The weather had finally turned a bit cooler, so when I walked out on my back porch I couldn’t help but give a quick shiver as I pulled the hood of my sweatshirt up to cover my ears.
I began checking on my geraniums, pulling off dead leaves and seeing if they needed any water. While I was deadheading the last few remaining flowers I happened to look over at the side table and noticed my little polka dot plant was in urgent need of a drink.
“Let’s get you inside.” I said as I picked up the little plant with it’s pink dots splattered over its wilted green leaves.
When I walked inside my son Alex was coming into the kitchen. “I see your green thumb is working overtime.” He laughed as he looked at my plant then reached in the cabinet and pulled out a loaf of bread.
“No worries.” I went over to the sink and turned the water on. I put the plant under the running water until it was flowing from the drainage holes in the bottom of the pot. “Now you’re about to see a magic act!” I said as I placed it on some paper towels and left it on the counter-top. “Come back in about an hour and it will look like a brand new plant!”
I began gently pushing the wilted leaves aside to check in the dirt.
Alex was watching me. “What are you doing?”
“I’m checking to see if any bugs made a nest in the dirt.” I didn’t see anything moving but I wasn’t going to take any chances. “It’s time to move this plant indoors but I’m not going to put up with what happened when I brought that one indoors a few years ago.” I kept looking in the dirt while I pointed to the large pathos plant in the corner of the dining room.
“What happened with that one?” Alex asked as he popped a piece of bread in the toaster.
“You don’t remember?”
Alex shook his head no as he went to the cabinet to get the peanut butter out.
“The year of the ant infestation!” I cried. “You don’t remember the fall we had that terrible ant problem in the kitchen?”
“Nope.” He opened the peanut butter and went to the silverware drawer to get a knife.
“I made the mistake of putting it outside a few years ago and when I brought it back in the kitchen we started having this massive ant problem!” I shook my head and grimaced. “I couldn’t figure out where they were all coming from! It took me over a month to finally put the pieces together and realize the ants had made a nest in it’s dirt.” I shuttered as I thought about it. “I took it outside to re-pot it and had ants crawling all over me.” I shuttered again. “It was horrible!”
“Why didn’t you just toss the plant out?” His toast popped up from the toaster and he placed it on a plate. Then scooped out a dollop of peanut butter to spread on it.
“Are you kidding me!” I looked over at my pathos plant. “I’ve had that plant for years!” I went over and checked one of the leaves. “It’s one of the only plants that can survive me.”
Alex leaned against the counter-top as he took a bite of his toast. “That’s not true.” He pointed to another plant I had in the living room.
“You mean the Peace lily? Um…” I cleared my throat. “I’ve replaced that one about four times already.” I had to laugh as I shrugged my shoulders. “But the good news is you’ve never noticed!”
Slice of Life 