Confessions of a Serial Plant Killer

I can't help myself. Every few months, I'll be strolling through a nursery or a Home Depot and I'll see a poor, unsuspecting young, green houseplant -- and I just can't resist. I bring it home with me, transplant it, place it in a nice sunny spot, and diligently water it.

But it doesn't take long -- a few weeks, maybe a month -- and I get busy, forgetful. I lose interest. before you know it, my lovely little plant looks something like this one. We'll call him, "Bob":

Yes, I am ashamed of my neglectful behavior. And even more ashamed of the number of plants in my house that look like Bob -- or worse.

So this week, I set out to restore some of my green karma by caring for -- or bidding farewell -- to all the poor, neglected plants in my house.


LT No. 7: Bob (Time: 5 minutes)

Believe it or not, Bob is one of the healthier plants in my household. I think his prognosis is pretty good -- as long as he escapes my house. So I did some careful pruning and took him to my office. Turns out, I'm a pretty good plant caregiver as long as the plants are at my office. That's because I always have leftover water in my water bottle each morning, so I divvy it up among my plants during the week. So Bob now has a new home, and I hope that will get him on the road to recovery.

LT No. 8: The Orchid (Time: 15 minutes)

Now, in my defense, I seldom see an orchid -- outside of a nursery -- that looks any better than this one. In fact, without me doing a darn thing, this orchid is sending out a shoot that looks like one day it may even bloom again.

But in truth, it's sent out shoots before and never bloomed, so I did a little research to see what I could do to increase the chances of seeing an orchid blossom again.

Turns out a little water (from the bottom) and a sunnier spot might do the trick. I'll give you a progress report in a few months.


LT No. 8: Amaryllis (Time: 15 minutes)

I love watching an amaryllis progress from what looks like a clump of dirt into a giant plant with a gorgeous lily-like blossom -- and in the dead of winter no less. But for the life of me, I have never been able to make one bloom twice.

Ok, I've never really tried. I just water them until they wither and then stick them in a dark corner. Turns out that's the right thing to do! I just never bothered to take the next step and bring the poor things out into the light again.

So this week, I brought them out of the basement, gave them a shot of water, and sat them on the south-facing window sill. One of them has a green shoot already!

LT No. 9 & 10: The African Violets (Time: 30+ minutes)

I confess that I tried to save my African violet a few months ago by trying to transplant it. Instead, I broke the thing in two. Since then, I've had one poor pathetic plant (exhibit A to the left) in a pot, and a second one in a glass of water on my window sill (exhibit B below). I was trying to get it to sprout some roots.

The one of the glass of water actually fared better than the one in the pot. In fact, I ushered the potted violet on to where it can be put to better use -- into the compost pile.

The other one, however, I have tried to save. It required a trip to the Home Depot for a new pot and some potting soil (thus, the 30+ minutes). I can't say I have high hopes for this one, but I've done my best.

LT No. 11: The Bromeliad (Time: 5 minutes)

Once again, I hopped onto the Internet to figure out what to do with this poor fella.

Because the flower pot had begun to rust out, I performed a transplant, trimmed the dead leaves, and then gave him a shot of water in the center of the plant -- instructions care of the World Wide Web. (I'm afraid I've gone overboard on the water, though, because he looks a little worse for wear now).


LT. 12: Anemone in a Bag (Time: 20 minutes -- not including 12 hours soaking the bulbs)


When we first moved into our house two years ago, a neighbor brought over a housewarming gift -- an "Anemone in a Bag" kit. Everything you need to force the bulbs came wrapped in a lovely bag -- but I, of course, never got around to setting it up. Until this week.


I did my own thing, though. The instructions said to plant the bulbs in the bag, but I thought they'd look better in a mason jar. So I soaked the bulbs and the soil, dumped all the ingredients in a quart jar and it's sitting in my kitchen window. Anemones on the rise!

LT No. 13 & 14: John & Jane Doe

These two little plants were impulse purchases from the Home Depot a few years ago -- and given the neglect they've suffered, they really survived for quite a long time. I have no idea what kind of plants they are and I had long since lost the little tags that come with them.

With no way of identifying them, I couldn't rely on the World Wide Web to help me right my wrong. So with the help of an iPhone, I sent photos (oh, the shame) of the Does to a friend's father -- a botanist.

I believe I heard him openly weeping at the sight of these poor plants. But he advised me that their best chance of survival was if I trimmed them all the way back to the dirt. So that is what I have done. Let's hope it works!

To be continued ... 

This week, I will carry on with my Little Things -- I'm thinking of focusing on re-connecting with old friends. But I'll keep you up to date on the progress in my greenhouse.

Peas,

LucyB

k2tog

Today, unfortunately, I had to tackle a big thing -- putting away the holiday decorations and taking down the tree. But I had a week of small accomplishments to keep me going while I was digging through boxes of boxes to find just the right box for each ornament. And many of those little things will pay dividends.

