was planted in the soil. Too many insects to possibly worry about.

Shrubs and trees what was left of them were 50% off. I gave in and bought a crepe myrtle since the one I had from mom died last winter. There are 2 tags on it. One says that the blooms are red but as you can see they are pink. The other tag shows pink blooms. If you've seen my yard you know that this will not go into the ground but into a large pot.

My dilemma is whether to put it out back and let it battle the winter and hope it's alive in the spring. My other option is to keep it on my porch which is not heated but will protect it from the elements
until spring. I plan to water is a little from time to time.

I mentioned that my dwarf arborvitae's died in the window box this summer. Just a waste. The plan, buy more but I waited too late and when I went back they had sold out. So I got these three. They were only $3.00 each. They are not dwarf. Not smart was it, but I couldn't pass them up. Hopefully lifting them each season and reducing the size of the root ball will prevent them from getting too large and they can also be pruned. My plan is to take all the soil from the window boxes and line them especially the shade box. Hopefully this will prevent these from dying from not enough water. My access is limited in the summer when my daughter puts her portable air conditioner attachment in the window. I would have to remove it every time I water the window box and I didn't do that this summer at the expense of the arborvitae's. I liked them in the boxes because if I didn't want to add any more flowers they would still look good. As planned for the back yard, I will have to go out in hot and humid weather next summer to water my plants.

Why am I showing this? The plastic bag, I bought a box. They'll be used to isolate plants that'll be brought into the house this weekend. I sprayed all the plants on the porch today with house and garden spray today. I used this last year and it didn't harm my plants. The yellow poster board will be cut up into small squares, Popsicle sticks attached and Vaseline applied. This will act as a fungus gnat trap for any unwanted visitors who hitchhike into the house. It may take a while to make one for each plant but it would cost more to buy them on line. I do buy flys tape from the store that have a similar purpose and they worked well this summer but they can't be stuck inside pots.

Time to clean up the seed shelf. How does it get like this every summer?

Better. I need things on the bottom shelf. I save my egg cartons and other containers for seedlings. There are some peat pellets left from last winter although I only wanted coir ones. I like the texture of the medium better. There's a calla Lilly kit on the shelf. I never started the tuber. It still feels solid. Maybe I'll start it soon.