Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

OK, folks, busy entrepreneur that I am, I am falling behind with my gardening this summer! Here`s my challenge/question for those of you with a green thumb:

For lavender, do i water it infrequently, keep it dry? or water regularly? I`ve noticed there`s a little mold on some of the lavender plants I have in those places where my mulch covers the base of one of the plants.

Also, re: lavender, you`re supposed to cut the flowers halfway through the growing season, right? that way they flower a second time (here in Michigan, fyi...)

Thanks for your help!

Rich

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Rich Sloan , Co-Founder, Chief Startupologist, StartupNation

All I know about my garden is fertilizer is good. My soil sucks here.

Sorry not much help with this topics today...


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Vincent Wilcox (a.k.a. KRAKR)
Drummer
My band: Letters Make Words

Here in Portland, my lavenders are watered every other day with my timed drip irrigation system - but they are planted in a mixture of fine gravel and soil for good drainage.  I usually cut off all the blooms when the color fades from the flower and will get another blooming later in the season.

Here`s a good online reference source.

Happy gardening!

- J.



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Jeff Fisher | Jeff Fisher LogoMotives | Tweet! Tweet!

jeff - awesome! thanks for the link, too!

i have a spray irrigation system and that`s getting the whole plant wet. is that ok, or should i replace it with a drip system?

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Rich Sloan , Co-Founder, Chief Startupologist, StartupNation

First, pull your mulch out from around the base of the plant. If its getting too much moisture, this attracts bugs that will end up infecting the plants.

There are alot of plants that are tempermental about direct water. When watering, try to water the plants early in the morning and around the base, not directly on the plant leaves.

Now for lavender specifically, Just about every type of lavender in the U.S. is very drought tolerant. About every other day, watering early in the morning just enough to soak the ground should be more than enough.

As for the mildew; what color is it? If its white, then its pobably powdery mildew and a cheap way to get rid of that (if you want to stay away from chemicals) get a spray bottle and disolve a table spoon of baking soda in water and spray it on and around the plant. The next day wash off the residue. This will kill out the fungus.

All of my lavenders are part of the Mediterranean section of my garden - which also includes yucca, rosemary, a variety of other herbs, euphorbia, a couple drought tolerant roses, heathers, crocosmia, kniphofia, cistus, some succulents and many other plants.  None of them like a great deal of water sprayed on them - so all are watered by a drip system.  Excessive water will result in mildew.

There is no mulch around them at all.  The soil is a mixture of the native dirt, compost and quarter-ten gravel for good drainage. Instead of compost, quarter-ten gravel is again used around the base of all the plants - for drainage and to retain the heat of the sun necessary for many such plants in our sometimes wetter, colder climate. You can see the use of the gravel in the photo of my front yard in a bLog-oMotives entry and in this photo of Joy Creek Nursery`s "Lavender Path" - where the gravel is also used for garden paths between the plants.  In fact, we use no mulch or bark in our gardens at all - most mulch is too acidic for many of the plants and it draws too much nitrogen out of the soil.  Instead, we simply use a 2-3 inch layer of compost around all other plants in our garden each year.

Time to go play in the dirt...

- J.


  

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Jeff Fisher | Jeff Fisher LogoMotives | Tweet! Tweet!

folks,

this is EXTREMELY helpful. i`ve already endured a bumble bee sting today pulling mulch away from the bases.

i`m going to see how the lavender responds before i start applying baking soda`d water.

fyi, i have about 50 linear feet of lavender plants if you were to line them up, so i might need more than one spray bottle!

also, sounds like i need to talk to my irrigation guy... a drip system sounds far superior to the airborne spray that`s currently hitting them each morning...

can`t thank you enough! next i`ll be asking for advice about my potted meyer lemon trees!!!

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Rich Sloan , Co-Founder, Chief Startupologist, StartupNation

Another thing that you could try. This messes with the esthetics of the bed, but something you could do is replace the mulch that holds in water with decomposed granite. Hard to believe this from a stone, but it absorbs moisture and will release the moister as the surrounding ground becomes dryer than the granite. If the granite isn`t a color that works well for you, lava rock works well also. Of course this does effect the look of the bed(s).

I tried planting a bed of wildflowers this year, but the rabbits ate all of them before they got anywhere near blooming! How do you keep the rabbits out of your gardens? We have a major rabbit population here. They build nests in our yard all the time. My next door neighbor is constantly trying to keep them out of her tomatoes, but with limited success. *L*


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Christina,

There are some weird ways that do actually work. One is to find someone that cuts hair willing to give you a bag of cut hair. WOrk this into the soil. Another way is to go to a place that sales hunting supplies and get some fox urine...yeah I know . I never understood how some hunters will go to the lengths of putting animal urine on them to cover their scent. But anyway, you can get it in small bottles and basically outline the exterior borders of the bed and this will keep them away and it doesn`t take alot. Surprisingly it smells bad for about the first couple of days, but after that you don`t smell it, but they still can. Now this has to be reapplied after any heavy rain, and who knows, it may attract real foxes which will eat the rabbits, ergo no rabbit problem .  You could also get some small wire fencing and just border around the wild flowers until they drop seed. Also, an antisocial dog of any size will enjoy terrorizing the little rodents.