A Shine to The Porch

Last year, on one of Mom and Dad’s trips to town, they brought back ten beautiful ferns. We hung them on the porch so that it would look nice and peaceful. It did! The shiny leaves hanging up high made it restful to sit outside.

Autumn 2021

After the growing season was over, we took the ferns to the back of the shop for the winter. When they were in the shop, we would take them out to water them, and on the days above freezing, we let them sit in the sun for a while. On the first days of spring, we got them out of the shop. They did not look particularly good. They seemed almost dead. Mom watered them with Miracle Grow, a plant food with lots of essential nutrients, to help the ferns grow bigger and more beautiful.

We watered them about once a week. We lifted them up and if they were heavy, we left them up and if they were not heavy then we took them off their hook and watered them. Little by little they began to turn green. They started looking better every day. Sadly, one of the ferns died, so Jayla went to the woods where there were a lot of ferns growing in the wild. She got about six or seven of them. We took out the dead fern and put in the new one. The rest of them, we planted in front of the porch area.

Ferns are plants that do not have flowers. Like flowering plants, they have roots, leaves, and stems. The leaves are often called fronds. The frond is the fern leaf, blade, and stalk. Then there is a fiddlehead. It will be a new frond after about a week of growing. Then there is the stalk. It is below the blade. The blade is the leafy part of the frond. It sure looks like a blade. The fern reproduces by spores, which look like little dots on the back of the frond.

Not long ago, we went to Fern Clyffe to hike. It is known as one of the most scenic places in Illinois. Two brothers purchased it a long time ago and called it Ferne Clyffe because of the abundance of ferns that lived there. 

We saw lots of ferns. The ferns that grow in the wild are a different kind than ours that we have on the porch. 

We have southern sword ferns, but one hundred ten types of ferns grow wild in Illinois.

It has been a fun experience watching the ferns grow. They did take a long time to look very pretty. The house has been beautiful with ferns hanging around. The plant has made a shine to the porch. We might keep the ferns in the shop again until next year, but if we don’t, then we will get new plants with big glossy fronds to hang up and make the porch look magnificent.

Our ferns today- 2022

~Isaac