In Memorium

With the move and my ongoing illness (which we are still no closer to solving) the Reluctant Garden has had its losses. I want to take a moment to remember those that have gone to the big greenhouse in the sky...

Fergie the bamboo. Killed by freezing shock due to a cold winters drive of 30hrs to move.

Medusa. Left this world due to over watering. A quick soak for patience turned into a drowning.

The cactus garden. This one is a mix of poor lighting and over watering. This bowl, which use to house Medusa, is cursed because these guys died a similar death. The original plan was for this garden to start inside and then once the weather improved, move outside to sit on a patio table. Unfortunately, Indy did not agree. We had a very cold, very wet, very stormy spring that would have killed this garden. So it had to stay inside but we had no window space. Thus it ended up on the bookcase with less than even indirect lighting. It was at this same time I was being hospitalized so my hubby watered the plants for me....a little too much. His kind act finally did these guys in.

The Hawaiian plumeria cutting. I should have known when I opened the packaging the 2nd cutting had already gone bad that this guy might not have stood a chance. But I tried. It grew some small but adequate leafy tops but no roots. In August a strong wind storm knocked this guy over and revealed the tragic truth... A completely molded trunk hidden below the dirt line. There was no saving this guy.

Avavado experiment. I did everything. Sun, clean water weekly, gentle words of encouragement. What I couldn't have expected was an ant infestation and a cheeky squirrel. The squirrel came first and stole one seed and gnawed it up but couldn't eat it. The damage was too extensive to try to save the seed. Soon after, ants targeted the garden and did something to the final seed that made it go sour and shrivel.

The orange seedling. This one is a mystery. It was on the banister one day, looking happy and dandy, and then the next day vanished. It probably fell over and was mistaken as rubbish by the groundskeeper and was tossed. I prefer to imagine it was a tiny baby Fri or that ran off on a space adventure.