I have one happy cactus in my terrarium blooming away, one that wanted to bloom and I either missed it or it changed its mind, a few that are holding steady, one that slowly died, and one that bit the dust within days of replanting. I put up an artificial light that runs 9 hours a day (my choices are 3, 9, or 12), and water sparingly once a week. Here is the original post.
When my jewel orchid failed to thrive in my mossarium, I transferred it to an old fancy Ball jar filled with moss in a south west facing window covered in a translucent frost window covering. It was happy there, so happy that it started on a new leaf.
There are two problems with the canning jar container: one, I can only see the jewel orchid when I open the jar; two, if the orchid gets happy enough to bloom there is no room for the flower spike. So I purchased a tall clear acrylic vase, transferred the orchid and his moss to a different canning jar, and used the vase as a lid.
I can now see the orchid, and if it sends out a flower spike, it has somewhere to go. He remains happy in his new home, as his leaf opened fully with no curling or discoloration.
I have used little peat pellets this year to start my basil and pepper seeds. Maybe they will actually make it outside this year.
I’m very thankful for farmers, since I can only occasionally grow basil and peppers, and bomb out on everything else.
I’ve known for a while that the downspout diverter for my rain barrel wasn’t working. My rain barrel wasn’t filling, and even when it did the algae growth was so vigorous that the barrel wouldn’t drain. The design of the “barrel” mimics a giant rock, but there is no way to get in and give it a good clean, so the system sat until I could formulate a plan. Then I noticed that the soil was washing away from around the barrel. Hm. When it rained, no water was going down the spout. I took out the diverter and found an entire tube full of dirt made from decayed leaves and roof tile grit.
I reassembled the downspout without the diverter and spread the new dirt where the rain had washed away the soil. I found it interesting that there was enough to fill the space.
I’m still working on a plan for the rain barrel.
This is an update for my long time readers on my Thanksgiving cactus, which in my house blooms from December to March, approximately. It is growing! Since it is up against a north facing window, the growth is to the sides, but the stems touching the window get cold enough to trigger flower buds, then I turn it around so we can see the blooms. By the time it one side is done blooming, the other has new buds so I turn it back around.
I water it once a week for a count of three, and occasionally remember to fertilize. No banana for scale, but the window is 35” inches wide.
Critters and Craft 