-I got some plants from essaying in I think January (maybe early February) and planted them pretty randomly in my yard. They are still alive and thriving with inconsistent watering using only gray water from washing dishes. I think that is pretty rad. Of course my yard still looks like shit but that’s because of all the huge expanses of bare dirt between the small pockets of healthy thriving plants. 🙂 I need to plant more stuff out there.
-By contrast my food plants in the back yard aren’t doing so hot. I water them using fresh water because I have concerns about dumping that much soap on food plants. I don’t water them very consistently. oops. I did get a lot of tomatoes and they are all still alive so I feel like that was an ok first growing season of my life. 🙂
-Noah and I had a “conversation” *cough* this morning about how we each need to take responsibility for own happiness. Mostly this consisted of me being very upset about how hard I have tried to make him happy but my efforts have failed. So forget that noise. That strategy is obviously not working and it is time to try a new one. My wonderful husband managed to stay calm and collected and not bent out of shape when my tone of voice sucked. I’m so lucky to have him.
-Shanna went out back and played in her sand box for over half an hour this morning with no prompting from me. This getting bigger business is awesome.
-I keep thinking that I should track my emotions over a few months and see how it coincides with my cycle. I have been pretty upbeat and cheerful and energetic today and far more willing to put out energy in a social way than I was a few days ago when I whined about how no one loves me. I think that a complete lack of menstrual cycle was a lot of why I was in such a good mood for the whole first year of Shanna’s life. I stepped off the roller coaster and it was so nice.
-I think that the reason I feel so alienated in mom groups is because I am not there because we have much in common other than spawning. I feel like it is the worst parts of going to public school all over again. You are together with people you may or may not like for an arbitrary reason. Wow does that not work for me. I wish more of my friends would spawn. And then have the energy to be at least a little social. 😛
And now Shanna needs a nap. So I run off. 🙂
Do you have any interest in spider plants? Mine are putting out a couple branches full of baby-plants right now. They’re supposed to be indoor plants and tolerate only indirect light, but mine are doing fine outside in a 2/3 shaded spot with occasional (weekly-ish) watering.
I would be open to seeing if they will die in my yard or not. 🙂
spawning
leads to
yawning
I don’t water them very consistently.
I frequently tell people that and I have two types of plants: Ones that are watered automatically and ones that are dead.
This is why I am gunning hard for native/low-water plants.
E (I can’t possibly take responsibility for the health of those plants; I wither plants with my glance) is delighted to hear that they’re doing so well. We’ve been hearing the same from the other people who adopted his plants — just goes to show that a healthy infancy makes for a healthy adulthood 😉
And I hear you about the mom groups. When I had Miles, I was a decade younger than most moms, and it made it really hard.
Yay! I’m glad that I pleased E with my care of his babies. 🙂 They do seem to really love my yard. All of them have multiplied extensively and are big and very green.
Earthboxes are an excellent way to use minimal resources and have excellently healthy plants.
I’ll look into them. 🙂
“Of course my yard still looks like shit but that’s because of all the huge expanses of bare dirt between the small pockets of healthy thriving plants. 🙂 I need to plant more stuff out there.”
Planting more stuff would be good. Planting that stuff in containers or the earthboxes mentioned would make it much easier to keep them adequately watered. I have, in the past, used the ‘square-foot gardening’ approach for veggies for that very reason.
If I was your landscaper/gardener, I’d be tempted to turn significant portions of your “huge expanses of bare dirt” into more functional living space by using paving stones to form puddles of patio, interspersed by containers/raised beds of plants. The paving stones would preferably be made of interesting material, not just squares of blah concrete. I would want them to be a perfect combination of functional and artistic.
By taking this approach, if/when you were ready to tackle another spot of yard, you could take up the stones (fairly easily) and add more plants or whatever. The no-longer-used stones could then be broken into smaller sizes to make a dry-stack wall to contain a raised bed for more plants. (Reduce, reuse, recycle.)
But that’s just me. I love having outdoor living rooms – complete with a grill and table for al fresco dining. I’ve never been one to be overly-enamored of manicured grass lawns, even in geographic regions where they are less conservationally-irresponsible. Oh, sure, I love to walk barefoot on one, but the “care and feeding of” is waaaaaaay too much fuss for me.
I sort of have ideas in the direction that you are talking about. 🙂 They just haven’t come to fruition yet. They take both time and money and unfortunately those are both limited commodities. 🙂
I want a back patio something fierce. A covered one. I would like to have usable space back there instead of the current conditions where it is uncomfortable 90% of the time.