While the rest of the country is covered in snow, it’s 75 degrees and sunny in my neck of the woods. Perfect weather for planting this year’s garden! In the back garden box, we planted a wide variety of vegetable seeds and berries with hope of a good harvest.
Planting a new garden is always an adventure as you never what might be hiding in the soil. Everything from worms, scorpion spiders (they sound scary but they eat scorpions, so I love them), and remnants from last year’s harvest can be found while tilling. We actually have five plants from last year that survived the winter – 3 tomato plants came back from the dead, a strawberry plant started growing for no reason (we didn’t plant it there), and a green pepper plant. All have new blooms and are rather insistent on staying where they’re planted!
However, nothing could have prepared me for what I found while tilling the dirt in the space next to the miraculous green pepper plant. Our garden grows a lot of different things, but never did I expect to find a teeny tiny cactus poking up through the ground. We don’t have cacti anywhere in our yard, nor can they be found in the desert preserve across the road. I’ve only seen cactus growing about a block away in our neighborhood, so the seed had to have come from one of those houses. How it got in our garden box will forever remain a mystery (a bird or a stray cat maybe?).
It would have been easy enough to add this little cactus to the compost pile, but we decided to give him a chance. It just so happens we had a tiny planter leftover from my baby pine tree (he graduated to a bigger pot!), so we very carefully dug up the cactus and gave him a new place to grow. The garden will soon be very wet, so a dry pot is his best chance for survival.
This little guy is only 1½” tall. I don’t have a lot of experience taking care of cacti, but after talking to my mother, (the Cacti Goddess), I learned a few things. What I’ve got is a Jumping Cholla. They grow really fast and like extremely dry ground. After all we went through to save him, I hope we can keep him alive.
As the seedlings come up, my garden rabbit will come out of hibernation. He’ll be sure to keep an eye on this little cactus, too. Stay tuned!
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What’s your favorite thing this week?
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c.b.w. 2014
I’m so envious right now. I would love to be out starting to get things in the garden (and I can and DO need to get out there and start clearing it from weeds), but I don’t dare plant anything yet. I can start a few things inside soon, but we’re having an unseasonable warm snap right now – supposed to be near 70 for the next several days – but it’s February. And this is Oklahoma. Which means this warm snap is going to be followed by more bitter cold. Blah.
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It was pushing 90 degrees today and I’m not to keen on that! Yikes! I’m hoping for one more little blast of cool before summer starts to turn this place into an oven. 🙂
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How sweet! Hope all goes well for this little guy. Keep us in the loop 🙂
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Will do. From what I understand Cholla Jumpers are pretty resilient. They grow pretty fast, so I’m already looking for a place to transplant him when he gets bigger. I’m thinking he’ll go somewhere in the desert, seeing as I have dogs and I don’t want them getting tangled up in a cactus!
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that’s understandable! 🙂
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The joys of Arizona. I’m not so sure you will want that jumping cactus when it matures!
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Yeah, I’m thinking he’s going to get a spot in the desert across the street from my house. I’ll put him somewhere close by so I can watch him grow. For now, though, he’ll stay camped out on the plant rack. 🙂
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Ooo…75 and sunny…that sounds delightful! I look forward to the image of this sweet lil’ cactus as he revives and survives…thrives even!! Nicely done. 🙂
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It was almost 90 today! Ahhhh! It’s too early for summer. :-O
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There was a young fellow named Throstle
Who found an unusual fossil.
He could tell by the bend
And the thing at the end
T’was the thumb of St Paul the Apostle.
(cleaned-up version 😀 )
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Haha! Love it. 🙂
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Sweet find! With your green thumb, he is sure to thrive!!
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Cacti are not usually on my plant rack, so I’m hoping I do right by this little guy. 🙂
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My fave this week really was the snow. We had enough to cover everything, and enough to shut down everything so I could stay home in front of the fire and watch the flakes transform the world.
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I would love to see snow! We’re having a drought out here, so I’ve been living vicariously through your pictures of snow! 🙂
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It was a real treat for me, too.
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How adorable! I can’t wait to watch him (and the rest of the garden) grow!
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My seedlings sprouted this week! They’re so tiny and cute! 🙂
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