Several years ago, we accidentally bought a place to live that featured a greenhouse. Well, we meant to buy the house, but we never for a second had put a greenhouse on our wish list of features that our house needed. My husband thinks I don't even like plants because I am notoriously bad at taking care of them. I actually really like plants, but I'm so much happier when nature is the one in charge of watering them. For a long time, I have had a greenhouse that has looked more like a brownhouse. I had plants that I had not succeeded in taking care of that had just collected out there like monuments to my failures. Cleaning out the greenhouse had been on my list of things to do for months. Probably longer. But it was so discouraging to even go out there.
Today Alan went out there with me and asked me if I needed him to help me throw some things away. I jumped right on that and took him up on his offer. And mostly, I needed someone to help me start. We cleared out all the plastic pots I had been saving, all the plant skeletons and dried up leaves, and even swept and trimmed the few plants that were still surviving my limited care. My husband left after just a few minutes, but it was enough to get me started and energized enough to finish the job.
And now it looks beautiful! The plants that are out there make me look like maybe I can garden a little. I've decided I need to keep around things that remind me of my successes and be better about throwing out the reminders of my failures. It made me think of a radio show I heard this week, where they were interviewing one of my heroines, Virginia Pearce. When her husband was a medical resident and she had four children in four years, she decided she needed to redefine what success was. She decided that what she really needed to do was to make sure that the little people she was in charge of stayed alive. That was it. They just had to survive. It meant she had to feed them and keep them safe and basically clean. Anything else was just frosting. I loved that!
So here are some pictures of the plants I kept alive and their very recently renewed habitat: evidence of my success!
Today Alan went out there with me and asked me if I needed him to help me throw some things away. I jumped right on that and took him up on his offer. And mostly, I needed someone to help me start. We cleared out all the plastic pots I had been saving, all the plant skeletons and dried up leaves, and even swept and trimmed the few plants that were still surviving my limited care. My husband left after just a few minutes, but it was enough to get me started and energized enough to finish the job.
And now it looks beautiful! The plants that are out there make me look like maybe I can garden a little. I've decided I need to keep around things that remind me of my successes and be better about throwing out the reminders of my failures. It made me think of a radio show I heard this week, where they were interviewing one of my heroines, Virginia Pearce. When her husband was a medical resident and she had four children in four years, she decided she needed to redefine what success was. She decided that what she really needed to do was to make sure that the little people she was in charge of stayed alive. That was it. They just had to survive. It meant she had to feed them and keep them safe and basically clean. Anything else was just frosting. I loved that!
So here are some pictures of the plants I kept alive and their very recently renewed habitat: evidence of my success!
What a beautiful place you made it. The violets are sweet. I also had a limited success getting plants to produce flowers this year. It's the M'Li influence, probably.
ReplyDeleteLOVELY! Don't you just love African Violets? Me too. Let's garden! The possibilities are endless.
ReplyDeleteI liked your thoughts on not keeping reminders around of our failures. It reminded me of Grandma Jane burying her cooking failures in the backyard.
ReplyDeleteAnd Virginia Pearce redefining success. Everyone needs to hear that story. The definition is something that can change!
Great post.