[Last week’s Part 1]
More from indomitable garden correspondent MaryG:
I read a lot about proper growing mixes for succulents over the years and have been able to do all kinds of experiments. The succulent world seems to be divided between two camps almost as vociferous as Republicans and Democrats. One says that 50% regular potting soil with 50% perlite is the thing and the other swears by “Al’s Gritty Mix.” This is one third fir tree bark chopped fine, one third Turface MVP, a red clay product used in baseball diamonds and other athletic field applications, and one third “GranitGrit,” which is fine granite gravel people feed to chickens.
All three were initially impossible to find, and I bought a bunch of stuff I thought might be good substitutes, whatever was cheap. Finally I found some fine fir bark at Petco on sale (it’s good for snake bedding) and broke down and bought five pounds of chicken grit off Amazon. It’s usually $14.64, but did you know if you look at something often enough without buying it, Amazon might start lowering the price? I paid $9.99. Still ridiculous for five pounds of rocks. I finally found out you can buy Turface at irrigation supply companies, and got 50 pounds of a different variety, Turface Pro, for $17. Just to be scientifically accurate, though, I bought two pounds of Turface MVP from eBay for $12, plus shipping. (Pro is a smaller particle size than MVP).
Gardener Dan has a wholesale license and he got me three identical two-inch pots of six different succulent plants for less than a dollar each. One set of six went into potting soil with perlite, one into Al’s mix, and one into my own, which is one third coconut coir, one third Turface Pro, and one third rocks of whatever kind I can find that aren’t expensive. HBM and I found a building materials place that sells 1/8 inch gravel in 75 pound bags for less than $20, so I am mostly using that now. I’ve tried Growstones and pumice, which are lighter weight, but they both float up to the top of the mix.
The potting soil with perlite plants did OK, but not nearly as well as the other two. Al’s Mix plants did the best, but only about 10-15% better than mine. Since the coir holds water about a thousand times better than the fir bark does, my mix needs lots less watering, I’m going with it. Seems to be working well, as you can tell by my nursery area.
Everything you see in this [top] picture is a free-to-me plant. They were all started as small cuttings from other plants, or grown from just one leaf pulled off a plant, and in the case of one cactus and one succulent, grown from seeds. This ledge only gets very early morning sun and is in shade the rest of the day, but it doesn’t seem to bother the baby plants. As they get older, I have to repot them and move them into a little more sun.
The ledge filled up and I did a bit of dumpster diving. A few of these on the top right were boughten plants, but all the rest are offsets and cuttings too. My front yard is still bare dirt, I don’t even want to get into why, except money, but when the time is finally here to redo it with drought tolerant landscaping, I should only have to get a couple of big agaves for statement pieces and the rest of the plantings can come from the driveway garden.
Just a note on watering the succulents. Here is my system: I save water in the house. There is a kitchen bucket. Partially melted ice cubes from the bottom of drink glasses go in it. Vegetables are washed over it. Stale water from cat bowls and flower vases too. I even stopped putting salt in the water that I make pasta in so it can be drained into the garden bucket. There are also shower buckets. My bathroom is about as far from the water heater as you can get and it takes a good minute for really hot water to come out of the shower spigot. I want to be green, but I cannot stand a cold shower on my arthritic joints. So I put the handheld shower head in a bucket and count to sixty, when the water is finally hot. This happens a couple of times as I turn the water off to lather then back on to rinse.
I end up with five to seven gallons of water in several partly-filled buckets for each shower, depending on how many times I lather, rinse, and repeat. I haul them out one by one to the driveway. I use a moisture meter and only water if it is below one on its scale, meaning the pot is completely dry all the way through. If the bucket is full enough, I just dip the little pots into it several times until the potting mix is good and wet. I hold each pot over the bucket until it stops dripping and move on to the next. If the water is lower or the pot is heavy, I put the plant into a dry bucket and use the ladle to scoop water into it. The same drop of water might pass through ten pots before it is done. It takes me ten days to two weeks to do a lap of the whole driveway.
