Save the plants, save the world....

Ok, maybe not really...saving the cheerleader never did any good either. ;)

So my throughout my entire childhood, I have memories of hot summer days/afternoons/evenings spent in the yard, assigned to one side of the yard, for hours of weed pulling and watering ("five minutes per plant!"). And more hours in the garden picking tomatoes and spending the rest of the evening scratching my arms cause the plants made them itch like crazy. By the time I was an adult, I'd sworn off any type of gardening. I'd had enough to last a lifetime.

Well, til we moved here.

We have a solitary palm tree in the yard. No other type of vegetation (except for the awful elephant ears which I CAN'T STAND). So bare.

I started thinking/planning--we need plants. Perhaps some flowers. SOMETHING! Then, a friend knew a friend who is moving. This friend who is moving has a ton of potted plants and wants to give them away. Perhaps I'd be interested?

Gotta love the little blessings that Heavenly Father places in our laps. :)

So today I went to this woman's house and picked out the plants that I'd like to have in my yard. Truth be told--they weren't pretty. AT ALL. They'd seen lots of sun (to the point of scorching) without water and without shade. But they've endured. I picked out the ones that I thought I might be able to save. Evelyn and Marcus helped load them up into the van I (they were so excited when they realized that we were bringing these plants HOME). A quick trip to the PX and then I was armed with fresh potting soil and some miracle grow.

When I got home, Evelyn and I quickly set about repotting the plants with the fresh soil. Her favorite part was watering them of course. Here's what we have:


Evelyn wasn't about to let us leave without picking out that pink flower! It's her absolute favorite and has claimed it to be hers. It has a companion in the pot--but it hasn't bloomed. I'm hoping it will make its appearance later this week now that it has water and fresh soil (and it'll have some shade, too). The purple flower was coming out of another pot that was home to a completely different plant. So I separated it and gave it a home of its own. Hopefully it'll continue to grow. No idea what the little red flowered plant is...besides knowing that it seriously needed water. We'll see what comes of it.




What the heck is this thing? I certainly don't have a clue--but I like it none the less. It should turn a healthier green this week after receiving ample amounts of water and shade.


Now this particular plant--it's huge, hard, sprialy, pretty shabby looking (for now)...again, no idea what I'm nurturing here. I do know that when watering it, instead of watering at the base of the roots, I'm supposed to water at the very top of the plant and let the water slide down the hole. Groovy. Evelyn had a great time trying to get the water down the hole.


Now here's one I can name (only cause the lady told me what it is). A bamboo plant! I trimmed of the tops (they were so dead looking) but there's lots of healthy growth at the bottom. I was also given a bit of background about the plant. It's said to be "lucky". I was told that there's a tradition--when you have a bamboo plant, you cut off some of the new growth with some of the root and give it to friends (or your visiting teachees) as gifts. Cool, eh? Oh, and that lovely red flower? Doesn't come with the plant. Evelyn just happened to find it on the ground and added it for some pretty color...


I repotted this, but it's actually just about ready to be put in the ground. I just gotta figure out the right place for it.


This lovely, spikey plant is aloe! Sweet! If we ever need aloe, we just take one of the spikies and tear it off (or cut) and then squeeze it onto the burn/injury.