Chapter Two in the Succulent Saga, and more kitchen thrills and spills

So the little leaves I collected the other day having developed a dry, sort of calloused end where they came off the plant, it was time to move them onto potting mix.  They talk about using trays for this, but I figured with this small a number, just move them right into pots and see what happens.  

The fiber is coco fiber, comes in a compressed little brick, looks quite tiny, until you hydrate it and now you have a bucket of material to work with.  They say put it in a container without mentioning what size.  I'd heard that this stuff is surprising, so I used a large bucket, just as well.

So here are the three pots with two occupants each, just doing nothing for a few weeks, I guess.  I found another great idea for my next adventure in this, a box garden.  You cover the top with hardware cloth, the box being filled with potting fiber, and insert tiny succulents through the meshes, in a tasteful design, or just random depending on your mood.  

All I need is a bit of hardware cloth, to get going on this. I have a wooden box.  Once this gets rooted and under way, it can be hung on a wall or somewhere. So that's a future experiment.  There will be plenty of chicks from the hen and chicken flock in the strawberry pot, plus I can swipe some leaves from neighbor, and we'll see what else I can add.

They suggest attaching the hardware cloth (you know that half inch galvanized mesh stuff you use for fences, not really cloth), and then inserting the mix through.  But I see no reason not to fill the box then attach the hardware cloth, then all you need do is insert the plants. When I try it I will no doubt find out why they say to push the mix through after attaching the hc.

I repotted a big crown of thorns plant today, way too tall and leggy and spiky looking.  I don't much like doing this, because those spikes are really deadly.  But I just cut off the tops a few inches below the top foliage, and stuck them into a pot of soil.  No special attention given.  Then I read up on how to do it, and found that real gardeners do all sorts of things I never have.  But I notice that my crown of thorn plants don't seem to mind, in fact I keep trying to give away the extras I end up with.

The repotted stems look pretty good already, given that they're just precariously pushed into the soil.  They'll root pretty soon. The parent plant and rootball are just lying around outside in the groundcover at the moment, and I realize I can pot that up again, because new leaves will push out of the stems again.  These plants have a lovely pink flower, very small, very pretty, and often in the middle of the winter just when you can use a flower or two.


I also realized that my Autumn Joy sedum is a succulent, duh, hadn't thought of that. So I'm trying a few leaves taken off that, too, and see what comes of it.

Meanwhile back in the kitchen, that same cookie sheet which refused to release the bread rolls did the same with a batch of sugar cookies, even though I had remembered to grease it.  Very annoying.  But when stuff happens, reframe the issue, which I did.

I chipped off the cooked cookie crumbs, and used them as a crumble topping for a nice holiday dessert, for Handsome Son, visiting last evening.  

Local blueberries, cookie crumbs, then some fake whip (you have to have some bad food at holidays), and it made a dessert which vanished at warp speed.  I also resolved to use parchment paper from now on for that baking sheet, which is far too expensive to be doing stuff like sticking.

Something weird about having the Fourth on a Tuesday, though.  All the other holidays are now celebrated on the nearest Monday, so this is one that can't move, and nobody seems to remember what day is which and when the holiday is.  I was amazed to find the library open today, and mail delivery, and ordinary things happening.

My plans for the Fourth are to loaf about, mainly.  Very hot again. 

Enjoy your Fourth, or your fourth, depending on which it is for you.  May the Fourth be with you...