Welcome to the Garden of Calathea
Hi Steemit,
After listening to @forexbrokr speak non-stop about Steemit and cryptocurrencies in general for the last couple of months, I've decided to finally take the plunge and open an account.
Welcome to the Garden of Calathea!
Who am I?
I'm an indoor gardener from Australia with over 30 varieties of plants in my tiny, balcony-less apartment.
On my Steemit blog, I'm hoping to be able to share some tips for looking after plants indoors, what worked and didn’t work, and to publish some photos of my efforts to date.
My Collection
My collection of plants is split between traditional indoor foliage plants and succulents.
I’ve always loved the beauty of foliage plants like calatheas... thus the name! As for the succulents, once I worked out how to propagate them, I was stealing leaves from everywhere.
I haven’t always been good at gardening, and I used to kill a lot of what I brought home, but I’m a doing a lot better now.
My peperomia and cordyline are both seeing better days now.
I do still have accidents (most recently, a club moss that didn’t like the 35C+ temperatures in my apartment), and I'm sure this will provide some content alongside my more successful stories over the coming months.
My Steemit Plan
I don't really have a set plan for my Steemit blog and I'd like to just see how things unfold.
The obvious topics that I hope to cover include watering, pests, propagation, and getting your plants to flower.
Around this, I'd like to feature individual plants that I have looked after.
Give me a follow and be a part of my journey.
- calathea
I'd love to read your comments, hear your thoughts or see your plant photos, so please leave a comment below.
calathea | Steemit Blog
Photos, thoughts and ideas
from the garden of calathea.
Hi @calathea welcome to Steemit!
What a funky ass indoor garden - my Mum would be jealous!
Hi @bulleth, thanks for checking out my indoor garden. What sort of plants does your mum grow?
She grows anything and everything - has to be organic though!
Welcome to Steemit! This’s my most pretty flower right now...
Hi @tandglese, thanks for the welcome.
Your orchid seems to be doing well, I love the colours! Thank you for sharing!
Welcome to Steemit. I look forward to seeing some more of your epic photos. I love the filters.
See you around!
Thanks for convincing me to get on board with this.
This is a great story Calathea. Keep up the hard work!
Welcome to steem :)
I'd love to read about your garden! I don't have many plants myself yet but mostly because I am scared that I am not treating them good.
Cool topics could be:
• How do you prevent mold in the earth?
• How do your plants handle their condition and when do you change pots?
• What earth do you use? And what is your opinion on coffee leftover to refresh it?
Hi @reggaemuffin, thanks so much for checking out my post. You shouldn't be too scared to try your hand at gardening, there are lots of plants that can be quite forgiving. Just remember, always better to under water than over water (and this will help with mold).
Your topic list is amazing, I will definitely cover those points and I have strong views regarding choice of earth/ potting mix - most people don't realise that peat (a large component of most commercial potting mix) is not really renewable and is quite destructive to the environment. I will definitely discuss alternative like coir!
Thank you for your response, I am following you and looking forward to your first in depth post on the topic :)
One quick question: What would you recommend when mold is forming on the earth? Is there still hope to save the plant somehow?
My recommendation would be to water the plant less, only when the top two inches of soil are dry. You can also sprinkle a layer of ground cinnamon on top of the earth - this will act as a natural fungicide.
You can also try putting the plant in a warm and sunny spot to help dry out the mold and kill it.
Worse case scenario, remove the plant from the pot and clean away all the mold from the plant's roots and stem. Then repot in fresh soil. If you're using the same pot, clean it out thoroughly. This method is the most traumatic for the plant.
Thank you, will try that out! There is not much sun at the moment, is there another way for a sunny and warm spot? Would putting it near the radiator work?
I probably wouldn't put the plant near the radiator, instead try putting it in a place that gets a breeze, like near a window.
Once the soil has dried out for the first inch or two, make sure that when you are watering the plant, the excess water is allowed to drain away.
You can also scoop the mold off the soil with a spoon, though try not to breathe any in. This probably won't stop it from growing back though and is more of a temporary fix.
I really hope this helps. Looking forward to hearing your results.
Your photography in this blog is wonderful and so excited ,
Hi @amjad11, thank you for checking out my post, glad you liked it. Let me know if you have any questions about gardening!
That's a really cool post
Welcome aboard 🌞
Hi @drwom thanks so much for checking out my post! Hope to see you around.
Welcome to steemit
Thanks for the welcome!
welcome, and what a gorgeous assortment of plants! sheer happiness, if you ask me :)
Thank you for the welcome and for checking out my post. Being surrounded by plants certainly does make me happier!
by your post you have lifted the mood. Really qualitative work. Excellent start on the project and I think many would agree with me ... I wish good luck
Hi @frank1in, thanks for your kind words!
Welcome to Steemit, @calathea. Now, this is different. Good that you really are honest about what you going to post or not in future. Keep doing what you do best and have fun. Steem On!
Thanks @firepower. I've always believed in sharing my knowledge about plants and I hope to do that on steem.
You are welcome. That's really good. Keep it up!