Plant Lovers? Gardeners?

[annominous]

nil

 

[Warmheart]

Beautiful! I am one of "your people," although I approach plants via my primary special interest, Chi (natural life force energy). I sense the wellbeing of plants without needing to look at them. Plants send feelings one can sense. I plant in a casual flower bed outside my ground floor apartment, and the feelings of the plants guide me in my care of them.

What a lovely vivarium you've created! I wish you many soft evenings outdoors in gentle lighting to commune with the many special plants awaiting your care.

 

[Tia Maria]

I am also one of your people, although I lack either of your (A & Warmheart) super Aspie sensitivities, & your knowledge of plant biology. Your knowledge is impressive, & your vivarium is beautiful! I cannot word it better than Warmheart - she expressed so beautifully what I too would like to say.

As for me, I love planting, gardening, & all things nature & outdoors. I do not currently have any indoor plants as my cats do not permit me such an indulgence. They 'rule the roost' ... not by plan but they have come to dominate us ... they are bossy kitties They have never allowed any plant to live in peace so we don't bother. We garden outside & I never see a spot of dirt that isn't calling to me to plant something. Maybe I can share some pictures of some of my trees or shrubs sometime. I too prefer plants over other 'things'. I chose a special tree over a piece of jewelry for a significant wedding anniversary. And I plant to provide shelter & food for birds & wild life. I am unable to feel plants as you do, but I never cut down a tree or shrub. It just bothers me!

What a great post Annominous!

 

[MicroWeiss]

Yeah, I'm into useful plants. I started out with peppermint plants, because I love mint leaves. They grow back every year right where I planted them. I dream of having a psychoactive garden of stuff, but it's not really legal where I live. I planted some begonias and coleus leaves this month, because they look cool.

It's only recently that I'm trying to get good at keeping plants alive. I learned how to sprout seeds indoors with some bright lights. I have a bunch of seedlings at the moment, and one plant I found last fall and put in a container indoors so it wouldn't die. It's still growing, and looks like it might turn into a flower.

I see it more as a useful skill than an obsession, though I am slightly obsessed. And I end up liking the plants a lot. I say nice things to them.

 

[Tia Maria]

Yeah, I'm into useful plants. I started out with peppermint plants, because I love mint leaves. They grow back every year right where I planted them. I dream of having a psychoactive garden of stuff, but it's not really legal where I live. I planted some begonias and coleus leaves this month, because they look cool.

It's only recently that I'm trying to get good at keeping plants alive. I learned how to sprout seeds indoors with some bright lights. I have a bunch of seedlings at the moment, and one plant I found last fall and put in a container indoors so it wouldn't die. It's still growing, and looks like it might turn into a flower.

I see it more as a useful skill than an obsession, though I am slightly obsessed. And I end up liking the plants a lot. I say nice things to them.

Herbs are very easy to grow, & can be grown in pots inside or outdoors, or in the ground outdoors. They look pretty, smell nice, & can be used in cooking. A triple play

 

[Tia Maria]

Thanks Tia Maria - my sun sensitivity is is due to SLE (lupus) and not being autistic. Sorry if that was confusing. Lupus is an autoimmune condition totally separate from being autistic. I struggle with that more than being autistic, but being autistic makes struggling with that harder as there is no constant with lupus.

MicroWeiss what kind of psychoactive garden? We are allowed to grow many psychoactive plants here in Australia as long as they aren't grown as drugs to be cultivated or sold. I'm unfamiliar with legislation where you are, but many things are surprisingly permissible. It just depends on what you want to grow and why. Good luck with your work on keeping plants alive. I love that plants are pretty straight forward living things. It's easy to learn what they need, when they are unhappy, how to help them, and keep them alive. A lot more straightforward than most people.

More plants? This is an Australian cultivar Brugmansia called 'Tantra'. This flower was almost as large as a dinner plate.

View attachment 15088

Thanks A. Your flower is GORGEOUS.

 

[annominous]

Thanks.

 

[Suzanne]

My husband would be "your people" as he is the major lover of outdoors and he is an nt

I am an indoor person, but for some inane reason, always feel the need to justify that! However, I like plants that are useful rather than for their beauty.

I love aloe vera; think it is marvelous! Hubby is passionate about Eucalyptus trees and even though I am not, I can see why he would be!

 

[Pyrola]

You certainly have had some great jobs! It's wonderful you've found a good way to keep gardening, it looks beautiful.I have an interest in Ethnobotany, as well. I haven't really gardened much, aside from a run of the mill vegetable garden, but I usually like to run around outside with an identification manual. I'm very blessed to live in an area where we have many fascinating native and endemic plants. My favorite is Calochortus albus (I'm not quite sure how to insert pictures properly), it's so delicate and ethereal. My favorite subject is Mycology, but the different ways fungi and plants interact is quite interesting!

 

[Aspergirl4hire]

Plant lover, yes. Gardener? I do try, but I depend on the plant to do its thing, as long as I put it where the light and soil suit it. Household plants that thrive on being ignored do well in my house

 

[MicroWeiss]

Thanks what kind of psychoactive garden?

More plants? This is an Australian cultivar Brugmansia called 'Tantra'. This flower was almost as large as a dinner plate.

Peyote sounds cool, then I heard about salvia divinorum, and of course mushrooms, I can't help but dream of growing such plants/fungis. I only took one psychedelic trip so far, but it was a poisonous mushroom, it was a bad trip, the illegal ones sound a lot better. Oklahoma is the most restrictive state to live in, if it's illegal anywhere, it's illegal in Oklahoma. I'll probably go out of state/country to try all these things, one of these days.

I think you have to have a lot of confidence to try to grow a flower that big. It looks amazing.

