I Think I am Addicted to Pots!!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

I realize my title is very alarming and you are all probably wondering if I live in Colorado or Washington, but before an intervention is staged, let me be clear, I am talking about large clay pots.  I’ve got a serious problem and even though this is a dog website and this has nothing to do with dogs, I feel the need to share.  We are finally enjoying some spring like weather, which means we are getting our outdoor decorations and lawn furniture out and sprucing up our yard.  The yard we had when we moved in was much different than the yard we have now with two Doodles. The dogs tear through every inch of our yard and Vern runs through bushes and under evergreens like he doesn’t even see them.  Honestly, I can hear branches cracking as he slips, and not so gracefully I might add, under them to make a surprise move on Fudge. Unfortunately, when you are a large, dirty white, dog crashing through underbrush and small places where you do not truly fit, the element of surprise does not work in your favor.  Fudge is always two steps ahead of him, but Vern has pluck, and no one can accuse him of ever giving up.  Our yard is proof of this statement.

 

Last year, John had to rip out a good deal of ground cover because Vern used it as safe base when he had Fudge’s ball or could often be found lying in the middle of it watching the world go by.  This left a large area that needed something and two adults who couldn’t quite agree on what that something should be.  John likes Hostas and I like them far less. Now, before the National Organization of Hosta Lovers start sending me hate mail, I know this plant serves a purpose, it is easily maintained, and can fill in a lot of space, but I still think it is boring.   The problem is John and I do not agree about planting plants and flowers and he will take a large space and plant just one or two of something and I believe more is more.  All summer long he tells me it is going to look great when it grows and fills in and I think it looks like he planted two Charlie Brown Christmas trees with not much hope. 

I like to start out the summer season with everything looking good and not staring at the planted areas and repeating over and over, “soon, Laurie, soon.”  My neighbor loves to tell me what to plant here and there in my planters and I nod and pretend I will do it and then run up to a local store and buy planters already filled with lots of flowers and pop them into my containers.  My way is immediately prettier and saves an impatient person the hassle of waiting for everything to grow. 

 

Where I am envisioning colorful pots filled with exotic flowers, one or two measly hostas with the promise from John that they are going to look great someday are just not good enough. This more is more attitude spills over into every aspect of my decorating and sometimes gets me into trouble.  I consider myself to be very lucky in that John doesn’t care what I do in our house as long as it does not affect him in any way.  I could bring home a giant stuffed Panda Bear and put it in our living room and the only time he would complain is if I asked him to help me move it to a different location.  I can count on John’s middle finger the number of times he said he was really unhappy with something I brought home and it happened when we were still living in an apartment.  I had coveted an antique spinning wheel that I saw every time we went to one of our favorite antique shops for quite some time and finally somehow we could afford it, I took the plunge one day, and brought it home and set it up in front of our large patio window. 

It was exactly as I had envisioned in my head all those months of longing, except its placement prevented John from reclining in his recliner.  Personally, I thought it was something we could live with, but John thought otherwise and forced me to choose between him and an antique.  I am not going to lie and say the choice was easy, but in the end, I realized it was not going to sound right if our kids kept pointing to my beloved spinning wheel and telling their friends, “she chose THAT over our father.”

 

I would like to say that is the only time I have brought something home that no one but me seemed to like, but I would be lying.  Take for instance, my St. Francis statue that caught my eye because he was yellow.  Plus, he was on a clearance rack for $40, marked down from $200, because one of the rabbits was missing an ear.  Luckily, I knew John could fix that ear since the missing piece was included, and I know a steal when I see one. A Saint on the clearance rack is not something you are going to find every day, if you ask  me. He also matched my walls and is the Patron Saint of Animals, which includes Doodles, and it seemed like a win win situation to me.

I love him, but Hayley said he has creepy eyes and Megan said she was going to start buying me every ugly thing she could find and hand it to me and say, “I bought this hideous thing for you because it is  yellow.”  They both said when I die; Salvation Army is going to be getting a boatload of stuff with a St. Francis statue on top of the box, because they doubted they could stuff him into one of those large donation boxes we have around town at various locations.  When I mentioned that they might want to wait to go through my things until their grief at my loss subsided, they said they would be sure to dress in black as they loaded up the car.  All John said when I handed him the statue and the rabbit ear was, “You aren’t even Catholic.”  Thankfully, since it didn’t block his recliner, he was fine with my Saint. 

 

Well, this week I brought up the subject of getting a large fountain for that space.  I saw a really cool one up at the store and while John liked it, he did remind me that the dogs might think it is a drinking fountain.  I pondered that and decided that nothing spoils a good fountain like two large dogs continually sucking on the bubbler and blocking the water from flowing, so we nixed that idea.

