Thursday, March 29, 2012

Succulent Garden

Last week was my birthday, and I told my mom that the thing-I-wanted-most-in-the-whole-wide-world was a succulent garden.

Why? I don't know. I've never gardened before in my life. I can't keep plants in my house because my adorable and lovable furry child thinks that they make a great dessert. I feel the same way about cupcakes.

But succulents...easy right? They're essentially cacti, so they are hard, relatively inedible, cute, and don't require much water...so neither Aslan or I should be able to kill them.

So these arrived at my door last week and I couldn't have been more thrilled...


...until I tried to plant that cactus.

I read that cacti live in hostile environments and had developed some pretty creative mechanisms to defend themselves like spines that look not-so-dangerous because they're bent until you touch them and they turn into a barbed torture instrument. So I followed the instructions and grabbed a paper towel to wrap around the cactus while I picked it up to re-pot it.

The paper towel offered about as much protection as panty hose. Those little barbed spines went right through and got all tangled in the paper towel...and my hand. I'm pretty sure that each one actually has its own brain because at one point I was able to remove the paper towel and the spine that was previously stuck in the towel re-lodged itself in my finger THREE TIMES. It was holding on for dear life...as I'm sure I would if I were being unwilling transplanted into a new home.

It also may have been mad at me for dumping soil straight on top of its head. Oops. Trying to get that out was like brushing the inside of a pincushion. Or at least what I imagine that would be like.

After painfully repositioning it in the pot three times, I was finally able to plant two of the other ones...and after all of it, I am totally in love with my new babies!


Now I just have two more to find pots for, and at least neither has prickles. Thank the lord.

Happy Thursday!

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