Perhaps we need a greenhouse forum?

[JennyC]

Or a general indoor gardening/ winter gardening forum? I'm looking at cold frames, at least, for the winter. Also going to experiment with growing collards outside in winter, maybe a few other things. I don't know where to talk about that stuff or where to look for advice from those who've been there before me.

Seems to be some interest out there -- what does everyone think?

[cynthia_h]

I dunno. I think it's good to see a--hmmm--cross-pollination of ideas w/regard to growing of veggies, flowers, whatnot in greenhouses/containers. And not just in the "Container Growing" forum.

Maybe we could just expand the definition of the Container Growing forum to be something like "Non-Traditional" or "Indoor and/or Container Growing"?

Just throwing these into the hopper for suggestions.

I'm actually in favor of consolidating some of the forums into larger groupings...e.g., grouping Lilacs, Hydrangeas, Trees, Shrubs, and so on under one umbrella of "Woody Plants" and then having their own sub-forums. But that's a whole 'nother thang.

Sometimes, when I'm just beat to smithereens, my "southren accent" (yes, southren as in brethren and children) comes out and mah vowuls lah down flayt. And ah'm soooo tahred today...

Cynthia H.
USDA Zone 9, Sunset Zone 17

[JennyC]

Maybe container gardening is the place. It does seem to be a lot of trouble to make a new forum (or rather to move posts into a new forum).

Trust me, you can't speak a Southern I can't understand! I teach my writing students about the Southern Subjunctive:

"Ethel Mae, if I'da knowed you'da wanted to gone to the church supper, I'da seed that you'da got to went!"

[cynthia_h]

After all, a greenhouse is a container, albeit a larger one than usual.

DH was born and raised *sigh* in the SF Bay Area. I was born in Virginia and raised in the US Air Force, including a mom born in Texas raised in Louisiana and Florida and a dad born and raised in rural Florida by English immigrant parents. I spent long years also in Texas and Florida, then in Atlanta.

But somewhere along the line, I picked up good southren speech. I am bidialectal in Standard American and Southern (var. Georgia). One night, when DH and I had been together for at least FIVE years, I was just dead on my feet.

The vowels went flat, and I said something like, "I'm fixin' ta get ready ta change clothes ta go ta bed."

He went, "What?"

I repeated it.

" 'Fixin' ta'? What's that?"

I then realized that, yes, this was yet another southren speech pattern, along with, oh, "Yeah, I might could do that." Which also flummoxed him the first time he heard it. What a sheltered life...

I think of it as the "Anticipatory (Very) Near Future" tense. Makes perfect sense to me and millions of other Americans. Not my fault if a d*mn Californian can't understand perfectly good English....

Cynthia
ya can take the girl out of Atlanta, but ya can't take Atlanta out of the girl

[webmaster]

Greenhouse gardening is an important topic. Adjusting the container gardening forum to include greenhouses is an interesting idea. What does everyone else think? Should we have a separate forum or should we add it as a subforum or just rename the container gardening forum to include it?

Please feel free to voice your opinion on this because THG forum is all about what the members need. Most of what's been done (or not done) for the forum has been based on your input. So please feel free to contribute your ideas.

Re the Southern accent, I'm quite fond of it, particularly the Georgia variant. When I was younger I had a mentor and a friend who was originally from Louisiana. He once set a co-worker on edge when he asked her to fetch something for him. He grew up in an orphanage and was fond of Elvis because Elvis gave away front row tickets so that underprivileged kids like like himself could attend. It was among the biggest thrills of his life.

[hendi_alex]

I don't really see that strong a relationship between container gardening and greenhouse gardening to tie the two together. Most container gardening IMO deals with deck and patio plantings, the placement of specimen plants in lovely containers in certain areas of a yard, and to a less extent container grown vegetables and herbs generally grown outside. Perhaps a couple of other, more related categories could be combined, and that would free space for a greenhouse forum without the site becoming too cluttered and continuing to give a one page view without too much scrolling. It would seem to me that Bonsai, container gardening, and even perhaps Japanese gardening could fit together fairly well. Hydrangea and lilacs would be more appropriate as sub groups under shrubs, trees,hedges. So would seem to me that there is some room for renaming some categories and placing other forums under those as natural sub categories. I think that topics like greenhouse, growing orchids and tropicals, asexual propagation, starting you own seedlings, and a few other topics could fit together as a fairly natural group with subgroups.

Alex

[Newt]

I think a separate Greenhouse/shadehouse/hot house forum would be a good idea.

Newt

[minnesota_girl]

I often start seedlings indoors, here it can be necessary if you want to see blooms the 1st year. I don't know about a greenhouse forum but I think we need an indoor gardening, or winter gardening forum.

[MaineDesigner]

My knee jerk response is to group greenhouses, hoop houses and cold frames together separate from containers. Eventually some further splitting might be appropriate but that seems like a good place to start.

I would strongly oppose lumping Japanese gardening, bonsai and containers together. They are three completely different disciplines in my mind. Japanese gardening almost never uses containers although they are frequently used in some Chinese gardens. I think the bonsai people would be deeply offended by the suggestion that what they are doing is somehow the equivalent of potting of pelagorniums

Interior ornamental plants seems like a homeless interest right now. As I read it the container forum is about 60% edibles and 40% annuals, tender perennials and bulbs but almost always outside in both cases. Maybe container edibles and ornamentals could split at some point?

[JennyC]

Interior ornamental plants seems like a homeless interest right now. As I read it the container forum is about 60% edibles and 40% annuals, tender perennials and bulbs but almost always outside in both cases.

Ah. I think we would immediately hit upon a similar ornamental/edible split in a potential greenhouse/hothouse/coldframe/indoor/whatever forum...

For example, when I suggested a greenhouse forum, I was thinking edibles, extending the veggie garden season, growing salad through the winter, starting seedlings for next year. For Alex, it immediately included his orchids (of course). You thought of interior ornamentals right away. In other words, I don't think that another forum will fix that particular problem -- if problem it is. I prefer to think of it as "diverse interests."

I agree with you about the bonsai/ container business. And there are enough urban dwellers here to really justify a container forum alone, I think -- not that you have to be an urban dweller. I read it regularly and fully intend to try some container tomatoes next year to see if that helps the hornworm battle.