#plantsman

This week has been particularly busy, and my exams are also around the corner so I haven’t really had enough time to write much, but to compensate, here are some news from the past few days.

- I bought a kit to grow button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) indoors and I’ve finally set it up today. Button mushrooms are boring in the kitchen for me, but I’ve always wanted to buy one of these kits online, and when they arrived at the garden centre where I work with the new stock I had to buy the first one! Post to come.

- Today I also checked the batches of seeds I placed in wet towels and sealed bags a month ago and found life! The natal plum (Carissa macrocarpa) seeds I brought from Lanzarote are germinating, and so are those of a yet unidentified shrubby fabacea I found on the beach there. The most surprising germination though, is probably that of the seeds of an Opuntia fruit, a prickly pear, I ate in Milan in October 2016, which had been given to my aunt by a friend of her from Sicily. If all these seedlings survive there will be posts to come about them! 

- We moved the seed racks in work and I noticed two packets of seeds within hundreds are for plants which can grow indoors, mixed cacti and coleus (Plectranthus scutellarioides). I bought them mostly because I couldn’t restrain myself, I have never grown either from seed so why not try. We don’t really stock any houseplants so I can’t throw my money that way. 

- I’m doing some more plant related diy. After the windowsill plant shelving I am now turning a small pallet I brought home from work into a coffee table on wheels which I can also use to move plants around the living room or for indoor gardening. If I don’t die before I’ve finished sanding that thing you will probably see me using it in photos of my plants. 

- I bought a katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) a few weeks ago and since it is a temperate deciduous plant I keep it in the backyard at work. It has some potential to be a nice looking natural style bonsai, very similar to what a multi-stemmed mature tree looks like. I’ll be working on it and you’ll get to see the progress. I am also keeping an eye on other small trees in work, but I’m trying to control my enthusiasm, I’d buy too many plants, too often otherwise.