Something Green
When I happened upon Maggie Mason’s Nesting Terrariums over at MightyGirl the other day in a fit of blog catch-up I breathed a bit sigh of lovely. Something green. Finally. My gardnerself has been withering under the nasty weather we’ve had on the west-coast of Canada this winter. Too much rain, too much wind and then snow, and more snow and then some snow again. We’re used to seeing plenty of green mixed in with our grey winter skies and this has just been a bit too much. Today it is warming up and they say the last of our snow will be gone by tomorrow. While I was tempted last week to start a terarrium project of my own just to get my hands back in some kind of dirt, I think I’ll spend some time this weekend bundled up against the wet and so a thorough survey of my waterlogged garden to see how it is surviving. From the cursory glances I’ve given it since the snow started to melt, things aren’t looking to pretty, perhaps I’ll take a queue from Gayla’s full disclosure post a few days back and share some of the ugly with y’all. Bet you can’t wait!
January 21st, 2007 at 9:45 am
What a great blog, thanks for turning me on to it!
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:09 pm
Oh, they’re so lovely! I bought some succulents in the summer at the farmers market, and one is already dead. It was a Sedum rubrotinctum (pork and beans), and it finally gave up over the weekend. I don’t know what went wrong, but slowly and surely over about four months, it shriveled up an died. I would really like to get a new one and try again cause they’re so pretty when they’re healthy. Maybe it would be more happy in a terrarium?
January 24th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
Terrariums are the worst places for most succulents. A shallow dish with good air circulation around the plant is much more ideal.
January 24th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Gayla, I had a feeling that I knew that (from both the book and other things I’ve seen you write) and yet, I couldn’t resist the look of it. Thanks for giving me the poke though.
January 24th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
It’s not impossible but it’s like flirting with disaster. You can get away with it if it’s really dry in your house and you’re careful about how you water. It also depends on the plants because some succulents prefer more water. Your “pork and beans” is an example Ariane.
I once built a desertarium in a large aquarium that had a light and an open top… and it was still iffy. A Bishop’s Cap that I had been successfully nurturing for years fell victim to a fungal disease and then after that chaos because once you’ve got it in the soil it can spread to the other plants. In the end I disassembled it. The plants were (and still are) happier in pots where they get good drainage and lots of air circulation around the plant and roots.
January 25th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
maybe it just got rot or something then–i tried everything, watering more, watering less, and it just kept dying! but thanks for the tip gayla, i won’t put the next one in a terrarium, that’s for sure!