A Porch Update: Adding Mums With The Yellow Door
We have done it again! For the second year in a row, we managed to accidentally allow the bushes in our big wooden porch planters to die. Oh the shame.
Chalk it up to a miscommunication. Sherry thought I was watering them. I thought she was. Clara did not have a clue who was watering what (or what watering even is) and all the while Burger was “watering” plants in the back. By the time we realized our folly it was too late (although Sherry desperately dumped five cups of water a day on them for the last few weeks to no avail). So I’d say we are equally to blame for our plants getting a bit on the crispy side. And we are sad. But we had to fess up and keep it real, so there you have it. Picture us looking shamefaced at the ground and vowing to do better next time.
Since fall is upon us, we took a page from our own book and, like last year, picked up two yellow mums at Home Depot (for $18 total) to take their place. But there was a new element to deal with this year. In case you missed it in the first photo, let us take a closer look (warning: there is about to be a close up photo of a spider)…
…and, if you can stomach it, let us go even closer (here it comes)…
There it was. Feel free to blame any nightmares you have tonight on us. Is that not the most scary, hermit-crab-looking spider you’ve ever seen? And are those long pointy legs not the most villainous limbs you’ve seen in a while? He’s practically making the skull and cross bone shape you see on poisonous bottles like arsenic. And because we were not about to hold up a dollar bill for scale, you cannot tell simply how big he is. But if you scroll back to the picture above this one you will see that he’s about half as big as the light bulb. Which is giant. And terrifying.
We discovered our new “friend” at the start of this mum project. Who knows how long he had been hanging out there (since we rarely use the front door). But one thing was for sure: he hoped to eat our faces off (according to my consistently trustworthy internet research, human face is a delicacy amongst the giant spider species). Okay, perhaps not. But he still was not something I hoped to be around.
So as fast as I could, I yanked the dead bushes out of their planters…
…and plopped the new mums (containers and all) in their place, right on top of the leftover dirt.
Not bad for a speedy planting job, if I do say so myself.
And since these babies are hardy, we will plant them (not in their pots) somewhere else in our yard after the fall season. You know, so we will not have to wait three more seasons for them to look good again on the porch.
Best part about it? The spider did not dive bomb my fairly little head in the process. Good spider, good spider…
Having come out of this unscathed, I was eager to snap my “after” photo and call it day (of course we still need a new doormat and have larger porch plans – like framing out the columns, painting the wood siding, and staining the concrete floor).
But stepping away now would let the bad folks spiders win. I know they are “good pests” but they are not so welcome at face height right outside the front door. So I used my trusty broom and gave its web a swift swing, in hopes of not-too-harshly evicting my eight-legged visitor…
In a surprise turn of spider-related events, he jumped into one of our new mums. Oh the irony.
He seemed ok with it (meaning he did not eat my face).
Oh, and FYI – the spider has now changed addresses and lives in the mum on the left. Thought you should be warned in case you are planning to come sell us some Girl Scout cookies or something.
Pssst- The lady-wife did a lively little phone interview that simply went live here (click the play button next to the little audio sign over on the site to listen in). Oh yeah, and click here to see this week’s lucky Ikea gift card winners.
