Earlier this winter I came to the conclusion that Buddy Aloe had once again outgrown his home. This was evidenced by the fact that he was too damn big for his pot. I’d rather not play re-pot roulette every 4 months with a plant that keeps trying to take my eyes out every time I re-pot him, so I figured I’d put him in his forever home. My surprisingly successful dwarf tomatoes were finally kaput, which opened up a space in one of the largest pots I have.
This was a month or so back, when San Francisco was in the midst of a deluge of biblical proportions which frankly was just not a great time to repot anything, but I’ve never let a little rain stop me. Much to the eternal chagrin of my mother. That’s my excuse for why all the weeds are so high in these pictures- while I’m stupid enough to repot in a drizzle with wet soil- even I wont weed whack when it’s wet out. Fun tongue twister- hard to do.
I am however accumulating more and more baby aloes from Buddy- but that’s ok, an Aloe Vera makes a great gift! For the people you care about who burn themselves in the kitchen, or the folks who keep killing succulents by keeping them indoors in a shady apartment, or outdoors in a shady garden. Aloe is much more indoor and lower light tolerant than… literally almost every other succulent classified plant. In fact the original baby aloe is now living at my boyfriend’s apartment and it’s almost as big as it’s parent. It’s a little frightening, but my boyfriend swears up and down he’ll be safe in case baby aloe decides he wants to eat flesh instead of soil.
Of course the most important feature of Buddy Aloe is his pet spider.
Who I tried to dislodge the last time I repotted him– clearly I failed then so I didn’t even try now. Sometimes when it comes to spiders you just have to admit defeat. Buddy aloe is home to this spider in particular and I’m just gonna get some rent from the little arachnid in the form of bad insect killing. It’s bad luck to evict tenants anyways.
The gigantic orb spider that lives near the shed and periodically surprises the absolute heck out of me and my mother by her web enveloping the path still lives, (mostly because I’m afraid of her power)- I can let a little guy hitchhike on an aloe.
Now if you can all excuse me I need to take out the compost with flashlight in order to not get orb spider web in my hair. Again.
The Neanderthal Gardens 
Again!? Oh my. You know, some people are terrified of spider. I wrote about Arachnophobia a long time ago, just because one of my colleagues has serious difficulty with it. The (really lame) movie happened to be filmed nearby while we were in school.
It’s why I tagged the post with spider- some folks with that phobia block that tag. I love spiders- do wish the lovely orb weaver would stop making such beautiful art right in the path I walk through though.
Wow, that is major arachnophobia, to block that tag.