I have only used tap water on succulents twice when I was using liquid fertilizer. In March I had to use probably six gallons and in July I used less than two gallons. Otherwise all water going into the succulents would have otherwise gone down the drain. My summer water use allowance is 14 units a month, and last month I used 5. The plants are thriving.
The less said about the patio and back yard the better, because I haven’t had the energy to get to them yet. Other people occasionally water, when they think I am not looking. The raised beds have all kinds of self-sown flowers and tomatoes and strawberries from last year, which get drip, but the succulents are struggling. It’s hard to get house water back there, because there are steps down to the back yard on the driveway side, and a bumpy ride on the mobility scooter to go around the other way, with water sloshing out. I have three new housemates living with me, and once I am sure that there is enough water in the budget I will look for some solutions to that. I have my eye on the clothes washer outlet hose, which drains into a sink in the garage.
**********
Here on the other side of the country, we’ve finally reached Tomato Harvest Season. After rejoicing over one or two ripe tomatoes or a handful of tasty cherry tomatoes every couple of days for the last month or so, I picked a good ten pounds of gorgeous variety on Wednesday, and another five pounds or so yesterday. Of course, that means it’s also Tomato Blight Season… spent several hours clipping off blasted leaves, some wilted and some yellowed. This afternoon, everything needs to be sprayed with Serenade, which means I need to figure out how to assemble the 2gallon sprayer still waiting in its box in the garage, because that’s more greenery than my weak thumbs can handle with a quart spray bottle…
What’s going on in your gardens this week?
Cervantes
Beautiful as ever, Mary.
Not to mention clever!
Betty Cracker
Snake bedding and chicken grit. I’ll be darned.
JPL
Mary your succulents are beautiful.
Another Holocene Human
My wife is jealous of Mary’s succulent game.
When we were in SoCal we stopped every 2 minutes for more photos of succulents.
One day I came home from work and there was a cactus outside the front door. And more succulents in the kitchen.
On the plus side, the cat rarely tries to eat them.
Another Holocene Human
Mary’s water reclaiming game puts me to shame. I go for drought-resistant plants and that’s it. Off to the municipal sewage treatment plant and then into the river to feed the oysters I guess.
Another Holocene Human
Fascinating. Might have to go the opposite route in North Central Flood-ida.
On the plus side, I have an excellent outdoor collection of Mushrooms! Mushrooms!
raven
It was really hot at 4:45 here in Beaufort. I took the dogs for a ride and came back to catch the sunrise from the bridge overlooking the sound. The breeze kicked up and it became tolerable. The old homes along the waterfront and in the historic district are beautiful. Lots of spanish moss and such.
OzarkHillbilly
The new normal. Well done Mary, well done. And beautiful succulents. My wife, having grown up in the Mediterranean, does not like them. I find them fascinating. When I finally have the time to invest in gardens that don’t produce food for the gullet but food for the eyes, I’m going to start sneaking them in to the landscape.
raven
Really nice Mary!
raven
Spanish moss
raven
And sunrise! Off to Editso.
JPL
@raven: I love that picture. It almost makes me want to visit.
satby
Mary, your succulent garden is amazing! I tend to kill succulents, not sure why. I’d like to try prickly pear cactus, which grows here in Michigan because I love prickly pear tea and it’s so expensive, but I think I could manage to kill even something that grows wild here in the dunes.
satby
@raven: Gorgeous!
satby
And in my garden of potted tomatoes, so far I harvested one small tomato and three smaller ones fell off the hanging plant when I did. The other plants all have blight, the Serenade doesn’t seem to help all that much. I’m still waiting for the other green tomatoes to ripen. We haven’t had rain now for almost two weeks, so everything is dry.
As is usually the case in August, I’m heartily sick of the whole veggie garden. The flowers are going gangbusters though.
