Plants migrate back outside, lucky for them

The house looks so empty after all but one of the plants completed their annual migration from inside the house to somewhere outside. The night blooming cereus, aka, big gangly succulent, that is still inside is too heavy for me to carry, not that I have a place for it. It was one of Mom’s plants and it reaches out for me every time I get close to it. Thankfully it doesn’t have stickers. 

Once again, I have planted pansies and begonias in honor of my mom. I never was a fan of pansies because, although they are pretty, they can’t take the summer heat. Begonias don’t seem to change much from when they are planted to whenever I decide to take them in for the winter. Part of the appeal of plants is watching them change and grow throughout the year. 

It feels so good to have all the windows open again. I have read that indoor pollution can be worse than outdoor pollution. It certainly seems that way. 

In addition to hauling stuff outside and repotting any plant that needs it, I have also planted a pathetic excuse for a garden. Tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, spinach and carrots are in the ground. The squirrels have yet to submit their order forms. 

I usually dig up the soil where I expect the veggies to go. This time I brushed the creeping charlie aside and tucked in the plants and hoped for the best. It is my version of no-till farming. A volunteer maple tree provides shade to the sun loving plants. At some point, we really should move things around. When we chose a spot for the garden it was in full sun like it should be. Now it is shady most of the time.

I am lucky that I have plants to care for. Since we have been told to stay home, I find that messing with the flowers and vegetables takes my mind off the various alarming virus proclamations.

With all the restrictions from the pandemic, I am surprised that we aren’t encouraged to plant victory gardens so we won’t have to go to the grocery store as often as we do. Instead, we are fed misinformation from a variety of sites. 

In the past we expected and believed that anything newsman Walter Cronkite told us was the truth. There were no doubts about the veracity of what he said. After he retired we still had faith in our journalists and news people. The past few years has seen the rise of entertainment news. 

This is news that puts more emphasis on entertainment than truth. It often plays to our fears and prejudices. All of our woes are attributed to others, when we know full well that, to quote Jimmy Buffett, “it could be my fault.” 

With the advent of warmer weather, people have been going outside more often. The precautions we are supposed to follow to remain well don’t seem as crucial as they used to. I am hoping against hope that by this time next year the pandemic will be yesterday’s news.

Only time will tell.