Cass's Rock Garden: This Aint No Disco- Succulent Topiary

I love the California Cactus Center in Pasadena. It is overpriced, but they have so many amazing plants to look at and the staff is very knowledgeable. I think they are all members of the San Gabriel Cactus and Succulent Society [Hardcore Enthusiasts]. They have these topiaries around the center that may or may not be for sale but they're kind of cool. I felt inspired to make one. All they are are wire structures that are lined with chicken wire. For mine, I filled the structure with soil, added the plants, both rooted and non-rooted, and stuck moss in the exposed chicken wire.

My topiary looks a bit phallic. For the main structure I used a upside down tomato cage that I stuck the legs in to form the the top.

As usual a song always comes to mind when I'm looking at plants or for the most part doing anything. When I looked at the topiary the other day, it was Talking Heads " Life During Wartime," which is actually quite a political song on their Fear of Music album co-produced by Brian Eno. I thought I would talk about the evolution of Brian Eno from Roxy Music and beyond, but if you don't know of his magic look it up. It's a very important chunk of musical history from the early 70s to the birth of New Wave...