Mom is Just a Nickname

I used to think I had a green thumb in high school. I had a jungle in my bedroom..from standard houseplants to various bonsai plants I’d acquired.  I also had a plot in the family garden which I “landscaped” with shade loving plants: hosta, ferns and a bleeding heart which came to us broken and wilted, but was huge and thriving by the time my parents moved away from that house.

I’ve felt like I have a black thumb since then though. Whether my time and energy were being given to the creation of other things or I just didn’t care enough, I’m not sure.  I have been killing the unkillable houseplants for ten years now.   But now I’m back to trying for that green thumb again.

I’ve got a garden which is slowly becoming lovely, abundant and colorful.  Today I spent two hours planting new plants (strawberry, pansies, lavender, plumbago, bee balm and lemon balm) and the other day I spent awhile planting things a friend had shared (joe pie weed, elephant ears, lantana and a few others).  My garden is a nice mix of herbs, flowers, and edibles right now. It’s pretty nifty to walk out and pick a radish to put on my salad!

I’m also really enjoying the wildlife that’s drawn to my plants.  There are a handful of tree frogs and lizards which occupy my container garden by the front door. There’s also a toad which hops through on occasion.  And then I’ve got a lizard buddy who hangs out by the hose in the garden on the side of the house.  I’m hoping that once some of my newest plants begin flowering, the bees, butterflies and birds will be drawn in to the area too.

I guess most important is that I’m really enjoying my garden – be it the plants or the wildlife.  My grass may be brown, crackling and full of weeds, but my garden is shaping up beautifully.  The grass…well, I’d rather a garden than a lawn. I wonder if the landlord would mind if I ripped the lawn out and replaced it with a meadow of wildflowers?

Hard financial times lead us to thinking of what luxuries, pleasures, and possibly necessities would we give up if we had to.  It’s been on my mind lately.

I realize that I’ve been slowly letting go of a number of things which previously I would have thought of as necessity.  Yet there are other luxuries which I keep buying. I rationalize that they are things that would be useful to have, should the need arise, but the flat out fact of the matter is that at this point, they really are luxuries.

Here are some things I’ve let go of in the last few months and years:

• Cable/Satellite TV.  Toph and I have let this go a number of times since we got married.  For one reason or another, we sometimes decide it’s worth the cost, but at the moment we are without…and functioning just fine without it.  We have a digital converter, so when need be, we can watch the news and such.  Otherwise, we get movies from the library or from the Red Box, or *gasp* we do things which are not TV related.  (Oh, the horror! heh.)

• Shaving.  What? Shaving?  Well, I haven’t shaved in almost two months. Not my legs, anyhow.  This was less a matter of ‘letting go’ for the sake of our financial security and more a matter of me rebelling against the establishment, I think.  I kept asking myself, “Why am I shaving? Who am I making happy by doing it?”  I decided that I’d let my legs go furry and see what I actually thought of it.  So far, I like the freedom of not having to shave every other day or every day. I like not having little razor burn bumps on my legs. And I feel like my legs are finally getting a chance to heal all the old shaving wounds they have received in the past.  And in the meantime, I’m saving money by not going through razorheads.

• Shampoo and Conditioner.  Another case of doing it for something other than money matters, but it is saving us money.  I began to investigate going ‘No ‘Poo’ years ago, but never got up the nerve to do it.  Then my head began rebelling. No matter what brand, formula or frequency I used, my head was itchy and flaky. Yes, I even tried dandruff shampoos.  Almost six months ago, in my last fit of frustration, I began to reduce how often I shampoo until I was down to only once a week.  Then about a month ago, I began to use baking soda, apple cider vinegar and if I really need some deeper conditioning, olive oil.  I’ve heard that you can use lemon juice instead of apple cider vinegar, especially if you have or want more blonde highlights.  I’m happy with my head of reddish highlights at the moment, so I haven’t tried it.  The bottom line of the switch is that I’m not buying shampoo, conditioner or any of the other miscellaneous hair products that were previously so necessary to me to have a nice head of hair.  And, after an initial period of frizziness, my hair is settling down and looking fine.  Happy head, less money spent. It works for me.

• Meat. Could you go vegetarian?  We are working on reducing our meat consumption, for our health and wallets, as much as any environmental reason.  We have been discovering quite a number of delicious and filling meals with our experimenting…and they are cheaper!

