

To boldly grow where no one has groan before
I like messing around with plants, in addition to growing them, and I have one “arrangement” that always attracts attention. I got the idea sometime in the late 1980s when I was over at a friend’s place, idly flipping through an old copy of a National Geographic magazine. I was looking at pictures in a story on the Appalachians when something caused me to look closely at an image of a rustic mountain homestead. There were plants growing on the wall. I’d no idea what they were, but that wasn’t what caught my eye. They were growing in a picture frame. That’s impressive, I thought, I must try that some day.
Fast forward a few years and after figuring out how to do
it, I did get around to making the first of many hanging frames fille
d with
plants. It wasn’t difficult, just a piece of plywood, preferably pressure
treated, with a frame around it, then a piece of wire mesh sandwiched between
it and an outer decorative frame. In this case old barnboard left over from the
fence. I first made a couple of small ones, about forty by fifty centimetres
(15” x 20”), and a later one about twice that size. I soon learned smaller is
better as the big one was heavy, something to think about when hanging
pictures.
I don’t leave them hanging on the wall in winter, although
the plants are hardy enough. I take them down and simply store them in a
sheltered spot, out of driving rain. Even when they’re on the wall, I place
them away from the prevailing wind to avoid the soil eroding or the plants
washing out in a storm. They do need watering occasionally, but only lightly. I
have since tried using other plants. Small sedums work well, and if I had room
for them indoors, I could use tender succulents. I once planted one with
Scottish moss and it looked like a small piece of lawn. However, it required
more care than ones filled with succulents.
I’m obviously not the first to create these living pictures. It could well be the person living in that rustic cottage in the Appalachians or even earlier by the gardener who took care of the hanging gardeners of Babylon. They aren’t difficult to make, and I have done workshops in the past for garden clubs, so they are popping up here and there. I did once see the same concept on sale at a garden show at an exorbitant price for something I knocked together with a few pieces of wood. $300? I could buy at lot of plants for that.
If you use this design to make one, please credit -- www.davidhobson.ca
Starting seeds indoors is always fun, but sometimes it can
be disheartening, especially for beginners when newly sprouted seeds begin to
grow and then overnight the seed tray looks like a mini tornado swept through.
Seedlings are left horizontal, dead and dying, and appear to have had their
stems pinched right at the soil level.
What happened is a disease called Damping Off. It’s caused by any of a number of fungi that occur in all soils and tends to attack slow-growing or weak plants. As the name suggests, the disease prefers damp conditions, exactly what is required for growing seedlings. There used to be commercial fungicides designed specifically to control damping off but they are no longer available to home gardeners. A few precautions, however, can reduce the likelihood of damping off.
Use clean containers and a soill-free potting mix for starting seeds. Fill seed trays or pots right to the brim with the soil and avoid spreading seeds too densely. This allows for more air movement at the surface. A small fan blowing across seedlings can be helpful, but keep in mind this can rapidly dry out the soil.
If you start your seeds under a plastic cover, which is the usual way, remove the cover as soon as germination has taken place as fungal growth loves the high humidity under the cover. For the same reason don’t overwater and avoid watering from above as this ensures the soil surface remains damp and conducive to fungal growth.
Many untested suggestions such as sprinkling cinnamon on the soil surface have made the rounds online, and though cinnamon does have anti-fungal properties, the only hard evidence is on cinnamon oil, rather than the powder (which may not be pure cinnamon), so I’d save it for the hot chocolate and apple pie.