| I'm glad it wasn't possums! The scamper of little feet on the roof can be quite disconcerting, and the wild cackling! About the bonsai: if it's in a shallow pot your biggest challenge is to prevent it from droughting over summer. Easiest is to immerse it in a bucket of rain water and wait until the bubbles stop. Daily, if necessary. Then rest it on gravel in a dish above some water to provide local humidity. It must have free drainage because standing in water will kill its feeder roots. Protect from afternoon sun, but leave it outdoors. The second one is to keep it upright in the wind. Third is remembering to feed it (half strength liquid such as MiracleGro) - and keep it's shape by tactful pruning. If you can get hold of a book on bonsai by Dorothy Koroshoff, at the library or at your local bonsai club; she's Australian and is very practical. As our president says, "You'll never look at trees the same way again." (Nor plants for sale at the garden centre...) |