Amanda, sounds like you are really expanding your succulent collection! It's so nice to see your pictures. It's a great idea to have a little 'companion garden' on your desk at work. I find that cactii and succulents really seem to have a personality and a 'spirit' somehow.

Well I am STILL waiting for those flowers buds to bloom that I pictured a few posts ago. I can't believe how long they are taking! The buds are still growing larger. Gotta be any day now!

In a couple more weeks I'll be able to move ALL my cactii and succulents out on our porch for the summer. That's when they really thrive, and then the window sills and tables inside the house are suddenly all nice and spacious and zen-like for the summer. The collection really looks beautiful out on the porch in clusters.

I'm in the middle of planning a big new vegetable garden in our back yard.
I currently have a tiny 5' x 18' tomato patch garden strip on one side of our shed.
Now I'm thinking of a big 18' x 30' veggie garden in the middle of the back yard. Very ambitious. We will have to have it back-hoed and loads of top soil brought in, since the soil is so gravelly and poor under the lawn there. Gotta find out if indeed the landscaper can back hoe at all there, or if it's solid shale we might need to build raised beds- a bigger expense for sure.