I'm also thinking I may have over watered it. We haven't had much rain over the last few weeks so I have been going out in the mornings and watering all the gardens. When it was limp I started focusing on it. That may be what has made it worse, according to my googling. Thank you. I'll deadhead it once the blooms are completely off and then leave it alone for a bit. It got some new mulch last weekend so hopefully that helps as well.
We had a huge thunderstorm and a lot of rain this morning, around 6. By noon the ground was completely dry again in the heat. Would you water again in the evening? I've been watering once per day, but quite a lot, in the evening and I'm not sure if they will need their full amount today after the rain--but on the flip side I don't want to parch them in the heat either.
I think except in big heat waves, watering 1-2 inches a week is PLENTY. Keep stuff too wet and you can encourage certain diseases.
This is heat wave territory here. When it's cooler (normally summer is around 70-75 but it's been 85 every day) I water significantly less. So I should be ok to skip it tonight?
The problem with gardening is that you just put a thing in some dirt and the ground is pleased and rewards you with food. It’s MAGIC.
All the little things that get started from seeds are particularly satisfying. I had some cucumber plants I had to cull because my container was too crowded. I was going to give the extras to my neighbor, but I waited maybe a little too long (we had a bunch of rain and they had a crazy growth spurt pretty much overnight). I wasn't able to get much of their roots out, and they looked AWFUL. I thought for sure they would die, but I planted them in little cups and hoped for the best. Those suckers actually pulled through! They were browning and wilty for like a week, but somehow perked up. I wonder how they'll do after they get transplanted again lol In She plants them in her backyard which gets a lot of shade, so in general my plants seem to do a little better than hers. Her tomato plants are tall and leggy, but they still produced decently last time she tried them.
Man I wish I could grow citrus outside. I’m debating g moving my lemon out for the summer. But I put it in a nice pot.
My zucchini and cucumbers are not being pollinated well enough I need to quickly attract bees but not sure how. My local grocery store doesnt have plants. My sunflowers should be opening this week. My catnip has flowered. Ugh. All this work and nature is failing me.
Humming bird feeder? Or even fake flowers will draw a little interest. ETA: you can also pollinate with a makeup or paint brush
Hm. I'll look into the hummingbird feeder. I'd have to figure out how to hang it. I do have some fake flowers that I can put out there for now though. I read that zucchini is kind of hard to hand pollinate. Has to be done in the morning and apparently there's only one day where it's viable so the timing has to be right @Zombie Llama I personally would tomato cages, but my mom doesn't. But she also planted them primarily for her chickens since she doesn't eat tomatoes. To me, it just seems wise to keep the fruit off the ground and help with circulating air. More nature complaints. We've had barely any rain all of June. These past couple of days we've had scattered storms. J would report rain at work, but nothing here. I made the mistake of trying to count on rain that never showed up and my plants got droopy. So today, I thought for sure we would get rain because it was like 80% chance at around 2-3pm. NOTHING AGAIN. So my plants were particularly parched and the sun was out now so I went out and used about 8-9gallons of water to give them a really good watering because some were again getting veeeery droopy. 20 minutes later and it starts pouring
@Apples&Oranges I was just looking at this staked hummingbird feeder: https://www.etsy.com/listing/42635768/flower-pot-stake-hummingbird-feeder-bee?ref=cart
I have become obsessed with my garden, and I blame you all. S asked if I had started talking to my plants yet. Also, Carlos has so many new leaves!
I talk to my plants. My one sunflower that has survived the birds, squirrels and storms is still hanging in there. He is growing so slowly though I wonder if he'll bloom before it gets cold again and he dies. I keep going out and checking on him and giving him water every day though. He makes me happy
We have a tropical storm hitting so it's very rainy today. D looked out the window and told me "it's raining! You dont have to water [the] plants! Phew. That was a close one." I guess he has taken it to heart every time I comment on how my poor plants desperately need to be watered.
Lol! I was on D’s case to water the garden for longer (yay sprinklers) because it’s so sad. Big storms today.
It's incredibly hard to keep containers watered to just the right level. They dry out so fast. Some days I need to water them twice because they start drooping. Maybe this brand of potting soil just sucks, idk. But then if it rains a lot, it's easier for them to be over watered. Sometimes there will be mornings I have to water them because they're drooping, even though I know it's supposed to rain later, but there's no way they can hold out in the direct sun on the balcony until the rain arrives later at 5.