Gardening

Whoever said gardening was an exercise, was not kidding!  This morning I had to repot my aji cachucha plant (this is what is called in Spanish; the best way I could describe it is that it looks identical to a Jamaican hot pepper, but not as hot and a bit sweeter).  This plant was given to me by Dan's great aunt and uncle, Luisa and Pancho.  They found out that I'm into gardening and planted this for me (they are very sweet and I was very touched when I found out they were doing this for me).
 
I had originally repotted her two months ago, but for some reason she wasn't doing well in her new home.  I thought maybe I wasn't watering her as much as I should or that she was exposed to too much sun.  My father-in-law decided to buy a bigger pot and gave it to me last night.  I have to attempt to save this plant because I'll feel really guilty if she doesn't survive.  So, I was very grateful that Frank (my father-in-law) got this for me.
 
Now, this plant is pretty big to begin with.  There was no way that I could just pull her out of the pot without placing the pot on it's side.  Well before I go along with this story, I have to mention that we had a tremendous storm yesterday.  The wind blew off the screen to my bedroom window.  We normally keep the bags of dirt on the side of the house.  It's kept closed, but it doesn't really matter if it gets wet.  Well, I pick up the bag and start walking with it towards the new pot.  I noticed it had a couple of tears in it, but I wasn't worried.  When I start dumping the dirt into the pot, the bag rips open.  I now have dirt all over the terrace.
 
I forgot to mention that this dirt is not the dirt you buy at Home Depot.  We got this bag at a nursery.  The reason I mention this is because dirt from nurseries have a lot of fertilizer, which stains the floor tremendously.  The dirt from Home Depot has fertilizer, but it doesn't really stain the floor.  Of course, the dirt was also wet.  Here I am scooping up the dirt with my hands.  I left my gloves and tools in the garage thinking I wouldn't really need it (this is what happens in the mornings when I only have one cup of coffee).  Eventually, I managed to pick up all of the dirt off the floor.
 
Now on to the plant.  I add some water to the plant in order to pull her out without ripping her roots (now that I think about it, it poured yesterday).  So I place the pot on its side, and there goes the plant and the dirt.  It came right out of the pot.   Needless to say that I was amazed at this point.  I could have avoided all of this if I would have waited for Dan or Frank to get home, and had them help me out (or done this over the grass instead of the tiled terrace).
 
Repotting was successful and I think she likes her new home.  She didn't seem dried up.  After I was done picking up all the dirt off the floor, I began hosing down the terrace.  This was more of a hassle than repotting my plant.  I do have to be thankful that it is  a nice and breezy morning.  I would have passed out if it were the middle of the day.   Now on to that second cup of coffee...