Posts Tagged: dry

Love in the Bean Field

Love is where you find it. And sometimes you find it in a bean field. Take the UC Dry Bean Field Day on Sept. 5 at UC Davis. As researchers,...

Love in the bean field at the UC Dry Bean Field Day. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Love in the bean field at the UC Dry Bean Field Day. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Diverse Terrariums

Ah terrariums! How I love this tiny little worlds.  In my experience, which is somewhat limited, the easiest ones are the dry cactus types.  So little water involved. Just add some rocks, sand, and you have an itty bitty desert in that cognac snifter you never use. Stick with shade succulents like gasterias and haworthias. Don't put them too close to a window as the glass from the terrarium will magnify the suns rays and cook them, unless you're going for the desert apocalypse look.

Another cutie is the moss habitat. These kind remind me of my sister-in-law's back yard in Washington state. Very wet,  just a clearing in a forest with some fallen logs.  Mosses and mushrooms and tiny flowers everywhere. Very Jurassic. So, I got brave, and made one. Mine contains babies tears, Irish moss, scotch moss, an African violet, which is normally also an outside ground cover for shade,  some tilandsias, and some dinosaurs figurines for effect. Also a maiden hair fern, that is ailing, but in my defense, it's not me, it's my kitten, Vespa. She's been getting in there and piddling on it. That can't be good.

Terrarium (photo by Georgia Luiz)

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