Sad Little Plants
Someday I will blog about kniting again, but right now I'm barely doing any so I will blog about our sad little garden. There are two parts to this story:
First - do you know about Ivy? Have you ever tried to pull it out? It's a pain. I'll leave it at that. And though I've only read a little about it - I believe it is invasive and bad. I personally believe it is bad because we've had to remove a ton of it from our yard. It was choking our air conditioner unit and about to pop the siding off of our house. That's right. It can pop the siding off your house!
So Chris removed it from the one side of our house and left behind was a narrow flower bed. A flower bed full of ivy roots and Round Up.
Second - do you have elderly relatives? I have one aunt in particular who does this, but I've noticed more older relatives doing this - giving me things whenever I visit. I have a hard time turning my aunt down when she tries to give me things. One time it was a botlle of Nestea iced tea. Another time it was a stapler. Most of the time she'll try to give me a plant. I usually take them home and repot them. So when I told her about the ivy and she found out we had room for a garden I ended up going home with some plants from her garden. She pulled them out, dropped them in a bucket of water and sent them home with me.
So the end of this somewhat pointless story is that I planted them in the ivy-root-filled, Round Up-soaked soil next to the house. It will be a miracle if they live.
Please tell me I am not the only one who is guilted into taking odd things offered to me by older relatives? If anyone needs any spider plants I have a good source...
Posted by jen at June 19, 2006 01:56 PM
Comments
Not only do I get guilted into taking things home from my grandmom's, but she wraps up things around the house as gifts for holidays. I understand it because she's older and doesn't have much money, but half of it, I never know what to do with. I feel bad if I throw it away.
Posted by: lisa at June 19, 2006 03:07 PM
One of my husbands Tita's gives me something off her body (not like that) everytime I see her. Usually it's an angel pin, or a medal that she is wearing, or rosary beads. She's also the same Aunt that gave me the advice to never stop having sex or else my husband will look for it elsewhere, and then proceeds to tell me that at 65 she's still doing it like crazy and her husband can't keep up with her... the kicker to this story is that this conversation between me and her happened at a First Communion- inside the church!
Posted by: MF at June 19, 2006 03:09 PM
Ivy can even pull a brick wall down. It's lovely stuff, but I'd only want it on my house if I were renting, it can stay the heck away from the house I own, thanks.
My gramma used to try to give me clothes and stuff, but now it's mostly just food she presses on us. My brother always gets it worse than me, I think, just because he's a boy and, you know, boys are expected to eat all the time or something. Now that I'm well over thirty she doesn't force cookies on me so much. I love to get plants from anybody though, it beats buying them.
Posted by: jodi at June 19, 2006 04:40 PM
I once ended up with a ceramic magnolia blossom, a box covered in sea shells and a laptop keyboard from my grandmother and aunt (all in one visit). How can you deny someone so generous, right? I couldn't.
Posted by: Ragged Around the Edges at June 20, 2006 09:14 AM
When I was in middle school my Mom and Step father bought a house that was all hills in the back, they decided that to make it look better (whatever) they would plant ivy on the first up-swing, then grass on the flat, then grass on the up-swing and then a garden at the top of this mount Everest. I give you one hint at who had to plant the fucking ivy! Me, ME, yea ME, it was like 1000's of plants and then I had to mulch. My mom is a NAZI-BITCH. Oh and to top things off - guess who had to mow the mother f'ing yard! Even therapy could not help how I feel about her.....................
Posted by: Betsy at June 20, 2006 09:15 AM
