Monday, December 28, 2009

Cabin Fever+Gardener=Mess

I've only been home mucking around the house for two days and I'm already making more messes than I am actually cleaning anything up. It all starts out well, I started with the kitchen cleaning up dishes and arranging my glass jars, transferring sugar and flour. Then I notice the pantry and organize it. Then I spy the overflowing tupperware cabinet as I put away dishes and so I sit and clean it out throwing away broken containers, etc. A nearby cabinet is next - adding never used casserole dishes without lids to the Goodwill pile along with my old pots and pans. Then I hit the kitchen table, cleaning off bills and Christmas list and THAT is when it get the green-thumb itch. I notice that my indoor plants all set up in near the window by the table need a little TLC.



So I start off with repotting two plants we had purchased at Lowes in their 75% off bin into roomier pots we found awhile back during one of our neighborhood heavy trash days - they even came complete with dirt! So, two plants repotted in the middle of the kitchen floor - mess #1.



But by then my hands had already felt the thrill of being back in soil - so of course I move on to my other potted plants - I see my pineapple plants and get suspicious of the "babies" I thought were growing in the pot all summer. So I take a spoon - yup a SPOON - goodness knows I can't find where I stored any of my hand trowels in the garage so a spoon will do. I start digging around the little plants that are overtaking my pineapple plants and guess what I found?? The tuberous roots of a spider plant! All those babies were in fact baby plants and not weeds, but they weren't off shoots from the pineapple plant. So I proceeded to dig out all the invading spider plants with my spoon till I have an even bigger mess of dirt. (mess #2)



Of course I cannot just leave the little invasive plants to die (mess #3), they were crafty enough to grow by seed all this time - and they were so healthy! We keep all our potted plants inside for the winter, and the pineapple pots sit under the spider plants and those crazy plants are always spitting out seeds - I swear I am cutting off shoots and sweeping up little black seeds every month - just never expected any of them to actually grow! Wow!



Anywho, I gather up cups to transplant the little plants - having that done I look at the two huge spider plants I already have - and of course they are in need of a trim with tons and tons of shoots of baby plants. I trim them up all up and save the best looking babies for even more cups.



I now have 9 cups of baby spider plants in my house (and all my messes cleaned up)! 4 of whom will find good homes with unsuspecting friends here in the next couple of days - but 5 of whom need badly to be adopted! So if any of my nearby blogger pals would like a baby spider plant let me know! They will do fine in the cup I have them in until probably spring time - then they'll need transplanted into a bigger pot.

Any willing plant parents out there looking for a new addition? Spider plants do grow into lovely lush plants! Leave a comment and me know!!

3 comments:

Christina Salwitz said...

Cute post! I resemble that entire thing. I think we must be long lost related gardeners!

Stacy said...

Christina - Thanks for stopping by my blog! Wow, you are quite the gardener yourself! I may aspire to dig in the dirt, but my yard looks nothing like yours - not yet anyway! :) Can't wait to see what other kind of garden inspiration lies in store for me on your blog! :)

Karen Sue said...

Alas, I am too far away. After the tree comes down this week, I'll need some green to pick me up. I think my mom might have a spider plant..or I'll hit Kmart or some place of unloved plants.
Thanks for the inspiration. I may need a bag of dirt, too, since I think I dumped my pots into the compost pile...