Field guides
Six guides,
one bench.
Everything we know about keeping succulents alive indoors, in the order we would teach it. Written for a cool-temperate climate with wet winters — adjust for your own frost date.
01Foundations7 minThe soak-and-dry method
How to water a succulent so the roots drink and then breathe — and how to tell, without a schedule, that the pot is ready.
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02Foundations6 minReading a window
A south-facing sill is not a light source in December. How to judge the light you actually have, and what to do when it is not enough.
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03Foundations8 minThe gritty mix
Two parts mineral, one part organic, and a pot with a hole. A recipe you can make from a garden centre, and why bagged cactus soil is not it.
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04Practical6 minRepotting without losing roots
When to move a plant up, how to loosen a root ball that has become a solid block, and why the pot should be barely bigger.
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05Practical7 minLeaves, offsets, cuttings
Three ways to make more plants from one, which genera respond to which, and the one thing that ruins a leaf before it roots.
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06Seasonal6 minThe cold windowsill
Dormancy is not death. How to hold a collection through four months of low light, cold glass and central heating.
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New to this
Read them in order.
Light, then water, then soil. The first two determine whether the plant lives; the third determines how often you have to think about it.
Start with light