Accessible Gardening: Practical Matters for Physically Challenged Gardeners #17, 1 by Amargia

Amargia wrote:
(Mk*) I have a lazy tongue that avoids the double "s" and that often makes me misspell Brussels sprouts. Nadine has corrected me several times saying "Brussels, not Brussels. You know, like the place in Belgium." I assume they came to this country from that part of the world. I wonder what they call them WITHIN Belgium? Of course, I'm an odd duck. I also wonder what they call Canadian bacon in Canada.
We've all been a little sick this week. I think it is just allergies. It is ragweed season here and the fields are covered in fall wild flowers. I did manage to pull a stand of Solidago Canadensis this week before it went to seed. It remains in the open field uphill from us so I imagine I will be pulling it up for as long as I garden this land. Goldenrods can be a pretty pain, but the bees and good, pollinating beetles appreciate them. I just read in Horticulture Magazine about the leather wing beetles, who are big fans of goldenrod and aster, Prey on many common garden pest. I definitely want to keep goldenrods and the native asters. Jim complains about getting burned out on yellow this time of year so I guess the blue, purple and white non-native asters will be staying since our native aster is a yellow. He did identify and journal five of the yellow flowering plants in bloom for me. Secretly, I think he was hoping some of them would be aggressive non-natives so he could replace them with something blue. No luck on anything except the Canada goldenrod. I had some plant ID success also. The red mystery rose is a 'Dr. Huey'. Doc is such an easy, breezy rose and even flowers in shade so it will stay. I didn't expect it to be a named cultivar. I had been looking in all the wrong places.
Nadi's special aquarium tadpoles are finally beginning to get legs. I'm happy about that because I was afraid she would be asking to keep them inside. (The nights are getting cool.) No ID on them yet, but my money is on chorus frogs. I kept telling her not to baby them so much because a tadpole in idealic conditions is in no hurry to become a frog or toad. They have some control over that. That's what I've always been told anyway. Nadi is temperamentally incapable of intentionally making a fellow creature's life hard though. It is a good thing she has decided never to have children. Her kids would be spoiled brats for sure.
Picture 1 Soft golden aster
Picture 2 goodbye Coleus