Gardening... and all that exciting stuff

[traingosorry]

I have some questions and I don't know if this is the best group to ask in CF but hopefully someone might be able to help me.

I've been put in charge of watching/watering/maintaining the garden that my aunt and uncle have so lovingly created and watched grow since the springtime. They've gone away for the long weekend and I hope to have everything looking exactly as they left it. The only problem has been that somehow, on my watch, some Miracle-Grow solution somehow found its way into the fish pond and now the fish are happily swimming around in mounds of white froth. :o

Story. of. my. life.

Amazingly the fish are the least of concern. I need to water these flowers and I've heard there's actually a particular way to water them so they don't get damaged. Wha?

I've heard they can burn and one can break them. Knowing my luck, I will do both of these things. Can someone please tell me how I will manage to do this so I can avoid it!

Meanwhile I will be outside scooping out bubbles and hopefully not giving mouth-to-mouth on some goldies.

 

[Tink]

What kind of flowers are they?

 

[Tink]

And are the flowers in a bed with a border, or just randomly planted?

 

[Llauralin]

Different kinds of gardens have different needs. Like, apparently it's legitimate to occasionally mix iron with the water, and in that case getting it on the leaves causes scorching. And if the weather's pretty warm, it's important that if you *do* get the leaves wet, you thoroughly water the plant, and don't just spray it, or the water will all evaporate, possibly scorching the plant as it does so. Didn't your aunt and uncle leave any instructions?

 

[canehdianhotstuff]

Only water in the mornings, early evening if they need it. Never water flowers directly on the leaves if they are in direct sunlight, it will burn the leaves. Try to always water just at the base of the plant.

The fish will be fine, miracle grow isnt toxic to them unless you dump a lot in, the copper will kill them, right now the excess phosphorus and nitrogen may just cause algae to grow faster.

 

[traingosorry]

What kind of flowers are they?

HAHAHA!

Me =

Pretty ones? I do know there are some roses and hydrangeas. That's all I've got. Totally not a greenthumb girl. Their garden is a mishmash of random flowers. I think they were going for that wild english garden look.

 

[traingosorry]

Only water in the mornings, early evening if they need it. Never water flowers directly on the leaves if they are in direct sunlight, it will burn the leaves. Try to always water just at the base of the plant.

The fish will be fine, miracle grow isnt toxic to them unless you dump a lot in, the copper will kill them, right now the excess phosphorus and nitrogen may just cause algae to grow faster.

Thanks so much Shawn, this does make me feel better and help me out. Some of the flowers are hard to get to (spiders and other creepy crawlies have barricaded me out) so I tried to water inside the leaves rather than showering the plants. And I gave them a good soaking, but not to the point of drowning the flower - if that's even possible.

 

[traingosorry]

Different kinds of gardens have different needs. Like, apparently it's legitimate to occasionally mix iron with the water, and in that case getting it on the leaves causes scorching. And if the weather's pretty warm, it's important that if you *do* get the leaves wet, you thoroughly water the plant, and don't just spray it, or the water will all evaporate, possibly scorching the plant as it does so. Didn't your aunt and uncle leave any instructions?

No instructions that's why I came here. And thanks to all who have responded, I can totally count on you guys!

So I just watered them using the waterhose... and I didn't add anything. So do you suggest I go back out and water the leaves? It's smoking hot out there.

What to do?

 

[canehdianhotstuff]

If it is hot do not water the leaves now, wait till later this evening.

 

[traingosorry]

If it is hot do not water the leaves now, wait till later this evening.

Awesome. Will do. Thanks so much again.

 

[Inkachu]

My mom has a huge flower garden, spread all over the yard. If it rains, there's no need to water. If it doesn't rain, give everything a good soak in the evening, using a nice, gentle spray from the hose (think "rainfall" not "firehose" lol). One weekend won't kill anything; you'll be just fine

 

[smacarena]

All I know is that fire kills plants. Wish I had found that out a little sooner.

 

[Tink]

Think about this - plants get water from the roots. You don't need to water the leaves at all.

My grandmother (who once grew a tree from a stick - SERIOUSLY) told me this a long time ago. She's got the greenest thumb ever.

And I think you're going to do fine. They're lucky you're willing to try and if they were very worried about it they would have left instructions.

 

[Keri]

It's super hot here ...103 today... I water in the morning and evening if they're dry. If it's just for a weekend and you're watering every day, then you should be fine.

 

[traingosorry]

Thanks again everyone who helped! Flowers are still alive and haven't lost their blooms and the fish are still swimming! The grass — not so lucky.

 

[welshman]

This.

I had to laugh when I read the O.P Made my day! lol I did have some sort of alternative illustration to compare you to but I won't post it because you might go bonkers on me

Hope the flowers are doing okay

Only water in the mornings, early evening if they need it. Never water flowers directly on the leaves if they are in direct sunlight, it will burn the leaves. Try to always water just at the base of the plant.

The fish will be fine, miracle grow isnt toxic to them unless you dump a lot in, the copper will kill them, right now the excess phosphorus and nitrogen may just cause algae to grow faster.

 

[traingosorry]

I had to laugh when I read the O.P Made my day! lol I did have some sort of alternative illustration to compare you to but I won't post it because you might go bonkers on me

haha It was probably accurate!