Despite the fact that we are now a couple of weeks into Spring, this is the sight that I was welcomed to this morning as I was driving into work. With the temperature hovering right around 32 degrees F and a nice wet weather front moving through, we are going to be getting a mix of rain, snow, and ice most of the day I guess.
At least so far we are faring better than the folks up North and I am thankful for that. The town of Gaylord which sits just about an hour and 45 minutes North of our home was recently hammered with a pretty significant tornado a few years ago. Then this past weekend they got hammered again with a massive ice storm.
If you want to watch some of the videos people have posted on YouTube, you can find them here.
It's pretty insane the amount of damage. It actually hit the whole area, but I know people in the city of Gaylord have been issued a shelter in place warning because the conditions have been so horrible. The five mile long Mackinac Bridge was shut down yesterday because they were worried about the massive chunks of ice breaking off and falling on vehicles.
The past few days as I have been traveling to work I have passed convoy after convoy of electrical contractors heading North to help get power restored as quickly as possible. I've seen some areas where all new power poles are going to need to be installed because the old ones snapped right off from the weight of the ice on the lines. It's pretty crazy!
It would seem Mother Nature is making fools of us all.
Sometime around the holidays @mrsbozz was given this aloe plant from a friend at work. I was a bit nervous when she brought it home. You see, my wife and I don't have a great track record with keeping plants alive. Sure, I have grown tomatoes and some other vegetables outside in our garden, but even then it was a pretty difficult and time consuming task. Where other folks have a natural green thumb, I tend to have a black thumb and growing things just isn't something that comes easily for me.
For example. I had a batch of lucky bamboo that my friend got me many years ago. I kept it alive for some time, but I was sad to see that each month another one of the stalks would turn yellow and slowly fade away. Before long I was left with nothing. From what I have heard, it's pretty difficult to kill bamboo, so I guess I am just gifted.
I think our biggest issue is not knowing how much to water plants. We live in a world of extremes when it comes to plants and @mrsbozz and I either over water plant or under water plants. I wish there were hard and fast rules about plants to make it easier for dummies like us. 1 ounce of water once a week or something like that.
Is that too much to ask?
As you can see, things were starting to go a bit bad for our plant. We had a little bit of a shoot coming up in the middle, but that limb on the far right was withering and dying. That is the same thing that happened to my aloe plant when I was living alone. Before long I had a pot full of nothing and a renewed confidence that I suck at gardening.
I did some research online and again without a clear and concise roadmap of how much water to give the thing and when, I decided that maybe sitting in the windowsill it was getting too much afternoon sun. I let @mrsbozz know I was going to move it to the table. Worst case it just kept dying, best case it found some renewed life.
It turns out, that seems to have done the trick. We are still being pretty careful about when we water it and how much we give it, but the slowly browning vegetation has been stopped and it actually seems to be thriving a bit now.
Maybe I don't suck at this afterall.
I can't help but think how proud @bdmillergallery would be of me that I was able to do a 180 with this plant for a change. I have little doubt that eventually we are going to need to look into moving it to a bigger pot. That's the hope anyway. I glance at this plant every day as I walk by. I can't help but think that eventually the other shoe is going to drop and it is going to start turning brown again.
It's just my luck with plants you know.
Hopefully that isn't the case and I can see this thing turn into a pretty awesome and amazing aloe plant that I am still taking care of when I am 80 years old.
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Mother nature slapped us across the face again last night too. We woke up to about 5" of the white stuff this morning! After living through 5-6 months of winter already April snow is sometimes soul-crushing but, thankfully, it rarely sticks around for long. Good job on the aloe! It's all a matter of proper sun, water, and drainage for just about any plant. If all else fails just play them a little Mozart. : )
:) I can't imagine what it is like with the amount of snow you get there. At least it wasn't ice I guess. They are really hurting up north!
