I am going to be hurting tomorrow. Finished the Egg Bed. (and i sure wish IB would fix it so we can upload more than one picture per posting. soooo much easier on cubits and atp.)
#12 Practical Matters for Physically Challenged Gardeners
...and FINALLY. After being in the house seven years. I planted something besides volcanic rock alongside the garage wall in the back yard. Most of the leftover unnamed, lost tag, and "ah heck, what was that one, again?" daylilies have a new home. :-)
...AND. I STILL have all these that need homes, either in my yard or someone else's. Nadine? Jim? Kay? :D
Debra,Now you have a surprise garden.It is totally fun to have something bloom and not have a clue as to what kind it is.
You mentioned having a breakin. We've been having some empty cabins on our road broke into. I'm here most of the time and I've got 3 very noisy dogs and one mean cat.So am not worried.
Yup, Vicki. Lightbulb went off over my head and I said to myself, I said, "Self. Now how about putting all these strangers out by the gayraj. Let them get to know each other and have a big ol' lets-see-what-we-gots party. Dogs wont mind. (or get sick). If it works, then you have lots and lots and lots more room to put the named-ed ones up by the house. Right, Self?" So I did. :D
Vicki, tell me if you got your box. It should have been delivered by now.
Debra,
I recieved my box and am very excited. This was perfect timing for shipment , as the temps have come down to 60's. everything arrived in fabulous shape.
Sheri
Thanks for letting me know, Sheri. Really hoping the Rosemary standard does well for the church. And Elvis's daylily, of course. :-)
I'm sure they will. I have tried a number of times to grow and form a standard like that. It is beautiful. Do you happen to know which specific cultivar the Rosemary is? I am wondering if it is winter hardy to zone. I have some winter (z-7) hardy ones at my house and would love to plant your standard in our prayer garden near the cross. Otherwise it will most likely go in our coffee shoppe/ bookstore near the patio windows.
Blessings,
Sheri
Sheri, I don't. It had been torn off a larger shrub and I stuck it in a pot hoping it would take hold. That was a couple of years ago.
Fall bulbs on their way, Debra and Sheri. I tried for enough of each type for a stand with visual impact, but not so many to be an overwhelming amount of work at one time. Kay laughed and asked if I had ever seen giant purple alliums in bloom. She says one or two of those has high visual impact. Oh well, you can trade what you don’t want. I assume it takes them a few years to hit their impressive size.
We picked up more straw bales than we needed for autumn decoration so I’ve been spending a lot of time researching straw bale gardening the last two days. I know tomatoes, peppers and most summer crops grow great in them. It is an easy maintenance, easy access gardening method we probably should be experimenting with more at Amargia, but I’ve had to really hunt for info about growing winter greens in bales.
I’ve also been looking for ideas on what to do with apple and gooseneck gourds. I like the apple gourd especially. The shape is a perfect imitation of the fruit. Although, I’ve never seen an apple the size of a baby’s head. :-)
You’ve got Labradors well pegged, Vickie, when their protective instincts aren’t triggered. Tate went with me to the nursery. Evidently, she isn’t territorial about my truck. One of the nursery workers pulled the truck around and loaded it with Tate in the passenger seat without a problem. I was almost jealous. Tate was his best buddy by the time he finished loading everything. Good thing he was putting stuff into the truck instead of taking it out. (Jim)
Lol, Jim, you are right!
Debra, we DO have a lot of daylilies already but they are all NOID and it would be a waste to send us more, as we wouldn't appreciate them properly. I don't think it's fair to say I'm not a daylily person! I drove around all day Saturday with a daylily scape on my van's antenna - didn't notice it until I got out to visit dad at his nursing home. I'm blaming DH! That's his sense of humor - twisted.
I told you all that we're going to Europe, right? Oct 8-25, and I'm already focussing less on everything else and more on making lists of what to bring and what-if-I-get-a-pressure-sore supplies and we need SIX pair of glasses, sunglasses for me, reading and distance for DH, non-Rx reading for me, then emergency reading and distance for me if I lose my contacts. Plus of course all the contact lens stuff.
