Compassion for Physically Challanged Gardeners #15

Here we are! Come join us. You are most welcome.
We came from here
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1150352/
Vickie

Thank you, Vickie. :-)

Hello everybody, I was frantically answering questions related to "If it's really getting warmer than why is it so cold?" and finishing an article about burning bush for this week and arranging an AWFUL top 40 piece for the a capella boys group at DD's school. Depending if you like current pop music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkuoRGig4Cs

Listened to the song and think it has a lovely melody. the words are your typical teenage, 'I'd do anything for you baby!'
Believe me it could be much worse. they play well and the singer has a nice voice.....what's the problem, they're kids, doing what teens or tweens do. I personally would encourage them for their stepping up to the plate and trying rather than critisize their song choice. JMHO

Just heard from my rheumatoligist yesterday pertaining to my MRI of this past Thursday and the news was not good. I will have to have my rotator cupl replaced but not until they can drain all the liquid and stop the inflammation. I told my doctor that the tylenoel /codeine only works for an hour and then the screaming pain starts all over again. Thank goodness he called in a prescription for vicadin . 1 every 12 hrs and no driving which will be difficult for me to do as I have a podiatrist appointment today at 3pm for a new insert to stop the pain in my left toe although I feel very little pain at this time. I took a vicadin at 9am today so I should be able to keep my much needed appointment for the insert that I HAVE BEEN WAITING TWO MONTHS to recieve.
I'm hoping after my surgery I will get some assistance from my medical coverage to help me at home? Please tell me if any of you have gone through this surgery and what I can expect including pain, therapy and recovery time and don't hold anything back as I am depending upon you and I really want to know what to expect? Love you all my friends.
Ted

P.S. Sure hope to get my watermelons started first.......

Hi Ted,

I know nothing about the surgery but you are in my thoughts and prayers. Wish I lived closer to you, instead of across the country and then down 600 miles; I'd pop over to give you a hand. You are definitely having a hard time of it and I hope things get better for you soon,

hugs, katie

Sheri, I'm not criticizing their choice; that's why I'm arranging it for them, so they can do something THEY choose instead of a Beatles medley or some other song they never heard of before. I'm only the arranger; i don't really get an opinion! I just want these kids to have a choice. Their music director likes the Golden Oldies which they've never heard before and don't understand.

The negotiations were very delicate ... how to approach her without saying "your boys group doesn't care for your taste and wants a piece THEY like for a change." She ended up saying "what a great use of your talents" so everything's ok. It couldn't have any references (even inferred, like "wait until tonight") to sex, or drinking, or drugs, or smoking, but guns and suicidal behavior (as long as we understand he only means it rhetorically) are fine. It's a family audience.

Debra, I know exactly what you mean about the music in the MRI machine!!! I thought I was the only one who heard that. Sometimes I hear whole MRI symphonies, but they evaporate when the thing is over.

Everybody else, take care of yourselves. That's as much as I can remember at one time. Some brain!

Ted, I have'nt had the surgery. But i had an infection in my shoulder joint that was similar. They gave me shots in it and the releif was instant. I had to do exersizes for awhile afterwards which was uncomfortable but not painful. I hope your surgery goes as well. I'll be thanking of you. Let us know how things go.
Vickie

A posey to, hopefully, make you smile.

Hey, you can see the ground out there.

Carrie, I loved the vocals. I probably would have liked the song itself just a few months ago when I listened to music that was more intense. I don’t know if I’ve simply got bored with the sort of music I was listening to and just hit on the new, lighter sound I’m into now. Or, if the Lexapro has lightened my mood and I want music that reflects that. Whatever the reason, my music taste has changed recently. Some of the stuff I loved a short time ago seems too drama queen to me now. I’ve recently dumped most of the songs on my MP3 player and replaced them with different music. Maybe, it is like food and your taste simply change over time. It wasn’t that long ago that I didn’t like cabbage or cottage cheese and you would have had to threaten me with serious bodily harm to get me to eat liver and onions. I actually get cravings for those foods now.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/55631/
The plants in this link are what I think of these days when I think euonymus. (At least, I’m FAIRLY sure that is what we have. Although. Ours is a 6’ shrub. The green/white version shoots straight up like a pencil. I don’t know why “creeper” would be part of its name.) It sounds like it was a good thing PJ’s experiment with Burning Bush to get red autumn color failed. MK put this type of evergreen shrub labeled “Euonymus” in place of the ‘Burning Bush’ euonymus. Papa Jim gets green/white and green/gold variegation year around now, instead of a little red in autumn. Sounds like an even better deal after reading your article. I think even MK would give up if we had to deal with yet another invasive. The Japanese honeysuckle and seacane are bad enough.
Do me a favor, Carrie, and think about writing an article on speaking/writing proper botanical. Questions keep popping into my head, such as: “Is it still called an “evergreen” if it keeps its burgundy or variegated foliage in winter?” :-) Well, maybe, I am the only person who ever thinks about stuff like that?) ~Nadine~

