Gro Pods - Last General Meeting

We received a donation of three gro pods from Joe Meppelink of the College of Architecture here at UH, and we recently won a mini grant to fund the set-up of those pods! At our last general meeting, we set up the shade cloth and the gro pods, filling them with garden soil, perlite, and Microlife fertilizer.

Later, we added in a few plants. There are three chrysanthemums, a mini rose, thyme, rosemary, lavender, and oregano! We'll slowly add in more plants like mint, gazanias, and bluebonnets.

Sealing the greenhouse

After UH Plant Ops removed the defunct swamp coolers in front of the greenhouse, it left two large holes in the greenhouse where the coolers once connected. Until recently, I simply covered the holes with pool wrap (the blue bubblewrap-like material), but I noticed that cats (and probably other small animals) were able to enter and exit from the holes despite the covering.

So, in preparation of our gro pods and to stop this problem, I filled and plugged the holes. First, I added in four cinderblocks (18''x6''x6'' each) into each hole, stacked 2x2 blocks.

Then, I put PVC pipe through one of the cinderblocks and ran a hose through the PVC.

To fill the hole, I used big gap expanding foam sealant. I had to go back to Home Depot to purchase a second can because one wasn't enough. Of course, use adequate protection, since the foam is sticky and irritating.

Once all the big gaps were sealed, I added steel wool (#12) into the holes of the cinderblocks to prevent any  rodents or pests from getting through. I decided to leave the pool wrap on, since it looks better than the yellow foam sealant.

Instagram!

Hey folks. Sorry there haven't been any posts this semester - rather busy for all of the officers. Some good news - we now officially have an Instagram! Follow us at #horticulturesociety.

New succulents for Spring 2015

One of my (Chris's) goals for THS was to increase the variety of plants in the greenhouse and offered at plant sales. While we've had mother plants for herbs since our organization began, there wasn't much variety in our succulents until not too long ago. People love succulents because they are (supposedly) all easy to care for and "cute". Here are a few of the new succulents I picked up over the winter break that will hopefully appear at our sales this spring. Since the vendor didn't label any of them, the names might not be 100% accurate, but I based them off of the vendor's website. 

Aloe vera "Cynthia Giddy"

Aloe asterious

Aloe deltoideodanta v candicans

Faucaria tuberculosa

Gasteria hybrid

Haworthia coarctata

Haworthia reinwardtii

Aloe hybrid

Aloe hybrid

Aloe/Dyckia hybrid?

Aloe hybrid

Mammillaria prolifera (Texas Nipple Cactus)

Sansevieria ballyi