 

[annominous]

Thanks MicroWeiss . I hope you get to move somewhere you are able to grow the things you love. It makes a big difference to my life to be able to do that.

 

[Maelstrom]

"annominous, More plants? This is an Australian cultivar Brugmansia called 'Tantra'. This flower was almost as large as a dinner plate. View attachment 15088

Wow! huge flower how long does it last. I like gardening so much I ripped out my pilots well on my sailboat and put in a lexan sun roof.
I have a big garden and a tiny orcherd with a white newzeland clover pasture for my chickens to graze in. Polyculture is a interest of mine I have run a number of test with mixes of beans and clovers in organic gardening some have come out quite well..first year nitrate fixing seems to happen. I caught a wondering bee hive this last spring they seem to have survived the cold winter were buzzing about their door today..it was warm out. Do you ausies grow any strange vegetables or fruits I could grow in eastern oregon my zone is about 4 1/2, 75 day season.

 

[Naturalist]

I envy your ability to grow plants. I have had an edible garden for many years but it always suffers in summer when it gets hot and I have my annual depression shutdown...

I really do love studying plants though, in their native habitats. Am at present intrigued by various Bryophyte species, as well as wild ferns. I also like reading about Ethnobotany, and palynology and phytolith analyses of archaeological sites. If you take soil samples at each layer at a dig site, you can read the progressive ecology of the site simply by studying (often at the microscopic level) the various plant remains. For example, there is a wooded area north of where I live which began as hardwood forest, then was logged and corn and feed crops grown, then went fallow with meadow plants, then became pine forest and is now returning to hardwood. The researchers know the plants which populated the area down to the genus because plants have very distinctive pollen and phytolith structures at the molecular level. It is my goal to learn as many as I can! Similarly, one can tell when areas were deforested from deposits of charcoal at a site, with the best hardwoods in the first layer of charcoal followed by less choice woods as the forests became depleted. And phytoliths can also tell you what people were storing in their root cellars for food.

One thing I really enjoyed was on a research trip to London some years ago, when I got to read the notes made by the naturalists on James Cook's Endeavour voyage. Two were botanists and one was a botanical illustrator, so there were hundreds of pages about plant species they were encountering and how the natives used them for food. The botanical illustrator even wrote down recipes for native foods in Tahitian! He also got in trouble later for asking too many questions about the spices being grown in Savu, where the Dutch were very guarded about the spice trade (which they monopolized).

Sorry for the tangents, I just really love this stuff

 

[tree]

Since OP has uprooted himself and transplanted elsewhere, maybe there will be more people coming along
to say what they do with plants.

I am hoping, actually, to hear/see row by row depictions of vegetable gardens, how they are laid out, what varieties you
like. Stuff like that. Practical experience.

The last frost here is around the end of May.
Crocuses have been blooming for a week.
Daffodils in my yard are about 6 inches tall with some buds.
Quite often once the daffodils are blooming there is a snowfall of about 7 inches, so
only the blossoms show.

 

[watersprite]

You certainly have had some great jobs! It's wonderful you've found a good way to keep gardening, it looks beautiful.I have an interest in Ethnobotany, as well. I haven't really gardened much, aside from a run of the mill vegetable garden, but I usually like to run around outside with an identification manual. I'm very blessed to live in an area where we have many fascinating native and endemic plants. My favorite is Calochortus albus (I'm not quite sure how to insert pictures properly), it's so delicate and ethereal. My favorite subject is Mycology, but the different ways fungi and plants interact is quite interesting!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4VId-FmqHh0/UaJtsQw_1EI/AAAAAAAAByw/wgXJJAXO4SE/s1600/P4120066.JPG

 

[tree]

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4VId-FmqHh0/UaJtsQw_1EI/AAAAAAAAByw/wgXJJAXO4SE/s1600/P4120066.JPG

That is wonderful.
the flower, the lichen, the rock
Wonderful.

 

[watersprite]

That is wonderful.
the flower, the lichen, the rock
Wonderful.

I had trouble posting it, and it is not my blog, so I hope it's okay. I have seen that flower on my wanderings and hikes in the mountains when I lived in California a long time ago.

I live in a place that gets very cold, has a relatively short growing season and cold that returns in October. I am new to the area and so have no idea what I could grow here. I'd like to ask around at the nurseries and see if a vegetable garden is possible after the fence gets put in. Otherwise, the rabbits and deer that are habituated in town here would devastate it. The yard has grass with a thousand dandelions, buckeye trees, an apple tree currently madly in bloom, and some rangy old lilacs. Also weeds at each corner which I need to buy a non-power tool to cut them, as I cannot stand the noise of weed wackers.

 

[tree]

I had trouble posting it, and it is not my blog, so I hope it's okay. I have seen that flower on my wanderings and hikes in the mountains when I lived in California a long time ago.

I live in a place that gets very cold, has a relatively short growing season and cold that returns in October. I am new to the area and so have no idea what I could grow here. I'd like to ask around at the nurseries and see if a vegetable garden is possible after the fence gets put in. Otherwise, the rabbits and deer that are habituated in town here would devastate it. The yard has grass with a thousand dandelions, buckeye trees, an apple tree currently madly in bloom, and some rangy old lilacs. Also weeds at each corner which I need to buy a non-power tool to cut them, as I cannot stand the noise of weed wackers.

Already a blooming apple tree...that's not happening here yet.
The leaf buds are 1/8 inch on the cherry trees in my yard.

Dandelions & violets will be next month here.
It's funny to look(stare) at them and then see the
after images: purple dandelions & yellow violets.

 

[Harrison]

My pear trees are in blossom now