PurpleGirl
Beautiful plants Mary.
In my other apartment I had cacti and succulents because I found them the right plants for the windows and my attention span watering. My first summer in the current apartment I tried some flowering plants but they seemed to burn up on my terrace. (Terrace gets full sun all day, its orientation is south-southwest.) I should try some succulents now. I do like having plants. I should also think about a watering routine, although I don’t think I could do something as detailed as your’s.
redshirt
You know that feeling when you can sleep-in but instead you wake up earlier than you normally do, and are exhausted, but can’t go back to sleep?
Yeah, that.
JPL
@redshirt: Yes. It doesn’t happen often, but today I woke up at 4:30.
redshirt
@JPL: I’m trying to find a word to describe it. Melancholy? Languid? Torpid?
The Thin Black Duke
@redshirt: How about “Meh”?
JPL
Trump is going to be on all the Sunday shows, except Fox. I need to do some yard work, but might watch later.
@redshirt: Languid, works
JPL
@The Thin Black Duke: Meh is just a fancy way of saying languid.
The Thin Black Duke
@JPL: I respectfully disagree; to me, the word “languid” has a pleasant connotation, like “afterglow”.
satby
@redshirt: That was me yesterday with my “Saturday ennui” comment.
redshirt
@The Thin Black Duke: Agreed. Languid is too nice. Languid is something you feel after a long summer day of picnicking.
redshirt
@satby: “Ennui” is close but not quite on the mark.
Another Holocene Human
@redshirt: Brain fog?
Cervantes
@redshirt:
Lassitude? Malaise? Lifelessness?
Another Holocene Human
ot: went way down the rabbit hole on @elonjames twitter feed. Christ, these people. I think he blocked like 24 people last night alone.
Btw, it’s open knowledge that the group who disrupted the Seattle rally were an anarchist group, not a leftist group per se. (They’re left-anarchists, but whatever.) So why all this bullshit about all Black people having to “answer for” a group calling themselves “Outside Agitators 206”.
And for all I know they did found or try to found a BLM chapter because lefty activists tend to cross over a lot. But the fact remains that they’re hardcore anarchists and BLM is a pro-democratic movement.
The blaming it on Hilary is so, so sad. Yeah, Hilary is funding anarchist front groups argle bargle. Lol.
ThresherK
My team (West Ham United) manages two yellow cards in the opening 7 minutes of the season. Time to tune out.
OzarkHillbilly
@Another Holocene Human: Blech.
redshirt
@Cervantes: There’s a sluggishness mixed with the disappointment of missing precious sleep. Also, life is good, so it’s not all bad. Confusing, really.
debbie
@redshirt:
“Disappointing.”
ETA: If I’d only read all the way through…
redshirt
@Another Holocene Human: I like elonjames but man, when he gets going, my twitter feed is nothing but him.
Gimlet
@Another Holocene Human:
it’s open knowledge that the group who disrupted the Seattle rally were an anarchist group, not a leftist group per se. (They’re left-anarchists, but whatever.)
So Bernie was right to not engage them at that point in time?
Emma
@raven: Wow. Just wow.
ThresherK
@Gimlet: At some point, I have to say “Yes”.
These folks are apparently impostors, and I have to think that they got camera time by calling themselves “Black Lives Matter”.
Without that misappropriated label, who would have cared what they did? Would this have had any media impact if they started chanting and waving flags labelled “Anarchists Disrupting!”?
Mary G
@raven: Your pictures are beautiful. So green, I’m jealous.
WaterGirl
I love succulents. I used to buy them, all but kill them (not on purpose!) and then give them to my friend Tina to rescue and then of course I would not ask for them back. After while I figured out that I could skip the whole “almost killing them” part, so when I saw a succulent that I couldn’t resist I just bought it for Tina. Now I enjoy them at her house.
@raven: That first photo is so beautiful it makes me want to be there. I take it you’re on vacation?
