Indoor Gardening
I enjoy gardening too much to limit myself to just the summer months. In autumn I bring many plants inside to spend the winter with me. I also have several potted plants that would not survive naturally in my Wisconsin winters.
Whitefly Outbreak
The first noob mistake I made was to bring all my plants in and spread them around the house. Some even close to my indoor plants. This is how I started a whitefly outbreak in my house. Once I found out what they were and how to kill them it became a kind of game to hunt them down. I used insect killing soap as my initial attack. After spraying each plant in the bathtub to soak all the leaves, front and back, I tried to keep them away from other plants until I got them all done. Somehow they started to re-appear so my next step was to buy a small vacuum that was meant for cleaning computer keyboards and go around vacuuming my plants when I saw them. I didn't expect much from the little vacuum but I was very impressed with how well it worked.
The next spring I planned ahead and planted several of my peppers in the plastic pots that small trees and bushes normally come in. When it came time to "plant" them in my garden I buried another pot of the same size so I could nest it in and still be able to remove it easily in the fall. When fall came I pulled up the pots, sprayed them for bugs, and brought them into my basement. I was able to enjoy fresh peppers well into December. My next step is to see what kind of light/heat they need because they didn't flower once they came inside.
Growing Exotic (for Wisconsin) plants
Banana Plants
I bought a couple little banana plants last year and had them outside all summer. They are once again wintering in my Kitchen near the patio window. I was amazed that in one year they went from about 3 inches to about 24 inches tall. These give a very nice exotic look to a patio...or a kitchen =)
Elephant Ears (Caladium)
I also have elephant ear plants in pots so I can bring them inside rather than dig up the bulbs every fall. I have not found any bugs coming in on either my elephant ears or banana plants.
Dwarf Citrus Plants
2 years ago I bought the "Dwarf Citrus Collection" from Directgardening.com. This collection includes one each of the following citrus: orange, lime, lemon, and tangerine. I have them all in containers that I leave outside all summer and bring back inside during the cold months. After 1 year I had a couple blossoms but have gotten no fruit yet. I was surprised to see these have pretty large thorns on the branches! I have had no problem keeping these alive indoors or out.
Tea Plants (Camellia sinensis)
My latest project has been growing tea plants from seeds. I tried this in previous years with zero germination so I had low expectations to go with my high hopes. This time around I bought them from greenteaplants.com. At the time I bought 50 seeds in hopes of maybe 10 or 20 plants so I could have a few extra to give away. I received my 50 seeds in January of 2012 with 5 extra seeds thrown in.
Germinating Tea
Method 1: Plant the seeds. Pretty straight forward.
Method 2: Soak the seeds in warm water overnight.
Method 3: Nick the seeds with a nail file and then soak them overnight.
I had success with all 3 methods, but Method 3 seemed to have a higher success rate. It took a while though, and for a while I thought I would get no plants. After a month I gingerly dug a couple up to see what was going on. There were roots starting so I apologized and put them back where they were. It was a couple of months before I saw them break through the soil and I figured I was home free. It turns out, for reasons unknown to me, some plants died within months of sporting leaves. I now have 10 plants that I think will continue growing. To make sure I didn't kill all of them, I treated them differently by only putting some of them outside through summer. The ones that were out there are now twice the size of the others so I will take a bigger chance this coming summer. My next challenge will be to learn how to start new plants from cuttings once these are big enough to afford losing a branch.
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