The rain has finally decided to give us a break of more than two straight days, which is a record for this year. It rained a littleThursday, but I went plant shopping anyway, umbrella in hand. I found a one-gallon Nandina and Ilex crenata, and a three-gallon Loropetalum, all with the intention of creating bonsai with them. Then I went to Lowe's to see what they had, and found a new shipment with more one-gallon Ilex crenata, a few different species of juniper and Mugo pines, which I've been looking for. I found one of each with promising bonsai potential, then found a clearance rack with more juniper and chose three more with potential. I brought them home and began working with them Friday, until dark, then got back to them Saturday. Some small bonsai training pots I'd ordered came in Saturday, just in time for freshly prepared occupants.
The juniper in the second photo that is wrapped in white cloth is being trained in "root over rock" style, and the cloth will come off at least halfway next year. It already had great roots that I could've left exposed and it probably would've done fine, but I wanted to be sure it did well. The one-gallon Mugo pine actually had two plants in it, and both had fantastically formed large roots! One will be simply exposed root style, while the other is being trained over a rock. I haven't included photos of them because the roots are currently hidden in deep pots being trained and, frankly, young Mugo pines still have long needles and are unimpressive. But they both have great potential and I'm looking forward to getting the needles trained down to a suitable size.
Sunday I worked on the popcorn popper cart terrarium, and it's 95% finished; I still have to add moss and replace the light switch with the newly-arrived LED dimmer switch, but here are some photos of it so far:
For the substrate, I used one inch of some small aquarium gravel from the 1960s that I inherited from my mom and would never use in an aquarium, since it's a mostly light green confetti mix. Not my style, as I prefer more natural colors. (Hey, in my mom's defense, it was the '60s, the psychedelic era!) I placed a thin layer of activated carbon on top of that, with plastic canvas (like for cross-stitching) cut to fit, then nylon window screen on top of that. The growing medium is about 1/2 coconut fiber terrarium substrate (which pretty much has no nutritional value for plants, but holds moisture well) and 1/2 potting soil. I cut the bottom off of a prescription bottle and cut vertical slits at the bottom, and installed it into a corner hole cut in the plastic canvas and screen so I would be able to see the depth of the water table. I placed a cylindrical rock that fit snuggly in the top of the bottle to act as a lid and keep the substrate out of the hole. I'll let the plants settle in and then add moss, and swap out the dimmer switch later. At that time I'll take some photos of the modifications in the top, including the Vienna Sausage cans used as recessed lighting fixtures for the LED spotlights.
I decided to get the back garden patio cleaned up for Spring. The large pine it's under had shed a ton of needles over the winter, so I had to rake needles then blow the little trash off with the blower. I fished the old stalks of Ribbon Grass out of the half-barrel water feature (man, that water was COLD!) and trimmed off last year's dead blades with scissors, along with a few adventurous early new growth, since I wasn't about to pick through that thick tangle to spare the few blades of new growth! You'll never know it in a month, anyway. I plugged in the pump for it that I had unplugged for the winter, along with all the lights on automatic timers.
I repaired the expensive hose (now two shorter hoses) I had run over with the lawnmower last year. I thought I could salvage one part for short connecting hoses, but about 20' was chopped every 6", so all that's good for now is protective padding for wiring and clamping bonsai. That won't happen again, now that I extended the waterline across the back yard. Which, I'm happy to report, is working perfectly, since the kinks and idiosyncrasies seemed to have worked themselves out. (Yay!)
After getting the patio cleaned up, I wanted to stay out and enjoy it with the lights on and torches lit, but it was getting rather chilly, so I retired to the warmth of the house.
Last year, I had used wire clips to hold the little solar lights to the ceiling of the play house I got for my granddaughter, but the adhesive pads on the clips didn't hold, so I bought some new double-sided tape, and I'll re-stick those tomorrow, when it's warmer. I can't complain about the adhesive clips not sticking well, since they were over twenty years old! They were in my dad's things I have in storage, a stockpiled collection of all kinds of handy things I draw from often, and think of him when I do.
I didn't get everything replaced from moving stuff to clean under, so I'll do that tomorrow, as well. Then there's the flat mower tire to repair so I can mow the back garden, finishing laying out the drip system, repairing the pond liner and digging the small pond, getting the tractor and grader blade from my other property so I can do the desperately needed landscaping in the front yard and the desired landscaping in the back garden so I can go forward with putting plants actually in the ground permanently instead of in temporary pots.
Which reminds me, a few weeks ago, I went over to my 10 acres and collected some paperwhites and daffodils, ferns, moss and three 6'+ Sycamore trees to plant here. They were growing out of the asphalt of the old driveway, so I wasn't able to make the hole very large and get the size of rootball I wanted, so I'm hoping they recover in the pots I put them in. I may have to trim some foliage to keep it from taxing the compromised root system too much until the roots can catch up. Everything I collected is in pots, and there are still some more plants I want from over there, like some mimosa, spiderwort and lyreleaf sage, as well as some antique roses that are growing wild. I should really get back over there to collect plants soon, before they get ramped up for Spring, so they aren't stressed too much. I may have to put off doing some of the things in the back garden that aren't time sensitive and go collect those plants.
Radly
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