r/patiogardening

I had a brand new steel rim which is a rather odd size.
So decided to repurpose it as a planter for a corner of my driveway.
One pot of Allium Millennium and a red Geranium.
In some peat free compost and some mesh netting to stop the soil falling through the holes.

The wheel is a 16 inch off-road style steel rim, with no damage to the paint so it shouldn’t rust for a while.
And it’s 12.5 inches wide so it’s fairly unique. And the offset is wild so the soil is actually pretty deep inside the rim so plenty of room for roots I think.

What do you think?

I’ve slowly turned my alley-like driveway into a shade garden. A yew, a Japanese maple, hostas, and several evergreens sit alongside some rotating annuals, a birdbath, and a fountain. A nice spot to chill on hot summer days! 🌞

Massachusetts patio gardening. Wish it lasted longer

Privet. Normally I write in Spanish and Russian, but I realize that the English subreddits have a lot more interesting stuff, so I decided to practice my English. Bear with me. I'm not a philosopher, nor an academic, and honestly, I'm a terrible gardener. Even so, I promised to clean and tidy up my grandmother's two little gardens, which are a bit neglected. I haven't been watering them because it's been pouring rain in Mexico City, so I started removing the dry leaves and burying the roots of those shaggy plants. I'm more of a self-taught biologist, but lately, my thinking organ is hyper-excited about a scientific experiment I decided to run using my grandma's plants.

Just a heads up: I use AI to check my grammar and do quick research, but the topic I'm writing about is 100% what I see, feel, and think with my own humanity, and of course, the pic in this post is also real.

The point is this: as you can see, we have several specimens of a stoloniferous plant with long flat leaves coming from a central node. In Spanish, they call it "Mala madre" (Bad mother), which sounds mean to me, "Cinta" (Tape), which is super bland, or "Lazo de amor" (Ribbon of love), which is mega cheesy. In English, you guys call it Spider Plant… oh come on! Really?

The scientific name is Chlorophytum comosum, but it gives me zero vibes. I definitely want to invent a new name because "Mala madre" is sort of cruel (poor plant, being judged without knowing), Spider Plant is just ew, and Russian is almost the same. If you could drop some name ideas in the comments, just between us, I'd appreciate it a lot. I promise to choose wisely.

For those who don't know it, the Spider Plant is fascinating: it produces long stems that curve in the air, literally like the arches of the Brooklyn Bridge, until they touch the ground, root, and a new baby plant is born. Basically, stolonization is weaving a network of nodes, very different from spider webs.

The experiment: Our plants are producing few stolons (the tails with the baby on the tip). Why? Are they past their asexual reproduction age? Or did they just get tired of dropping babies on the hard tile floor?

So, I set up an experiment. As you can see in the pic, I placed a small clay pot super close to them, inhabited only by little rain plants (they sprout on their own every rainy season, so we could say it's "their" soil). The idea is to see if any of the spiders launches its precious cargo into the small pot (without my intervention) and decides to colonize it, instead of crashing against the tile.

Now, here goes my ratio insaniae. Seeing these stolons stretch out looking for soil, I can't stop asking myself:

1. If the plant actually notices the little pot and aims its shoot there, ignoring the stone floor... don't you think it's a form of communication between me and the shaggy plant?
2. By trying to install its node in a soil already "inhabited" by little rain plants, are we witnessing an act of invasive colonization, or is it simply something parallel to the tiny plants?
3. If the "shaggy green plant" scores, can we consider this gesture (aiming the baby to the fertile spot) an act of intentionality? Or is it just a biochemical-mechanical reflex and I'm just projecting?

I have other questions, the kind that belong in a philosophical subreddit, which I'll leave on my personal profile with my wild theories.

Catch ya later! 🌿 — A clumsy gardener who believes plants use fractal logic in their reasoning.

Should I invest the time, energy and money in a round cement fire table. I feel the table that came with the set is too big/rectangular for my small patio. All suggestions welcomed. Thank you!

I live in an apartment with a roof top, and grow pot plants there. The dirty roof can be seen above. This is after doing my best to wash it with a hose and broom. Looking for suggestions about how to prevent and deal with this.

Honest option and all suggestions welcomed. Should I invest money, time and energy to ditching my fire table with a round concrete fire pit. Not sure about the size of the fire table that came with the eye .