Aloe Vera Experimental Plant For the New Greenhouse

A giant pot of aloe vera (last pic) was gifted to me. It was pretty overgrown amd I basically have no experience with succulents or aloe , but I fivided it up to see if I can get them to perk up. Made a mixture of about 3 parts potting soil, 1 part perlite, and 1 part sand with a handful of osmocote slow release after letting the divided pups dry out for a day.  Ended up with 13 4" pots , 1 6" pot and 1 8" pot. 

They will be one of the first plants in my new greenhouse ($120 overstock purchase).  Greenhouse in July in Alabama might be dangerous, but I have it opened up for ventilation. 

Now I realize this isn't the prettiest greenhouse, but it's definitely about the cheapest. And it was easy to put together by myself,  so I call it a win so far. It's pretty light weight and doubt it can handle a serious storm but we shall see. I have been obsessing over a greenhouse for years now , so at least I finally took a step :) and the aloe will be the experimental plant in there. Seems like it can handle it it. Let's hope 🙏 

This last picture was when I was half way through before realizing I had done it all wrong (after many many curse words) and had things propped up every which way. I took it all back down and started over, paying closer attention to the poor directions, and then it was a breeze :) 

Summer Tub

This summer, I decided to extend the fish aquarium hobby to the outdoors with a summer tub (thanks to inspiration from Rachel O'Leary and a local hobbyist, Susan Core). It has been a success,  all things considered. Originally set this up in Central Alabama May 14 with some guppies that turned out to be all male. I added females 6 weeks later and almost immediately noticed babies. Also the hardy lily has consistently produced flowers and the frogbit doubles in size every few days.  Frogs and tadpoles also recently showed up. So love this little tub 😍 . Such an amazing little ecosystem and so vital!