Musing~~

I just came in from watering my outdoor potted plants and my somewhat sad tomato plants~I'm about to head upstairs to finish up Hunter's game room (and take some photos...I promise!)......but before I do.....a little musing.

I dream of four hanging potted plants decorating my front porch causing it to be the envy of all who drive by (and that's a whopping ten or eleven cars a week, don't you know?)............

So how come I can't get anything to grow well in the four hanging planters I have on my front porch?

2005....I started out with some beautiful flowering plants (can't remember the names)...which did well for about six weeks before they began to look sad and neglected....I blamed it on the wind that blows full strength from the open fields around us.....

The next spring (2006), we bought four large ferns to hang out there; these four did well for about 2 1/2 months, then, once again they began to look sad and neglected....I still blamed it on the wind but began to think about my watering habits...perhaps, with all the renovation going on those poor things were a bit thirsty....and summer doesn't see us spending a whole lot of time out on the front porch because of bugs.....Miracle Grow didn't even help the poor things.

Spring 2007 - David's mom gave us her front porch plants because she was tired of dealing with lugging them inside and out for the weather. Her plants got a lot of wind because she fronts the river....two of them were cactus and two were....oh, I can't remember now but I thought their maturity would see them through...so up they went on our porch...and the four ferns went out to the gazebo where I'd see their thirstiness and water them a bit more.....

Spring 2008.....the cactus went back up after their winter's hibernation, but to be honest, they are ugly....don't like them....but the other two pots were filled with drought resistant something or anothers ( I never can remember plant names!).....and I thought for sure they'd survive my inconsistent watering abilities AND the nursery lady assured me they were hardy enough to take the almost constant winds......Plus...while David re-plumbed the house, he put new spigots up on the porch post, bought me a nice hose and hose rack to put right there so I'd be able to water without even leaving the porch....I had high hopes this year....

And guess, what? Over the past couple of days, Nikki and I have been digging out the ages old ivy that fills the ground gardens around the front porch and planting them in the pots where those two drought resistant and hardy flowering somethings were................cuz they didn't survive either! Despite my watering......I guess it has to be the wind.

AND, I've stolen a beautiful variegated spider plant from my mom's house and begun to propagate them - in case the ivy can't take it either.....

If this doesn't work, can I just put fake plants in those planters?