In the absence of a garden, I have been growing cacti and succulents for the last few years, buying nearly dead plants from Wilko for 10p and then bringing them back to life. This afternoon I’m gonna prune the aloe vera.
Here’s some photos from a couple of years ago. I have 22 houseplants at the moment. Once I move and am settled in the autumn, I plan to grow a load of flowering cacti from seed. Maybe some carnivorous plants too.
Like some sort of typical man, I grow chillies every year. This year I’ve got Jalapeno, Ring of Fire, Padron, and the reasonably scary Antillais Caribbean, which I’m hoping will fruit as it’s the first time I’ve grown those. I have no pictures.
I’d like to grow some weed as well, purely because it’s supposed to be difficult, and I like a project.
Just a cheap lightweight Canon EOS 100D. I’ve got two prime lenses I use the most- the 40mm f2.8, and the 24mm f2.8. I’ve got the budget 50mm f1.8 too, but I prefer the 40mm because it doesn’t feel as plasticy.
I’m really meticulous about editing/weeding out photos though. I often adjust each colour channel curve by hand on Photoshop for landscapes/nature shots.
I did that as a lad. Just with some seeds I found in a bag of thai. It went mental. Had to give it to a mate as it was in my bedroom at home and just got too big. It budded but was not at all potent.
We’re just getting our garden started (for the past year or so it has gone from dusty wasteland to weed-covered patch), and that’s the next stage of our house refurb/do-up. We’re going to go for a wildlife garden and pond, with some herb, vegetable and fruit planting until we get an allotment in a few years (we’re on the waiting list).
This year we have tried to grow french beans, courgette, cucumber, tomatoes, blueberries and strawberries, with varying success, and have a couple of large pots containing different herbs and hostas, all of which have grown very well.
Indoors, again, we’re just getting started, with a couple of plants - mainly orchids, aloe vera, that kind of thing. Our dining room has a fair bit of early-70s furniture in it, so we want to go for a few large 70s-style plants in there too. Maybe a yucca or a rubber plant.
Take it out of the pot, and wrap the soil in a thick kitchen roll overnight. That should absorb any excess water. They’re desert plants and hate damp. You rarely need to water them.
Also cut off any dead/manky bits with scissors, so the plant can devote its energies to the healthy bits.