Hi, guys!
Now that gardening season is approaching full swing in most places, I’m seeing more gardening content posted on social media. Some of it is good, but some is just downright batty.
For instance, banana peel “compost” tea is making the rounds: “Soak a banana peel in water to create nutrient-rich banana water that your plants will love.” To which I say: “Soak a banana peel in water to create a rotten banana and rancid water that will attract fruit flies and provide few if any, nutrients for plants.
If you want to turn banana peels into potassium-rich fertilizer for your plants, chop them up and add them to your compost pile. If you don’t compost, dehydrate the peels, grind them into a powder in a food processor or high-powered blender and mix that powder into the soil. But banana water is just brown water
I also saw a clip (with MILLIONS of views) that showed someone removing a rose from a bouquet and sticking the cut end of the stem into a potato. The potato is then planted in soil with the rose sticking out of the ground. Then, the whole thing is covered with a glass jar. It’s alleged that the stem will root underground and grow into a rose bush.
Although I have never tried burying a potato that I’ve stabbed with a rose stem, this makes no sense to me. And even if the stem would root this way (it might), why bother? Roses are pretty easy to propagate without gimmicks (after it blooms, cut a stem from the current year's growth and dip the cut end into rooting hormone. Plant it in a pot and wait a couple of months for roots to form. No potato necessary.)
Let me know if you’ve tried this “hack” and what your results were.
I also stumbled upon this often-repeated gem: Watering plants in the middle of the day will burn their leaves. This is simply not true.
Plants should not be watered in the middle of the day, but it’s not because water droplets will convert sun rays into murderous weapons. They won’t.
Watering the lawn and garden early in the morning is best because it allows time for water to reach roots before evaporating from the soil surface, which happens quickly under the heat of the sun.
Watering in the evening is also problematic because there isn’t enough time for water to dry from foliage or between plant parts before the sun goes down. That creates a breeding ground for mold, mildew and fungal diseases.
Having said all this, if your plants are wilting and thirsty, water them — regardless of the time.
If you have any gardening hacks that work, send them to me. I’ll share the best in an upcoming post.
👩🏼🤝👨🏿Membership Drive
As I look ahead to a new gardening season, I’m also facing a new season here at The Weekly Dirt. As I’ve mentioned in the past, this newsletter is not self-supporting.
There are costs associated with publishing and sending out The Weekly Dirt. Writing each issue also takes time, which, as you know, equals money. There’s no other way to say it. Time spent writing this newsletter could be spent writing more freelance articles for paying media outlets. But instead, I’m here because I want to be. And I love it here.
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Until then, we’ll keep the coffee brewing, see below.
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Occasional editions of The Weekly Dirt
📬 Ask Jessica
DEAR JESSICA: This corn plant was my Mom’s (she either got it — or a cutting — from my grandmother).
We moved it from the living room to the upstairs bathroom nine years ago. It has not only grown (I feel like it is Audrey 2 from The Little Shop of Horrors) but has also produced flowers with the loveliest scent, something I had never seen it do at either my Mom’s or Grandma’s homes. However, it is getting out of hand.
What can I do to rein it in? I’ve pinched off the top several times. It then seems to expand outwards. — Diana Corrao, Huntington Station, NY
DEAR DIANA: You had the right idea when you pinched the top of the plant. You just weren’t aggressive enough.
Anytime a plant is pruned, new growth emerges from each side of the cut, so you’re essentially turning one stem into two, which makes the plant bushier, as you’ve noted.
But to really rein in its height, you’ll have to cut the top even lower and prune back each of the plant’s other stalks. You can cut them all at the same height (one, two, three feet high—it’s up to you) or at varying lengths for a more natural look.
Start with clean, sharp, disinfected pruners. You can spray them with a disinfectant, such as Lysol, or wipe the blades with alcohol.
After you’ve decided the height you’d like each stalk to be, make your cuts at a 45-degree angle just below a leaf line.
The cut part of the stalk will eventually scab over, and new shoots will sprout from its sides.
If you’d like to make more plants, you can propagate the cuttings you remove in a vase of water.
Fill a clean vase large enough to hold all your cuttings with water and place it in a warm spot that receives indirect sunlight, like to the side of a sunny window. Add more water as it evaporates, and replace the water completely if it gets murky.
Roots could take a couple of months to grow, but when they are 2 inches long, plant each stalk in its own container of potting mix.
Got a gardening question? Ask it here.
💡 If you do one thing this week…
If you haven’t already, this is a great time to start a compost pile. It can be as big or small as you like. Here’s what you need to know.
👏 Sunday shoutout
“Here are my hellebores, which make me very happy!” writes Lyn Moodie of Huntington, NY.
And Margaret Hanan of Rockville Centre, NY, says she’s also “happy to see Hellebores in my garden.”
And who could blame them?
Send in your photo, and you could be featured next (bonus points if you’re in the picture! Why do so few readers include themselves in their pictures? We want to meet you!)
📰This week in my Associated Press gardening column
I write a weekly gardening column for the AP, so you might have seen my byline in your local paper (or news website) — wherever in the world you happen to be. In case you miss it, I’ll post the most recent here every week.
THIS WEEK: The problem with leaf blowers — and what to do instead.
LAST WEEK: Foodscaping: If your vegetable garden is too small for all the plants you want to grow, why not slip them into the flower garden? This is worth considering even if you’re not short on space - it’s a unique and often beautiful way to dress up your beds and borders.
BEFORE THAT: The garden is waking up. But where to start? Here’s what needs to be done now — and what shouldn’t be tackled yet.
ONE MORE: How to care for potted lilies, hyacinths, daffodils and other spring gift plants.
You can read all my AP gardening columns here.
📚📺🎵 Random things I enjoyed this week
📺 I didn’t quite know what to expect when my nephew David recommended I watch “Late Night With The Devil,” but I really liked it. The story takes place during the live broadcast of a single late-night talk show episode in 1977. One of the featured guests is possessed by a demon, who is summoned to appear to boost the show’s ratings, but that’s not all it does.
For now, this newsletter still runs on coffee
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I've been interested in supporting this newsletter, but $50 is a bit much. My Fine Gardening subscription is only $30-ish. I'd be interested in a level that got me the "Weekly editions of The Weekly Dirt" and the "Ability to post and read comments." (and that's it -- no "Full access to the searchable archives." for about $20/year.