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
This is off the topic, but is anybody else having a hard time with the “contact an author” thingy at the top right? It won’t work for me. If any administrators happen to see this, can you check it out? I’d like to reach DougJ but I can’t get his e-mail.
Gimlet
@ThresherK:
So do you think they have any point to their activity besides “Look at me”?
Major Major Major Major
I’ve got four flowering San Pedro’s right now.It’s kind of glorious.
My father-in-law has the best garden ever. We went around it today. Two kinds of fig trees, two kinds of plum trees, something he called “chinese apples”, a bunch of kumquats and loquats, and dragonfruit. Probably something I missed too.
WaterGirl
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): When I click a name under “contact an author”, it opens my email program and automatically inserts the email address in the “to” field. What does it do when you click?
JPL
Meet The Press isn’t on here for another half hour, so I am reading the twitter feed. Trump said “Only a deviant would think that, Chuck. I didn’t even think that. Who would think it?” He also said When I was attacked viciously by those women, of course, it’s very hard for them to attack me on looks, because I’m so good looking.
lol
Baud
@Another Holocene Human:
I don’t know. Given what Bill did to the GOP with Donald Trump, anything is possible.
debbie
@raven:
I don’t know where all that moss is, but I can just about see Katherine Hepburn slowly descending in a wrought-iron elevator.
And how do those wires survive all that overhanging greenery?
gelfling545
Beautiful succulents. I am just beginning to appreciate them. I started with Sedum Autumn Joy just for a bit of color in the late summer/early fall & now have some Dragon’s Blood & a couple low growers whose names I don’t recall just stuck in the ground in difficult corners here & there.
My rain barrel is scheduled to arrive this week. The city is promoting free rain barrels in an effort to relieve some of the strain on the aging storm sewers. I was quite startled to hear that I am the first in my district to request one. They even send someone to install it for you. How cool is that?
Cervantes
@JPL:
Let’s just say you’re a glutton for funishment.
WaterGirl
@Baud: I have been thinking of you every day, Baud, since satby told me your sad news. I would give you a big hug if I could.
ThresherK
@Gimlet: Not sure, but I’d say they’re getting a lot more attention saying “Look at me because I’m Black Lives Matter”.
I don’t care for false flag operations, and this appears to be one.
Scorch
Ok. I don’t comment about politics online, life being short, but I have seldom been this angry either. I’m not here for an argument, but to offer a perspective maybe not getting across to the twitter babies.
As a white person–since we are going to be all about race now–I should explain many of ‘us’ do not want to be on the ‘side’ of whatever this blm attack-crap is. AT ALL. The rudeness, lack of respect, the ignorance, the cowardice of turning on those seeking the common good rather than ‘bringing it’ to actual culprits … it is stupid. So so stupid. I can’t really take it seriously except in a very negative way. I’m questioning the politics of this.
We have a black President … does he act this way? Is this how MLK did things? These are men who I respect; they showed the way to success. So why is this ‘black activist’ behavior modeled after the racist Right instead?
This is very serious. Frankly, if we’re going to be tribal, I’m white and you can just fvk this shit … no, actually I do NOT have to listen to unfocused headwaving scream-machine tantrums UNLESS I SUPPORT THE DEMS. Can this equation be figured out?
There is a whole nutter world ready to dismantle the black race with extreme prejudice, and I’m questioning why blacks are attacking a liberal. Figure this out quickly please. I do not wish to be on the stupid AND evil side.
I’m just giving you the perspective of an ally you are losing. I don’t want to be a part of this.
Fume away.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Thanks, WG. I’m glad to see you back from your break. I’ve missed your good cheer.
satby
@WaterGirl: @Baud: {{group hug}}
all welcome to join!
JPL
Okay, now I’m watching MTP. I won’t stay for the round table though, since Hugh Hewitt is on. Donald stands firm, no apologies. He said Chris Wallace had blood also. He questions whether or not there is a double standard because no one asked him to apologize to him.
