Friday, March 28

This plant hates me

Last summer I dug a trench and laid in a 30-foot pipe to drain rain water from our driveway. To keep people from driving into the intake, I put in a wooden post nearby that sticks up maybe six feet so you can see it from any car or truck you’re driving. On top of the post I screwed down a saucer for a planter pot and put a succulent called a ghost plant there for decoration. During the winter the plant was moved off the post to protect it from freezing. Somehow it got bumped off its place and fell and broke the pot it was in. A new pot was purchased and the ghost was re-planted. When spring came, it was perched on the post again.

Today I used our road grader to prepare part of the driveway for a rock wall to hold up a bank of soil. I was very careful not to bonk the post with the plant on top, but as fate would have it, I bonked the post. The plant fell, the pot broke, and once again I have to find the plant a new home.

Never before in my life have I felt such hate from a plant. I’m going to replant it in real down-to-earth ground level soil and let the gophers have a go at it. Sorry plant, but sometimes life is cruel. But I’m not sure if I should anger a ghost.

2 comments:

Susan Hurley-Luke said...

Hmmm. WHy don't you wire the pot to the post for the summer?

Tom Hurley said...

Looking back, I should have labeled this story “Ghost on Post is Toast.” I hit that post hard enough to tip it over about 30° so I doubt if wiring the pot to it would have worked. The plant probably would have been sliced to bits as it passed through the wires.