Wordless Wednesday: Earth Day

Wordless Wednesday: Earth Day

Today is Earth Day! I thought it would be fitting to have today’s Wordless Wednesday pics be nature inspired ones in honor of the day. More specifically, things we planted over the weekend! They come with a funny story, making this a very WORDY Wednesday…

First, some back story.

A little over a week ago, Philly held it’s “Spring Clean Up” day, for residents to come outside and volunteer some time to clean up their street, if they wanted to. A neighbor around the corner signed our street up, so gloves, rakes and brooms were provided by the city (which we were all allowed to keep afterwards!) We picked up trash, pulled out some weeds, swept up broken glass and they even trimmed down the huge lower portion of the giant evergreen on the sidewalk across from our house that makes it impossible for anyone to walk down. The street looks great now! It was also a chance for us to meet a few of our neighbors, which was also nice.

My street is a little ally, with my house and two others facing a gray cement brick wall between us and a large back lot which belongs to the restaurant one street down. The lot is overgrown and they use it mostly for throwing trash back there, which is sad because it would make an excellent community garden, but that is neither here nor there. After our three houses, our street takes a very sharp left turn on to another street, where there are houses lining both sides of the road, as is typical with the city. Because our little ally of a street has no houses across from it, our one neighbor (one of the three houses on our actual block) put out several large pots filled with tomato plants, small trees and greenery to spruce up the sidewalk. It’s adorable and really makes the street look cuter, especially in front of the drab cement wall.

During Spring Clean Up Day, we met one neighbor who said he had put those pots out. We commented that someone broke the one directly in front of our house during the Winter, and since the plants inside it were dead and the pot was shattered, would he mind if we replaced it. He said absolutely, we can put whatever we like there! Perfect. Husband and I went to Home Depot, bought a large pot (which happened to be the same exact ones that were already out on our street so everything matches!) and three bags of soil to fill it. My Dad has been cultivating sunflower seedlings at his house and I just needed to love them a little longer in the window until I could plant them in the pot we just bought.

On to the story…

After a really great wedding weekend in Jersey, we came back to our house in Philly on Saturday night to find someone had bought a tree, left it in it’s bag, but put the whole thing right on top of our pot. Strange. We figured we’d investigate the next morning.

When we woke up on Sunday, however, we found the tree had been planted. We were so confused. Why would someone plant a tree in OUR pot with OUR soil. Clearly if they didn’t put the pot or soil there, they should realize it isn’t theirs to plant in, right?

I glanced out the window while getting ready to go outside, and spied what I assume is the father or father-in-law (as he lives in the same house) of the man who told us that he bought the pots and we could replace his. This older man had a dolly and was replacing the older pot that was directly in front of his house, which has dead ivy in it, with our new pot, new soil and his new tree, so that the new pot is in front of his house and the old dead ivy in front of ours. Not a pretty thing to look out our window and see.

Husband leapt to action and ran outside to talk to the guy. I assumed when he came back inside he’d tell me he straightened it out and that the dead ivy pot would be moved back and at the very least, the tree that is in OUR pot would be in front of our house. Nope! Husband came back inside and said how nice the man is, and was pretty much tricked by his old-man-cuteness in to giving away our pot and soil for free!

“BUT HONEY!” I exclaimed. “HE STOLE OUR POT!”

“Oh, yeah.”

I didn’t want dead ivy in front of our house and we didn’t want to fight a cute old man, so Husband and I decided to just cut our losses and go back to Home Depot and get a plant and more soil to replace the dead ivy. We moved it down the street a ways so there was room for us to buy a new pot or two and plant something else in front of our house. When we went outside, the neighbor heard us moving the pot and came out to see what was going on. He then told us to buy TWO pots, and make sure to get something that BLOOMS.

You’ll be glad to know, he was pleased with our choices and came to watch us plant them.

Some pretty begonias that can live in the sun AND the shade of the giant evergreen tree that casts a shadow on this pot for a lot of the day! This tough (and beautiful!) little forsythia will come back every year! This hosta will be easy to take care of and will grow to almost the size of the pot!

And that, dear readers, is the story of how we were swindled out of a pot and soil from a cute old man, and ended up spending another $100 at Home Depot that we hadn’t planned on. At least the street is even prettier now!

What are you planting for Earth Day?