Nadine, there have been several articles about why we use Latin to talk about plants, COMMUNICATE about plants, w/out getting mixed up. But I don't know if it's still called evergreen if it's variegated - I think "evergreen" might be the opposite of "deciduous."

lol. This hypothetical article would need a title like “Bizarre Gardening Questions Few Would Think to Ask.”
If I were talking to a novice gardener, I would skirt around the use of “evergreen” to describe a plant that keeps its foliage in winter if that foliage were variegated or a color other than green. Just to avoid possibly confusing a newbie gardener. For speed and simplicity, I might use it when talking to an experienced gardener knowing they would understand what I meant.
Ted, I think your about 630 miles from us. The only thing I recall about Pembrooke Pines is a really bad intersection on Flamingo Road where the police always seemed to be clearing an accident. Have you lived there long enough to know the intersection I'm referring to? I've heard they've done something to make it safer now. but it was once an intersection every driver dreaded. Drive carefully!
Vickie, has anyone come to any firm conclusions about the cause of the tremors Arkansas has been experiencing? Last I read on the subject, some were blaming natural gas extraction techniques and others were claiming the quakes were completely natural in origin.
It is raining so I’m taking another day off to recover from my GC’s visit. Jim teases that I’m just feeling old because my GD had her 17th b’day while she was here. With her and Nadine’s help, keeping track of the boys wasn’t too stressful…just exhausting. I’m learning the disadvantages to not looking your age. The boys think I should still be able to run and play with them the same way their big sister or “Aunt Nadi” does. My bones and joints aren’t deceived by the book’s cover. They know how old they are. The boys will be coming back through in a few weeks. I should be fully recovered by then. I’ve decided to let the gray in my hair show for my own protection. :-) Kay*

Until I was in my mid-late 20s, I always thought "evergreen" only meant Christmas-tree types. :-) My sister's six year old GS was with me at the office for three hours this morning. Made the mistake of giving him half a cup of hot chocolate...Oy!

That's what happens to aunties, I guess, Debra!

Kay, I wonder if there are any other cases of 3 people in the same household with 3 different accounts?

Carrie, Can you not see the ground yet? Thats cruel and unusual punishment. At last my yellow and yellow and white daffys are blooming.My pink hyacinths have buds. Some of my daylillys are putting up green shoots. I bought some strawberry plants.
Now if it would warm up some,I'd plant some stuff and dig others up. It gets in the high 50,s but still to cold for these old bones.
I am now persona non grata at Walmarts. I bought a ready made salad to eat in the car.
When i got to the car,I could'nt find it. So i went back in and asked if anyone had turned a salad in. They all but accused me of trying to steal a salad. They showed a tape of me carrying a sack out. So i went back to the car and looked again The second time i found it in the bottom of the sack the strawberry plants were in. My bad!! They still did'nt have to be so snippy over a salad.LOL I was'nt trying to steal it.
My GS was in court
yesterday finally for the last forged check he wrote. Vonne did'nt tell me about it till it was over. Did'nt want me upset. He got a year in prison and a years probabation.
Yes! today i am very depressed but I'll get over it.

Kay, I remember those days well. Just keep remembering you do get to send them home.LOL And pray hard they always stay on the straight and narrow.
Vickie

Katie - I didn't mean to come across as terse I believe that I did. Please forgive me.

Sheri

It's still cold, damp and cloudy. My sanity is being save by crocheting. Also some NCIS I taped. And some 50,s music on PBS.

Carrie, I recall someone here with the user name "threegardeners," The writer of an article if I remember right. I suppose the name does indicate a shared account though. Maybe, Jim and Nadi should enter some pictures of seacane in the Invasive photo contest to try to win some free subscription months. lol. I'm paid up for the year.
Vickie, I find myself helping out my ex-SIL because my supposedly genius daughter went middle-age crazy and ran off to CA. Sometimes, I wish I were less well-informed about the dumb or crazy things my offspring do. My GD will start college next year and it looks like she will be offered scholarships based on her grades. It amazes me she is such a good kid considering the emotional rollercoaster her parents made her life. I guess miracles do happen.
Debra, sippy cups are wonderful things. At least they offer SOME damage control. There are days I wish I had taken the Auntie route, but the Granny gig does have its moments. Kay*

Yes, LeeAnne you are thinking of. (Syntax, anyone?) But in that case LeeAnne was the only subscriber, her DB and DM were also gardeners but she was the only one with a computer or a DG acct.

Definitely enter that photo contest - it's the wrong time of year to go TAKE a picture here.

Yes, Vickie, we can see the ground and we have snowdrops and shoots of other things. I always forget what is what until it sprouts more! But it's really cold today - 25*? - and it's never too late for more snow.

