The Thunderdrome

• Name: None yet as to avoid attachement.
• Species: A lot. There's succulents, there's cacti, there's common houseplants, there's flowers, there's a weird purple plant too. Only confirmed ones are aloe vera and ivy
• Current format: Mixed. Some are in coconut peat, some are in proper planting soil (I just cut open the bag and smacked them there lmao), some have their own planting pots made out of recycled water bottles. The cacti have their exclusive sack of soil as to avoid accidentally prickling my fingers while managing the rest of plants.
• Obtained on: 31/03/23
• Obtained from: Friend of Mom who gave me way too many plants from her own garden.
• Current status: Getting used to their new homes

My two sad aluminium shelves became a tiny jungle overnight thanks to this easy trick!! Just ask around somebody you know (even tangentially) about their plants, and tell them you're interested in gardening too. If they are nice (and my mom's friend is very nice), they'll give you seeds and cuttings from their own garden.

Friend of Mom specifically gave me two bagfuls of plant cuttings and uprooted plants. I spent all night sorting them and planting them. I almost have no space now.

She gave me so many "in case anything dies", which given my lack of green thumb, they will. It's the Hunger Games now. With everybody sharing common soil/water, and a poor window placement that gives about an hour or so of direct sunlight, we'll see what survives from this. Lady told me these are very hardy plants, she didn't give me anything she didn't think I couldn't handle. We'll see what takes root and what not.

• 02/04/23: In which I remember succulents don't need so much water. The ones that are on water jars have mushy leaves. Woops. Moved them to the Cacti Barrier (another sack exclusive for cacti, everything else is full.
• 03/04/23: Succulent flowers are thriving, one of the two proper flowers wilted but pushed another one to keep going :). Those were seeds Friend of Mom got "from the birds", and I think they're special, so I really want them to live.
• 05/04/23: I added some homemade mulch out of shredded paper to the Thunderdrome (except the cacti), just to keep the water from evaporating fast. Shredded paper is not ideal but it's acceptable and I get plenty of paper so I like recycling. Having a proper paper shredder would be ideal too but my monkey brain enjoys tearing paper to bits.
• 12/04/23: Aforementioned flowers are wilting :( they weren't meant to last...
• 14/04/23: Aww, one of the succulent's flower's stems is curling around one of the wilting flowers.
• 16/04/23: The strange purple plants in water are growing very ugly roots. They're feather shaped and red... I call them "ugly" because they look like fungus. I grabbed one and repotted it. I want to repot all plants but I'll wait till the end of the month so they'll grow stronger roots.
• 23/04/23: Change of plans I think it's best if I repot all the water-only plants because water is starting to grow algae and I don't like that. I repotted another strange purple plant. I'm starting to notice casualties, but I'll make a tally of them all next week
• 25/04/23: I potted all plants that were in jars. Casualties noted: A few ones that fell from the jars, about 2 or 3 "sprigs". Now I have around 6 plant pots, with all cuttings of the same species in the same pot. I'm considering buying those little hooks you stick to the wall as to give the ivy something to climb on.
• 06/04/23: Casualty report: the "special flowers" (I guess flowers aren't meant to last forever :( ), one or two sprigs, all the ivy except the one I repotted (and even that one isn't looking very spiffy; I guess this is not the right place to grow ivy :( ), one strange purple plant, and so on. Not too bad, we're just figuring out what can live here in my balcony and what can't. I repotted a few survivors.
• 04/06/23: I repotted a selection of succulents from the Thunderdome. They are going to be a gift to a lady I always say hello to on my way to my internship. It's about to end next week, so I want to get her a small gift before we stop seeing eachother for good.