Growing with Carla
A Hobby Gardener/Plant Enthusiast Podcast. We'll talk about learning how to grow green leafy babies and share some cool stories! Let's go on an adventure! 🌱😊
Growing with Carla
UpdatoPotato!
Moving can be a whirlwind, but it brought some unexpected joys and challenges to my plant care routine! This week on Growing with Carla, I'm excited to share a big personal update in our special episode titled "Updato Potato," a fun twist inspired by my friend Sami.
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/GrowingWithCarla
Full transcripts available on my website!
Hey friends, welcome back to the garden. I'm Carla and I'm excited to have you join me for another episode of Growing with Carla. Whether you're a seasoned plant parent or just starting to bud out, this is the place to share our ideas and grow together as we nurture our leafy babies. We have another fun topic to go over today, but first let's do a plan update. This week's episode is going to be called Updato Potato, based on my friend Sammy's recommendation. This was a great idea that she had, because I've been having a really hard time during the move to make this episode actually. One, there was a lot of stress. Two, there just wasn't a whole lot of time and when she said, how's it going, your update, or she, what did she say? It's like here's the update of potato, and it was for a different conversation all together. It's like that's such a cool word. I'm like I'm stealing that word. She's like all right. So thank you, sammy. So we have a really big update this week, mostly because I haven't been here, so I haven't been releasing episodes, and that's because I'm moving. Um, I will be moving hopefully either this next weekend or the following, and it's been a lot of packing and cleaning and working with the realtor and lots of individual small tasks to prepare for moving. So that's why I haven't been putting out episodes recently, but I finally have a plan and some free time. So here we are today. So let's start with the plan. Update the fingers plant, samantha. Two of the leaves did fall off, but the third one is very happy and thriving. The soil seems to dry up properly between watering now, so I think I've hit a good mix with it. My calancho is huge and bushy, but I can't seem to get it to flower again again. So I definitely need to look into that plant more because it's just happy and green and like, super like. It got huge really quick in that auto watering pot, but I just can't seem to get it to flower again. So, yeah, definitely need to look that one up.
Carla:The mini vining monstera is gorgeous, this thing. I got it as a single node. I bought it online off Etsy, and now the thing's a foot long and I'm going to need to repot it very soon. So I'm very excited to see how that one continues growing. I'm hoping, actually, with moving to the new house, that I can put up some trellises, maybe above some doorways, and have my pothos and this vining mini monstera grow across the trellises, across doorways. That would be really fun, actually.
Carla:The orchids are okay. I need to. I need to find a suitable location once I move to put them into a dormant state so that I can get them to flower again. I didn't really know a whole lot about the orchids when I first got them. So the first two I cut off that flowering stem really close to the base and I regret that I did it. The third one I learned to not do that and the flowers have since fallen off, but that stem is still very green and alive, so it just needs that dormancy for it to start flowering again.
Carla:I don't think all the Diffenbachias are going to survive. I had received one from my friend at CrossFit and I had received a couple from the Lady in Williamsburg and a couple of them. They've just been cut really short. They weren't happy with the transplanting. But I also don't need four Diffenbachias so I might see I don't even know if they're going to survive. Enough to be able to gift to a friend is the thing. So I might have to end up composting them, which is unfortunate because they're still a very beautiful plant the money tree that I started from seeds is past the first set of leaves and is starting to branch out. It looks really pretty. I need to repot it into a larger pot. I think I have one more empty auto watering pot. I'm going to move it into there because right now I'm pretty sure it's poor. Little roots have taken over that entire little expanding disc of dirt thing that it's currently sitting in. But to get that into a larger pot where it has more room to grow its roots I think it's going to do even better. The couple of stems that I've survived are really strong, so I feel more confident in transplanting it now.
Carla:My string of hearts that I've had sitting next to the window in the craft room it's across the window from the pothos that I did a haircut on. It's almost reaching the floor now. So those you can't propagate like other plants. You can't just cut it and put it into dirt for the string of hearts and like string of turtles, string of pearls, anything. You need to take those vines and set them on another pot of dirt while they're still attached to the mother plant and then let those grow roots and once they've established in that second pot, off that vine, then you can cut it from the mother plant. So my string of hearts it's longer than I am tall. It's time for a haircut for it. And so to be able to do that, I need to get some other pots set up, and I have some other hanging pots ready. I just need to put dirt in them, give them a drink and then set the vine on top of it. But the string of hearts is gorgeous. It's a variegated one, so it's got really beautiful light greens, dark greens, and pinks and whites.
Carla:I've tried to do string of hearts many times now. So like this is the third plant of it, like I kept getting the small ones thinking, oh, it's a small one, I can get it to grow. No, it died both times. So then I was like okay, fine, I'll just buy the more expensive, bigger one, and it's been happy ever since. So if you can't make it work with the small stuff, it's okay to buy a bigger one.
