Accessible Gardening: #19 Practical Matters for Physically Challenged Gardeners , 2 by Agavegirl1

Agavegirl1 wrote:
Good morning all. :D
Hi Jim. Wise cactus and I are glad to hear your back is feeling so much better. I'm with you. I'm a big baby when it comes to shots. Hate them. Funny though. Don't mind acupuncture in the least and they've used some pretty big needles on me. I guess it is all in the way it is done and where they're putting it. I'm a strong believer in acupuncture. It has helped me a lot with flexibility and muscle problems. I'm a virtual Gumby. My husband calls me a freak because Pilates was never hard for me to master even in the beginning. Having direct access to Chinese, Korean, and Japanese areas was a coup while I lived in L.A.

I believe in acupuncture simply because it was invented, practiced, and used for treatment long before Western medicine ever was. Ever look at their Physiology charts of the human body that correspond to it? They're not quacks. Amazingly they knew this stuff and could map it out while we were still using leaches and bleeding people and not taking baths regularly. Acupuncture is worth looking into. Only problem with it is because this country is so limited in it's thinking in regards to medicine and thinks the only thing that works are pills and cutting you open, most insurance does not/will not cover it. It is a cash only thing if you want it.

Had a great doctor in Korea town. Practiced both Eastern and Western medicine and always asked you which one you wanted today! I had a beast of a sinus infection one time so I tried Eastern out of curiosity. Guy mixed together a bunch of "stuff"..I dunno...and made "tea" for me to take home. Knocked that sucker right out after 5 days. By the 2nd I was feeling better. By the 3rd I had almost no symptoms. By the 5th I was done with my "tea" and there were no remaining symptoms. I was cured. Beats 10 days of antibiotics and the impending doom and dread of the ensuing side effects (I'll let your wife tell you about antibiotics and women).

Only bad thing..UGGGGGH! EWWWWW! YUCK! All the sugar and lemon in the world couldn't make this stuff palpable. The best possible description I can give of it is that it looked, smelled and tasted the way I imagine wet, muddy, rotting tree bark could. Probably what he used (LOL). Uhm...we'll skip descriptions of the amazing mucous, kidney and bowel clearing capabilities of this stuff. Let's just say you better have no social plans for 2 days. Never, ever felt better in my life or since though AND the sinus infection was long gone.

Speaking of body functions...B12, forgot to tell you...perfectly normal thing happens. Your urine becomes some kind of super charged fluorescent yellow!
Nothing to panic or worry over. Nothing is wrong. Everything is normal. It is just what high dose B12 does that isn't absorbed by the body does when it gets released by the kidneys. "Normal" people who can process B12 don't have this issue. For those of us on B12 that put it into us via pills/liquids some of it doesn't get fully metabolized and thus comes out this way. That's why they recommend super high doses so the majority of it does get metabolized and used by your body. Nothing to get excited or worried about. It is just odd when you see your urine this color. After awhile the color should taper off or stop or sometimes stop-start again when your body gets used to the dose or metabolizes it more efficiently. It is also impossible to o.d. on B12 for this reason too. Body simply flushes out what isn't needed.

I've been using Nature's Bounty brand. It is their Sublingual Liquid Super Strength Energy Metabolism Formula B12 at 5,000mcg. Has dropper with a marker already on it for the right dose. Squeeze the dropper cap top into the liquid, unscrew from the bottle, deposit dose under the tongue, wait 30 seconds, swallow. All done. Repeat tomorrow.
There's tablets too. There's some at 3,000 and 1,500 pg. For some reason I don't think these dissolve as well and the dose is lower. I'll take 2. I don't know Kay's B12 level or how much she needs but she will find her energy and metabolism shift to "more"! She should be feeling much better after 30-60 days if not sooner.

Glad to hear Nadine is a "chef" and not a "cook". Cooks follow recipes. Chef's own them! They master them and then make them uniquely theirs by putting their own signatures and twists on them. Wait until she starts "experimenting" and making up her own recipes or dissecting things she's eaten in restaurants and trying to recreate them. :D
Oh, you're in for a treat then. I'll give you Whataburger's phone number. (LOL)

Your Deep Sea Crinum is lovely. It would be nice to have flowers here that lasted a little longer than a few days or a month. Not to mention that smells of sweet things. Ahh...that lovely perfume. Know just what you're talking about and no bottled fragrance ever captures it. Besides I don't mind sneezing if there's some kind of reward like a pretty scent in the air. Here, all I do is sneeze just because the pollen is blowing around on a breeze and nothing else!

Gardenias, Tuberose I know. I'm not familiar with the Lady of the night and the Deep Sea Crinum. Two of my favorites though were always Peony and Star Gazer Lily. Whenever they have Star Gazers in the grocery store floral I'll buy them. Lilly of the Valley I love also but I'll never see them here. They used to grow wild in Ohio. I'd pull up bunches and plant them at home. Iris is another favorite of mine. Some have a scent. Lilac trees! See what you started now! I can't have these here. They'd die in a second. :[
I never was a huge fan of roses.The only ones I really like are pure white (not cream) long stem ones. They're hard to come by. I like the look of roses in general and don't turn them down when given but never was a huge oooh and ahhh person over a bouquet of roses. I'm not a huge fan of them in the yard either. I just don't like the thorns, the fuss growing them, the constant pruning, the beetles they're prone to.

I've come to appreciate our flowers though. They're rare but when they do appear they're breath taking. Huge spots of wild color in the desert. You've seen some of the ones I've posted of the cacti. Spectacular, unique and awe inspiring as the variety of cacti, aloes and agaves themselves. There's such a variety of colors and shapes and sizes of blooms too. The way these clever plants go about doing it is fascinating especially in an environment where you would think flowering would be impossible. It really is quite a show. They flower on stalks and stems and branches that are as freaky as the plant. I guess the "eye candy" side show makes up for the lack of "nose candy".

Pic #1 Aloe ferox and it's magnificent red plumes (each plume is made up of tiny red tube flowers ). It is a huge humming bird magnet. The color of the plant and the teeth on the leaves are gorgeous! One of my favorites here!

Pic #2 & #3 Century plant. Lives approximately 30-40 years. Grows that stalk only 1 time in it's entire life! Does it right before it dies :{ All those little "pad" things growing off the arms of the stalk are individual tubular flowers that have nectar for humming birds. When the plant its self dies it falls over and uproots. Seeds loosen. It isn't a small plant! It gets about the height of a 2 story house! It reproduces by making little babies right next to it and they spread! The mother plant "sits" over them to protect them until she dies and then usually there's about 90 "pups"/babies under it!

Pics #4 #5. My little cactus. Just wanted to show you the size of the flower stalk and flower in comparison to the actual cactus. The little cactus is about 2 inches tall and about 4 around in diameter. The stem was about 5 or 6 inches long and the flower about 5-6 inches across.

Like I said, plant freak show! I'll take some of the Ocotillos when they bloom. Really cool plant!

Peace. Out.
Agave/TTC