Making Babies: The Nursery

A woman loves to create a nursery.  Picking out the necessary items to make a safe and cozy place for a baby is what we're all about.  Putting it together so it cuddles and supports new life is right up at the top of the bliss scale.

And as Handy Andy, I knew the nursery could not be at my biggest south-facing window in the dining room, and would, therefore, require more clever thought and planning.  That's when the parts of a 40-year-old plant shelf came to mind all the way from the far end of the attic.

Attached to the wall.
 Rungs on the vertical supports allow for
adjusting plant/light distance.

Assembled, the shelf could be fastened to the wall on either side of the available window (guest room unoccupied 99% of the time).

Secured to the ceiling
and wired to reach an electrical outlet.

Essential grow lights could be attached to compensate for rainy days and a shaded west window.

Wired in

An 8-foot extension cord was used for wiring the lights together and allowing an easy way to turn them on and off.

Two "plumber's tape" straps secure each light fixture to
the rail shelves.

The nursery furniture is ready, and several weeks ago the most urgent item of the Things I get to do today list was plant seeds for those growies that need the head start indoors.(Continued tomorrow).

Cinderella Planters

We got high-centered--all of us--caught on the fence between winter and spring.  Our hearts surge forward, wanting to plant, garden, and flower; and then it snows on us and pours so much rain that every step toward the garden leaves miniature foot-print-sized lakes behind us overflowing along our route.

Neglected, frosted, ugly planters

But what is a heart to do?  Mine was pumping with the emotion of earth and beauty for the Things I get to do today.  And before me, while the rains held back the tears measured out for today, were the dregs of several planters--left behind--too ugly to be invited anywhere.  Surely I could be distracted from the garden-spring thing by coming to the rescue of these tired plants.  It's an opportunity to make something from nothing.  That's the sort of juicy challenge any Handy Andy would adore.

So get to work.  Grab the gloves.  Pull out all frost-killed plants.  Remove all dead leaves and leggy stems from the remaining live ones.  Divide clumped and overgrown plants.  Repot them like a group photo shoot: short ones on the front edges, medium and tall in the center and back.

Added kale (new dress), primrose (sparkle) and parsley.
The rest (slippers) were salvaged from the two "uglies"

The winter was rough on the houseplants that had migrated into the original arrangements. Even combining the two planters there were not enough growies to fill the larger one that sits on top of my rain barrel.  A little wandering through the yard, however, yielded part of a clump primroses that needed dividing, a handful of Italian Parsley* and one healthy kale.

You can do this, too.  Come on, be a Fairy Godmother to your tired, tattered, and tarnished planters from last season.  Give them new sparkle, find a pretty "dress," and clean up the "slippers."


*See "Italian Generosity" posted November 14, 2011.