GardenersCardiff answers:

You need to plant after the last frost date for your area.

Parsley takes a LOOONG time to sprout (28 days). So I would recommend that you plant it from a 4″ seedling or a 6 pack. The old wives tale is that parsley seeds have to go to hell and back before they can sprout!!

Mint is VERY invasive. You should plant it in a pot or in a planter box where you can control it!!!

Oregano is a perennial — be sure that you plant it where you want it to come back next year (and every year!!!)– because it will!!

Sorry, I don’t know what shiso is!!

Now here is my suggestion for planting basil, dill and arugula (and other annuals): Make your own “planting tape”. Cut newspaper into 2″ or 3″ strips. Make flour paste (flour and water mixed to a syrupy mix). Spread the flour paste down the center of the newspaper strips — then drop the seeds the appropriate distance apart onto the paste. After it dries (like the next day), you can plant the strips into your garden and cover them to the appropriate depth. It is much easier to make sure that the seeds are planted the required depth and distance this way!!

I plant basil in waves (plant some, wait two weeks and plant some more, etc). I LOVE basil, especially with my tomatoes!! I pick my basil as it is growing. If I can not use it all, I put the leaves in a colander. I “stir” the leaves every day so that they will dry. Don’t worry if they turn dark – it is what they do — it is not “spoiled”. Put the leaves whole into a spice jar after they are dry. If you crush them they will lose some of their flavor. Crush them when you want to use them.
Toward the end of the season, I let some of my basil plants go “to seed”. I put the seed pods in a paper bag to let them dry. Then I shake them or rub them to release the seeds (which fall to the bottom of the bag). Then I am ready for next spring!!

Good Luck!!!

GardenersCardiff answers:

I grow garlic between my plants to keep bugs away and it seems to work. It doesn’t even smell like garlic.

The Muse

GardenersCardiff answers:

Daylilies. Start with daylilies. They come in a gazillion colors, bloom for weeks, come back year after year. Buy a one gallon size for impact, dig a hole, plop it in, fill in the hole, push the dirt down and water it. No muss no fuss no bother.

Coreopsis. Great workhorse plant. Pot or in the ground, same scenario. They’ll literally bloom til the tops freeze.

Iris. Unless you water them to death they’re pretty bulletproof. Buy them potted, this time of year. Do not put dirt past the level they’re planted in the pot. Bearded iris are my favorites, but there are other varieties…ask at your nursery.

Peonies. Another bulletproof selection. Again, buy them potted this time of year.

Sedum. Gotta love a good succulent.

All these like full sun. The daylily will grow and bloom in part sun, but not as well as they do in open ground. Also, all of these will grow just about anywhere in the country. Halfway decent soil that’s not real wet will give you results.

For shade, try bleeding hearts, columbine, dead nettle, sweet woodruff, hosta, ferns, cordyline, monkshood, and lily-of-the-valley. Same basics, dig a hole and drop it in. If you can grow fairly impressive weeds, your soil should support these.

Get yourself a Western Garden Book if you’re really serious. It’ll answer most of your questions. Good luck!

GardenersCardiff answers:

Prune them & stick them in plastic soil & they’ll do just fine!

GardenersCardiff answers:

M

http://www.nurseriesonline.co.uk/articles/Rose_Pruning.html

Rose pruning is one of those garden tasks where timing is important. It is best to wait until frosts are over, but it is best to start before new growth commences. Pruning tends to stimulate new growth, this is why we need to time things correctly. Prune too early and new growth may be damaged by frosts, prune too late and you will be cutting of the first flush of new growth and also the first flush of flowers. So mid winter (mid February) to late winter (mid March) in the UK depending on the weather, earlier in the south than the north.

Why Prune Roses?
Roses will keep growing (and flowering) if they are not pruned, so why prune roses? Unpruned roses will not flower as mush as pruned roses. Unpruned roses tend to lose shape and become a little untidy.

