This was a beautiful aloe, now it's a hole.
To the Cockroach who stole my beautiful aloe:
Gardeners share, they don’t steal. 
If you had asked me, I would have happily, and generously, given you a pup from this plant. Instead, there’s a hole in the ground. May you feel guilty every time you look at your conquest.
P.S. Nice touch, taking the time to pull out all the flowering stalks and leaving those behind for me.
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Well, ‘instant’ probably isn’t the right word to use when referring to succulents, but I’ve reached a point with a lot of my specimens that I can take some pretty hefty cuttings and make new pots of great plantings that look fairly mature when I’m finished with them. The pieces that break off can be tossed into a pile and eventually they’ll sprout. Patience is a virtue! Seriously, you have to be a patient gardener with succulents, but the payoff is totally worth it.
Here’s a short sequence of my project yesterday. Put your mouse on the pictures for more detail.
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No, not the guy with the orange hair. Although he can be a bit creepy. What I’m referring to is actual tops of carrots, the greens. They are toxic. Who knew? When you thin carrots out they look so cute. Well, it turns out they are cute AND toxic. This article from the NY Times delves into this and some other toxins lurking amongst our vegetables. The bottom line: Just because you are growing it doesn’t mean you can eat it. Food for thought. 
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Do you know the difference between Sweet Potatoes and Yams? They are both edible tubers; otherwise, they have very little in common.
Just a little educational minutae to throw into the mix when that certain family member starts to steer the topic at the dinner table into those toxic zones of religion, politics or philosophy! Happy Thanksgiving! Read on…..
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I came across this catalog and thought it contained a lot of great info about bamboo, and pictures, too, so I’m passing it on.
New England Bamboo Company, now GreenTop, LLC CATALOG
Tag, you’re it!!!
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We made our annual trip to that great amusement park of legend, land of giant ears, home of the (more) famous Matterhorn, Mousey merchandising mania mecca – yes, Disneyland. I always have a love/hate relationship with the big D before I go, but once I get there I’m always amazed at the logistics of running the park. Everything is freshly painted, the park is amazingly clean for the number of people wandering around day after day, and there are a lot of little details everywhere if you are paying attention. This trip is the first time we have ventured to the “other side”, aka California Adventure, and I marvelled at a whole bunch of new, interesting stuff. I have to say, Disney does a great job with all the plantings, and I noticed that they are moving toward a lot more drought tolerant and succulents in the gardens. It was fun for me to analyze what they planted, where and why, and I have a lot of appreciation for the creativity put into the plantings given the different microclimates in the park. In addition to exuding all this garden nerdiness, I actually went on a lot of rides, too.
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