Davis Garden Show

Don and Lois,

Hi! I hope you have both managed to stay healthy what with these colds going around. I know that you have not heard from me in awhile, however I have a follow up question to the one I asked about fish water. Is fish water (old aquarium water) with fish medications in it harmful for plants? I decided not to save any of the medicated water for Eric to use on plants until I heard from you first. I hope you both had a good Thanksgiving. We celebrated a day early for reasons I will not go into unless you ask me. Have a Merry Christmas! And if I do not get to say it, a Happy New Year too. By the way, my young daughter's garden has expanded with two new and very different sages that she chose by herself. Her garden is also thriving.

-Robin
in Southern California

Hi Don and Lois, thanks so much for the ever timely and informative show!
I have a question for Lois. Lois I'm hoping you could spend a couple of
minutes and highlight for me the Best birds to have in your vegetable garden
and the Worst birds to have in your vegetable garden and why. Maybe you could
help define Gleaners and Salliers too, and wheather all of the birds in these
groups are beneficial?
Thanks ever so much,
Your Faithful Listener in Central Calif., (San Luis Obispo)
Lori

Don and Lois,

Hi! First I would like to let you know that my donation for the bake sale at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden's Fall Plant Sale is a receipe that I remembered from when I was in fourth grade. I do not remember what it is called, so under Eric's advice, I call it a dessert. They are made with eggroll wrappers, so I renamed them Fried Chinese Butterfly Desserts. Eggroll wrappers are cut in half, each half is slit in the middle, then one part is folded through the slit to look sort of like a butterfly, they are fried, and then coated in sugar. They are very tasty. Your other listeners and yourselves are welcome to make these. My young daughter was helpful in the makeing of these desserts. We used an entire package of eggroll wrappers. As for my question, our ficus has several branches shriveling up. It is well watered (the soil rarely dries out), potted in a ceramic pot near two windows (one is next to it and is West faceing, while the other is near the other window and is North faceing with a few trees near it), and this ficus is very tall at about seven feet including the pot. The leaves on the shriveled branches are dry yet green and the bark is somewhat loose feeling. I tried checking for borers, but I can not see any suspious holes. What is happening to our ficus?

-Robin in Southern California

On the Oct. 20th Davis Garden Show, the live streaming wasnt working, now I have to click like three buttons to download the podcast archive. Geeeeeezzzz! That's ok, I didnt want to get up at noon to catch the live show anyways ;) hey, it's 1pm, that means its time for my first nap.

Don and Lois,

Hi! I am back! I have something to add to your notices at the begining of your show. I know that Southern California is kind of far for most of your listeners, but on the off chance some might be visiting down here or know people who live here, I thought I would mention the following. Rancho Santa Botanic Garden will be having their Annual Fall Plant Sale on November 5 and 6 of this year. Members are allowed in at 8am and until 11am on Saturday. After which the general public is welcome. Their will be a bake sale both days. I am contributing this year to it. Eric, myself, and my daughter will be attending. I am listening to your most recent podcast as I type this and I am enjoying it as always.

-Robin in Southern California

Don and Lois,

Hi! I would like to recommend to your listeners the use of what I call fish water. This is better known as dirty aquarium water. I have three small tanks whose dirty water I give to Eric for use as plant food for several plants including orchids. I am thrilled to have this water be used instead of wasted by being poured down the drain. I would like to know if freshwater aquariums that have a little bit of salt put into them are also okay to use with plants. If so, would certain plants tolerate the salt better then others?

I am looking forward to listening to more of the podcasts of your wonderful gardening show.

-Robin in Southern California

Don and Lois,

Hi! I enjoy doing unusual experiments with gardening or growing unusual plants. I am in the process of growing a tiny indoor lawn of Marathon II Dwarf Brand grass. It is square shaped and about 6" by 6". What should I know about its watering requirements and do I need to fertilize this lawn? On a side note, the egret flowers are doing great and one even has a flower bud on it. What a surprise at how small the flower bud actually is. It is about a third of an inch. The actual flower looks so big in the pictures I have seen. I will try to send a picture to you of the flower when the flower bud opens. I am looking forward to that happening. On another side note, my now 3 year old daughter is so into cuttings and the planting of them, that this her favorite play activity when outdoors. You have such useful information on your radio show, that I am looking forward to listening to the latest podcast of it as I do every week.

-Robin in Southern California

Don and Lois,

Hi! Your mentioning the Topsy-Turvy tomato brought to mind my Down Under pot. It was designed in Australia and is an upside down terra cotta pot. I have tried to grow several types of plants in it with some living longer than others. My current plant is a Sweet Potato vine. It's beautiful in all of its purple and purpleish red foliage. I grew it from a cutting that Eric brought back one day. In fact, he brought back several branches for rooting and while most rooted, this upside down plant is the only one that survived. I had made a giant staple (as I call this wire structure and others that I previously made for previous upside down plants.) of silver wire to hold the young plant in the upside down plant. I did not want it falling out on to any of our heads. Now it is an older plant and growing happily. What I am interested in knowing is will it bloom upside down and if so how do I help it to bloom? I have seen pictures on the internet of Sweet Potato plants with beautiful red flowers and I look forward to mine doing the same. By the way, Down Under pots can be found by either googling them on the internet, or by buying them in the Garden Artisians catalog which can be found on the internet or by requesting their catalog in the mail. I hope my question along with my previous questions and comments can be useful to others too. Thank you again for answering them.

-Robin