So don't be too surprised if if I disappear for a while. I'll have to find internet cafes and so forth b/c cell phones won't work. Ciao! (Do I sound European?)
Awesome, Carrie! What country are you headed for? Italy? Spain?
It sounds like I need to add "good advance planning" and "well organized" to my list of needed skills for w/c travel. (Jim)
Carrie, That is so exciting!Have fun! Don't behave! Stay out of jail! Tell us all when you get back. LOL
I got my flowers today.I was excited too. They are now planted in their permanent home.Thank you Debra.
Jim, My fairybells are still blooming.They have outdone themselves.
I promise not to behave. I lost 136 euros already!!!! Grrrrrr. You know those sites and you put in the dates you want and it finds you a hotel? Well this one particular site (spainbookers.com) kept reverting to 17.10.2011 - 18.10.2011, no matter how many times I changed it to 15.10 to 16.10! Still, you figure that when you actually book it, it'll keep the dates you put in. So I finally made up my mind that for the last day, before we get on the boat at some early hour, we should have a hotel that's close to where we need to be (which is a more expensive part of Barcelona), even if it meant spending a little more. But the stupid site switched it back to 17-18 (I should have suspected as much). And it's non-refundable. Ah well, so I got another cheap hotel that's ten miles away as penance. Who knows how we'll get from there to the pier. On a Sunday.
Are you hurting from all the work, Debra?
Everyone here, but me, has been grumpy today. Papa Bear is growly because he had to spend four hours in lines at the county courthouse getting the tags renewed for the truck. (He has stopped going to church because sitting for an hour is too painful. You can imagine how he felt about 4 hours in a place he didn’t want to be.) The courthouse is too small for current needs. They have a two hour maximum parking time in the courthouse parking lot and to top it all off, he got a parking ticket. He had someone hold his place in line and moved the truck before the two hours were up, but the police said moving to another parking space in the court’s lot didn’t count. A lot of people got parking tickets. Suspicions are it is a money-making scheme.
The paperwork requirements have become ridiculous. They don’t accept military ID’s anymore. Why on earth would you need a birth certificate to renew a vehicle title! So, if you hear about a revolt in S. Alabama. You know what happened. :-) People here don’t do complacent sheep very well. I know things are tight for many city governments, but they’ve forgotten where they are if they think they can raise extra funds by taking little financial bites out of people. People do notice what’s happening and people here won’t tolerate it for long. If the county seat needs a new building or newer computer equipment to process things faster, they way to get that is by taking the problem to the community and getting community support. That is how things have always gotten done around here. When city officials get into an “us” and “them” mentality, things are bound to go awry. Isn’t ours supposed to be “a government of the people, by the people, for the people?” Okay, got that off my chest. Putting away the soapbox. (I've always wondered where that one came from. What do soapboxes have to do with stating one's political opinions? Somehow I don't think it refers to a box of Tide.)
The cooler temps have caused MK's arthritis to flare and that makes it hard for her to sleep. She’s a grump if she doesn’t get her 8 hours. Even Fenny came to me in the office grumbling. At first I didn’t see what her problem was. Then, she touched her nose to her tail to show me. Fenny likes music and has good rhythm. She will drum her powerful, whip-like tail in time with music she likes. Evidently, she had been drumming her tail on the north kitchen wall which also happens to be MK’s south bedroom wall. Nobody is claiming responsibility, but somebody had put a piece of foam pipe insulation around her tail. You know the pipe shape foam that is slit up one side so you can slip it over a pipe in winter. It must have been meant for 1” pipe because it fit Fenny’s tail perfectly. Fenny was grumbling because her “tail protector” didn’t allow for that base drum sound she likes. :-0 ~N~
I couldn't sleep last night either -- my computer (which we were planning to bring with us as a link to the outside world) stopped working!!!! I'm on DH's which doesn't know me, and I'm on IE not FF which I don't know anymore. Sorry if I speak Greek. Anyway I kept converting euros to dollars and back in my head every time I lay down.
