Apartment Garden Blues (Blog): Largest Yucca in the World?

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Published on Friday, March 08 2013 02:48

Written by Alexandra Martin

The Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif., has one of my favorite gardens in Southern California. The estate of railroad tycoon Henry E. Huntington is well known for its Japanese garden, Gutenberg Bible and famous “Pinkie” and “Blue Boy” paintings, but it has another gem that is less well known: the largest Yucca filifera in the world. According to the Huntington’s website, this specimen is 60 feet tall. I had to stand way back in order to fit the whole specimen into my camera's viewfinder.

The Yucca filifera is often confused with another Yucca species: the Joshua Tree (Yucca brevifolia). The Huntington may have the tallest one known for the species. This plant is native to Mexico, and the indigenous people use it for roof coverings.

During flowering season, the Yucca produces a large hanging cluster of white flowers. Check it out at the Huntington Library in the spring and summer when it is expected to flower.

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Alexandra Martin is a professional writer from Southern California who grows vegetables, herbs, lots of aloe vera and one giant Boston fern in her balcony garden. She also grows dracaena, pothos and English ivy indoors. She loves traveling and birdwatching in addition to gardening.

Apartment Garden Blues (Blog): Using Pinterest for Garden Inspiration

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Published on Friday, March 01 2013 19:39

Written by Alexandra Martin

I love Pinterest. And apparently I’m not the only one. It’s the fastest-growing social media site EVER. According to TechCrunch.com, it currently has 11.7 million unique monthly U.S. visitors, and it crossed the 10-million-mark faster than any other website in history. And with all those unique visitors comes a lot of pinned photos, a great deal of them being beautiful gardens.

On my personal Pinterest, I pin images of DIY crafts I’d like to make, food I’d like to cook, crochet projects I want to try and, most important of all, gardening pictures. The images remind me of things I want to try and also usually link to some great how-to instructions.  

Some of my inspirational pins include:

• A photo of German Chamomile to remind me to finally plant and grow this plant so I can finally have my own homegrown Chamomile tea.
• A shoe organizer planter. I heard of this planting technique idea years ago and loved the idea. And with a small garden space, a hanging planter like this would work wonders! I repinned the photo from GreenUpgrader.com.
• A hypertufa table planter. A beautiful planter originally posted on LowesCreativeIdeas.com is made from a DIY material called hypertufa that you can make into pretty much any shape. This one has a table on top of the container with a hole in it where you can grow plants. Love it!
• A wine bottle aqua globe from LettuceShare.com. With just a wine bottle and couple of other items, you can make an aqua globe to water your plants while you’re on vacation.

Do you have a Pinterest board for gardening?

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Alexandra Martin is a professional writer from Southern California who grows vegetables, herbs, lots of aloe vera and one giant Boston fern in her balcony garden. She also grows dracaena, pothos and English ivy indoors. She loves traveling and birdwatching in addition to gardening.

Apartment Garden Blues (Blog): Daylight Fluorescent Bulbs

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Published on Friday, February 22 2013 18:26

Written by Alexandra Martin

When compact fluorescent light bulbs first came out a few years ago, they were all dim and kind of … well … yellow. I was so happy to find “Daylight” bulbs at Home Depot a few years ago. The white light that really does look like daylight can brighten your mood. Ever heard of S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder)? These “winter blues” come about when the seasons change, and some people can benefit from light therapy. Just turn on a daylight bulb, and I’m sure you’ll feel a bit more chipper. I do, especially because I turn my daylight bulbs on over my seedlings!

Let’s face it. If you’re on BalconyContainerGardening.com, you’re probably a small-space gardener. If you have a small space to garden in, you probably have a small living area. A lot of us live in apartments and don’t have greenhouses or garages where we can start seedlings under giant grow lights. But we can devote a little bit of table space to a couple used plastic Starbucks cups where we start our seasonal tomato or pepper plant seeds. Take a cardboard box or stand a sturdy book up on its side and clip on tiny shop light with a Daylight CFL bulb, and you’ve got yourself a small-space area where you can start growing plants before your last frost. Not only do you have some pretty green container plants during the winter, but you have some extra light that will make you feel much better about it being crummy outside. Just remember to change out your Daylight bulbs every season, as they lose some of their oomph. They won’t go to waste, though. They’ll replace your old crummy yellow CFL bulbs that will just depress you anyway.

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Alexandra Martin is a professional writer from Southern California who grows vegetables, herbs, lots of aloe vera and one giant Boston fern in her balcony garden. She also grows dracaena, pothos and English ivy indoors. She loves traveling and birdwatching in addition to gardening.