Carla:I think that's all for the plant update. So, moving into my new house, I get to continue working on my house plants. The way that they are, I don't have as much light sources, so I'm definitely going to need to invest in some UV lamps or not UV lamps, grow lamps I'm going to need to invest in some grow lamps for these plants inside, but I'll be able to spread them out more. Right now, they're all sitting in the craft room near the window and far enough away from the window so that the ones that don't need direct light are not getting up. I have so many ideas for the indoor plants of the new house, but I also have a lot of ideas for the outdoor plants. So for this part of the update oh, potato we're just going to talk about what ifs, and I'm going to share my ideas for the future garden, because it's been a couple years since I've gotten to have a garden, because we were moving before, and now we're moving again, but thankfully this will be the last time moving for many, many years, so I finally get to settle down and dig into my garden. So I'm going to talk about how I want to plan it out, and I would love to hear your input on it.
Carla:So, at the house I'm moving to, my raspberry plant is still there, which is great. It's actually producing berries right now too, so I'm very happy. They're probably gonna be out of season by the time I get there, so now too. So I'm very happy. They're probably going to be out of season by the time I get there, so it was still. I'm still very happy that it was it. It stayed there through the tenants. In moving away from the house, originally I had dug up my rhubarb plant and coming to the house that I'm in currently, it died and I felt so sad because this year would have been the year that it would have produced a harvest like actual rhubarb to harvest. So when I move back I'm going to start another rhubarb root. I'll have to pick up another one from the store.
Carla:I need to make my raised garden beds again, and I know some people are against it. Like I've heard things both ways, for, yes, you should use a raised garden beds again. And I know some people are against it. Like I've heard things both ways, for, yes, you should use a raised garden bed. No, you shouldn't use raised garden beds because, like, they cost a lot, it takes so much to fill them up, but the thing is, any other kind of mound system, you're going to be doing the same thing.
Carla:I happen to like the raised garden bed because it creates a boundary so that when I have to mow the lawn I'm not mowing over my tomatoes or my green beans or my peas or peppers. And two, it provides a designated space that I can weed in and I don't have to worry about. Okay, this is the edge. I also have a pickup truck now so I can haul my own soil from the dump, for a discount as well, instead of having to rely on bags of soil. That's. Another big inhibitor is the price of raised garden beds is if you have a large one and requires lots of bags of soil, it's going to cost a lot. But if you have a like, the city dump here will provide compost and everything and topsoil and mulch and everything for really inexpensive or sometimes free, depending on the time of year. But if you're able to get it in bulk like that and have it either delivered or be able to be able to haul it yourself, then it becomes a lot less cost prohibitive to be able to have raised garden beds like this. So, but that's why I like having raised garden beds, and so I'm going to start out the same way that the last year that I was able to garden with is I want some jalapenos, some red, yellow, green, orange, bell peppers.
Carla:I had big tomatoes and cherry tomatoes. I would like some cucumbers. I also need to start thinking about companion planting so, like the green beans I hear go really well with like corn or or other tall plants, so that they can support one another. I also try to keep marigolds near all the plants in the garden too, because they help deter rabbits and other small herbivores from coming and eating the green leaves.
Carla:I don't plan on having a super large garden this first year, because because I need to start small, because I've had two years where I haven't been able to have my garden and so now I'm finally getting back into it. I don't want to feel overwhelmed by it, because I've had that happen and trying to start a garden these last two years and then all my seedlings die and then it's just a repeating cycle of well, now I can't do it, because now my seedlings are dead. Well, if I get more seedlings, I'm probably just going to kill them, because right now is not a good time. So I'm really excited for this next spring because I get to have the garden again. There's just something very meditative and cathartic about literally digging in the dirt. So I have a lot of big plans for for the house I'm moving into, with the organization of plants around the house.
Carla:Indoors, like, I would love to have some humidity loving plants, in the bathrooms with a grow light. I would love to have some nice trailing plants in the bedrooms. In the office, some big flowering plants my African violets in the front entryway so they get the the morning sun coming in, because the African violets are beautiful. The flowers also fell because the African violets are beautiful. The flowers also fell off the African violets, but they're growing amazing. They have a specific African violet pot. They're just so dang happy.
Carla:So, yeah, this is a small update for today. We're calling it the Updato Potato. So if you guys have any comments, any questions, anything you want to share about your own gardening plans, I would love to hear them. There's a link in the podcast description for my link tree and you can send me a message. All right, friends, I really appreciate you for taking time out of your busy day to be with me. It means a lot. If you enjoyed this episode or found any part of it useful, please share it with those that you love, those that you like, or even those that you just tolerate that also really like plants. It would help me out greatly. Please also check out my Instagram and send me pictures of your plant babies. Tag me at GrowingWithCarla. I would love to see them Remember, be safe and make wise choices. We'll talk again next time.
