OT - Cute guys, happy plants and my poor lawn!!! ...:long (gardening)

Sitting here watching two young guys dig up my front yard. Yeah, they're
really cute but not cute enough to make it ok. The main water
supply line is leaking right at the house and I figured they would just
have to dig up the end of a flower bed that needed to be dug out and
redone anyway. But noooo... the owner wanted it done right so they
are replacing all the line, from the house out to the sidewalk (city
meter). Ok I know that's a good thing but my poor lawn!

On the side of good news though... I've been working, a little every
day, to repot ALL my plants. The last year they have suffered
terribly... first being moved into the carport at the old house to
protect them from the hurricane... they spent almost a month crowded
together with little light and no one to water them. They got a month or
so outside before being crowded back into the carport, at the temporary
house, during last winter. I don't take a chance and always moved them
all to a sheltered area from mid November until early spring. They got
as much TLC as possible when I was in the fema trailer and all but 2 or
3 began to recover somewhat.

So I decided it was time to repot *all* 150+ of them instead of my usual
- doing a few each season. I invested in the best potting mix but was
hesitating to invest in a lot of new pots (eeek, not cheap!) so decided
to go to the local nursery instead, for some of their used plain black
nursery pots. Then earlier that day, on a scenic drive with my good
friend Billy and the kids, we found dozens of excellent BIG and medium
pots, outside a closed-up estate, out in the country. They had been put
out next to the trash on the road and no one had taken them yet!
woohoo!!! I'm talking about maybe $200+ worth of good pots! I think the
universe was giving me a cosmic kick to get it done!

Now I've repotted about 60 of them including most of the big ones that I
had been putting off for far too long. Earlier today I was walking
around, telling them all good morning and noticed some rather
extreme changes in many of them. One philodendron that I've had for
about 5 yrs had been looking so bad it broke my heart but was in such a
huge pot that I had put off trying to repot it by myself. Well I finally
gave it a new pot, new dirt and lots of attention about a week ago and
it now has five -FIVE- new dark green ruffly leaves!!!!! More new leaves
than it's had total in the last few years. Several orchids that had been
fairly dormant for the last year all have signs of new growth and my
night-blooming cereus (epiphyllum), one of the first to be repotted,
graced me with not one but two *big* flowers in a matter of days and has
two more buds that I am watching close. It only blooms at night, about
1-2 am, and the bloom collapses usually by 8am so if you miss it that
one night it's gone.

http://beadfulheart.com/gallery/epiphyllum-e-hookeri These were taken
early in the morning and the sun broke over the trees just as I was
taking the pics.

Well, the baby (Zach) and I are headed back outside to repot a big
rubber plant and giant shefflera then I'll have only the ferns and
smaller plants to do! He's only 19 months old so I don't make him help
me... yet! Will take and post more pics later!


--
Polly
don't spook my groove...

email - webmaster at beadfulheart dot com