Jacob Wells - Succulent Gardening: A Beginners Guide to Growing Succulent Plants Indoors and Outdoors

Introduction

I f you are somebody with an interest in the world of gardening, then you probably noticed that there has been a recent spike of interest in a couple trendy topics lately: the first is the rise of cannabis cultivation, which has taken off as the restrictive laws around growing have begun to change; likewise, there has been a major push for more indoor and organic gardening, as more and more people want to escape the world of GMO and chemically induced fruits and vegetables. Both of these trends interact with a third trend: hydroponic gardening, also known as soilless gardening, which uses flowing water to provide nutrients. Chances are, however, that you havent heard much about the fourth trend that has been rising as of the last couple years: growing succulents.

Google search trend data shows a steady increase in the number of people searching for information about growing their own succulent plants. However, unlike with flowers, fruits, vegetables, or herbs, there is a large portion of the general public that doesnt know what a succulent is. When they hear the word succulent, their first thought is as a description of a juicy steak or a box of expensive chocolates. In actuality, succulents are a category of plant defined by the way they suck up and store water inside their leaves. They take their name from the Latin word for juice (or sap), sucus .

There are many different kinds of succulents, ranging from caucuses, to aloe vera and the black rose zwartkop plant. Even the dragon fruit comes from a succulent cactus. Many succulents are edible and provide nutritional health benefits, while others (such as aloe) are used in treating burns or cuts. There is a large range of succulents grown for an even larger variety of reasons. But in the same way that reasons to grow them vary, they also vary vastly in how difficult they are to grow. Many succulents can be quite easy to grow, and are perfectly content to take care of themselves rather than having you tend to them. However, some can have exacting requirements that take a lot of attention and tender care. What this means for the casual gardener is that there are plenty of succulents they can start growing to learn the ropes, along with many more they can tackle later once they feel more comfortable working with succulents.

Succulents have a tendency to prefer dry climates, which is why they evolved to store water within their leaves rather than using it all up at once. If you compare them to an orange tree, for example, you see that the orange tree requires a lot of water because it uses it all to produce fruit. Most succulents dont produce any fruit (the dragon fruit plant being an exception to the rule), so they are free to store their water to survive through long stretches of dry weather. In this manner, succulents are kind of like the plant version of a hibernating bearbears eat lots of food while they are awake so they can store fat in their stomach and survive off that fat during their hibernation period. Succulents do something similar, but with water instead of fat. However, although succulent plants can survive a long time without water, just like the bear will still need to eat, succulent plants will still need to be watered if they are to stay healthy.

The goal of this book is to introduce you to the wonderful world of succulent gardening and provide you with enough information to get started raising your own healthy succulent plants. In order to achieve this goal, this book will follow a straightforward path that assumes you have little to no knowledge on how to take care of these fascinating plants. Chapter one explores the origin of succulent plants and where they come from, how their biology works, and why they make such great additions to your indoor or outdoor garden. Chapter two will introduce some of the popular succulent plants to you, which may want to grow; these will be divided between those succulents that thrive indoors and those that prefer being outside. Continuing to follow this division between indoor and outdoor succulents, chapter three and chapter four will look at the requirements for growing indoor and outdoor succulents respectively. Chapter five will bring these two threads back together and look at how you care for and maintain your succulent plants, so they stay healthy and pest-free. Finally, chapter six will focus on fun and interesting facts, along with additional advice that may not fit in anywhere else.

By the time you put the book down, you will be able to get your hands dirty planting your own succulents and enjoying the many benefits of these wondrous plants. So what are you waiting for? Its time to get growing.

Chapter One: The Origin of Succulents

S ucculents are a growing craze, with many people being exposed to their beauty through social media sites like Instagram. But these intriguing plants dont literally come from the internet, of courseto find out where succulents come from, you need to take a much wider lens. In fact, you need a global lens to answer that question, as succulents can be found all across the world, though the most well known areas that succulents spawn are in dryer climates such as the Africa, India, the deserts of North America, and the rainforests of South America. Succulents are strong plants that can survive weather that is far too harsh for other plants, such as climates with high temperature and little rain. Despite these specific climates, there are still plenty of succulents to be found along oceanic coasts and lakeshores.

Since succulents are truly a plant variety that could be described as global, we wont spend much time focusing on the geographical origin of these plants. We will touch on it briefly, of course, but that will be when we look at specific kinds of succulents, such as aloe vera or zebra plants. To locate succulents as a whole on a geographical scale would be a fruitless exercise, but on the individual species level, we will have a much easier time. So, rather than worrying about each succulents geographical origin, let us look at the evolutionary origin of these fascinating plants. You will see why their origin has consumed the minds of many biologists, their being truly as unique and intriguing as they are beautiful.