New greenhouse

Hello again! Holy crap, another blog?! Yeah, you have to keep yourself busy to make the time go by during this semi-lockdown.

My new greenhouse

We're still doing fine here, although I did almost decapitated my right-hand today while doing the dishes. A plate broke in half and made a deep cut in my thumb. Nothing scary, but I had to go to the hospital and that's not the place to be during this pandemic! Luckily everything was well organized there and there weren't many people in the first aid waiting-room. Fifteen minutes, one stitch and three "stitching bandages". Not too bad!

Time to show off my new purchase. In my previous blog, I've already written about it; I've bought myself a new greenhouse! It's not a huge one, but even with my entire collection in it, I still have plenty of room for more. Why I've bought a new one? Check out the following photo of my old one:

RIP old greenhouse

I've had this one for a long time. For six years it has resisted wind, frost and the sun, and till last year it was still going strong. UV-radiation will cause a chemical reaction in plastic surfaces after a while and the storms earlier this year have blown off the roof and opened up the sides. I had to use garbage-bags to keep my plants dry! Not a pretty sight, as you can see.

My new greenhouse

New greenhouse

Not as high, but almost twice as wide; enough space for the following years. I'm still trying to organize my cacti a bit more. Not sure yet if I'll sort them by species, region, form or size, but I'm already quite happy with the overall look.

Greenhouse, layer 1

Greenhouse, layer 2

Greenhouse, layer 3

That's it for this post. My next one will probably be about sowing the seeds I've bought. Take care and see you soon!

2020 sowing part 1: What will I sow this year?

Hello all! Long time, no see. Weird times, right?! It has been a while since my last post. I hope everyone is doing alright, and I would like to encourage you not to fill your entire days with searching the internet for stuff that won't help you any further. Just follow the instructions and check out the official news (unless you live in Brasil, then look at the rest of the world. ;) ). Due to the current crisis, we all have some extra time and we should spend it with our families and on stuff that makes us happy.

2020 Seed-order

2020 seed-order

This is what I've ordered and received from the Royal(yes, we're royal now!) Dutch Cacti & other Succulents-club, Succulenta:

• Cacti:
• Acanthocalycium thionanthum
• Lophophora fricii
• Lophophora williamsii
• Maihuenia poeppigii
• Oroya borchersii
• Sulcorebutia arenacea
• Tephrocactus geometricus
• Trichocereus pascana
• Trichocereus peruvianus

• Other succulents:
• Euphorbia platyclada
• Monilaria moniliformis

I don't want to steal online images from other sites and I am too lazy to ask for permission, so the first pictures that I'll show you are of the seeds (see above), followed by the seedlings of course. I can tell you this: they're either very beautiful or soo ugly that they become interesting and beautiful all the same.

I'll sow them during the first week of April, but also share the preparation on this blog, so if you're interested, don't forget to return once in a while.

Tiny green-house
After six years of standing outside in the freezing cold during the winter and in the full sun during the summer, my current green-house is falling apart. It was time to get myself a new one, and so I did. If everything goes by plan, I'll be able to show off my new purchase somewhere next week. Till then and stay safe!

Part 1 - What will I sow this year?

Part 2 - The sowing

Part 3 - Results after one week

Part 4 - Results after two weeks

Part 5 - Results after three weeks

Part 6 - Results after four weeks

Part 7 - Results after one month

Part 8 - Results after ten months