How do you prune a Rose?
The essential tool is a pair of good quality, clean sharp secateures, a good pruning saw or pair of loppers is also advisable.
Why clean? To prevent disease.
Why sharp? So that cuts are clean
Why good quality? A good quality pair of secateures will be easier to keep sharp and will last a lot longer than a cheap pair.
How much should you cut back a rose.
In general start by cutting back by about 1/3 from the top of the bush.
Remove any suckers from below the graft.
Remove any dead or really old wood.
You should aim to create a frame of 4 – 5
main branches.
Shape the rose by cutting back to 4-5 mm above an outward facing bud, with the cut sloping away from the bud. Prune so that the rose is open in the centre to allow light and air.

Http://www.gardenseeker.com/pruning/pruning_buddleja_buddleia.htm

How to prune, and when to prune Buddleia davidii Butterfly bush

This group of shrubs flower on new growth made in the current year, so it is to your advantage to prune the shrub well to produce many flowering shoots.

The pruning should take place early in the spring – before growth starts proper. Prune the Buddleia down to around 30cm (12 in) from ground level at this time. There may already be sprouting shoots on the Buddleia in a mild spring. No matter – Prune it back hard. This will make the Butterfly Bush grow many new arching branches, that will have larger flowers than if it had not been pruned.

As well as this hard prune in the spring, it is also beneficial to prune off all the dead and faded flowers once the main flowering season is over. This will be of benefit to the plant – not having to produce seeds on the old flowers – and it will bloom again later on. Take off all of the dead flowers regularly, and your Buddleia will flower until well into the autumn.

Once you have finished pruning your Buddleia, you should end up with a cluster of stems no longer than 30cms.

For Buddleia bushes at the back of a large border, you can perhaps just cut back to around 60cm each year. This will have the advantage of the flowering stems starting higher up and you will be able to plant other shrubs and perennials under or near to the base. The arching stems of the butterfly bush will then be seen higher up at the back of the border.

GardenersCardiff answers:

I think a floor drain would be more problems then you want. Beside possibly plugging up, you could be dumping chemicals down the drain, anti freeze, gasoline, brake fluid, and so on, which will go into the city sewer.
Best to mop these up and get rid of them the right way. You can always just hose down the floor once in a while, after sweeping and mopping up the spills. Hose it right out the door. Soapy water doesn’t hurt anything.
Electrical outlets located above your work bench are nice. I had some put in about 8 inches above the bench, and about every 6 feet or so around the wall. I used separate 20 amp breakers for every 10 or so outlets, which gave me power to use electric tools without tripping the breakers. I also had many flourescent over head lights, and two seperate breakers for them, so that if I lost power on one, the others would still work. My outlets went around the whole perimeter of my garage, and so I had power wherever I was working.
The bottom half of my walls were covered with plastic sheeting, about two feet up, so that I could wash the floor and not damage the sheetrock.
I had a natural gas wall furnace, with exterior venting, so that fumes from my vehicles would not enter the combustion chamber. Combustion air came from outside. The furnance had a thermostat and kept the garage at whatever temp I wanted it, even at below zero temps outside. My furnace was a 65000 btu furnace and was more then enough for my fully insulated garage.
I had the garage built by a contractor, except for the interior, and I did all the electrical work, installed all the lights, and insulation, and sheet rock. So it was pretty much the way I wanted it.

I do not have it any more, this was years ago, and I now live elsewhere. But I do miss my garage.

Double doors are nice. Mine was a single, and sometimes I had to jiggle a bit to get inside, if I wanted to have room to work on a car.

My garage was 26 feet wide (cars facing in) by 32 feet long. So I could almost put in three cars, if I wanted to.But I also had a 20 foot work bench along the 26 foot wall, which then went half way down the 32 foot wall. So I had about 35 feet of work bench, leaving the other side open for more space.

