Garden Interview

Here is an interview with my friend Briley who is a plant fiend and is majoring in Agriculture Business.

What is your experience with plants?

I have taken care of gardens at my grandpas. Plants included strawberries, rhubarb, and peppers. I worked at the Green View Nursery back at home over the summer which has variety of plants.

What are some easy beginner plants?

Geraniums, marigold, petunias is what I recommend for beginners. These are easy potted plants to use as home décor. Also, roses bushes are great because they are hardy plants.

Where do you get your plants?

Local nurseries because you can have a more personal interaction and it’s more informative. Also, it helps give back to local businesses. And if you want organic seeds I would look online because it’s the easiest.

How often should you water the plant?

If it’s a hot season, water every single day. If it’s raining be careful to not over water the plants since that could kill them too. Overall, if the soil is dry water the plant.

What are some tips that could help take care of your plants?

Promix soil mixed with the original soil is a good start. If you notice the plant still isn’t doing well, then you can use a synthetic or organic fertilizer, but only in a small amount.

Benefits of having a garden?

At home gardening is very therapeutic to the mind, body, and sole. If it’s a vegetable garden then you can produce your own produce. It helps give back to the environment and it helps make your back yard look pretty.

Hopefully this interview gave you a better understanding about gardening.

Watering Plants

One of the big problems people face when taking care of their plants is how much they should be watering them. I found a blog post by Darryl, a plant lover who posts tips and tricks about how to take care of your house plants. Here is  link to the exact post that I am reading from.

https://www.houseplantjournal.com/home/2017/1/15/how-often-should-i-water-this-plant

Even though I don’t know too much about house plants because I worked with mostly shrubs, the tips he provided carry over to shrubs too. There are five main things that he talks about that you have to take into consideration when watering your plants. They are light, temperature, humidity, soil and container, and the plant itself.

He states that plants use light for photosynthesis and water is also used in photosynthesis too. The more sun/light a plant gets the more water they are going to need. I noticed this a lot with the shrubs that I worked with. Plants that were in direct sunlight all day needed way more water than those that got shade for some of the day.

The next determent to how much to water your plant is going to need is the temperature. I’m going to tie temperature and humidity together. The hotter it is the faster the soil will dry up. And the dryer it is the faster the soil will dry up too. Working with plants outside during the month of July was brutal because temperatures got up to 95 degrees and dried out the soil so fast.

Soil and the container also play a big role in how much you should water your plants. There is a lot of different types of soil and each has different properties. Some soil will absorb the water and hold it for a certain amount of time but there is some soil that water goes right through it. Same can be said about the containers too. Plastic containers hold moisture more than clay pots. What I noticed too is the color of the pot can absorb more sunlight. Black pots are the worst for outside because they absorb the sun and heat light no other.

Lastly, it all comes down to the plant too. If you are working with cactuses, then you won’t have to water them as much. Canna on the other hand need a lot of water. Knowing how much you should water your plant comes down to how much light it gets, temperature, humidity, soil and container, and what type of plant it is. Hopefully these tips from Darryl and I are helpful.