So, picking up where I left off (after LT No. 1 -- the pots & pans cabinet and LT No. 2 -- subscribing to Real Simple):

LT No. 3: Knitters United (Time: 10 minutes)

One day before the holidays, I carried my knitting to work because I was meeting up with my knitting group after work. In doing so, I discovered my cube-mate had been wanting to learn to knit. I promised her that after the holidays, I'd send out a call for knitters at the office to see if there was interesting in starting a work knitters group -- and that I'd help her get started. I sent a quick email to the women of the office last Tuesday -- and within 15 minutes, I had a dozen responses! Most have never knitted before, so I may have my work cut out for me (especially since I've only been knitting about a year myself). Follow-up for this week: Schedule our first meeting.

LT No. 4: A Re-gift Everyone Can Appreciate (Time: 5 minutes)

Last year for Christmas, my mother-in-law gave me a gift card to Ann Taylor -- a store I like, but seldom shop at because the clothing is too formal for my shorts-and-flip-flops workplace. I finally got around to using it a couple of weeks ago -- that is, all but $9 of it. (Darn sale!) I'd put on my list to order something online to finish up that card. But I would have had to spend at least another $40 to spend that $9 -- so I gave it away to a co-worker. She appreciated, I saved money, and I emptied one more card out of my wallet.

LT No. 5: Change, Please! (Time: 10 minutes)

Ok, I admit this one is a little quirky, but I'd been saving my Nuun containers because I knew they'd come in handy for something, eventually. For those of you who don't frequent running/tri shops, Nuuns are electrolyte tablets that you drop into your water bottle. They come in tubes that are, conveniently, exactly the size of a quarter. This week, I filled one with quarters (from my husband's stash -- shhh) and stuck it in my glove box so I'm never without change for the meter or tolls. Added bonus: I found my gloves! Apparently last year I felt the glove box was the appropriate place to put them:).

LT No. 6: In the Round

Coming full circle this week, back to knitting. For my birthday (4 months ago!), my parents gave me a gift card to Knitpicks.com. This week, I finally put it to use. I ordered a new knitting book (101 Luxury Yarn One-Skein Wonders), some needles, a notions case, and few other tidbits. Can't wait from them to arrive!(And I'm not posting the time for this one -- I'll admit, I spent much longer than 30 minutes, but that's because I was having so much fun shopping!)

Peace,

LucyB

A Year of Small Doses

I hate to be cliche and do the whole New Year, New Me thing, but the fact is I like it. I like starting clean each year, finding new things to do to make life more, well, just more. Frankly, I wish we celebrated each month as a new beginning (though perhaps without quite so much partying).

So once again I am embracing the newness -- and I'm proud of it. I, of course, have all the usual resolutions, if we must call them that. That word is so staid, so formal, so parliamentary: "We are hereby resolved to ... lose 5 pounds, get our finances in order, and finally, oh finally, get organized."

Yeah, I'd like to do all those things, but what really inspired me this year to do something new on my quest for newness was the Editor's Note in the most recent issue of Real Simple, written by Kristin van Ogtrop. She begins:

"If I have learned anything in my 40-something years on this plant, it's that true happiness -- like federal tax refunds and declarations of love from male children -- comes most often in small doses."

She goes on to write about her coat closet -- and how every day she'd open it to put her hat and scarf away only to have an avalanche of board games slide down on her. After days, weeks, months of following this same routine, she finally took a few minutes to re-arrange it. Voila -- a little slice of happiness.

The same day I read the article (that would be yesterday, in layman's terms), I had my own coat closet experience -- with the pots and pans cabinet. God bless my husband because he cooks (and cleans!), but his visual-spatial ability for stacking kitchen utensils is, well, lacking.

So for the 487th time, I tried to find a plastic container for storing leftovers and ended up sitting on the floor, seething, flashlight in hand. Until I took everything out of the cabinet, covered the floor with lids, colanders, pie plates, dish towels, and all manner of things and straightened it out. It took me 20 minutes (at the most).

Twenty-four hours later, I am still giddy at my accomplishment.

And now we come to the crux of my new year. It's my goal to do one Little Thing each day to make my life a little better, and make me and those around me a little happier. Here are the ground rules:

1. I should be able to complete the Little Thing in 30 minutes or less.
2. It should not feel like a chore.
3. It shouldn't be something I would have to do anyway (like pay bills or fold the laundry).
4. I reserve the right to change these rules:).
5. I will really only do 6 Little Things a week and then on the 7th day (give or take), I will blog -- and that will count as no. 7. Because let's face it, how often does anyone want to read about me re-arranging my pots and pans?

I've already started a list -- of all the Little Things I never quite get to, but that would make my life simpler, easier, better -- and make me just a little happier. (I don't have 365 yet, but I know more will reveal themselves to me.)

So my first official Little Thing was, of course, the pots and pans.

And now I will sign off to undertake Little Thing No. 2: Subscribe to Real Simple.

Peace,

LucyB