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Gardening – From Pleasant Ridge

Surround Yourself with What You Love – The Real McCoys

McCoys
I am lucky enough to have a big office filled with natural light from my north-facing wall of windows. It’s perfect for houseplants and for showcasing my collection of McCoy planters. I only collect the turquoise/aqua ones and have 4 different patterns in two sizes. I have two more small basket weave ones that are not shown in the photo. The exception to my rule is a figural planter on the far end featuring a white terrier going after a cat. I couldn’t resist that one!

Most people at the bank see customers and are required to keep their desks clear and in the branches personal items are discouraged. The nature of my job, though involves incoming and outgoing boxes of promotional items, a work table, large cabinet, and hanging storage right in my office with me. I frequently have huge projects that create stacks of paper on my desk. My indoor garden offers a little distraction from all the daily chaos! Plus plants clean the air and enrich it with more oxygen to feed my brain!

Back to My McCoys

Founded in 1910, the Nelson McCoy Sanitary Stoneware Company was located in Roseville, Ohio where they mined clay and sold it to other potteries. Planters were a perennial product, seen in nearly every line McCoy produced throughout the history of the company which ceased operation in 1990.

My planters are attractive to me because I remember them from my early childhood. Grandmas and aunties as well as my mother grew African violets and philodendrons in them. Most of those were probably obtained in the 1930s – 50s. I have one pot that belonged to my mother. Unfortunately it is pink – another favorite color of the era.

Getting the Jump on Spring

ColeusCuttingsHooray!  I planted grass seed Monday evening working until dusk scratching up the soil, working in compost and spreading the seed/mulch mixture.  I woke up to light rain and it has been raining off and on for the past two days with no sign of stopping until Friday.  Then more rain is forecast.  Perfect cool wet weather to make those seeds swell and sprout!

Now if I can just keep Rowdy and Scamp off the seeded area.  It’s right in front of the house where they tend to play and dig around. They will have to be on leash, supervised or in the back yard for the time being. We have a fence up for the mailman, too!

 

ColeusDoveIndoors, I have overwintered some coleus plants and I have cut them back and rooted the cuttings.  A pinch here and there and I should have nice bushy specimens to set out when the weather is more settled.  For now, my office windowsill is full! I can hardly see my little birdie friends when they stop by to see what I am doing.

All over the yard, my perseverance in planting dozens and dozens of scilla and chionadoxa and muscari bulbs over the years has resulted in big patches and swathes of blue flowers this year!  The muscari have yet to bloom, but the other two have popped up everywhere – thick and solitary. I can only expect that the blue wonderland will continue when the muscari come on.BlueRiverEast