Good morning and welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging!
I returned early from Kentucky this past weekend because of some duties I had this week, including assisting with a historical display. So what I have to offer this morning is a plant gift basket that I had received and then what I did with it afterwards. As many of you are aware, I lost my good girl Lucy recently and wrote a diary about her — .. but she was a pit bull ...... There is a bit more to her rescue story than I had previously shared. The lady had to give Lucy up because her grandchildren were not allowed to visit. A Good Samaritan couple had driven Lucy up to me to save her from going to a dog pound as no one else wanted her and she would likely have been put to sleep. Several days after Lucy arrived, I received a phone call from the lady sobbing that she had been considering driving to my house to get Lucy back but her family was preventing it. She was completely distraught. I felt really bad for her so I kept in touch with her the first couple of years and then occasionally heard from her. Ever so often I sent photographs. When she had learned that Lucy had passed, the lady thanked me for the wonderful life that I had provided her girl. I was quite surprised a few days later when I received the above florist gift basket from her.
The basket arrangement was truly appreciated but was really not my thing. There were eight plants of six different varieties crammed into the basket and they didn’t appear to have much room. With no drainage holes, I knew it was a matter of time before they would probably rot. I finally decided to deconstruct the basket.
I started out by cleaning this small vintage chrome and glass fish tank.
If you recall a few weeks back, I had shown a top heavy amaryllis that had fell over from a bookcase landing in a waste basket.
The soil had been covered with a thick layer of gravel which I cleaned up and saved. I decided to use it in the bottom of the fish tank.
I covered the gravel with the last of a potting soil bag but I still needed a bit more. I used the soil from these two pots that were in the barn. I recycle all soil from pots by placing it in my vegetable garden or the compost pile.
Here you see the three layers consisting of gravel, potting soil and topped off with some of the older soil. I should have mixed the soils together.
Once I took the arrangement apart, I realized that these plants would never have survived for long in the basket. There is a lady that wants all my gift bags, ribbons and bows for use in craft projects so I’ll give her this bow. If she doesn’t want the basket, I’ll put it with my donations for Savers. I just thought while typing this that the basket has a plastic liner but I could punch a few holes in it, plant some herbs and give it as a gift, maybe to a dinner host.
I worked the eight plants into the soil and also used the Spanish moss that came with them. I added a piece of burl wood that I may replace later with something else. I think this looks much better for me than the basket arrangement, plus the plants have more room and soil to grow. So I am reusing the plants, Spanish moss, basket and ribbon. I also used recycled gravel and soil.
I wanted to keep this downstairs but since there are currently fifty hyacinth bulbs, more than fourteen amaryllis and over twenty paper whites being forced in vases and pots currently taking up space, I was running out of room. I think it looks good for now in the 1798 dining room fireplace with its cooking crane as I will notice it many times a day as I pass by. Once some other spaces open up, I’ll move it.
But GUG what about the butterfly? The butterfly from Lucy’s mother was placed inside with her ashes. I would never had known Lucy if this lady had not desperately tried to find her a good home.
Shown above is also Lucy’s plaster paw print. It was added to my other six deceased dogs and one cat’s paw prints plus a baby tooth of Molly’s, a female Doberman. Now you know what is inside the colonial Spanish document box that I had shown a few weeks ago that was beside the Chilean sculpture in my entrance hall.
This antique box was bought in Santiago, Chile in 1991. The carvings are unbelievable and are on all four sides plus the top. I limit polishing or dusting it as I don’t want to ruin its original paint. The red paint was made from oxen blood.
The first use of the term oxblood as a color name in the English language dates back to 1695–1705. The name is derived from the color of the blood of an ox. The ox blood was used as a pigment to dye fabric, leather and paint. It is most commonly described as a dark red with purple and brown undertones. The blood would change from a bright red to a darker, oxidized, more brown-red as it aged.
Hard to see in the bottom photo but the whitish area has hundreds of small punched indentions in the wood that continues around the other three sides and also on top inside the coat of arms.
And every time I open the box, not only I am filled with pet memories but also an incredible nice strong smell. The bottom is lined with two oranges fully studded with cloves that I had made around 1985, the black walnuts are from my father’s Kentucky farm, some bay leaves, gum tree seed pods from Bushnell Park in downtown Hartford and some small pine cones from I don’t remember where.
So I just wanted to show how every single item from the florist gift basket is being reused and continues. You also know how I usually get sidetracked along the way in diaries and comments. And yeah, I really am an old sentimental guy and told you that ten years ago in this short > diary and also here> diary 2.
It is now my duty to make sure these plants from the gift basket survive as long as possible, after all, their roots now intertwine with Lucy and her momma’s roots in Kentucky where mine are too.