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Comment by farrisbris | Hacker News Reader

Plants. I didn't have many before covid/wfh, but they really make the place more liveable/ejoyable by just being there and this became increasingly important as i spent so much more time at home

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Plants are amazing. I have created a small garden all using plants in the pots in my front patio at my apartment and have grown veggies such as tomatoes, bell peppers and lime along with flowering plants. I also keep a bird feeder and a bird bath nearby the bushy plants. Totally worth it as it keeps my and my wife's mood cheerful just by looking at bees, butterflies and hummingbird coming to flowers and birds coming to feeder and bath. It also keeps my engineering mind occupied with processes such as watering, fertilizing, weeding and pruning etc every few days to see outcome of more flowers and more veggies growing from well taken cared plants.

Same here. My better half got into it and now it's green everywhere with so many different species (some images: https://twitter.com/LaurasGarten) including various veggies like salad and tomatoes. Add the birds that visit the feeder I can see from my work desk and it's perfect. In general hiking though nature, which I've never really done before, has probably been the best activity I've picked up during covid.

Cats. They operate on the same principle.

Unfortunately, you can't have both cats and plants at the same time.

I do, you need to train them when young to leave them alone, and provider grass/entertainment so they have better options.

I got dwarf tomato plants this year, my very first attempt at growing tomatoes or any other vegetables for that matter. I'm growing them in containers on my patio. So far, they have sprouted two tiny green tomatoes each and, for now, they don't need a cage to support the growth.

Bonnie Plants Organic Husky Cherry Tomato Dwarf Indeterminate https://bonnieplants.com/product/husky-cherry-red-tomato/

Bonnie Plants Organic Globe Tomato Compact Determinate https://bonnieplants.com/product/organic-globe-tomato/

I also got a Serano Hot Pepper plant https://bonnieplants.com/product/serrano-hot-pepper/.

All three starter plants were about $4 at my local big box store.

Apart from these, I planted some green bean seeds and one of them has sprouted.

Last year, I bought a dwarf Meyer lemon tree which has lived up to its promise of growing well in a container and providing abundant fruit year-round.

I also bought solar-powered garden decor. These stakes look pretty during the day but at night they are absolutely magical. https://www.target.com/p/gerson-international-43-inch-high-s...

Fungus gnats and aphids and making this hobby a living hell for me right now. I’ve been watering my veggies with BTI and spraying aphids with Spinosad(sp?), any tips on ending this infestation nightmare? I’m so close to calling it quits. Have about 12 different veggies going in raised planter boxes.

I had a really bad fungus gnat infestation. I tried sticky traps, BT, and water with Fels Naptha soap. In the end, drying out the soil was the only thing that worked for me. I did it two different ways, but not sure if this is doable in your situation with veggies and planter boxes. For an avocado plant, I let the soil dry completely and then some before watering the plant again. The other was a money tree where I couldn't get the soil to dry fast enough, so I ended up repotting it with cactus mix. Once deprived of water, the fungus gnats disappeared.

Neem oil mixed with warm water and sprayed on the plants works pretty well.

Ladybirds (you can buy larvae which you can release in about 10 days) also works for aphids, they gobble them up.

Try: https://howmanyplants.com/post/bugging-out-tackling-common-h...

Recently, I did too. Being trapped at home during Covid, I wanted to pick up a new hobby. I was looking at fish tank, because while beautiful, they are also very geeky, researching plants and fishes. All those gadgets that go in the aquarium to maintain equilibrium sounded to me like setting up servers and loadbalancers. But margin of error is very small in fish tanks and upfront cost is huge.

So we decided to buy one plant per month instead. Plants are great, they look nice, can turn any boring room into a cozy space, and there is also a lot of geek factor when researching plants, maintaining proper watering and feeding routines but unlike fish tank, plants can survive when you are on vacation or accidentally over-water.

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