Thursday, December 6, 2007

Our Indoor Greenhouse

Each year my husband and I accumulate a plethora of plants that we adorn our yard or porch with (now we actually have a yard - and no longer have a porch or balcony like we did when we lived in apartments for 4 years). These plants come from a various amount of sources - the garage bins (I hate seeing a perfectly good plant thrown away) and this is how we now own a spider plant and a little tropical palm, we also find lonely plants in the bargain bins at our local Home Depot and Lowes - that is how we have become the proud owners of a rubber plant that had outgrown its pot and was sold 75% off. We also get plants from family. My brother-in-law gave us a starter off of his spider plant which has since grown into a monstrous plant that we have to physically chop back to keep a check on its growth. My grandmother has a nursery and so we have received many green leafed housewarming plants - in fact she loads our car up to brim every time we come to visit. Now granted, only about 75% of those plants actually live due to my neglect or ill placement in our yard. Well the point I was getting to was that, each year we collect this crazy amount of plants to create a backyard oasis but then winter comes to Indiana and there comes the need to bring almost all the plants back in so they can survive which makes our house into some sort of greenhouse. Right now we have 14 potted plants in our dining room, two in our living room and two in our bedroom. In years past, bringing the plants in has always been an issue. We have cats and cats are downright ridiculous about plants in the house. Well, at least mine are. They eat the poisonous leaves and end up hacking up the remains somewhere on my floor or they try to use the pots as extra litter boxes. The very worst is when they actually knock one over in the attempt to do any of the things I just listed. A knock-over usually happens after I have water the plant - so that whatever mess is made is 50 times worse because not only is there dirt on the floor but it is WET dirt. This year we have a house instead of an apartment. We have double the square footage to place our potted plants and one top of that we have a great little dining nook that is equipped with linoleum floors and plenty of light from our sliding glass door and a window. This is where the 14 of my 18 plants will be spending the winter. And the cats have been leaving them alone - not sure why but they are.

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