February planting time

When I taught in Crookston, every Friday was Plant Sale Friday, and for $1 or $2, you could buy a variety of funny little plants. Most of the plants in our picture window are from there, even though it's been four years since I got to go to Plant Sale Friday. I don't know that this proves I have a green thumb so much as shows the hardiness of Crookston's plants.

February is so bleak, I can barely stand it. So this weekend V and I got inspired to try something different. I bought two bags of soil, pulled two overgrown pots of some type of aloe-vera (I think) from our picture windowsill, and we went to work.V put marbles in the bottom of our thrift-store pots, to help with drainage, and then scooped dirt from one container to another. We got good and dirty. Since it was a long process, we had to snack, too, so you'll note the nearby animal crackers.It was really fun to do this with V. She gets excited about getting dirty inside, and likes pouring and scooping stuff. I tried to play teacher and talk to her about roots and sunlight and water and the nutrition plants get from soil, but she mostly wanted to play. I can think of nothing better to chase away the midwinter blues than playing in dirt, can you?

So two overgrown pots became seven reasonable ones. The one on the far right got taken to school today (V loves the mason jar, because she can see the dirt), and the middle orange one went to Grandma Myra's, but the rest are available for adoption. Who wants a nice new plant?