Parmesan Polenta

and days filled with plants

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I spend my mornings with succulents, the kinder of the house plants, and my afternoons with cacti, the proud and angry members of plant society.

If poked and prodded, succulents will bend and break, dropping new plants off their stalks. Cacti, on the other hand, poke back.

Much like with cooking, caring for plants is something passed down generationally in the Nicewarner family. My grandmother and my mother and my father all have a love for plants. I’ve been helping my family garden for longer than I can remember, although I can remember when I actually became helpful — once I got big enough to hold a shovel and focus enough to do more than jump in the leaf piles.

It can take a long time to learn how to care for plants. And each kind requires a different sort of care.

To care for cactus properly, you must become one with them — take inspiration and become grumpy and beautiful like them. Peaceful and stationary, bitter and biting.

I’ve worked with cactus and succulents at a greenhouse for the last five years. People are forever asking me how to care for them, so I thought I would put together a guide as short and succinct as a succulent cutting.