The Frugal Gardeners

Big Dog and I finally made our way back to The Ranch a few days ago. Just in the nick of time, I'd say! Potted plants were gasping for water, while happy and vigorous weeds were taking over everywhere else.

"Is it Clip-a-thon Night?" Big Dog kept asking as we were getting ready to leave SoCal. In his ever-frugal mode, Big Dog does not want to BUY plants and I guess I add fire to his horticultural kleptomania when I successfully propagate from tiny clippings, chunks of cactus and succulents that have fallen off the mother plant and rescued bits of other people's trash.
"You go do it. It makes me feel too criminal, clipping other people's plants," I would always reply. "I'm too far from my criminal past, man."

It wasn't so much the act of snipping off a bit of a plant that bothered me, but the way Big Dog made it too "organized" that bothered me. Though, in fact, does it make any difference to go into a store knowing you are about to shoplift candy or to do it, unplanned? So maybe it was Big Dog's egging me on to do his dirty work that bugged me more. Either way, I never go on these dubious missions and without his trusted sidekick, neither does Big Dog.

Still, I somehow managed to get a little stash of material to play with. A little nub of bamboo root, a bit of pruning from a famous rose garden, snips of bougainvillea from our condo, bits of pelargonium, an orphan succulent.....