For the Love of Cacti

On the way back from the desert last weekend we made a special trip to Joshua Tree to visit the cactus mart on the main road. Mike had never been so I thought it would be fun to show him all the different cacti in this one cool little space.

I was wrong. He thought just about everything there was overpriced and therefore not as impressed as I had hoped. The boys did indulge the "dig your own cacti" bin though, and pulled a couple small crates with miniature plants of each of their choosing.

The next day, in typical Mike fashion, he drove us to the backside of the fields behind our home - to show us a little something about "free cactus" ... a dense, but remote lot where people go to dump trash and other odd end items right in the middle of herds of gorgeous wild cacti growing in this otherwise ill fated natural wasteland. We dug up a couple, nice tall ones and placed them the empty pots we had in our side yard. Not sure if that still counts as stealing, but as pretty as they look in our yard, I'm completely willing to accept blame on those accusations.




With the little ones we decided to make some simple terrariums today. Our goldfish bowl, a sad sight seeing that our beta fish Woodrow passed last week, was put to good use. The other smaller glass bowls I found stuffed conveniently in a cupboard. Perfect size for single ones. With what was remaining, I let the neighbor kids make their own using mason jars and fabric striped flags on toothpicks too add a little color. It wasn't a craft we had planned, so I wasn't prepared with anything spectacular. Just the bare essentials: gravel, succulent soil, plants and rocks. Still they turned out pretty cute nonetheless. And the kids all loved the layering and planting involved.





Rex's terrarium was my favorite. Until he drowned it in the fountain just after a precise lecture on how rare water (in a spray bottle) should be while caring for these kinds of plants. Apparently, he thought his looked extra thirsty, so now his greens are pretty much floating around a sea of brown.



The others, we're hoping fair much better.
And a little longer, hopefully, than that damn fish.