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The Indoor Re-Potting Continues

This process is moving slowly and relatively purposefully– We are in no particular rush to disturb the succulents cause we have no intended purpose with them currently. (Announcement on Patreon Jan 1)

Around Christmas, we were graced with slightly warmer temperatures. I spent a couple afternoons working in the garage replanting succulents and setting up a better grow space. All you need is a light sweater out there with all the lights on. 😉 

The exploration is on for a “best” set-up our space for growing plants in the garage– we have tables to move around and a couple of grow lights that we have yet to plug-in (we still need bulbs). This will increase the grow space significantly for the plants and maybe help knock them out of their winter rest period. We are preparing to pot-up succulents into 2″ pots for spring/summer sales but need to acquire more pots. The struggle is real!

Oh yes, we are still growing succulents in the greenhouse in our backyard. Varieties like Crassula, Sedums, Sempervivum, LARGE echeverias, and elephant bush are thriving and do not seem to be bothered by the cooler temperatures and rain. For now, we plan to leave these outside. The experiment continues… we’ll keep you posted.

That brings us to the inside… Inside the house, or at least downstairs has exploded with succulent arrangements and potted displays. I am starting to understand how the indoor houseplant clubs are such a popular concept in areas with cold weather conditions. Not needing to put on a coat to go outside to hang out with the succulents, what a treat! I must admit, our upstairs space has always been busting with my personal non-succulent house plants- so now, basically every room you enter our house, you can count on a breath of fresh cleaned air. 🙂 I love it!

With that, we hope you’ve enjoyed the photos & content we’ve posted. Let us know in the comments what suggestions you have for us to best utilize our space- inside or out! We love feedback.

If you are interested in learning more about our business goals and supporting these goals in the coming year, check us out on Patreon.

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Wishing everyone a safe New Year and hope for prosperity to come your way in 2019.

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Fall has arrived! Garden updates…

Since our last post, we have repotted EVERY container plant we have in the backyard– and most of the houseplants too. We are seeing an improvement in the health of our little succulents as they have a better draining soil to stretch out their roots in- we found that our old soil had compacted to dirt mush and most of the 2” succulents were becoming root bound and sitting in some water- due to the rain we have been getting and less sunny days to dry up all that water.

small transplanted arrangement

In an attempt to fight the rain gods from killing all of the plants, we have moved our favorites and the most sensitive varieties into the greenhouse to best protect them… Brett always laughs at how much I try to fit into our greenhouse (because all of them are my favorite)– but stuffing is never good- it leads to less air circulation & less light being able to reach all plants. It is time for us to increase our growable space.

We are finding that we are going to need to change our attack plan for keeping the succulents protected this winter– Initially we figured our small greenhouse would house MOST everything and whatever didn’t fit would be kept in a sunny, rocked area in the yard —  we realize, it’s not going to house them all… SO, we are going to build a greenhouse structure in our side yard that can fit all of our temperature sensitive plants– the spot is already cleaned out and set-up as a dog run from previous renters, so the prep is easy, now to gather supplies and do the build.

What happens if the greenhouse doesn’t keep your succulents warm this winter you ask?? Firstly, we learned that we own many varieties of succulents that CAN survive the colder winter temperatures and have separated them from the rest of the flock as the “outdoor troopers”. These include our sempervivums, sedums, and stonecrop varieties. The most tender succulents will be brought indoors to be grown under our LED light system in the garage– that way we will reduce casualties overall should that fate come and winter is a beast… My fingers are crossed this will not be the case!

For the greenhouse build, we plan to use PVC pipes and a transparent 4-6 mil. thick polyethylene. Sounds good, eh?? Well, it always looks good on paper— Stay tuned to see what worked and our final result.

Our leatherpetals are getting massive!

What are you doing to prepare your plants for winter? Let us know below.