• Paper Products such as paper towels, napkins, plates, tissues, feminine products.  We have reduced our paper towel usage by using (and reusing) cloth rags for most things.  We use cloth napkins most of the time, and, with rare exceptions, we use our regular dishes and cutlery instead of paper dishes and plastic flatware.  The tissues we haven’t given up.  I’m still wrestling with the sanitary issues of handkerchiefs.  I did give up most disposable feminine products almost 8 years ago, though. I use cloth pads most of the time now. (Sorry if that’s TMI, but it falls in with this category and it’s an important, money saving, switch that I made.) I also used cloth diapers on X when he was little, for the most part.  X hasn’t reached nighttime dryness yet, so sadly we do spend money on pull-ups, but part of that is my own reluctance to invest the time and energy into finding a good overnight cloth diaper that doesn’t seem like a diaper for him…only to have him give them up a week later.  I have hopes he’ll nighttime train soon.

• Newspapers.  Instead of getting a newspaper delivered, read it online.  The downside of this is that you don’t get the coupons without a Sunday paper.  Most of the sales flyers are available online or can be sent in email, though.

Anyhow, the point of all of this is just to point out how many things we use which have less expensive alternatives that have all but been forgotten about in this age of convenience and disposables and expectations.  We have options, if we but take the time to look around and commit the energy to changing our ways.

What have you or would you give up in order to live on less money?

My house is pulsing with life these days.  I thought I’d give an update on all of my various projects and further prove that my house is full of life.

Our fish tank, which we start in late June, is seething with life.  We have red wag platies, silver lyretail mollies, golden mystery snails, live plants and pond snails.  The pond snails were unwanted hitch-hikers, but they have found our tank very much to their liking.  I can’t even count how many I remove each time I do a water change.  We currently have three adults of each of the other species and an uncountable number of babies in each species as well.  About seven of the first fry have survived and are now about two-thirds the size of the adults.

Much as I despair for my tank with so many fish in it (it’s only a 29 gallon tank, not nearly big enough to hold them all in the long term), it is thrilling to see them all thriving.  There’s something fascinating about realizing how much the fry grow in just twenty-four hours.  I guess I’ll be making phone calls to local pet stores though to see if I can convince anyone to buy the babies, though.  Then we’re looking into getting gauramis or some other fish which will help control the population better.  I thought we’d have no chance to see the fry grow up because everything I’ve read said that if you want the fry to survive, you have to remove them from the adult fishes’ tank.  That hasn’t proven the case in our tank!

Along with our fish tank, we have a betta.  He’s currently living in a jar on the kitchen counter, until he passes quaruntine. Then we’ll see if he will get along in the big tank.  We got him, hoping that he’d help control the pond snail population, but so far he has shown little interest in demolishing them.  I’m also not sure he’ll get along well with the male silver lyretail molly (who has some fancy fins going on).  If not, he’ll go back into a jar where he can keep me company while I do dishes each day.

Also living in my kitchen these days are my worms.  Yes, I got composting worms  and they are now living in my kitchen. It’s just too hot outside for me to leave them out there, even in the garage!  The worms themselves are doing well.  They seem to be happily producing lots of castings for my garden.  Unfortunately, the fruit flies (or some equally nuisancy type of fly) have decided that they like the worm house, too.  So, I’m searching for ways of controlling that population.  Happily, apple cider vinegar and dish soap in a small dish on the counter works well to contain them, but I’d love to find a way to keep them from reproducing to begin with. They are pesky and their presence means I can’t keep a basket of fresh fruit on the counter.

Gardening-wise, my garden is growing slowly.  I have a handful of sunflower plants which are about knee high now.   They survived Fay’s thrashing wind and rain, which is good.  My chrysanthemums didn’t do so well.  I think they got just too wet with all of the water that collected in our backyard with Fay.  Other than that…my basil is doing well.  I have one still in a tiny pot that needs to be given a better home now.  I don’t think any of my oregano has survived, sadly.  I have several thyme plants that are thriving, though.  A couple of moss roses (Portulaca), and forget-me-nots are doing well.  The only catnip which has survived so far are in pots, except for one teeny tiny plant which isn’t showing any signs of getting any bigger.  At least it’s not dead yet though, I guess.

All of the trees my dad sent home with me back in May have died.  Many of the iris have also died.  I didn’t plant them in good places.  If he is gracious enough to send another batch home with me next time I’m down there, I’ll plant them better.  This time, I put them in places too inconvenient…they kept getting mowed down when we mowed the lawn, or drowned by soaking rains.  So, mental note to place them more strategically next time.  The tiger lillies that Dad gave me are doing well, though.  We had several weeks of blooms from one of the plants awhile back!

