the book of CACTI and Other SUCCULENTS

I guess I talk about my plants an awful lot and well, here's some more of that! I found this book while thrifting last year, but only really began to appreciate its usefulness with my own recent burgeoning cacti and succulent garden. A clarification I was happy to read in this book is that cacti are the "best-known" family of succulents, but all succulents are not cacti (!!!).

I love love love illustrations in old books. It doesn't even matter what they are of, but man, look at these! The close-ups of cactus blossoms and bracts, the image of the lady for scale, and the impeccably handwritten labels matched with the arrows. Amazing.

Propagation methods...

This rolled newspaper trick was such a helpful tip for some of my spinier friends. And the watering tip - essential. Ever since A gave me this baby barrel cactus, I've been keen on collecting my own specimens, but I find that I usually cannot resist the $2 succulents at Home Depot when I make a visit.

Cactus medley! I've been a little lax about identifying all of these...I think most of them are in the Opuntia tribe, except for the one on the bottom...

Aloe vera, jade plant, hen & chick, and Sedum.

It's easier to label these images if you actually know the names of all the plants...!

Last week I came home to see all the pots neatly grouped together, and some of my succulents in glass (on the far left) had been rearranged. The work of mischievous/thoughtful gardeners, I believe! As the days continue to get longer, I like to sit out on the porch with a cup of tea as I watch the last vestiges of sunlight stretch, linger, then fade away.

of succulents & gardening

I was going to take step-by-step shots of my first time assembling a succulent terrarium, but sifting through rocks and dirt and plants totally triumphed over documenting the process that day. So presented here is a shot of the gravel I used to line the glass vessels...

...and BAM, like that - a terrarium! Actually no, so once you have the gravel layer (which is for drainage), add a layer of dirt (in which you plant the plants), and top it all off with a layer of sand. Look at that poor bear's paw (Cotyledon tomentosa) looking positively beaten UP thanks to my haphazard sand-sprinkling. I am usually attentive to details, but I very much felt like I had oaf hands that day while putting these terrariums together.

The vessels I used were a small round glass fishbowl I snagged at a thrift store for $0.69, and a cognac glass my friend randomly gave to me last week!

This month over the last several weekends, when I'd finish up with errands and it was still light out (or not, actually!), I've been pretty dedicated about "gardening" to brighten up the place outside. I use quotes around 'gardening' because I feel like whatever I've been futzing around with - a handful of terra cotta pots and bags of soil/perlite for a container garden dramatically pales in comparison to the hours upon hours I remember of my mother spending outside in the garden - tending to every tree, shrub, flower and sprout that needs pruning, cleaning, weeding or uprooting. I remember as a kiddo I'd get bored after raking leaves or pulling weeds and would instead climb trees and play in the mud, while sometimes guiltily realizing I could be helping with the yard work. As I've gotten older I've realized that in order to have a beautiful garden, a lot of hard, totally unglamorous work is required to maintain and be able to appreciate that beauty. And that can be said of so many other things too. Anyhow, I'm not bashing on container gardens/amateur/inexperienced ANYTHING by any means - many endeavors often start off humbly; I guess I just don't want to puff out my chest and claim myself a master gardener just yet. Sometimes there is too much self-awareness going on around here, geez.

One of my friends overseas remarked that when I speak to him about my plants I make them sound like people, which isn't too far from the truth. I have continued to stay under the radar, so in between work and cooking meals and working on projects, I try to give my plants the attention I would provide otherwise to...my friends :X.