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First of all BRRRRRRRRRR. We hit 80° on Saturday and Monday was pretty dang close to that as well. Now we're back in the cold temps. I think it was almost freezing this morning when I woke up and it's supposed to warm up into the 50s. Back in the 70s by tomorrow. I could do without ice and freezing rain until next year.
Your aloe plant looks awesome! Unfortunately those things are always planted in the tiniest of containers and the media never gives off enough nutrients to support plant life. A good rule of thumb when it comes to watering is to water enough that the water comes out the bottom of the pot. Doesn't take long for that to happen with that small pot you have there. Also I've Always purchased this miracle grow food (they sell it at our local grocery store) that I give my orchid plants every time I water. Which is once a week. It seems to give them just enough nutrients to last to the next watering. I use it with all my plants to make it easier. It's about a quarter of a tablespoon Per gallon of water so it goes a long long way. They give you the measuring spoon so that makes it a bit easier as well. Basically looks like green salt. I'll look and see if I can find a picture of it if not I will post it later.
Good luck! Looks like your black thumb is turning green as well. Maybe just a little wink wink.
Found the Amazon link for House plant food. Probably work just as well as the orchid food. May be better for your plants anyhow.
https://a.co/d/0JF587C
Otherwise here's the photo of the miracle grow food I use. They make pretty good products. I hear good things about the food spikes as well. You just push those in and forget about it. Might be a good alternative as well.
We didn't quite get up to the 80 degree mark, but I know down in Ohio they did. I was talking to my brother in law and he was saying how nice it was. Thanks for the tip on the plant. I will have to try to pick something up for it. I really want this time to be different! :)
Actually you are lucky that bamboo died. When I first got the house I am preparing for the market right now I tried to take out the bamboo that was planted there before me. The neighbor asked me and while I took out all kinds of trees in the past I could only take out small parts of the patch on the outside areas. When I got into the middle of it I realized that I cannot do it without specialized skills.
Now fast forward thirteen years and I have to pay to have it taken out professionally because neighbor put a condition on that as being a prerequisite before I can replace the rotted falling down fence
Oh wow, I know it is pretty invasive once it gets going. Mine was a in a pot, but I might have tried to plant it in the yard if I hadn't known any better. Sometimes neighbors make things a whole lot more difficult than they need to be!
Nice weather for April Fool's Day out there! A lot of places spring doesn't formally arrive until May... I must say you are truly gifted if you managed to kill off the bamboo plant. That stuff is pretty tough. Overwatering is sure way to kill off just about any plant, and plants can be picky. Glad you found the "sweet" spot and it's doing well now!
I just read that Val Kilmer died, another big name actor from the 80's and 90's is gone... I'm getting old...
Yeah, I saw that this morning too. Very sad, but he hadn't been doing well for a while I think. Yeah, I am not sure where I went wrong with the bamboo. It had been doing fine for a while, then slowly it just gave up on me!
Yeah, he had throat cancer for years and completely lost his voice. Not a fun way to go... Slow and painful, I'll prefer quick and painless personally if you have to go!
Me too!
Stay safe and warm friend. I think the snow and ice are done here, but we are getting bad storms lately. More coming in tonight and over the next couple of days.
I get you about the plants and keeping them alive. I struggle with that myself. The wife is the green thumb in our family. Ironically the wife just came home with a large aloe plant today. It is going outside once all the storms pass.
I kind of wish my wife had a green thumb, but she is just as bad as me! I saw the storms have been bad. We actually had something like a dozen tornados in Michigan on Sunday evening.
Mother Nature never tires of making fools of us.
Have you seen commercials for that plant app that supposedly can analyze a plant using your phone camera and tell you exactly what you need to do—water it more, or give it sun, or etc? Looks like a cool app, but I wonder if it really works. I also have managed to kill lucky bamboo before.
No, I have never seen that. I have seen the one where it identifies plants for you, but telling me how to care for them as well would be game changing. I'm glad I am not the only one with the bamboo!
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