Sunday, November 15, 2009

A cactus for all seasons

These Christmas cactus plants spent the summer out on the screened porch, so I guess I can include them in a garden blog, even though they're primarily house plants. This photo was taken on November 14. Do you see why they're special?


What makes them even more special is that they also bloomed last spring, for Easter. Let's see ... Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving ... what holiday will they celebrate next?

With a note to the outside garden, we bought a rotary lawnmower yesterday. It's not self-propelled. I don't see much point in that, since the areas of grass are losing ground to the ever expanding flower beds. Why a power mower when I profess to enjoy using the non-motorized reel mower? Well, the reel mower won't chew up leaves and small twigs. When the rain stops and the leaves still on the ground have had a chance to dry out, I'll use the power mower to turn them into mulch to spread over the daylily and lily beds. I don't see much point in buying mulch to keep the plants cozy and prevent the frost from heaving them out of the soil.