Overwintering annuals - great rewards

This week I will start planting the containers that will go by my front door and on my back porch. I have been known to go a bit crazy with container gardens, but this year I promise restraint :)  The most fun will be the containers with Corn by the front door - lots of drama and I hope people are thinking "is that corn?" 

Luckily for me, a few years ago I started overwintering my containers and so now I have lots of great plants to start with already.  I regularly overwinter the following plants:
- Geraniums
- Tender Grasses (See this blog post on grasses)
- "Spikes"
- Coleus  

It all a started with the Spikes. I'm sure you have seen these available at your garden center - fairly small and not so expensive. They are "pushed" as accent plants for containers. My problem was that everything else in the container would always grow so fast - that in a month or so, the Spike Plant was lost in the growth.  So, one year I decided to put that container into the basement and keep it over the winter. The Spike survived and today I have the very large specimen plant you see in the photo. It's turned into a focal point for my garden (not where it's placed in the photo.) And it still stays in a container.  Take a look below at how brilliant these little spikes can become! It's hard to tell but this is a 14 inch white pot, and the spike is now about 3 1/2 feet tall!  Check the size relative to the garden bench.

Impact of Overwintering Annuals (In containers)
Left side - as purchased, Right Side - after 3 yrs overwintering

Here are a few of my lessons' learned from over wintering annuals in containers. 

• Insects - check the container carefully for insects and if you need, spray with insecticidal soap (a few times over a week or so ) before bringing inside.
• Light - If possible place plants near a sunny window or I have a friend who uses grow lights (I'm to frugal to do that!)  
• Pruning - I cut back the annual (except in the case of a spike type plant) to reduce foliage to perhaps 1/3 or 1/2 the final summer size. This depends on your light. It's got to get cut back so it won't get leggy and stressed.  I cut back a few weeks before I want to put it inside the house.
• Re-potting before winter - I try to take the plants out of the container, check the soil and perhaps amend, then put them back in the same pot. I'm not 100% of this step, sometimes I just haul it inside as is!
• Fertilizer/Water - as you would for your house plants. I try to fertilize a bit more aggressively as the spring gets closer. This corresponds to more light and my plants get a boost before I push them back outside. 

By early spring, your Coleus could be over a foot tall.  Impatiens can be overwintered too and they can get very large. Geraniums grow easily indoors in containers; I minimize flowers and really cut these back for winter.  Geraniums and coleus I prune back a few times during the winter to get branching and prevent straggly growth. The coleus I also start from these cuttings.

So just think -it's easy to do, you get to garden all winter, it saves money, and you have awesome plants early in the season.  So as you plan your garden in the spring - think about what you can save over until the fall. Or if you are reading this in fall, think about what you can try to save. 

Don't worry if the first time or the plant you chooses doesn't survive the winter. Trial and error happened with me too. :)

Listening to the birds sing today!

Teresa Marie

Sedum Propagation - Spring check-in

Last fall I blogged about easy ways to propagate sedum perrenials.  This is one of my more populat blogs. I hope you all are having success with the techniques I described.

I'm placing here the results of the direct placement and controlled grown cuttings you see in the prior blog.  Just a few months inside or our in the wintery cold - and the sedums are popping back to life!

Direct Set Sedum Cuttings - after over wintering

The cuttings to the right were simply snipped from the host plant and plunged into the dirt. I did not use rooting hormones or any treatments. Neither did I check on or water these cuttings. Here you can see in early April just a few months later, a) the old stalk which just looks like a stick, and b) the sprouts of new sedum plants are peeking out. Of the handful I propped in this manner, about 60% are growing. That's acceptalbe to me.






Controlled Growth Sedum Cuttings

Here on the left hand side are the cuttings that I placed into small pots and kept inside for the winter. These were placed in a cool room and did not have much sunlight. Further, I pretty much ignore them, watering more in the springtime.  You can see that as in the case with the direct set cuttings above, the original stalk has died away giving it's energy to the new plants which sprout from the roots below dirt. The controlled growth cuttings are a bit larger since they were warmer and more gently treated. If I had placed them in a better environment inside - they would probably be even larger.

Anyway you go - it's a fast and easy way to create more plants for no cost. These go into my guerilla garden this weekend!

Happy Day!

Teresa Marie

Gardening with Vinegar and other household staples

Keeping an eye out for DIY in the garden (love this pic!)

I cam across a fellow bloggers post this morning where she lists out various things to use vinegar for in the garden. (it's down below)This took me right back to working along side my grandmother in her household garden. She had a few staples - Vinegar, Urine, Baking Soda, alcohol, and coffee grounds. Yes - kitchen staples also carry over into the garden. (I know urine isn't a kitchen staple but you know what I mean!)

With these items - used alone, mixed with water, or other household products, she raised so many wonderful plants. As she put it, she didn't have time or money to go "all the way to the Piggly Wiggly" and buy fancy products for the garden. All that way was about 5 miles - a lady of the great depression knew her home remedies.

Uses of these staples include:
- altering the pH of your soil
- Adding nutrients (like fertilizer does)
- Killing weeds
- Killing pests (coffee grounds and ants don't mix; alcohol on aphids is ugly)

Check out this fellow blogger's site for tips with vinegar.

If you are wondering - when we would visit as kids she would have us pee into a watering can and then take us into the garden to "water" her plants. Very fun and funny at the same time.

Keep singing.

Teresa Marie

Treasure Hunting Success!! Victorian Garden Tools

I've had two recent successful treasure hunting expeditions - one in my own back yard. I feel a bit like Dorothy Gale.

