Into Everyone’s Life A Little Dirt Must Fall

It has been a bit of a crazy time here at Victory Farm & Gardens, no different I suspect from anyone else and their lives. I am always looking for ways to calm the nerve endings and take it at a regular pace.
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After my work out days of going up and down and down and up the steps to Laundry House aka Propagation House, to give the plants inside a bit of fresh air and liberal waterings, I figured that the rest of the week and on beyond was looking rather mild, enough cloud cover that frost wouldn’t be a problem and neither would sun burn.
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I began to hang the thirty-two planted fuchsia baskets out on Laundry House’s porch on a metal pipe the is held in place by three two-by-four brackets. I even devised some wire hangers to hang a second lower tier. Everything looked great. It was a bit windy late that afternoon but it didn’t seem to effect the hanging baskets that much. Well except for the last one that didn’t fit on the pipe and had to hang out a little farther on the chain where my topsy turvy tomato plants hung last summer.
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In the morning I was delighted to see the lovely dew on the grass and the sun and clouds playing tag. But when I looked toward Laundry House I didn’t see the line of baskets I expected to see. I could see one lone one but where were the rest. I hadn’t put my contacts in and I know better than to panic when I have them out and can’t see what I expect to see, I’ve been met with more than one old-lady-crying-wolf situations because of it.
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I mentioned that I couldn’t see them to vacationing Phil Dirt, so he popped up to the window and mumbled something horrible. But it didn’t really matter because I had already spied what the deal was.

The center two-by-four bracket had given way and this was the mess it created.

And there is my favorite Pink Marshmallow, the one I thought was hanging out in the elements, looking down on its forlorn and broken brethren, saying, “It pays to be last sometimes.”

Some baskets survived by being last to the scene but most others were broken and the plants in them tossed to the four corners of the porch and beyond.

Clean up and rescue took all day. We now have several flats of fuchsia starts and all the baskets and lone plants have been pinched back, or squashed back as some cases may be, to insure lovely bushy baskets.

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I emptied and tossed thirteen broken plastic fuchsia baskets into the garbage. Four baskets worth of plants, sixteen in all, were completely unidentifiable and went into separate four inch pots to grow and bloom so that I can make proper IDs on them.

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A little over half of what was left were repotted into their own unbroken pot or a new one because their foliage is distinct enough and they were all close enough in a common pile of soil to assume that they were from the same basket. These were tagged however, to keep special watch on, to switch up when it is obvious someone fell into someone else’s dirt pile.

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The last of the baskets that had pretty much fallen upright and unbroken, without tossing anyone completely out of the confines of the basket, were realigned, tidied up, trimmed up and set to rights again.

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Even though I am fairly positive that the last batch I took care of are all the right ones together in a basket, no one is getting sold ’til all have bloomed and proven their familial standings.

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Silver lining? ‘Cause there always is one or two… Dirt and I have decided not to set pipe in the rafters for hanging baskets in the Hot House for sure now. I was beginning to lean to a portable system after my multiple trips up and down Laundry House steps, but now we are for certain not hanging pots on the structure itself.

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Second lining: man am I thankful that I didn’t seed the lobelia directly into the basket! I’m thinking that would have been the weep point of the whole ordeal. I am positive that certain procrastinations or changes of plans are definitely from the Holy Spirit.

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All twenty-eight baskets and sixteen four inch pots went back into Laundry House and are hanging peacefully up next to the ceiling with the lights on them and the fans below trying their best to mimic a lovely soft spring breeze. I have decided that waiting for the real Hot House to be up and running is a better thing.

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It won’t be too much longer now anyway, in fact, if Charley’s hadn’t sent us home short two joiner strips, I most likely would have been moving in Tuesday morning. As it is Dirt and I and the girls too, will be making a quick dash up north to grab the two joiner strips and the two vent openers from back order.

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Hopefully we will get to see some fields of tulips and other things and someones that will brighten our crazy days.

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Dear Reader, I hope you are having a wonderful, busy, crazy, yet restful, spring, just like we are. It all makes for a great life doesn’t it? Wouldn’t you hate to be one of those folks with a boring and steady life?

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Well I’m heading out to sing some praises to my Creator, Saviour and Counselor, and to plant some asparagus that was delivered day before yesterday and healed into some nice dirt. I will come back later this evening with HotHouse construction pictures from yesterday, didn’t want to overload one post with all that went on this week. ‘Til then, have a delightful day and if you’re the celebrating commemorating type, Have a Good Palm Sunday.