JPL
@satby: hugs
JPL
haha… Trump….. He only attacked women who attacked him viciously. Of course, they wouldn’t attack him for looks because he’s so good looking.
When women attack him, it’s far more vicious than him criticizing their looks. (not a quote but in response to a question)
Baud
@satby:
{{Thanks all}}
The Thin Black Duke
@ThresherK: Cynical bastard that I am, the first thought that came to mind was, “Who’s paying them?”
Roger Moore
@redshirt:
Listless? Lethargic? Enervated?
satby
@JPL: Hugs back. And the dude is nuts like a fox, isn’t he?
Poopyman
@The Thin Black Duke: Agreed. After those near-sleepless nights I feel crappish. No confusion with pleasant experiences there.
OzarkHillbilly
Seeing as this is a garden thread, mine looks like a disaster area. Despite that, I continue to get more tomatoes than I can eat. The hot peppers and eggplant are plentiful, and there will be lots of beans for drying. While the squash plants are all but completely dead, that has revealed a bounty of winter squash for the storage bins. In other words, SNAFU but I still some how or other manage a decent amount of food for my troubles.
JPL
@satby: Hey, a few weeks ago, a fox ran across my yard, and the tail looked just like Trumps hair. There is a resemblance.
ThresherK
@The Thin Black Duke: I may be there cynicking with you. I’ll go one step further and point out that the “Brooks Brothers Riot” magically happened 16 months later in the election cycle in 2000.
Poopyman
@JPL: I’m beginning to think that Trump is starting to base his persona on The Joker. Consciously.
gene108
I was a channel surfing this AM and saw something that said “Joel Olstein” on it and having heard the name, but knowing nothing about him I picked the channel.
Oh…he’s a Christian minister on Sunday morning…no big deal…
Then the camera pans to the audience and he’s at a sold out baseball stadium (turns out to be Yankee stadium and the show is pre-recorded)…
How the hell does someone sell out (New) Yankee stadium to talk about religion. I mean at some point, don’t the preachers just get repetitive? What’s new that hasn’t been said over the last 2000 years?
But still…he sold out Yankee stadium…that’s impressive…
WaterGirl
@The Thin Black Duke: You are absolutely correct!
My first thought was to write “Yes!”. But I feared that was too close to yes! yes! yes! and that just didn’t seem right for a sunday garden chat.
ThresherK
The reason I’m a coastal elite is because of the light over the water at sunrise and sunset. It’s not called “The Magic Hour” for nothing.
Here is the sunrise on Nauset Beach, Orleans, Cape Cod, and here I am enjoying the surprisingly warm water.
Mike J
@ThresherK:
And are beating the Arse 2 nil in stoppage time.
Denali
@Gimlet,
Do we have to talk about Trump all the time?
ThresherK
@Mike J: I don’t want to be as superstitious as to say “Better things happen for them when I don’t watch”, but…
Mike J
@Mike J: Arsenal, 1951.
Gimlet
@Denali:
You’re fired!
OzarkHillbilly
@gene108:
The marks are new, they haven’t heard it all yet.
satby
@gene108: He’s the grifter that either came up with or popularized “prosperity gospel” : ” a Christian religious doctrine that financial blessing is the will of God for Christians, and that faith, positive speech, and donations to Christian ministries will increase one’s financial rewards”. AKA “blasphemy” if you actually listen to the teachings of Christ.
Helping people feel blessed in their selfishness was a brilliant marketing move. He’s done quite well for himself.
slag
I don’t garden at all, but I seriously found Mary’s succulent experiments riveting.
OzarkHillbilly
@gene108: It is unbeleivable how much money these people are able to rake in with this grift. Worked on a mega** church that was phenomenally huge. The auditorium ceiling ht was over 60 feet and the seating got within 12 feet of it.
**I say “mega church” but I don’t really know what qualifies. This one sat about 5,000 IIRC
Mike E
@Denali: Yuuuuuge!
