Like an overanxious mother, checking her child’s forehead for a temperature every hour, I’m hovering over my houseplants, checking and rechecking the soil to see if it’s too dry – or too moist. Which just proves the point that people can be neurotic about just about anything.
In my own defense, I had just moved all my houseplants from outside (where they had enjoyed 6 or 7 months of sunshine, rain and fresh air) to inside the house where conditions must seem a little dismal. The air in the house is dry, light is limited and conditions are crowded, so no wonder I was concerned about their adjustment!
Part (?) of this is all my fault. I used to not like or have any houseplants but over the years I began accumulating plants in pots that couldn’t survive winters outside (i.e. houseplants). They did pretty well for me and last spring, when all these plants were on the front porch, I became so enthused that I lavished care, attention, water and organic fertilizer on my houseplants and guess what? They began to grow and soon filled out their pots. More delighted than realistic, I bought more pots and potting soil, divided and repotted many of my plants and proudly watched as they all flourished. Outside.
It wasn’t until about July that I began to wonder what the heck I was going to do with all these pots (all 45 of them) when the weather cooled. All I have to say is, thank goodness I’m married to a patient and tolerant man, who doesn’t even complain as he pushes aside a jungle of “lucky bamboo” to get to the kitchen sink and dodges stag horn fern fronds and aloe spikes as he walks through rooms with windows.
Even I have to admit, it’s a little extreme, though I do have some awesome solutions most of which include building a greenhouse. But for now, I’m just loving being surrounded by green and growing things and putting my hands in dirt every day, even if the dirt is in a pot!