Thanks for the bee goodies, Debra. They are so cute! MK and PJ are teasing me about being bee obsessed, but I really like all the hard working, little ladies of the garden. If you look very carefully at the verbena pic on Practical Matters, you will see a little bumble. :-) I don't know if there are really more bees this year, or if I'm just paying more attention than I have in previous years. ~N~

Okay, after a day at the computer, I think I’ve got it right this time. What I should have said was: MK pulled out the Euonymus alatus ‘Otum’ and replaced it with a Japanese euonymus.. (Euonymus japonicus ‘Aureo-marginatus') that retains its variegated foliage well through the winter. :-) A lot of research can go into one garden writers sentence, can't it? Hats off to garden writers!
All the pics PJ or I have taken of invasive plants show their good side. At the moment, if I didn't know what was coming, , I would sing the praises of the flowering pear. It is summer photos that would heighten people's awareness. The ones that show the fast-growing limbs going at odd angles and the suckers coming up all around it. Amymone,(MK's GD) planted it and she swears she got it from the Arbor Day Society. She said it was from one of those fund raising things where they send you seedling trees for contributions of a certain amount. She maintains since it came from the Arbor Day Society it CAN'T be a "bad" tree. Hm-m-m, maybe I can teach her to use a bow saw this summer. If I did that, I think she would want to learn to use the chainsaw the next summer. :-)
PJ did take a photo of sea cane that shows both the good and the bad. I'll see if he will put it in the running. I'm told sea cane is a major problem in CA. ~Nadine~

The flowering pear issue is confusing! I'm not convinced what we have is even a Bradford. I think the tree Amy planted has reverted to species. I've encountered thorns while pruning.
http://ipetrus.blogspot.com/2007/02/pyrus-calleryana-aka-bradford-pear.html
Yesterday's wind and rain was hard on ours. There are petals all over the ground. I wish someone had taken a pre-storm photo. It gives such an incredible spring display convincing people they need to give their tree up will be difficult. Kay*

All those euonymuses scare me - we had one cut down last summer and DIDN'T pay the extra for stump and root removal -- that was a baaaaaad decision!

Japanese euonymus is on Steve Bender’s list of the 5 most awful plants to have in your southern front yard.
Steve Bender: The Grumpy Gardener http://grumpygardener.southernliving.com/grumpy_gardener/2009/05/five-awful-plants-for-the-front-of-your-house.html
He says the Japanese variegated euonymus has all the subtlety of a Bourbon Street working girl’s wardrobe. :-) That is true, but sometimes you want something over-the-top. Especially when there are visually impaired people around. Visual subtlety tends to be lost on them. I’ve never had any of the disease problems most complain of or any problems with it reverting to green. Kay claims you usually see the disease problems only when they are massed, like as foundation plants. I just have a few as windbreaks for sitting on my little patio. As far as I know, it isn’t an invasive type of euonymus…..just the mark of a low-brow southern gardener. In my defense, it is in the side yard and Kay has an impressive engagement ring. . :-) (Jim)

Agree with Mr. Grump about the Redtip Photinia. First thing I did when I got this house was to dig 'em up. Mine were unattractive and they too often get unwieldy. Agree Cypress is too big for most yards, but I still like them. Understand about the Bradfords being big and fragile. Those are the reasons I don't have one, but I still like them. Otherwise, I'd put one in right away. :-) Privet may have problems, too, but I still like them, especially the variegated. But I really really really LIKE the Golden Euonymus. Have one in the side strip. It was freeze burned a little over the winter, it is still one of my favorite shrubs. So I'm tasteless and trashy. Eh, so what. There are LOTS worse things to be and I don't have to keep up with someone else's hypocritical and pretentious standards. LOL

Anyone fortunate enough to have Kay consent to marry him in the first place would have been accepted even if he DID choose to give her a gen-yew-eye-en old-fashioned pop top as an engagement ring. She might even have considered it endearing...as long as the big honker stone came right afterward. :-D

I have a beautiful blue sapphire engagement ring which I adore and which NEVER EVER gets in the way so I never take it off. It cost $350. At first DH felt bad that it cost so little but I adored it so, that I finally convinced him I DIDN'T want something bigger and louder.