Looky, Miss E adopted a friend and just let me in on it! She did copious research, visiting the shelter over a two week period…it was an early 20th birthday present to herself.
Glidwrith
Damn, Mary G – and here I was feeling all virtuous with my rain barrels and getting my family to shut off the water when they were lathering up. I just figured out I could use a pitcher when waiting for the hot water. I will be trotting right out to get a moisture monitor for the garden.
ETA: I’ve gotten the household down from 15-20 units to only 8 for four people.
ThresherK
@satby: As much as I don’t like Osteen, he cannot be blamed for inventing the prosperity gospel, or gusto gospel, on his own. It goes generations further back.
He did bring it into the current age, however. And now that the backlash to televangelical excess is itself a third of a century old, I shudder to think of what will be invented for the next technological frontier. Radio brought us Aimee Semple McPherson and Father Coughlin, but if those two had never been born, it would have been two other people.
ruemara
Tempted to say clear a room, I’m moving in, MaryG. However I’m pretty sure I’d wipe out the garden. Just got up, I’m out of eggs and it’s time to split the dough into what I’m freezing and what I’m baking. Beat to all heck since I haven’t gotten to bed on time all weekend.
JPL
@ThresherK: There was a protestant preacher in the mid eighteen hundreds who preached the value of wealth opening doors to heaven. I tried to google it, but darn I can’t remember his name. That was when they started getting away from the teachings of Christ.
satby
@ThresherK: You’re right, of course. But he’s had immense success peddling that travesty of “gospel”.
MomSense
Gorgeous, MaryG! You are inspiring.
ThresherK
@satby: The warped thing is, compared to other parishoners who’ve been told for generations to give money to demonstrate their worthy penury, so preachers can live lavishly, the idea of getting a lil’ somethin’ in return isn’t so bad.
I’m sure this tracks with the industrial revolution and income inequality. Some people (myself included) think that the Prostestant Work Ethic was invented to nag poor people into accepting that there is a reason that poor people had to have a work ethic lest they be unholy, whereas the newly expanding leisure class of dandies didn’t.
Linnaeus
About the only garden report I can make:
I’m visiting family in the Midwest, and my dad has a lot of tomatoes this year.
jayjaybear
I keep waiting for Osteen to unhinge his jaw and swallow a live guinea pig or something. The man’s positively reptilian.
tybee
@debbie:
very poorly. lots of power outages during storms. old oak branches, wet spanish moss…..craaaaack.
JPL
@jayjaybear: Worse than Trump.
debbie
@tybee:
Any talk of burying them?
tybee
@debbie:
running a trencher through the oak roots kills the trees. so not much talk about that in the older areas.
newer ones do usually bury the utilities.
in some of the old neighborhoods, the power lines are on poles and are behind the houses…where it is difficult to trim trees and fix downed lines.
Botsplainer
@Poopyman:
Trump is not the Joker – he’s Leroy Jenkins, saying “fuck it” and loudly releasing the Republican base id, heedless of consequences.
This is what the ever elusive Peak Wingnut looks like.
Savor.
Doug R
@ThresherK: I find the BC LIons do best when I have the TV on but I pretend not to pay attention.
Botsplainer
And actually, as I review the Leroy Jenkins video, the nerd leading the pack is just like the establishment GOP to Trump as Leroy.
Doug R
@satby: That’s just putting a shiny face on Calvinism.
PurpleGirl
@Mike E: Awww. Sweet puppy. Wishing Miss E many happy years with the special new friend.
Mike E
@PurpleGirl: :-)
Tree With Water
I’ve got three cactus in the same pot, with a Xmas cactus and longer, softer leafed type vying for supremacy (for sunshine). The long leafed plant looks a lot like the one in the photo above, that’s 5th from the left hand side, top of cart. At the moment, it appears to be a 50-50 race. Any guess how large each might get? It’s a large pot, with ample sun. Any guesses?