Read that title carefully. It sounds like something bad, but that's totally not what actually happened... man. What happened is this: I like plants. That's always been true. They're all green and whatever and that makes me happy. I have, despite being so deeply in like with them, managed to kill them very quickly. I never learned how to care for a plant because, well, not unlike carnival goldfish, mine were dead long before actual life-skills could be learned. Unlike my goldfish, though, my parents never snuck into my room to replace a dead plant with a live one so I would think I had skills as a caregiver. That is completely unrelated to today's activity, but I thought I'd share.
My parents have a sun room. In it, there are two things. Sun and plants. Technically there's also furniture, plant stands, dirt, two lighted herb garden thingees and a watering can that oxygenates the water. That's right. My parents, who I adore, managed to find a watering can that needs to be plugged into an outlet. I wonder, mom and dad, do they have a travel can that plugs into your car lighter or a battery operated version for the gardener on the go?
Despite their cybernetic watering can, my parents have managed to kill their share of plants as well. They've gotten a lot better though. They move the plants in the sun room around every couple of months and play around with different pots and watering schemes to better tend to them. I, on the other hand, killed plants because the first time someone asked me if I've ever potted a plant, my response was "sorry man, I don't do drugs".
I popped in on my folks rearranging the plants the other day and they offered to give me a couple of plants if I potted them. It seemed like a good trade. I got new plants, new pots, a new skill and a new blog entry. They got the immeasurable pleasure of my company. Like I said - good trade. I went over today to learn how to pot up the plants I'd be taking home. It actually became three slightly different learning experiences.
Pictured: Learning experiences 1 and 2.
Those are the two plants I got and they are beautiful. I love the purple in the leaves on each of them. The reason there are two here is that one is being potted for the first time and the other has been potted before... so its being... re-potted... I guess. There actually is a different process (slightly) for the two activities. Mostly the difference settles on how to water in the plant and how much water to use. You use more on the newly potted plant, less on the repeat-potting and center the water on the repeat-potting.
This is a step I was previously unaware of.
The whole process was really simple and given just how easily I kill plants... its pretty much guaranteed to make them do better than my original plan. Granted that my original plan was just... acceptance... but still. There were no major snafus until the very end of the whole shebang. The thing I had the most trouble with was figuring out the right amount to pack in the dirt. You don't want it too loose or too tight and when you're pushing the dirt down, you don't want to hurt the plant.
I hurted the plant.
I assumed we'd be throwing it away, since it broke off the main plant, but instead, I had learning experience number three. It would seem that there is another, rarely spoken of, almost taboo form of potting. When an emergency strikes in... umm... Gardenvilleland... only a true hero can save the plants of the town. That hero is... Lady GreenThumb!! I am not Lady GreenThumb. I was going to throw that stem away. In a plot twist that surely no one saw coming, Lady GreenThumb is... my dad! Perhaps Lord GreenThumb would be better...
Down in the dirt!
Its a snail!
Its a small land-based turtle!
No! Its Lord GreenThumb!
My dad showed me how certain plants can be emergency potted if they are resilient enough to grow on their own. The beautiful purple plant my parents were kind enough to give me is one of those resilient plants, so instead of throwing that small stalk away, we found a nice planter for it. Its very cute, to be honest. That was the only thing that really posed a problem. For the most part I was shocked at how simple it was. Everyone should own plants. They are simply amazing to have around and I think I spent a total of 15 minutes on actually doing the potting of the plants. It really was wonderfully straightforward.
Easy Mode
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