Family Wash Day

I can’t stand it.  Snow, snow, and more snow.  Looking out the window it’s hard to imagine that spring is right around the corner – and that all my gardens are trapped under all this white stuff. So close, yet seems so far. I have spent a good portion of my morning in spring therapy on Pinterest – planning my escape in a virtual world of gardening imagery – pinning like a mad woman to my  ‘In the garden’  board, and finding myself in such overdrive that the need for a new board was born: ‘The gardener’s space’.  Boy, that speaks volumes.

Now, I’m thinking, if this is how I’m feeling today – I am really, truly feeling for my plants that are wintering indoors.  For the past few weeks, I’ve been upping my watering (usually twice a week is just right) to every other day, and battling a little bit of the sticky stuff and a touch of powdery mildew.  I have the utmost admiration for my fellow green family members – for they hang in there from October when I haul them all in, to May, when the migration to the glorious outdoors returns.

In the interim, the best spring therapy I can give these guys is a good shower.  That’s right, a little faux rain.  I haul (in some cases wrestle) them into the Coop’s shower – two by two (just like Noah) – group like plants together – turn on the water to a cool temp (not ice cold or warm), and give each group a good soaking for a few minutes.  I turn off the shower head and allow them to drip-dry a bit, before returning them to their copper trays, back to their designated spots.  If I have a sticky issue with a plant – after they dry off in the shower – I keep them in there a little longer to spray them well with an insecticidal soap – let them dry off again – and then move them back.

This ‘Family Wash Day’ really does take most of a day.  It’s a commitment.  But it’s so worth it. Other than seeing the amazing and immediate short term effects after one good shower soaking (they all look so fresh and definitely more happy), I know the extra TLC keeps these guys thriving for years.  

‘Family Wash Day’  – I’m reminded of how alive they all really are.  

 

My Green Family Tree

2 Hearty Bay topiaries (10 years – about 3 1/2 feet tall)

1 Wild-looking Asparagus Fern (10 years)

2 Huge Cymbidium Orchids (9 years – I call them Brother and Sister – Sister is flowering now)

2 Miniature Azalea topiaries (9 years – and still blooming since September!!)

2 Single Globe Boxwoods (6 years)

2 English Ivy topiaries (5 years – about 5 feet tall and cone shaped)

2 Humungous and unbelievably happy Rosemaries (4 years)

1 Trio of Miniature English Boxwoods (4 years – Heirlooms from Colonial Williamsburg!)

2 Triple Boxwood topiaries (2 years – so tall I can see eye to eye with them)

2 Mega Boston Ferns (2 years)

1 Martha Washington Geranium (1 year – and now blooming!)

3 Myrtle topiaries (2 siblings and one only child – less than 1 year)

1 Lemon Thyme (less than 1 year – but sadly struggling)

 

Have a great weekend dear friends!

Love, Nora