It’s almost June, just another day or two to go. The weather outside sucks. It’s cold and rainy and only fit for foul weather fowl. I’ve got stuff I need to do out there, but let’s face it, I’m a weather weeny.
The plant wall is doing well. Terry added two more head-and-tail-light tetras yesterday and a fancy red tailed guppy today. Having the wall keep the aquarium clean allows him to spend his energies admiring his fish instead of cleaning up after them. He had a bit of a panic last night thinking he had a dead fish. It turned out to be a leaf washed into the tank from the wall.
In the wall, the Aphid Chaser is chasing aphids and the Aphid Trap is enticing aphids. The Aphid Chaser truly does chase the aphids off the wall. From observation I’m going to say the aphids move down to get away from the Aphid Chaser. At the bottom is my lettuce and tomato seedling and having the aphids end up there is not an ideal outcome. To counter this I’ve added an aphid trap sheet to the outside edge of the trough and the aphids are traveling right past my seedlings to become stuck to the aphid trap. This I consider an ideal solution.
I added a baby spider to the wall today. Every little bit helps.
I’ve taken a couple other pictures to illustrate what’s happening in the wall.
The new blossom stalk on the orchid is continuing to grow. This really pleases me. I don’t know how long it takes to produce blossoms but I bet I’m going to get some.
Usually when plants are added to the wall there’s a period during which nothing happens. The plants don’t grow, they don’t wilt but they don’t do anything else either. Then all of a sudden the plant is producing flowers and/or new growth.
With the orchid this wasn’t the case. It started growing and is working to produce blossoms. It already had the right roots for this type of planting. It’s happy, I’m happy . . . what more could we want?
The Hawaiian begonia has finally settled in and is beginning to produce the big leaves I remember from the parent plant. The biggest leaf so far is on a 10″ long stalk and is about half the size it will be when the root structure fully adapts. Mature leaves are about the size of a normal dinner plate on a ~12″ stalk. Once the begonia’s roots develop enough to support it, I expect the plant to start producing blossom stalks (30″ long with tiny pink petals down the length of the stalk).
I love the textures, colors and shades in the plant wall. The eclectic variety of plants produces something that warms my heart and soothes my soul.