Friday, October 14, 2011

New Home for Fernanda

When Amy (not her name) moved out of our rental property recently, she left hardly a trace of her habitation behind.  Oven, floors, closets, refrigerator - all spotless!  Full refund of security deposit was sent promptly!   But, on the deck, Amy left two bushels of dirt. And this is a good thing!  Because that dirt happened to be Stern's Miracle Gro Potting Mix.  The bags were broken, but I salvaged the potting mix in buckets. 

Here's Syd helping to check in the consignment - only one tongue and so much to do!
I assembled my entire "family" of plants and planters, and re-potted the whole works.  It was such a sunny and pleasant day, and the moist fragrant potting soil and the verdant smell of plant roots took me back to a simpler more carefree time in my life, when I raised African Violets in the basement (an adventure that came to a tragic end, involving neighbors, bikers, drunkenness and doors left open at 3am on a winter morning... - I will explain in more detail some other time.)


I arranged the suspects smallest to largest, based on space requirements.  And I transplanted each into its proper-sized container, ever larger pots. The Spathes were so abundant that I divided them into three separate groups.  Fernanda, my favorite fern (second from the right ) has grown to twice the size she was after she recovered from an over-zealous pruning job by Syd. He couldn't remember where the plant started and the salad stopped.
There was some leftover potting mix, so I yielded to temptation and got some additional fern varieties at the garden center the other day... 


Back to the Garden! It's going to be a long cold winter.


Thanks for listening and contributing. I'd love to hear from you.

1 comment:

Lydia Fiedler said...

well first of all, I'm singing Fernando by Abba now, so thanks for that.

Second - you're making me want to read Let's Keep the Aspidistra Flying again

Third - potting soil is the gift that keeps on giving!!

WV: I heard this dingn but it was late and the door was open, and well, that's a story for another day..