Groovy Gardens: October 2011

I have a lot of houseplants. It's kind of a problem, I just cannot say no to to a weird or beautiful or for that matter, any plant I do not already have. Some of these beautiful specimens have been in my possession for a decade or more. I should have a plant museum...Museum der Groovy Pflanzen or maybe Groovy Museum de Plantis... Feedback? I think I like the Latin! Enjoy!

Hoya compacta also called rope plant or wax plant is a slow
grower that loves to be ignored. As soon as I saw this plant at the
Home and Garden Show I said, "Hey sexy, want to come home
with me and sit in my window? Yeah?"
I am working to get some blooms this coming spring which are sphere
shape umbel flowers that look like they are made of wax.

Spike, the 10 year old Aloe Vera plant has a span nearing
3 feet. My mom bought me this aloe for my dorm room in
college. Last year, spike began throwing up offshoots
or pups. We now have an aloe herd. No burn goes
untreated in this home!

The aloe herd, full of mini Spikes.

Some species of Sedum I think...still trying to figure this
one out. Thoughts anyone? It grows fairly quickly and
obviously likes to vine and throw out secondary roots. It has not
flowered yet if it is a flowering plant. I got this plant
from a friend of my mom, she didn't know what it was either, but
I love it! Simple, cute, fast growing...whats not to love?

Euphorbia trigona or African Milk plant is
very poisonous! Wash your hands if you handle this
plant at all and keep away from Whiskers and Fido! Very
easy to propagate by cutting, but don't lick your fingers
afterward!

Moss Curled Parsley grown from seed. No good reason to have four of these, but
how could I choose one to live? That is just cruel, so now I
have an abundance of a hardly used herb.

Plectranthus amboinicus or Cuban Oregano. This plant
has the most fragrant leaves and can be used for
cooking. It is extremely easy to propagate with a
stem cutting! This one was acquired from the hydroponic
store I used to work at.

Tradescantia zebrina or Wandering Jew grows rapidly
and will propagate readily in water or soil. This plant
came from a piece of stem I picked up off the floor at
Lowes. Cheap? Who, Me? No no my friend, I am
resourceful and leave no man behind!
We also call this plant the Wayfaring Lawyer.

Bottom air plant is a Funkiana

Ionantha Albo-Marginata

Tillandsia Air plants are a type of Bromeliad. They do not need soil, only a misting of water every few days. There are 500+ species! I picked these guys up at Sprout Home in Chicago, my new favorite store that feeds my plant addiction.

Steptophylla spp. possibly? 6 to 7 inches in diameter.

African Violet, the key is to not water to much, only when the
top 1/4" is dry. Then water from the bottom to keep
the leaves dry. Charlie picked this up for me at Trader Joe's
2 years ago.

African Violet propagated by a leaf cutting from the mother plant.
Slow growing, this plant was started about 10 months ago.
Right after I took this picture I dropped this plant. That always
sucks but he is just fine now, just a few bruises.

Oxalis Regnelli, Shamrock, has been around
around since my 7th grade science fair
project on phototropism...I am a nerd, huge nerd.

We call this one The General, a Pachira aquatica or a Money Tree plant
that is 2.5' tall and growing! This one has been around for
8 to 10 years. Bought in Chinatown in Chicago when the tree was
about 6 inches tall and had 3 leaves.

Carnivorous plants, it doesn't get much cooler than that. This is a Drosera adelae or Sundew, a native to Queensland, Australia. Small bugs get stuck on the sticky glue spheres that are suspended on tentacles. If you look closely at the picture on the right, there is a small plant forming from the mother plant. This is how this plant reproduces. We feed the plant small bugs every few months.

Christmas Cactus, blooms in December,
but I have been able to get blooms throughout
the year by controlling environmental
conditions (water, light, temp, etc). This
plant has been around for awhile and
almost bit the dust this year. Very sad and
possibly due to my continuous attempts to
keep it blooming! oops.

Night Blooming Cereus is a cactus that blooms once a year, usually
during the month of September. The blooms are large, beautiful,
and very fragrant. This plant I acquired from Dave, the best gardener in the world, as a leaf cutting . We should have blooms within 5 years, long
wait for a few flowers, but worth it!

Croton, has really vibrant leaf coloration ranging from
pale yellow to black on the same leaf. Coloration
is dependant on sun exposure. The Croton was
given to me last summer by our neighbor, who
also has a love for plants.

Toad lilies, I love these guys! The flowers look like tiny orchids and bloom in
September/October. I bought these off of a clearance rack at a garden store two years
ago and kept them in a container where they flourished through the lat summer and fall,
but looked scraggly in the winter and spring. I am planting some in the garden this fall
along with a bunch of various bulbs!

Pothos vine, 8 feet long, started from 4 inches a few months ago, yet another cutting.
Have I bought any of my plants? Yeah, I think one or two!
But if you would like to buy any of these types plants, let me know!

There they are, the majority of my houseplants. Most of these plants I have propagated and have multiples of so if one of these beauts caught your eye, let me know!

Love, light, and water!

It has been such an exciting year in the garden! Charlie and I have learned so much about urban farming, gourds, and composting that the business model for Groovy Gardens is yet again evolving into an even greater adventure. This will be described in a later post...today, I want to give some updates on the vegetable patch and gourd garden.

Here are a few snapshots of the back alley plot early spring 2011:

As you can see, this area was neglected and served as a litter trap for the dumpster across the alley. We had the 8 hour clean-up day in June.

The next few pictures I took today, it is October 6th and we are still getting quite a bounty of produce from this small plot. This week, a neighbor friend and I cleaned up a pile of logs, branches and leaves from a dying tree that was cut down by a neighbor. The pile was next to the vegetable patch so we broke down the branches and stacked them behind the compost pile and used the logs to surround the garden. It looks so much better! Also, from the block clean-up I had TONS of decomposed leaf and twig debris from years of build-up. I put this around the plants as well as the dead leaves to insulate from the cooler nights we are having.

The Gourd Garden in the front of our place has taken over 30 feet of space! The vines and tendrils have stretched and wound around the arborvitae in frount of our door as well as the neighbors (they don't mind hopefully). The next set of pictures is supposed to be a panoramic type to show how much space this thing has taken up...