Ummmm, I've Got an Addiction

So yesterday I was supposed to go to Lowes and buy one succulent plant. Ummmmmmm... Oops. I bought 6 and two mum plants. But they were all discounted like 50%. So I still got a good deal. I still haven't told hubby that I bought more than one. I'm going to wait and see if he notices.

I don't know why I'm buying things that don't produce food. Normally I try to restrict myself to food items only. Otherwise my spending might get out of control. (Ooops.) But since I can't really grow many food items other than what are in my buckets, I might as well work on my succulent collection.

So first up is sedum nussbaumarianum and portulacaria afra 'variegata'.

Next is pleiospilos nelii (split rock) and crassula arborescens (ripple jade). The succulent above them is an unnamed jade plant that I started from a leaf that came off one of my other jade plants.

The last succulent I bought is about twice the size of the others but is a bit beat up. But that's ok. It'll grow new leaves and get big and beautiful. I've already taken some leaves that fell off and put them in some soil. This one is called echeveria 'perle von nurnberg'.

These are the mums I bought. These are chrysanthemum x morifolium in the red and bronze colors. They were just too hard to resist, being discounted and beautiful.

Now the striped leaves you see in these pics are from my large spider plant with all the babies. Well, I'm finally getting around to getting those baby plants rooted. The stems or whatever the baby plants come from are starting to dry up so they have to get rooted, like now. They're already on the way. They're already putting down new roots into the soil. Their leaves look a bit wilted right now because I waited too long to do this. Procrastination is one of my worse traits. But in my defense, I have had a lot on my mind lately.

In other news, I'm battling to keep my bucket veggies from being eaten by bugs and birds. I've lost a bucket of kohlrabi twice, I think I've completely lost my carrots and one of my pea plants, I've barely saved one of the buckets of beets. Those are from a bird that thinks my patio is a salad bar. I've hung up some old cds to swing in the sunlight because I've read the light that it casts as it turns startles birds. 

Then yesterday I found some tiny little black caterpillars on my mustard spinach and pac choi. Let's just say they've been delt with.

Ok, I've got to make sure the daughter gets ready and walk her up to her school. The school is just a 5 minute walk which is really nice to be so close since she's diabetic and I'll probably have to make trips over there in case something needs to be changed on her pump. But anyway, have fun and take care.

Succulents and Another 9 Months

Finally transplanted all the baby haworthias. Don't they look so cute? It's going to be fun to watch them grow and fill the containers. 

The haworthia has done so well in the original container, that I think I'm going to do this for my other succulents also and put them in window sills. Right now they're outside and it's been raining a lot and their pots have been getting flooded. I think I may lose one of my jade plants completely. The stem started to rot and I cut it off and put the good part of the stem in the soil. But it just kept getting flooded. So I've brought it inside and I'll see how it goes. I've got another succulent that has little babies growing out of the leaf nodes. I think I'll pop one off and see if I can get it to root.

So we decided to stay here another 9 months. We want to save up a really good down payment and we just need more time for that. It will also give us more time to get more of our finances in order and make our credit reports look as nice as we can. The 9 month lease we have now, and then another 9 month lease will take us to December of next year. Much longer than my heart wants to wait. But my head knows it's the better decision. Besides, a new home will be a nice Christmas present for all of us and will be a great start for 2016.

First Harvest and New Shelter

A pretty good day today. Pulled some radishes that were ready.

Then our canopy arrived and the kids helped me put it up. Didn't go up in 60 seconds like advertised. But I think that's partially my fault. But it'll definitely help keep us shaded in the heat of the day. And I can sit outside when it rains. I love the sound of the rain.

Zebra Haworthia and Painting Pots

I have a little succulent plant called a zebra haworthia. I've had it for a couple years now and it's grown some pups or baby haworthias.

I've been meaning to replant the pups for months now (luckily it doesn't grow very fast) and I've finally gotten around to painting some new pots for the babies to go in. The pots are simply 16 oz sour cream containers painted with a terra cotta shade of acrylic craft paint. Simply yet adorable. 

Painting containers is a great way to recycle any plastic containers that people usually just throw away. Sour cream containers, yogurt containers, butter containers. You can even cut the top off a bottle and paint the bottle. I find it easiest to paint a layer, go do something else while it dries and then do another layer. Since it's acrylic paint, it'll dry quickly. 

Use whatever color you like. Paint them all the same color for a themed look or do different colors and make a rainbow collection. Or if you have more artistic skill than me, you can paint pictures on them.

Flowers, Seedlings and Fruit Plants

Let's start out with this, shall we? Absolutely beautiful. I'm not big into flowers but I have to say that dahlias, daylilies and irises are my favorites.

Many of the things are sprouting in the buckets. Thought I would show these in particular because the bucket on the left are the beets. I made two little holes and (I could have sworn) planted two seeds per hole. That's what I do with all my seeds. But there are four seedlings per hole coming up. Same for the other bucket that I planted beets. The other bucket is spinach mustard. Or mustard spinach. One of those.

That reminds me. In the last four buckets I planted spinach mustard (or mustard spinach) in two of the buckets (like the above picture). In the other two I put pac choi like I grew in the window of our previous place. Hopefully I'll have better results this time.

In the big container, some of the radishes are almost ready to harvest.

My ozark beauty strawberries are putting out runners like crazy and I'm trying to give them every bit of soil to take root. At this rate, I might have 15 - 20 new plants just from the two I started with.

Then the other days hubby and I made a deal that if I did something for him then I could get more plants. So today I went to the local farmer's market and bought these for $10 each. I love end of season sales. The plant on the left is a celeste fig. I've wanted a fig tree since last year I think. Even though I've never had a raw fig. Guess I'll find out soon enough. The plant in the middle is a muscadine grape called noble. From what I just read it's a top choice for wine and juice making. Hopefully it's good for just eating also since I have no interest in wine. The last plant is a tifblue blueberry. I just looked it up and it says pollinate with a blueberry called climax. I did see that he had those too. I might have to make another trip. But the tifblue is supposed to be very hardy and makes large tasty berries.

And look! The fig tree already has tiny little figs growing. Hopefully they'll mature before our first frost. Some of you are probably thinking 'They'll be ready way before then.' But I honestly don't know how long it takes them to mature. Guess I should look that up.

Well, that's the updates for today. So I'll leave you with a group photo of the lovely purple dahlias.