Well, while I was in the store, I noticed a wide array of beautiful pots and came up with the plan to stagger several pots in different sizes and colors in that vacant spot on our lawn.  I figured I would fill them in with flowers or evergreens and have my very own pot garden. 

My only problem now is I can’t seem to stop buying pots.  I just keep finding one more in a cool shape or color and I just know I can work it in to my theme somehow. 

Oh, and before you say, “don’t you have a 5 foot Rooster, too?” all my pots match one of the colors on my big cock-a-doodle-do.  I am not an amateur, folks! 

Plus, it is not like I am dressing up those large geese statues you see out and about, or have one of those wood cutouts of a woman bending over, or even six pink, plastic flamingos in my yard. I mean I am not opposed to any of those things, but I just think a jumbo Rooster and matching pots makes a more tasteful statement!

I realized today, as I looked around my yard at all my pots, that it might be time to be done.  John is having trouble supporting my habit and I thought about writing a book called Pot to see if I could help bring in some cash.  I figured if I offered a no refund policy, by the time people realized I was talking about large, clay pots, the money would be in my bank account or handed over to some cashier in exchange for more pots.  So far, I have come up with the opening couple of lines…remember, it is supposed to draw you into the story…One Pot, Two Pot, Red Pot, Blue Pot, if I bring home one more pot, you might hear a gunshot.  It may need a little work, but I have all the time in the world since I gave up shopping for pots momentarily.

[Marnie, Stanlee's Mom]

"Dreepy"?  I meant Creepy....

[Marnie, Stanlee's Mom]

And here he is with dreepy eyes.....don't want this hanging in my house!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

So I've been wondering if St. Francis really did have "creepy eyes"...that would be a shame since I've always thought of him as a very cool saint.  Actually, from what I've been able to find, he had really nice, kind eyes and I'm feeling much better now.  I understand that when you find something "yellow" you kind of have to go with it.  Here he is "with nice eyes" and lots of birds.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

LOL, Laurie, I just looked and it is the middle finger! 

[F, Calla & Luca]

Sheri, yes the pots should either come in for winter, be covered or at least turned over. Laurie, I'd fill the pots partway with old smaller pots upside down so you don't use as much soil which makes them too heavy to move. And I never plant everything right away. There's a batch of stuff out there right now but I have a helper coming tomorrow to work on the big stuff. My hostas thrive wherever but the best ground over for little work is pachysandra. The dogs don't treat it well though.

[Marnie, Stanlee's Mom]

p.s. I dragged my husband to the Garden Center Saturday night after bribing him with a good meal and he was dumb-founded that I could spend well over a hundred dollars on "little flowers" for my patio garden.  Little does he know this wasn’t my first or even second trip – it was the trip I let him know about.

[Marnie, Stanlee's Mom]

Wow…..I can’t believe you totally dissed on my ‘mingos.  Hey, it’s a Florida thing, just sayin’, and you should SEE how cool they look suspended from the trees and pulling my pink and white sleigh at Christmas! ♪AWESOME ♪

Okay – Saint Francis is kinda creepy.  Ten to one he comes alive at night and slinks around your house moving things around so that you can’t find your keys or trip over a foot stool or you wake up in the morning to find there is a light on that you KNOW you turned off.   Yup, creepy.  However, I would have tossed the recliner, gotten John a new chair and KEPT THAT AWESOME SPININNG WHEEL!!!!

I hate to say this but John may (for once) actually…*gulp*… be right.  The “butterfly garden” will fill in nicely and if you protect that butterfly bush it will grow very large!  LOVELY!!!  But the hostas?  I don’t see any shade out there and they would perish from too much sun.  Also, and you can tell John I said so, they stink as potted plants.  I know because I just recently removed the fossilized remains of the hostas I planted last year.  I spent Sunday planting (hold on I need to use my fingers to count) sixteen pots for my patio and foyer. 

Hi, my name’s Marnie and I’m addicted to pots.

 

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Wow Laurie, I AM Catholic and that St. Francis statue kind of creeps me out too....I hope he didn't really look like that.  Growing up, my Grandmother had statues like that everywhere...some of them had little "holders" attached that were filled with holy water.  I haven't even thought about that in years.  Anyway, I love your colorful pots...and they all seem to match the colors in the Big Cock-a-Doodle-Do.  I like a color coordinated yard!  Nice job.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

Laurie -- I wanna see pics of your newly potted space.  I have a question as well.  In the North when you use pots for gardening like this do you have to bring the pots inside during the winter months.  I was wondering about this since we moved back to Ohio.  I used this method in our landscaping in Florida.  However, I had flowers year round and didn't have to worry about the cold weather and the pots.  So, I'm curious about how this works in the winter months here.  I'd love to incorporate some into our landscape here. 

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Whooooosssssssssssoooooossssshhhhh- ( sound of sucking in some). You can fertilize your pot with Rooster Dung too! Great