Yes... I'm still alive!

Sorry I haven't been posing for a while... the truth is that my life hasn't been all that fun lately...

You see, I've been working 6 day weeks. 4 days driving the dang truck and 2 days at the flea market... except it isn't really two days as much as it is 1 1/2 days, because I go to church on Sunday morning, and then go directly to the flea market... but what it all boils down to is that my only day off is Monday, and I have to do everything (ie: laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, etc.) on Monday, and, quite frankly, thsi schedule is not really working out all that well for me.

But, when I left the house this morning, I was bound and determined I was gonna find something to take a picture of...

Here's a house in Ft. Worth... (Yes, I'm taking pics of other peoples front yards. I justify this by telling myself I'm looking for gardening ideas.) These Agaves scattered over the front lawn look kinda cool... but I don't know that I want to do this in my yard... quite frankly, I can think of better ways to spend my time in the garden than weed-eating around agaves...

This is one of Ft Worths street trees... more specifically a Yucca aloifolia... you see a few of these in the area... but this is the only one I know planted by the city... and it had to have been planted quite a while ago, as it's now about 15 feet tall... quite possibly the largest one I've seen locally...

And this is just one of those rocks that you see by driveways in shopping centers. The purpose is to keep cars off the lawn. Of course, they also tend to turn minor roadway accidents into major ones, but that's a whole other arguement... the only reason I was really interested in this lump of sandstone is because if you look really-really close....

you'll see this...

I have no bloody idea how that echeveria got there.

The entire landscaping in this shopping center consists of small strips of grass and these huge rocks and this single, solitary clump of echeveria.

It's very puzzling.

Anyway... I hope everybody out in blogland is doing well... have a great day!

thorns in the mail...

Actually, it started out as a thorny day... I had to do a couple of what I thought would be simple errands, so I called dispatch and told them I'd start late... well, of course, simple errands turned into bizarre rituals, and I ended up missing a day of work, which I really didn't want to do... but when I finally got home, I found three little plants in the mail...

I had sent out the cemetary cactus a few weeks ago, and that wonderful Aiyana had sent me some plants back...

The plant at the top of the triangle is Chamelobivia 'Fire Chief' the one to the right is Chamelobivia 'Rose Quartz' The one to the left is what we believe Echinopsis 'Elegant Lady'

Really, it was totally unnecesary to send me anything. But, these really cheered me up, and for that I'm grateful.

And once I started potting things, I kept going... I started by cutting up a few pieces of fence wood to make a tray. I use these to display little plants that I root up to sell in the Flea Market and I have some to take in next weekend... The first one I made, years ago, surprised me... people want to buy the things! I have no earthly idea why, but who am I to turn down 10 bucks... it's just a piece of fence wood that you find by the side of the road on trash day after a good storm blows through, and an old belt that you cut up to use for handles. Old horse-shoes make better handles, but they're hard to come by.

The boot with plants in it sells well too... something to do with Texas no doubt. Then I planted a bunch of Semperviviums chicks in an old tin can... I'll either use this to size them up to sell or maybe just sell the whole darned thing. There's a very old tradition of Hen & Chicks in old tins, galvanized buckets or enamel pans, growing on front porches...

I then I planted up this Strawberry jar...
I collect pots from rummage sales, and I like to plant them up, but I really don't have room for all of them, so I wait for them to root good and sell them off... I can probably get 15 to 20 for this at the flea market. It would be more than double that at a nursery, but I'm just pulling these out of the yard, so I don't really have any money in them...

And the final pics are of the infamous "Prickly Pear Jelly Cactus"

Looks like I'm going to have a great deal of fruit this year...

So it turned into a pretty good day after all...

Mom came to spend the night yesterday, and left today about 2 PM, so I spent the rest of the afternoon doing yard work... specifically the front yard. The alley still isn't finished, but it's an alley, the front yard is what everybody sees and it desperately needed some attention. After about 3 or 4 hours, I'd achieved quite a bit, and then, since the sun had softened down, I decided I would take some pics... Not much new here, and they're in no particular order, but I was more having fun than anything else...

Here's the Sweet Williams, in full bloom now...

And here's the M. sonorensis ssp. craigii, even though the blooms were bigining to shut down for the night...

And here's Phennig, keeping watch for any mockingbirds in the curly willow tree ...

And this is a shelf that I rigged against the fence in the back yard... it gets the perfect amount of sun for the cactus & succulents, and as rough as it looks, it still looks better than the bare fence... It'll do until I can get something better there... you can see some Agave americana pups that I've potted up on the left. I'm waiting for them to root good, then I'll take em to the flea market to sell for a couple bucks each.

And here's another tray of succulents that I'm doing the same thing with. The Echeverias keep producing baby's and my friends run when they see me with one... so, off to the flea market they go... Not turning any profit on them, but at least they have some chance of finding a good home.

And I don't know if you remember me telling you about the abandoned crown of thorn plant that I found on my front step in a previous post... well, he's been repotted, and he's growing and blooming. Kinda cute... and that's the pachypodium beside it...

And here's on of my Sempervivum's going haywire in the pot tower...

And that's it.

Hope everybody out there had a wonderful weekend!

Later...

Happenings in the yard...

Well, I have good news...



My Cereus hildmannianus, which has had a very traumatic summer, has decided to put out a couple of blooms! I had talked about this plant in some previous posts... (if you're interested, click on the label link to the right...) and I was surprised to see 2 very small buds forming this morning. But cross your fingers, this plant has been known to put up false buds. Usually, of about 10 small buds, only 7 will finish developing and bloom, some will abort. I'm told that this may be a survival technique... in the wild, the buds may be eaten by grazing animals, so if the real buds get eaten before they fully develop, these false or secondary buds will go ahead and develop... This is of course all speculation, but that's what they say...



Also in surprises, My stapeliad gigantea(?) which has also had a traumatic summer(see previous post) seems to be putting out 3 buds too... way too small for me to be sure, but it doesn't look like new stem growth, as there's plenty of that on there too. Cross your fingers! This plant is fairly new, and I haven't ever seen it bloom, so I'm looking forward to the big blooms, but I can't say that I'm going to be thrilled about something smelling like a dead animal in the yard...



And, just to have some sort of pic for everybody to look at... here's a pic of the Echeveria 'Blue Moon' blooming in the yard.

hello again...

wow... I wonder if I should delete yesterdays post? It's really in very bad taste... but we can't always be PC...



anyway, spent most of today in the yard gardening... I feel much better today. Took a few pics, since I was out there... nothing really new though.




It's really amazing how working out there in the yard calms my nerves and allows me to refocus on what's really important... It's kind of like compost therapy. Anyway, my apologies for the truly disgusting post, but I think I'm going to leave it, at least for the time being.