Succulents

Well I have been fortunate enough to plant sit for my  mother in law this winter when they visit Arizona instead of living it up in the snowy tundra.  I absolutely love this bowl of various succulents, I'm looking forward to snagging a few cuttings to make my own little garden.  I've found some really clever ideas for succulents...until then here's some pictures of the amazingly big plants.

Garden Harvest

 Here's part of my garden harvest.  My beets and carrots are still in, but I think I'll probably pull them out next week.  I was pretty happy with my garden, I had quite the infestation of slugs and grubs and hopefully next year will be even more bountiful.  Next year I definitely won't be doing the corn as I only got a few cobs and they took up a third of my garden.  I did get 4 egg plants and unfortunately 3 of them rotted in my fridge before I ate them, darn.  

Peonies-gardening

My plants are finally coming up in my veggie garden.  I've got a good crop of lettuce, carrots, beets, corn and gobs of tomatoes and peppers.  My peas and beans aren't flourishing but they were attacked and laid on by Kola my 90 pound golden retriever.  This weekend I managed to spend over fifty dollars on flowers and shrubs at the Cub food greenhouse because they were having an end of the year sale.  The cash register said it wasn't bad considering I bought a pee-onnnn-eeee.  She said it in the most peculiar way that it has stuck with me.  I much prefer her pronunciation though because the way I say it makes it sound like an ugly flower.  I'm eagerly awaiting for it to blossom. 

How To Grow A Pineapple-Or Try To

I am full of thrifty-ness and I feel a ping of guilt every time I throw something away that I know I could use down the road at some point.  Even worse than being thrifty is my strange feeling that plants deserve to live just like people and I feel like a murderer when I don't try to save a plant from winter or another calamity.  Due to this my house is filled with annuals that I couldn't leave outside to let die.  My cats also sometimes attack my Christmas Cactus plant and break off "branches" and these branches will sprout roots and grow if you soak them in water-therefore I have about three different pots of Christmas Cactus and the number is way down because I pawned a few off as house warming presents.  I discovered my feelings about plants were different from everyone else when I worked at a home with kids with psychiatric disorders.  This one kid was a hoarder and he took the trash out one day and returned from the bin with a little spider plant in a paper cup.  He had pulled it out of the trash with the explanation that it was going to die-the other staff were upset with him for taking things out of the trash, but I completely understood his drive to keep the plant and I let him keep it so it would grow and thrive.  Now onto the point of the post, my mom also has a green thumb and showed me one time how to grow a pineapple from the top of the fruit, and ever since then I feel guilty when I throw the gorgeous green top in the trash.

1.  Buy a whole pineapple from the store, cut off top.
2.  Peel the bottom layers of leaves off until you have a "bulb" about one inch long. (See Pic)
3.  Set somewhere dry like the top of fridge and let air out for a few weeks.
4.  Put bulb in water-like in a jar or cup and wait.
5.  In  a few weeks roots will start to appear and let these grow until they are at least an inch long.  Sometimes the bulb will rot off and usually if you can just pull off the rotten part and you will see the roots.
6.  Plant your new plant in a pot with well drained soil.  Don't over water or it will rot. In a few years you should be able to enjoy fruit although I have at least a three year old plant that has yet to produce, but it makes a good conversation piece.