Some Peanuts and getting the garden ready for spring

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(Edited)

For the people who were asking, Peanut is doing very well, being a general nuisance and massacring all the lizards in the garden. Here he is relaxing on my desk after a long day doing catstuff.

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Taken this morning. See how he fills the bed

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Apart from all the work on my rock garden that I wrote about here I am busy repotting and getting ready for spring. August is a very windy month and many flowers are already blooming, it's warm, dry and dusty and now it's a waiting game of enduring the heat and allergies until the first rains fall. The garden needs to be kept alive with regular watering or it will all just roast.

On the vegetable front, the eggplants survived the winter, even though we had severe frost and I read that they can be kept as perennials so I cut the long stems down and I'll see what happens next.

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The monadeniums weren't so lucky. They seemed ok after the one severely cold week that we had but then the long stems started rotting at the base. The little offsets seem ok, I'll try and remove those and plant them.

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Aloe "Tuffy" did just fine and is flowering

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A more unusual cactus, Hatiora salicornioides aka Bones cactus is also flowering at last and it looks like a tiny Christmas cactus. These cacti are normally found in trees and should be grown as orchids, not cacti. It flowered for the first time since I started keeping it in my bathroom and watering regularly.

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I also got some more plants in the mail. These adorable little fuzzies are Haworthia Venusta

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Haworthia Parksiana, the smallest of the species

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This pair are Tulista marginata, they are both the same species, just very variable. That is why I got 2 of course

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Finally, these beauties, A little clump of Gymnocalycium damsii var. tucavocense. Thanks @ewkaw for the id!

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It's been a busy autumn and winter. Because it's so hot here, any hard labour is best done in the cold dry months and then summer is just time for weeding.

Posted as part of @simplymike's August Garden Journal Challenge



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17 comments
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Peanuts is very big and beautiful !! He is no longer an anxious little cat.

Yes, you do well to prune eggplant plants. They grow back healthy and productive. I do it too.

All your cacti are beautiful. And of course I don't know of any.

I have barely been able to get two new cacti. With the confinement I cannot go to the plant sale to buy.

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Yes, Peanuts is looking great although he still mistrusts other people and won't approach them.
I also could not get new plants because of lockdown, that's why I bought these from someone who sent them via the postal services

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Can't get over how much Peanut has changed..Big strapping boy now...

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Yup, he's got a way to go before he catches up to my other big boys but he is growing well

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Nice to see Peanuts happy and comfortable. Thanks for that eggplant tip; I didn't know it could sprout up in Spring again.

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Peanuts is a fun little guy. Yes, I didn't know that they could do that either and they survived what was a very harsh winter here. It seems you should also just fertilise them well

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Peanut is really big! He’s very well fed and taken care of! Lucky cat!! A real hunter!
Wow! You have started a new collection of cacti! Soon you’ll have a nursery.

Thanks for the update!

Cheer.

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Pleasure! Yes, a nursery is what I have in mind

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Oh! Wow! A nursery in real life!! Yeah!
Go for that!

Best of luck and fortune!

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Peanut Very beautiful cat!
Matured :-))
Congratulations on the Hymnocalicyum :-)))

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Thank you! Yes, the Gymnocalycium is a great find

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That's a really nice colletion of cactus! I don't have many - but I just potted up a ton of aloe vera pups as I'd like to have them for medicinal use.

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Thank you! I have Aloe vera too but it doesn't really thrive here, it seems too hot and dry

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We Love the Peanut..!!!

And so glad your back to posting again.

Here is our Jax at peanuts age. Freaky huh.?

Jax Sink Sittin' 1.jpg

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Yes they are very alike. There seems to be a "siamese" mould

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