There was a pearl in a setting with a few tiny diamond chips Kay loved. I considered pushing tradition aside and getting her that. If I had it to do over again, I probably would. Pearls are the only “jewel” she truly enjoys. It would have shown I was thinking of her and not just romancing by the numbers.
However, we were facing serious challenges at the time we became engaged that I felt needed the symbolism of the traditional big rock that cost several months pay. We had just gotten back together after not even speaking to each other for months and I knew I would probably be shipping out to Saudi soon. Long distance relationships are tough at the best of times and it wasn’t the best of times. I was leaving her to deal with a serious situation alone. “Roughneck” women may be accustomed to the men in their lives being gone for extended periods. (Working six weeks on an oil rig followed by six weeks off is a normal schedule.) But, being accustomed to it and self-sufficient enough to cope doesn’t mean they like it and that it isn’t a lonely situation. Kay let me know from the beginning, in no uncertain terms, she wanted a husband who would be around. I guess the engagement ring was something of a bribe. I needed a ring that would say, “Take this as a promise of better things to come and promise me to endure the present reality just a little longer. I know you are paying a price to be mine and I’m willing to pay a high price to keep you.” In my inexperience, I was afraid a pearl and a bit of diamond dust couldn't say all that. The showy sparkley I bought her rarely sees the light of day. She usually has it and her wedding band in a "totem bag" she wears around her neck. lol. (Jim)

Yeah, we don't need big rings, we need stuff we like!

I like big gems!! Emerald or Tanzanite please. ^_^

jim, i like the rationale. and she wears the big sparkly gem in a totem. can't get more powerful meaning than that, right? here is one of the definitions of totem: "An animal, plant, or natural object serving among certain tribal or traditional peoples as the emblem of a clan or family and sometimes revered as its founder, ancestor, or guardian." you two did create a family or clan unit, right? :-)

lol. I'm an amethyst kind of girl. Tanzanite? ~N~

Tanzanite is awesome and becoming rare as the only source is now depleted. They are worth more than Emeralds, which of course top Diamonds. I used to really be a rockhound. Have had to sell most of the nice stuff I had colected. My dear Grampa started me on rocks and gemstones at the age of 8. ^_^

I've never been fond of jewelry. I wanted a plain gold band.And lots of love. I've recently seen some plain polished stones i like. But not to wear.
Love the idea of wearing the ring in a totem bag.
I've been sick again. Stayed at my DD,s a few days. Serious depression,back and chest pains.It's amazing all the negative thoughts my mind can churn out.Knowing they are'nt real but helpless to change them.
A few days ago i bought 10 lbs of oranges from these regular orange gatherers from Florida that comes thru here semi regularly. They are fresh picked and oh so sweet. I am eating several oranges a day.

Nadine swears the "Monster" energy drinks help her. She gets a little panicky when she runs low. That stuff has so much citric acid it makes me wince. (She says the Java flavors don't seem to work as well.) Who knows, maybe, Vitamin C helps with some forms of Depression. Its a little more expensive than, say, soft drinks. But, as long as she can keep it down to one or two cans of the sugar-free kind in a day and I can afford it, why not? There is a lot about Depression that is still not understood. The real experts are those who live with it.
Vickie, have you tried keeping a journal to help you figure out what helps and what hinders your Depression. Or, is it like mine and related to pain levels. I've been a grouch lately. Lots of pain and the household appliances all seem to be breaking down at once. The microwave just died! Kay quietly reminds me that humans did survive before microwaves, dishwashers and clothes dryers. But...but...but what about my microwave popcorn!
The official stand is Tanzanite is for the 24th anniversary. Kay and I have a way to go to get to our Tanzanite anniversary. Who makes up these rules anyway.? lol. The way heat makes tanzanite change color is wild. (Jim)

A high gemstone quality Tanzanite would be reduced to a much lighter color and therefore very significantly reduce its value (ie-$6000.kt reduced down to a meger-$300 or so. This is certainly not "neat"...any more so than destroying any other valuable article by caring for it inappropriately and without knowledge.

Now what isneat is the color change of the stone Alexandrite in sunlight (or natural light) as compared to incandescent.=pink to blue!!

Jim, I say make up your own rules on that one. While not in the same category, I make up my own holidays. Like Butter Crunch Ice Cream Thursdays. Or Sofa Spud Sundays. :-0 Pearls are given for a traditional anniversary at 30 years, and are given at a "modern" anniversary at 12 years. So I betcha you could make any year you want be the Tanzanite. LOL

And speaking of who makes the rules, do "they" say the gemstone anniversary markers are only supposed to be for the wives? If so, what do the husbands get?

I just read how herdsman in Tanzania noted that a surface tanzanite deposit lost its brown undertones after being struck by lightning. I thought almost all jewerly tanzanite was heat treated to get the more marketable blue-purple color. Puce is one of those colors people either adore or loathe. The violet of heat treated tanzanite is universally liked. I wonder if it is less brittle before being exposed to heat. As Kay says, when people tell her she should use more color close to the house, "I use plenty of color. Brown IS a color."
Color is a troublesome issue for us when we are working together on a space. Kay likes warm, earthtones while I like cool colors. Nadine gravitates toward pure primaries with lots of contrast. We ended up with some real gaggers before we learned to visually divide spaces and let one person's color choices rule that area. (Jim).

The husbands get what husbands usually get after being extra nice to their wives!

I like pearls -- only a year and a half to go! But i have more than enough already.