My green therapy

I did not inherit my mum's green thumb, but I do like a few living green things around, especially plants that take little care and are hard to kill. After many years of experimenting we've coming up with a fairly good set of plants.

These bring me joy every morning while I clean my teeth (it is right next to the bathroom sink)

and every time I go up and down the stairs. They have this little window spot all to themselves partway up our stairs, facing west. Our neighbour's house, only two metres away, prevents them from getting too much sun, but none of them seem to mind.

Geraniums, I've discovered, are wonderful. They tick all the boxes for me, easy to care for, hard to kill, and flower all year long.

Outside the dining room/my office window/sliding door we have this delightful crew. More geraniums. These one don't get watered so often but have died yet!

The daisies are new. They are an experimental bid to reduce the mosquito plague we experience in our backyard every summer. I've put another pot at the front door to try to keep the pesky things from piggybacking their way in that way too. All this because I read somewhere (for example here) that these types of daisies are disliked by insects. We'll see how we go. I'd like to have more and am looking for some seeds (which will be a cheaper way to acquire them!).

Last week we gave our new eight year old a tiny cactus as a present. It may seem like a strange gift for a boy, but I've caught the younger two boys admiring it a couple of times! It's very cute and quite geometrically interesting, don't you think?

Yes, it really is tiny, only a little bigger than my thumb.

And that us about the extent of my green endeavours. Simply put, I'd rather look at them than play around in the dirt. Our miniature backyard is also enjoyable to look at, providing some nice green therapy, if you avoid the fact that there are a lot of persistent weeds out there. Weeds that we (usually David) occasionally go out and tame!

Given how close we are to our neighbours, we have a remarkable amount of green to look at from the areas of our house that we spend the most time in while we're awake. I'm very thankful that the back of our house faces south and the sun, rather than north and constant shade!