Gay Gardeners Forum

[MurderHeWrote]

Well, it's that time of year where you collect the seeds from your plants and clean the beds of dead plant material. It's best not to wait until spring to clean up leaf litter and dead plants because they are overwintering grounds for many plant pests.

I have already collected the seeds that I needed, though that didn't amount to much because this was more of an experimenting year. I learned a bit about which plants do well in potting soil and which don't. I have already brought in a number of my containers to continue growing some plants indoors. There are still plenty of them outside that I do not want to bring in just yet.

Since bringing the plants in a few days ago, I have already been surprised to find some of them growing better indoors than out. This is odd due to the fact that the plants I grow are all outdoor plants to begin with. Maybe it's just the steady temperature inside.

I don't know why, but this year wasn't a good one for my wildflowers. That probably has more to due with some of them becoming root-bound and my occasional neglect from being too busy than the weather did. I did manage to fight off an infestation of aphids with homemade garlic aphid spray. Unfortunately, the spray appeared to have had an adverse effect on my Boneset. I got rid of the aphids, but shortly after the lower leaves started turning brown and died off. Thankfully, the upper leaves seemed to have mostly escaped the former's fate.

I managed to get some seeds out of the Evening Primrose that I grew and also my monkey flower. I found that some of the seeds I had stored for a while were still viable. The Deptford Pinks came up, though I planted them far too late. The Bachelor's Buttons were good, though only one seed sprouted of the ten or more than I planted. The Black Mustard seeds came up, the Common Mallows came up, and so did the Galinsogas and others.

I also had failures with some plants. I was unable to get my seeds for Nasturtium to sprout. They more or less rotted instead of growing. My Clammy Cuphea seeds never sprouted, nor did some of the unknown seeds I collected over time. Once again my Wild Basil seeds appear to have failed to grow as well. The same with the Indian Tobacco I attempted to grow from seed.

What is everyone else doing with harvesting, cleaning up, and bringing in of plants for the winter? How did everyone else's gardening go for the year?