I'm Fruity!

More than one meaning to that title. But let's concentrate on something that's doesn't have anything to do with my mental health. Like fruit trees!

The three plants in the picture are (left to right) an Elberta peach tree, a  lake emerald grape vine, and a golden delicious apple tree. Lowes decided to be evil and offer several types of fruit trees and bushes. I would have liked to get more than this but, yet again, I didn't want to spend too much. Also, an update of the pear tree that I got from Biglots about a month back, its dead. I broke off the branches and it had no green in it what so ever. Oh well. I thought I would give it a chance but I guess it was too far gone.

I've had another bit of a disappointment with my succulent.

See the dead thing in the top right corner of this container? That's one of my split rock succulents. It used to look like the one in the bottom left. But I think a couple nights of heavy rain blew in on it. These like to stay very dry. So I think it just rotted from getting too wet. The other one is doing fine and hopefully it'll bloom in the spring and just maybe I'll get some viable seeds.

Everything else is doing well also. Since the echeveria in the middle lost so many leaves around it's stem, I'm thinking of cutting the top part off and rooting it. Then the stem will resprout some more leaves and I'll have two plants. I also want to paint this container and put something decorative on the soil. But I don't want to use gravel or anything because I'm afraid the weight of it will compact the soil. I'll have to research options and give it some thought.

And here's a succulent leaf I found that had fallen off of it's original plant. I've had it sitting on it's side for about two weeks and it's starting to grow some roots. Next it'll start growing little plantlets.

And the last update for this post will be my sprouting red Russian kale. I have the bottles over them mostly to protect them from the birds. (I swear, in Ohio it was the squirrels digging in my buckets. Here it's the birds eating my salad greens.) I planted two more buckets with the kale and every seed I planted is coming up. This stuff just grows so good for me. I love it.

I also made this bucket with vermiculite in the bottom to about where I drilled the drainage holes in each sides. Then I put the landscape fabric to keep the soil separate. And then, of course, the soil. With my other buckets the soil goes all the way to the bottom. But with the soil/manure and reservoir in the bottom, that area is always wet and anaerobic bacteria can grow and sore the soil. Kind of how a bog smells because it's always wet. So this bucket is also an experiment to see if the plants do better with a neutral based medium in the reservoir.

Anyway. That's it for now. Have a good one.