You Grow Girl™

So of course I've taken my sweet time updating this plant journal since I've been taking horticulture classes at Cabrillo.

It's all been a blur of plant knowledge and Latin botanical names since I started.

Last week I dove into the evolution history of plants from Gaia (all life is connected) to the beginning of agriculture and class systems. Of course, I've also been trying to learn the proper names of over 100 plants as well as frantically making flash cards and lab journals.

One weekend I decided to make botanical signs for all my houseplants and outside container plants. Each sign has the botanical name, pronounciation key, common name, family name and origin place.

If I had known I was going to be making signs for all my plants, I probably wouldn't have grown so many varieties of mint this summer.

In case you want to take a look at my plant signs, you can see them all here. Some of the info on the signs might be missing, so if you'd like to help out, you can email me the missing facts that I have in question marks.

Right now I'm studying up on all the different ways to propogate a plant: air layering, dropping, tip layering, stem cuttings, root cuttings, leaf cuttings, division, seperation, etc. etc. I have this feeling I'll be propogating all my houseplants to the point where there will be more plants than house space. Go figure.

So I've learned quite a few helpful tidbits of info if any of you are interested:

• For those of you who hate finding mealy bugs in snacking away at your succulents, try putting cedar chips in your potting mix. Apparently, the common cedar chips you usually use to line hamster cages (use clean stuff though) makes the mealy bugs want to look elsewhere for a meal.

• Elderberry has its own yeast so you can mash it up, let it sit and soon you have wine! (It's best to harvest the berries after a rainy season for a better taste.)

• You can tell the political histories of a place based on the gardens in the area. (side note: The book A History of Gardens and Gardening by Edward Hyams addresses this issue.)

• Mugwort(Artemisia douglasiana) takes away the harmful oil of Poison Oakif you rub it on the affected area. Also good in baths if you have a rash. When eaten mugwort is a good liver tonic and promotes prophetic dreams.

• If you have many fire attracting plants around your house, you really need to create a Fuel Break (a 30 ft. barrier of fire safe plants surrounding your house.)

• Fires climb slopes faster than burning downhill. (good to know in forest fire areas).