Friday was the usual chaotic crowd. The carpenter was here, my helper friend came, and my new general helper was here. I had hoped to work with my general helper on seed inventory, but I decided to do the budget and bills on Thursday instead of feed the house plants.
I have to work with my helper friend to feed the house plants so I could not teach the general helper how to do seed inventory. So I set her to shredding recycling, a job I had hoped to do LAST Friday.
The primrose above is 1 of 2 minor miracles. I have never succeeded in keeping a primrose bought in March alive until I could plant it outside in mid May. But this one from last year is obviously doing very well. I guess they thrive on extreme neglect…
The second miracle is it is actually flowering! I, of course, have never had that happen.
So in hopes of promoting more flowering, I am finally attempting to resume monthly feeding of the house plants. I’d intended to do it in January, but…
This is what I feed my house plants when I do it. I like to do it around the first of each month, but mostly it gets done when it gets done.
For the plants that live in water (I counted 12 in the office alone), I use a simple solution of ½ teaspoon SeaCrop to 3 qts of water. I don’t add any other solution as it promotes algae growth.
For the plants I might eat like ginger, rosemary, or the pineapple, I use this formula in 3 quarts of water. First you add:
2 smidgens of Armor-Si **
And then fill the 3 quart container. If the Armor-Si is added AFTER the other ingredients, it will precipitate them out of the mix. So next I add:
½ teaspoon SeaCrop
1 teaspoon Plant-Sure
1 teaspoon Neptune
1 drop Pepzyme
Shake the container well. I need about 2 or 3 of these mixes to do all the house plants I might eat each time.
All my house plants have large cache pots under them. When I water, from the top, I keep adding the mix until I see water appear in the bottom of the cache pot. Then I fill the cache pot with the mix to a level the plant can survive. Some only take 1” or so, others I fill nearly to the top. They will absorb this over the next 1 – 6 weeks, however long it is until I can water again. All the house plants have to survive with this watering system and most have for years or decades.
For regular house plants I use this formula in 3 quarts of water. First you add:
2 smidgens of Armor-Si **
And then fill the 3 quart container. If the Armor-Si is added AFTER the other ingredients, it will precipitate them out of the mix. So next I add:
½ teaspoon SeaCrop
1 teaspoon Plant-Sure
1 drop Pepzyme
¼ teaspoon Miracle-Gro
I had bought this big box of Miracle Gro 25 years ago and I’m still trying to use it up on the house plants. I will make up, or my helper friend will, about 20 – 30 containers of this mix. I have 2 watering containers so while I am emptying one, he is filling the other. It greatly reduces the standing time for me, something I don’t do well with.
**Smidgens are a measure I found here. This is just the right size for the Armor-Si and it will also pick up 1 drop of Pepzume.
It took us about 2 hours to get all the plants done. He ran the vacuum around while I rested. The general helper got almost all the recycle done. I spent about ½ hour when she left and finished it.
So now I have this corner of the office back together. This was where she worked.
Tom and my intern came out to try to get the plow off the truck and then drive the truck to his house. It would be a lot easier for him to work on, not having to trek here to do it. He did get the plow off, but I saw the truck facing out from the end of the barn. So it must have died again. He will probably attempt to move it again on Saturday, as it’s to be the last warm day until Wednesday.
I spent the rest of the day in my chair, watching videos. At least I’m not asleep 16 hours a day like I’ve been.
On Saturday I hope to finish all the little jobs that have built up all week. It’s been awful looking out the windows at the 50+F weather and sun. All the gardens around the house are thawed, and if I wasn’t dealing with pneumonia, I’d be out there cleaning them out for the first time in 4 years. Some of the bulbs have come up, like chiondoxas and snow drops. But if I behave and allow myself time to heal, I will be able to go out next time it’s warm.