Sunday, June 2, 2013

my green(ish) thumb



I've always loved the idea of using plants to decorate, so when N and I moved into our townhouse I decided it was time to acquire some.  N's mom and grandmother are big plant people - and when I say big, I mean that both of them have living rooms that look like greenhouses.  It's not that they just have a lot of them, it's that they have a lot and they are all big, gorgeous, healthy plants, which is really impressive for someone like me who has yet to see a house plant survive.  In college my roommate and I tried to grow a spider plant, a plant that is supposed to practically indestructible, and poor little Spidey never made it more than a couple of days.

N's mom and grandmother have no knowledge of poor Spidey and his fate, though, so when we visited for Christmas, we came back with three small plants, and discovered three not-so-small problems:
  1. There is literally one window in our entire house that gets direct sunlight, and it's in our master bedroom, which is pretty much the last room in the entire house where I would want a plant, because we spend very little time in there on a regular basis. 
  2. The blinds are usually closed in our house since we forget to open them when we leave before work and it gets dark fairly soon after we get back, before we remember that we should have opened them for the plants.
  3. Apparently, in addition to light, plants also need water.
Since our three little plants arrived back in December, they have bounced between almost-dead and sort-of-growing at least four times.  Usually, I forget to water them until they start turning a sickly color.  My mother-in-law suggested when we got them that I pick a day of the week on which I always water, to help me remember.  Pft, I thought, what kind of dummy would forget to water a plant?  Um, hello.

Last week, I was pretty sure that the plants had reached the point of no return, judging by the brown, crispy leaves that were falling all over the plastic bin on which they sit (the other problem with them being in the master is we don't actually have any furniture in there that is next to the window).  This weekend, though, with a little water, they had a major awakening, turned green, and are actually sprouting some new growth.  I'm making (another) promise to myself to actually keep them alive for good this time, and maybe even water them on a regular basis

Especially since my mother-in-law is probably coming to visit in the next couple of months, and the last thing I want her to discover is that I'm incapable of taking care of a plant.  What would that say about my potential future mothering skills? :)

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