May 31, 2007

• Gardening On The Cheap    As I said in an earlier post, I have been wicked behind **no, I did not say I WAS a behind...sheesh. I will leave that to someone else to say that about me** on my gardening this year. The weather (and my energy level) has been amenable to my being able to do a bit in the garden and yard every day so I have been spending at least 2 hours, usually 3 or more, outside working.   The day before yesterday I took cuttings from nasturtiums, impatiens, wave petunias, and several perennials from the garden. I know the impatiens and petunias will root, the nasturtiums are pretty iffy (not had success with it before), but if they do take I will be happy! If the root cuttings I took take, I will have at least 72 new wave petunias in 2 colors, 80 new impatiens in 3 colors and 7 or 8 more nasturtiums. Yes, you read 72 and 80 is correctly. No, that isn't a typo. D I took cuttings from 3 petunias and one pot of 3 impatiens to get all those cuttings. I can't wait til they root so I can get them in the ground. Petunias never did a thing for me in my garden ... very poor performers. But the wave petunias! They have grown wonderfully in my gardens, adding color all summer, and even happily self seeding to produce the next year's generation **I just have to remember they were there and NOT PULL the seedlings up in Spring weeding!** The fact that I can spend about $6 for decent sized plants and then take enough cuttings to wind up with over 80 plants makes them an even more of a necessity in the garden. I have a lot of perennials as my foundation plants. The problem with perennials is that generally they have a shorter bloom time than the annuals have. Many annuals will bloom continually through the growing season once they start, while the perennials bloom for a few days or few weeks and then work on storing energy for the next summer's bloom. No big deal except that it gets expensive and can be tiresome to have to plant annuals **depending on the size of your flower beds** . If you are like me, the flowers become an addiction...er..compulsion...erm, they are like potato chips: you can't stop with just one or two, and that can be very expensive. I feed my annuals "craving" with either doing winter sowing ** check the link to see what it is and how it works** or by purchasing one or two of the plants I want a plethora of and taking cuttings. MUCH cheaper. Indescribably cheaper. Here are the basics for taking cuttings from a "parent plant" to make babies:  Buy a $2 wave petunia or other plant **I get mine from a local woman who has a greenhouse on her farm, or from the town Farmer's Market on Saturday... PLEASE support small, local businesses! Its the backbone of the local economy! ** Use recycled items for your planting to go even cheaper: yogurt or apple sauce cups, saved planting containers, cups from the local fast food place you bought a drink from, use your imagination. You can buy paper or Styrofoam cups from the Dollar Store...most anything will work! They don't need to be deep...you will be just rooting the plants until you can transfer them into their new permanent beds, pots or baskets. Some people do cuttings in a bin like this one in the drawing.    The box consists of two bins. The outside is a box with a lid that can be closed to keep the humidity high. Inside this box is another bin that is filled with the growing medium. The closed container helps keep the humidity high, which is what the cuttings like best.    Ideally you want to take cuttings from the newest growth of a plant that are at least 2 inches long. Use a knife and if possible make a diagonal cut. Take cuttings that have at least one set of true leaves. Remove any flowers **yes, this part WILL hurt...you, not the plant. I can't stand to throw away flowers! So instead make a microwave flower press and save those blossoms for using in crafts or decorating or what-have-you. Directions on how I made my microwave flower press at the end of this blog**.   Fill the containers with sharp sand **i.e. builders sand...available from the local big home store or small hardware store for cheap cheap cheap** , screened compost **big bits removed in other words**, or of course, potting soil. Some people swear by coarse sand as THE best use, and it does work well. I happen to use whatever I have on hand. I w0uld like to build a "cutting bed" in light shade so I can have a permanent place to drop cuttings in when the mood strikes. Yet again there is another project that I want to do...more ideas than time or ambition!    Its not a requirement to use a floral rooting hormone, but it can significantly reduce the time it takes for the cutting to throw roots. If you want to try it without, go for it!   If using the rooting hormone, dip the cutting end of the plant into the hormone and shake off the excess. It only takes a small amount of the rooting hormone.   Stick your cutting into your growing medium and lightly mist your plant-to-be. The soil should be moist but not soggy. Put the cuttings in semi-shade/part sun and do NOT let them dry out. Most soft wood cuttings will root in 7-17 days. When you see new green growth on the cuttings, they are rooted! Put them in bright sun a few hours each day for several days to get them used to the harsher conditions. Keep the soil moist but not wet. Then transplant and don't let them dry out totally.   I can't wait until my petunias and impatiens all root. I want to put petunias up under each of the trees by the street *4 trees* and in the gardens by the top of the drive way *2* and the rock garden, as well as along the front of the house. Good thing I took so many cuttings. I hope they all root! I will give a report in a days.   Here is a far off view of the 8 trays of cuttings I took. There are some additional cuttings in pots on my porch.    Today I planted several packages of different sunflowers: mahogany, yellow, dark red. I love sunflowers! They are such happy flowers.  The bees love the blooms, the birds love the seed. I planted different sizes...from ones that are 14" tall to ones that get 7' tall. Yeh I am late planting, but in two months they will bloom and hold bloom for at least a month, so that works.   I also planted some morning glories to see how they would do.We will see!*shrug* I have an oodle of seeds and I want LOTS of color outside, so why not plant the seeds and see what they do.  Tomorrow I am going to plant some perennial herbs and flowers to get a start on next year's bloom. There are a couple of annual herbs I want to get a start, too, since I found seed packets of some things I wanted to have in the ground: lemon time, lemon grass,sage *perennial*, summer savory, among other things. Plant report to follow *when there is something to report*.                                                                                                                                  ~Kathie

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