Update - the enclosure
On NYE i finally topped out the soil - here’s the last group shot of 2017. The larger girls (CBDCC right - Professor#2 left) are droopy because when I watered in the top soil with a bit of weak seaweed tea, I did let them get a bit wet - it was overcast.
Over the last 2 weeks they’ve had some foliar spraying and some weak tea watered in - all with the home made seaweed juice, at different strengths. And once,a few days ago I blended a very small amount of the freebie organic fert that I got - for hopefully some trace elements of many things and some enzymes and bacteria. I also, after some reading, decided that my types of calcium were perhaps a little out of balance - I used a lot more gypsum than oyster shell flour and palagonite (a form of basalt) when i made it originally, so I have amended with a little garden lime to increase the calcium carbonate content. I’m still learning about all this, and you read different stuff, get different advice, of course - it’s an artisan-like practice not a science after all - so I’m just tweaking here 'n there and watching the plants. You know, I could watch them all day. It never gets old does it?! I sit and stare at them, just captured by how beautiful they are…
The leaves on these enclosure babies are firm but not crunchy, still have a softness - even in the harsh sun - and they’re strong!
CBDCC week8-9
I have taken LED209’s advice - thank you - and spent some time over the last week leaf tucking and laying the CBDCC back gently, to open the lower branch sites up to the sun. This (below) is the first day of this practice, on NYE. I’ve decided that leaf tucking is kind of like gently asking the plant to hold hands with itself.
I haven’t been leaving it like that permanently - I’ve been applying the techniques during the day and then letting her free & loose overnight. After 2 days she looked like this.
3days on - untethered…
There’ve been days when i only tucked leaves and didn’t lie her back at all. So i’m mixing it up a bit. The lower branches are really coming on - still fairly spindly, but not really weak so hopefully they’ll be strong enough by the time she has something huge and frosty to hold up! Yesterday she looked like this - quite a development in a week of tucking and ‘leaning’ I think!
Today she’s still tied back from yesterday - I did a little more leaf tucking and will let her free tonight.
Professor #2
This one i’ve laid back permanently, and may go further. I’m very happy to be potentially getting anything at all from her so her health is very exciting (she had some early struggles).
This her on NYE - the first day of “lay back & tuck” therapy (sounds like a high diving manoeuvre)
here’s a little node shot from that day
A few days ago I was having some challenges effectively tucking the top leaves (they’re huge in comparison to the rest to her) so I decided to employ the training techniques I’ve been watching Pigeons420 doing on his youtube channel, to bend the top over, opening the second node to the sun
It’s 3 days later now and this is her today - she’s straightened up again as I know she would, but the effect has been to successfully make the tops get some grow on, and it’s really helped the nodes underneath. This is today as I found her - before any leaf tucking...
And this is after some leaf tucking … oh, and some tip spreading
I’ve been tip spreading both the enclosure girls everyday, sometimes more than once. It’s a lovely practice, very intimate.
This is the group shot of the enclosure as it is today. You’ll notice that 2 of the new babies are now in the bed in front of the older ones. That’s IcePrincess on the left and one of the GoldenTiger crosses on the right. I’m experimenting here with training from a very young age. InTheShed - thanks - talks about starting LST basically “as soon as there is enough height to start the bending process” - so I’m attempting some of my own Espalier to see what I can get away with. They’ll have a shortish veg because they went in so late in the season, so if it works, I figure the ‘hedges’ wont get too long for the space… we’ll see…
And finally - my recent gardening companions have largely been insects (and not just ants!). There are some of these ones who seem to be living in our enclosure. They’re always around, about 5-10 of them I think. On the day of this photo, this one was hovering around my shoulder as I went about my business. It came with me from one end of the enclosure to the other - just there, at the edge of my eyeline - moving with me wherever i went for quite some time… I eventually decided it was saying “hey, how about me this week? Take my photo!!” So I said - “ok gorgeous, where are you going to sit?” (yes, I talk to insects - I talk to all the critters around here, and the plants as well). It then landed almost immediately on the top leaf of a recently transplanted Holy Basil, right next to my ganja raised bed, “perfect”. It’s a 'hover fly' - and I’m stoked that they’ve moved in…
Hover flies may appear in large numbers during hot weather. They linger in gardens to feed at flowers and to seek shade. Many species perform the useful role of ridding the garden of aphids, as they lay their eggs in aphid colonies and the larvae (maggots) feed on the aphids.
That’s the enclosure as it is for now - I haven’t decided what I’m going to do with the other GTcross, yet. It’s very stretchy in that little pot. Better do something with it soon!
Big love to all my 420 companions. I’m so happy I’ve landed here - and the experience of having a little garden and tracking it through the journaling is bringing a lot of joy to my days. Thanks for visiting today. Go well, wherever you go.
Will update the pods soon.
Happy New Year Amy! 
That's great news for the girls, who by the way look amazing! Love those big, big leaves on Professor #2. They look so exotic in an already exotic garden. 
I do that with all my plants now. Before I started watching him I was much more gentle with my charges. Now I reach in there and roughhouse with them. Lol!