Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Joining the ranks with my first bloom, 1 by 8ftbed

8ftbed wrote:
Thats good news Scoot. I had heard of the problems with monoculture a long time ago. I think by avoiding that situation intentionally and by necessity is why I have little to no problem with insects. 'Necessity' being the part where I order, buy or bring home stuff from plant swaps and THEN figure out where to put them. So the different varieties are scattered around the yard and bugs can't zero in on one location and have a feast.

My chemical warfare is limited to Roundup and Weedbegone. So by avoiding the insecticides I keep lots of beneficial predators and I try to encourage birds as I've added more trees around. The Robins are fantastic bug eaters. I'll have a couple of nests on my own property but they come in from around the neighborhood and the residents let them hunt in different corners. Then when their babies fledge, neighbor broods get herded over to my yard. I've had up to 12 fledglings in my yard with the parents coming and going trying to avoid confrontations with the resident pairs. Fun to watch as they each have a specific flight path to enter and leave the yard. You don't want to stand in the way either!.

JoAnn I've found it's not too hard to get stuff to bloom in the house under fluorescents. I feed and water like it's outside... mostly out of boredom. This was a volunteer that snuck in with some compost in a pot I was trying to root something in which died. This little sprout was leggy and languishing. Eventually it stood up and started to grow and I just left the pot where it was to see what the seedling was. I cut off the main stock with the first big bloom, staked it and moved it under the the bigger lights and you see the flush thats coming on now. I've had petunias and geraniums bloom down in the basement all winter long before.