This is my post for #freewriters 2646 prompt * * hosted by @mariannewest
When will I learn that doing things the easy way will turn into the hard way before the task ends?
This time I researched something before jumping into it and everything I read about lichens says they do not harm the plant. But they were covering my plants and made them look ugly, even covering the tips so new growth could not grow. "They" said you can use alcohol half and half with water to kill them. I have gallons of hand sanitizer from the cheap store and it said I could do the same with it.
I spent 3 days painting the hand sanitizer on them. For some dumb reason, I thought it would be easier than scrubbing with soap and water, all I needed to do was paint it on them and leave them alone. It killed the lichens but now they look worse.
I spent the last two days using a scrub brush with soap and water. I found to wet the limbs first, the lichens turned to something like plaster, hard to scrub dry but wet it came off easy. It turned out to be easier than using the hand sanitizer. My hand hurts even though I have been trying not to use it, I could not stir my coffee this morning. I have 5 more to do today, they are going to be hard to do.
I have been doing as the eye doctor said and wearing glasses when doing things like this, and because when I first started I got hand sanitizer in my bad eye.
I hate trying to work on things and my glasses keep falling off every time I look down. I had one pair that did not fall off of my face. (Had) being the keyword, I stepped on them.
I was watching a lizard sitting on one I had cleaned but the look on her little face seemed to be telling me she heard a loud growl in the night and that she was going to stay near me so I could keep her safe. I think she is a she because lizard eggs have been found in the soil.
I do not want to cut back or put my desert roses in new soil yet, I still think there is a chance of getting more cold weather. But this one had some soft spots at the roots so I needed to cut them out so I changed the soil in it but will wait to cut it back. The soft spots are rot and you need to cut back until you see only good plant, it is like cancer it will spread if not all cut out.
The white pot is the same plant as in the above photo. When I change soil, I will leave a good portion of the plant that was underground now out of the ground and trim away the roots that are showing.
I do not have much good soil so I dug through the trash and found a good use for plastic bottles. Some people will disagree with using plastic and not wood but desert roses do not like to be in moist soil so I figured the plastic will let water flow through the holes in the pot, whereas the wood will hold water. I did not have enough so I threw in some of my husband's beer cans, he will never know they are there, he sells them and can get them back the next time I repot this plant. Desert roses do not need much soil to live.
photos are mine