Craiglist Treasure Hunt uncovers Victorian Gardening tools


Victorian in Park Ridge, IL

As my readers know - I love going to antique stores, junk shops, flea markets, and searching Craigslist for deals.  One treasure hunt was from the latter. I saw a posting on Chicago Craigslist for "miscellaneous garden items found in my Victorian home's attic."  That called to me both for being garden related - and because anything stashed into an attic had to be valueable enough to store at one point, and there long enough to be forgotted (vintage or antique!) Whoo hoo - I was on the trail. 

I arranged to pick up the items and drove over to Park Ridge, IL. This town was incorporated in 1873. There are so many beautiful homes there. Sure enough as I drove to the address given, I was not disappointed. Yes, I even had to take a picture. Look at how lovely this place it. From the painted lady look, to the nice yard. I love the deck too. It wrapped all the way around to the back. Here they had really done it up nicely making an outside sitting room. The home owner confirmed that the home had been build in 1917 and that he was the third owner - the first two being multiple generations of the original builder! My excitement was so high - I thought there is gold here! Because I loved the house so much - here is a picture of it.



Crocks and vintage cardboard tomato carrier

The gentleman took me into the garage where he had stashed the items - getting ready to put them into the trash if nobody responded to hi CL ad. His trash is my treasure! I paid $60 for all the items. Next to each I've put the value of potential resale There were two crock pots (unbranded - $12 - $30), a cardboard tomato carrying case ($9-$19) those I did see online did not have a top , and several tools including triangle spade ($9), loper ($15?), coal or potato shovel ($25-30), Iron coal or garden shovel ($80), Antique version of today's Hula Hoe ($30? couldn't find comparable), another hoe, and a weeder with broken tip. So if I were to try and flip all these items - I would make maybe $120.


Tea Tree Oil - Natural Skin Care

Pre-Treatment Facial Moles

Earlier this year I went to a dermatologist for the first time in my life! I wanted to have a few things checked out. I've had a few moles on my face for 20+ years without issue.  Recently however some of these moles were increasing in the size and roughness of texture. Well luckily the Doctor said there was nothing abnormal about them (not skin cancer or anything like that!). He said removal was "cosmetic surgery" that wouldn't be paid for by my insurance. Further he predicted that the moles would continue to get larger as I got older. ARGH! Like most people, I wasn't too excited about the prospect of having 5-6 moles getting larger on the side of my face. So I googled home remedies for mole removal and stumbled across Tea Tree Oil. 

After reading several natural medicine websites and blogs I decided to try the tea tree oil because it was inexpensive, readily available at my grocery store, and folks indicated it was pain-free and did not cause scars or skin irritation. I didn't have anything to lose - and really no other options. It sounded too good to be true (and in some cases it was.)

I purchased a 1 oz bottle of pure tea tree oil. Prices varied from ~$4 - $10/oz.  I used the tea tree oil pure; I did not dilute the oil at all.  It was very easy to apply the oil. 

Pure Tea Tree Oil

• Clean your  face and applied toner and dry off 

• Place the tip of a cotton swab into the tea tree oil (it does not have to be fully saturated, you don't use that much)

• Touch the cotton swab onto the moles / skin tags you wanted to diminish (obliterate!)

• Let the oil dry before applying make-up (better to just avoid make-up if you can)

• Do this twice a day - morning and night; during the week. And 3-4 times during the weekend. 

While I read that the Tea tree oil could impact the moles in just a couple of weeks, it was nearly three weeks before I noticed any differences. At almost 2.5 months now since I started the Tea Tree Oil treatment some great changes. The one ounce bottle has lasted me this long! I am treating 7 different moles and each had a slightly different response to the oil.  In one case the mole just started to get smaller in diameter and height until it now is completely even in height to my skin and seems like a small brown scar. In other cases the top of the mole became dried and peeled away. Each peeling making the mole a tiny bit smaller.  In no cases does my skin "appear normal" yet where the moles were/are - but I am super happy with the results. 

Take a look at the before and after photos above - 1 and 2 months. Its not too clear but I hope you can see the reduced size, height, and color of the moles. In the last picture they look completely gone - but I know they are still there! The treatment was well worth the $10!

Before and After results from Home Remedy Mole Removal with Tea Tree Oil

Skin Irritation from Tea Tree Oil
and Skin Cream Application

Here are a few additional helpful hints that I learned along the way - please note that my skin is very sensitive, so I think I may have had more problems than many people...

• Avoid applying oil to surrounding skin. This skin will dry out faster and peel more than the moles. In one case I ended up with a wound because the skin was so unhappy to have the tea tree oil - however the moles never had that issue.Do not get excess oil into wrinkles - ditto the drying issue above
• Do not cover the treated skin with band aid, cloth, or apply other cream. This made my skin become very red and irritated in a broader area than just by the mole. Especially bad one night when I thought to put on a cream mask treatment after oil and leave them on for 10 minutes. Please don't even think about that. It was not pretty :(
• Alternate with Aloe or Mederma (scar cream) as the moles start to diminish. I scar very easily and this seems to help, or at least makes me feel better!
• This stuff stinks. Not much to do about that.
• As a post-script, for some moles once they were gone - they never came back. Others I have had to periodically treat with tea-tree oil (2-3 times a week.)

Once I saw that the tea tree oil was effective on my skin moles, I jumped into using it for other skin ailments. I used it on acne with great success.  I had no luck with skin tags at all. 

What's your favorite home remedy? 

Have a great day!

Teresa Marie