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Random Watering and Benign Neglect
Mar 21 2011

I mentioned in my Parenting Epiphany #1 post, which surprisingly got more comments than I expected given comments on my blog have declined since my decline in posting frequency, that I would post about my plant growing epiphany.  I have house plants that are fairly old in dog years.  An 18+ year old ivy that has survived 4 moves.  A 14+ year old ficus that has survived 2 moves.  A 6 year old palm.  An almost 10 year old bamboo plant.  All are green (non-flowering) plants.  I usually accidentally kill the few flowering indoor plants I’ve received.

So here it is: I randomly water them and I benignly neglect them.  I was telling someone my theory behind plant growing success and he told me that most plants die from over watering so I guess there is some credence to my plant growing insight.  I figure in the outside world, they never know when they will get water and people/animals don’t pay much attention to them except when they are eating them.  So my busy, hectic schedule actually plays in favor for the plants.  Somehow, I always seem to know or sense when they need water but I’m one of those people who sort of believes in the connectedness of things so maybe they send their vibes out to me so my brain triggers a thought that says something like “Darn, I need to water those plant things again.”

It’s a good thing we don’t have any pets because I’m pretty sure I could not apply the same method to them. 🙂  I mostly try to do the opposite with my kids.  I try not to over water (i.e., over parent) them but sometimes I do ignore them so they can figure out stuff on their own and so I can get things done.

Author: | Filed under: Just For Fun, parenting, random stuff | Tags: , , , | 3 Comments »

3 Comments on “Random Watering and Benign Neglect”

  1. 1 Hausboot said at 11:38 AM on March 22nd, 2011:

    you have a plant of 18+ years old? are you kidding me? is this a sort of a metaphor, and the plant is actually your kid or what? anyway, if it’s not a metaphor and it’s really a plant, than congrats… it must really like you, because I don’t know how many plants would live that much:)

  2. 2 Brian said at 4:30 PM on March 22nd, 2011:

    It’s amazing to me how everyone has one (or more) of those plants that just won’t seem to die. You could forget about watering it for a month, and then empty a measuring cup of water into the pot and have the plant green and full the next day.

    And then there are the plants that must be committing suicide for how quickly they’ll die.

  3. 3 Aruni said at 7:28 PM on March 22nd, 2011:

    @Hausboot – well, the 18+ year plant is an ivy and I’ve taken shoots off the original one to keep it growing. For some point in time, it was just in water until I potted it but it’s from the original one my roommate and I got back right after we finished college!

    @Brian – Plants are funny sometimes. Some thrive with little water and others just want to make a point of the fact that you aren’t paying attention to them and just die.