For my birthday (ugh, I’m 31, now!), I recieved gift cards to a home improvement store!  So, all of that is going towards sprucing up my garden.  Mostly, I want to get an edging or border to define my plant beds, both for the lawn mower and for the grass which likes to creep into the beds I’ve established.  If I can, I’d also like to get some mulch, and maybe some soil to create raised beds near some of the areas which tend to get very wet.  So, the tiger lillies will get a real flower bed, and my herbs will also.  Once the weather turns cooler, it’ll be easier to get out there to take care of them.

In the rare times I sit down to watch a show, I’ll pick up my crochet hook.  I’m working on a blanket for a new baby in the family.  We have three new babies set to arrive in our family soon, but I’m afraid I won’t be able to keep up with them all!  A friend has recently gifted me with quilting material.  I have been playing with the idea of learning to quilt.  Maybe one of the new babies will receive a quilt instead of a crocheted item!  We shall see.

My final big project has been writing.  I actually have had the joy of seeing an article I submitted last fall PUBLISHED!  So, as my family keeps telling me, I can now say I am, in fact, a published writer!  It’s a bit of a thrill to be able to say that.  Certainly opening up that magazine and seeing my name in print has helped me renew my determination to make writing my JOB.  X is in school part time now, so the few morning hours when he’s off at school, I have committed to writing.  I’m editing that torturous novel I wrote last year for NaNoWriMo.  And I’m currently weighing the pros and cons of trying to do NaNo again this year.  Considering the way it killed my wrists and hands last year, I suspect I should not try it again.  That makes me pretty sad, because that month was one of the most exhilarating and inspirational I can remember!

So, a boring blog update, but this is mostly what has been occupying my time lately.

I’m eating Dora the Explorer vanilla yogurt. That’s better than the banana kind I’ll be eating before too long. I got them for X, hoping that the colorful cartoon character would convince him to eat some. No such luck. Now I’m stuck eating it. (I prefer my plain yogurt, nice and tangy and not laden with sugar.)

Eating his yogurt now is about more than just not letting the food go to waste. I need the yogurt containers! They are by far the easiest container to convert into pots for my seedlings! I’ve got loads of seedlings and I’m trying to transplant them over to pots now, to give their roots more space.

I’ve got yogurt cups, a cut up two liter soda bottle, a frosting container, a margarine container, cut up water bottles…the list goes on. Anything I’ve been able to scrounge that is the right size and I can poke holes in will do. I’m so desperate I’ve eaven asked Toph to keep watch for things at work. Steal the co-workers’ trash so I can recycle it into pots for my baby plants!!!

How did this happen? How did I forget to plan ahead and save yogurt cups ahead of time?

So, do you have any water bottles, yogurt cups, or ANYTHING I can use?!?!

As a teenager, I like to think I had a rather green thumb. I had my own plot of garden in my parents’ backyard where I grew bleeding hearts, clematis and ferns. I had a multitude of houseplants and bonsai growing on a shelf in my bedroom. I read all I could about growing things, I talked to everyone I could find who could teach me more. I also helped in my parents’ vegetable and flower gardens.

Between caring for my kids and the house, the garden fell to the wayside after I got married. My house plants all died. I decided not to get more because we have mold allergies in the family and the soil in the house plants can harbor mold. My garden only survived if I managed to get perennials and pot them in as soon as I brought them home.

So, for years, I’ve said I have a black thumb. I could kill whole flats of seedlings just by blinking. I killed almost every potted plant I had over the course of the last 6 years or so.

But still, I’m intensely interested in plants. I am fascinated by herbs for cooking and medicines. I’m intrigued by other people’s lush gardens. I love the way a home feels when there are live and growing plants throughout.

So, I’m trying to turn my black thumb green again. Thanks to plants shared by family and friends my garden and house are starting to perk up. I’ve only killed one plant, a strawberry, through neglect so far this spring. I almost killed a rosemary bush, but it has greened up since I got it in the ground.

Now, the kids and I are sprouting seeds and I’m hoping I don’t manage to kill those. We planted forget-me-nots, moss roses, thyme, basil, oregano, catnip and johnny jump ups. So far, the basil, moss roses, thyme and forget me nots have sprouted. It’s fun for all of us to watch the green sprouts push towards the sunlight each day.

I’ve got mint waiting to be potted and a few houseplants I’m trying to go without soil (hydroponically) to avoid the mold. So, here’s to turning my black thumb green! The kids are enthusiastic helpers and I’m relearning how fun digging into the dirt can be.