Seeds and More

My boyfriend got the gardening bug (for now anyway) and bought us some more seeds and 2 Anaheim pepper plants. So I planted the two plants in the pot in the front where the ranunculus bulbs failed to sprout. I was sure tired of watering them, and when I dug around in there I couldn't even find any bulbs. So they either disintegrated or something ate them. In the other pot I planted beet seeds and moss rose seeds, which are teeny tiny.

I've given up on raised beds this year. We just don't have the money and everything needs to be planted NOW. The seasons don't wait for procrastinators. That also means if it freezes again in May, we'll lose it all. But I waited as long as I dared to get a full growing season. I see I need a greenhouse, even if I just jerry rig one together. All my succulents died over the winter. Even the ones I brought up from Anaheim. And I love succulents, so something must be done. The swap meet in Huntington Beach has a great inexpensive collection of succulents, so next time we are down there I'll stock up.

Happy Kalanchoes

Sometimes you can find great deals if you know enough about plants to spot a good thing when you see it. A few days ago I spotted some kalanchoes in 3 different colors (pink, yellow and orange) at one of those dollar for everything stores.  They looked pretty sad. But they are succulents and tough little plants.  So I brought three of them home and let them overnight inside by house for 48 hours so they could adjust to cooler temperatures than inside a heated store. I didn't want them to freeze.  Then today I took them outside to plant them in a shallow bowl and they looked so much better. The leaves were nice and plump and the flowers were bright and happy. So for under $5 I got a lovely dish garden in fall colors.

Moving the Plants

This morning before it got hot I dug up some more jasmine roots and smoothed out the surface. Then I moved my white shelving unit over to the wall to put all my cacti and succulents on. It also has the terrarium and the spider plants on it. I just hope they don't fry. Before they were under the upstairs patio so they never got direct sun, but my boyfriend didn't want the shelf in the old spot anymore so I picked the best spot I could. It took me a long time to get all the leaves out of the succulents. I was being careful with the cactus and still managed to poke my thumb with some spines. The vines killed some of the succulents and the snails killed others so it's a pretty sad lot that I have left. I just hope they start doing better now that I've moved them to another spot.

Garden Photos

I've been super busy in the garden. Today I planted sunflower seeds.
I repotted a bunch of succulents. Then I bought a bunch more at the swapmeet. I couldn't resist getting 12 plants for $10. Here's some photos of my current gardening experiences. Hope you enjoy them. Comment and link me to your blog if you have one.

Epiphyllum Love

Thanks for following Mike.
Now that the epipyhllum is in bloom, it's a much lighter red than I was expecting. Just beautiful. I'll need to get out there today and take photos. If I recall right the blooms last a while.

I definitely want to spend some time outside today. It's going to be a perfect CA day. I never take our weather for granted. I know much of the country is still covered in snow.

The ice plant I put in the front yard in the 'bald spot' has grown like crazy in the spring rains and is about to burst into specatacular ice pink blooms. I'll finally be able to compete with the African daisies my neighbor planted in the yard across from mine. Everything else I had planted in that spot had died when the previous owner turned off the sprinklers. The new owner is really into landscaping and our new front yard looks posh.