I didn’t have running water, but my garden hose from the house was near by, so that was no problem. And the concrete floor was easy to clean, especially after I sealed it with some concrete sealer. It made it easy to wash, but a bit slippery at times.

One other thing I did was I had the ceiling at ten feet rather then the usual 8 feet, and this gave me room to lift my cars up on jacks , and open the hoods, if I wanted to work under them.

Hope this helps. Enjoy it, I did mine.

GardenersCardiff answers:

Sunset is a staple in the West but not quite so relevant elsewhere. Garden Gate has good but basic, not particularly innovative, content. Horticulture magazine is written for a more involved gardener/collector, with more details as well as terrific resources (e.g. Nurseries) for the plants mentioned. Fine Gardening is comparable, but with a broader scope including more design ideas. Finally, the American Horticulture Society’s publication, The American Gardener, is well worth the price of AHS membership for its thoughtful essays and beautiful photos.

GardenersCardiff answers:

Are you looking for the Dirty Dozen – the top 12 fruits and veggies containing pesticides and other toxic chemicals?

Dirty Dozen
Buy these organic
1Apples
2Celery
3Strawberries
4Peaches
5Spinach
6Nectarines
7Grapes
8Sweet bell peppers
9Potatoes
10Blueberries
11Lettuce
12Kale/collard greens

Every few years, the Environmental Working Group puts out this list.
Http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary/

There is also a Clean 15 – those fruits and veggies that tend to carry the least pesticide residue:

Clean 15
Lowest in Pesticide
1Onions
2Sweet Corn
3Pineapples
4Avocado
5Asparagus
6Peas
7Mangoes
8Eggplant
9Canteloupe
10Kiwi
11Cabbage
12Watermelon
13Sweet potatoes
14Grapefruit
15Mushrooms

Publishers of healthy periodicals and articles like Rodale often reference these lists.

GardenersCardiff answers:

Try: magic-mushroom-kit.com

Just google “psilocybin growing kit”

GardenersCardiff answers:

Because the FDA is corrupt. Did you know the FDA only says drugs can cure prevent or treat any disease. They are just in bed with the drug companies

GardenersCardiff answers:

Yes.
Tomatoes, chillies, onions, green beans and leeks.
Rosemary, garlic chives, thyme, parsley and basil.
It is so nice to go and get your vegetables and herbs fresh from the garden.

GardenersCardiff answers:

Heck no! I grow my own veggies and just bought red peppers to tide me over until I can harvest the ones on my plant. They were on sale for $1.99 a piece. I only paid $1.99 for each of the three plants I have and they each have about 8 peppers in various growth stages that I am waiting till maturity to harvest. Same goes for my tomato plants. I have romas, grape, beefeaters and Big Berthas. I don’t believe I paid over $3.00 for any of my plants but just paid $2.99 a pound for romas, 2 containers for $3 for grape tomatoes while I’m waiting for them to turn red. Even if I throw in the water and organic fertilizer growing my own veggies, citrus, avocado and herbs is saving me money. Besides nothing beats eating veggies right out of your own garden, sharing your harvest with friends and neighbors and controlling and knowing what chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides WEREN’T used on what you are eating.

GardenersCardiff answers:

Yes, there is a difference.

Gardening has to do with growing living plants (flowering or not) – and the venue doesn’t much matter. Traditional (outside in the ground), in containers, terrace, indoor…it can all be called “gardening”.

Flower arrangement has to do with assembling cut flowers into pleasing displays. They are not growing – they’ve been cut.

GardenersCardiff answers:

If Square Foot Gardening is still available, it’s a great book for beginners! Not overwhelming at all. There was also a book called something like lasagna gardening……fun but if you don’t have access to the stuff, probably not practical. Gardening for Dummies………?? No offense, just they usually break it down into simple sections.

If you are in the US you can contact your Cooperative Extension Service in your county. They have gardening brochures that may be helpful. Also they have the Master Gardeners, trained volunteers to answer your (many) questions. That’s their job.