I gots me some bulbs today! Planted 'em and watered 'em in. Thank you. :-)
I too.received some lovely bulbs today I think I'm gonna get some hardware cloth to lightly wrap them for protection from voles and other bulb eaters.
lol. Welcome to daylily radio. All daylilies. All the time.
There are aps on SmartPhones that do currency conversion. I blessed whoever came up with that the last time I was on the road. Apple has just unveiled the Iphone 4S with speech recognition that will answer any question you ask it. People have tried to stump it by asking questions in a way computers haven't been able to comprehend in the past Like, "Will I need my raincoat today?" instead of "Give me the weather forecast for such-n-such a place." It is intuitive enough to figure out what information is actually being requested. It even has a camera. If they can make this one affordable, I might bother to carry a cell phone again.
We hope to make Amargia's new website useful to local people. Reporting on agricultural and horticultural related events in the Wiregrass area. I didn't realize there were so many such events. I'm ashamed to admit I'd never even been to the local farmer's markets up until now.
Nadine, the young Kitchen Queen is on a power trip. She has compiled a list of foods that allegedly support joint health and has made them the basis of Kay's diet. She has designed a diet for me as well. She claims it will provide the vitamins and minerals I need while losing weight. A banana, cake and hot tea for breakfast. Fish for lunch. I can deal with it so far. Any diet that allows me to eat cake for breakfast is my kind of diet. (Jim)
ever listened to bill cosby's routine on chocolate cake? :-)
It's just tough when everyone is eating something different.
Ah, but when the Young Kitchen Queen has made her royal decrees...
Yep, individualized service is the advantage of knuckling one’s brow to Her Highness of the Copper Pots.
The downside is she locks the peanut butter in the royal pantry. (I admit I have a weakness for peanut butter. It’s kept in the house for Kay. Her Grace says it supports the joint health of our Garden Goddess. (You didn't think Kay would let herself be outranked, did you? LOL) It just wasn't fair. Kay got PB as an afternoon snack while I got sugar-free pudding. I would revolt, but then I would have to cook and clean the kitchen myself.
I thought I was getting away with something because I got cake for breakfast. Only to discover tonight it was sugar-free. Sugar-free cake is a crime against humanity! Make sure to eat some patatas bravas for me, Carrie. I already miss potatoes.
Sheri, I can't guarantee there are't some daffy's mixed in with the Lycoris radiata. I dug them up after the foliage disappeared. Bulbs all look a lot alike to me. Burrowing things here don't appear to find spider lilies tasty. I'll have to try some sort of protection for the hyacinths. I think those are mole candy. (Jim)
Jim, what colors are broadcast on Daylily Radio? I think you guys don't care for the light petal/dark eye combo. How did you refer to it--as a black eye or monster eye or something looking back at you? I'd like to send another box next week. If you don't have time to get back on here before I ship, then give away the ones I send you don't really like. One of the many beauties of the things is the good feeling when you get to share. :-)
MK says she is in the same situation as Carrie. Carrie writes in her author’s intro that she is striving to be more humble as she ages. MK has bucked herself down from “Garden Goddess” to “Green Queen.” Of course, she reminds me her Queendom is much larger than mine. :-)
PJ is the reigning Office Oman and Potentate of the Porch. If he doesn’t get his weight under control, however, he is going to look more like Jabba, the Hutt. His doctor tells him to stop trying to eat the pain away. It only makes things worse. But, the temptation to try is still there. I’m just the voice of his better judgment. Like Jiminy Cricket with a big wooden spoon.
Carrie, you should check out Barcelona’s botanical garden, if you have time and it is accessible. I’ve read it is stunning, but the totally awesome thing is that it was developed on the site of the city’s former rubbish heap. Well, I think that’s way cool. The city has many gardens that were the creations of the city’s past rulers, but it is Jardí Botànic de Barcelona that leaves a lasting impression. That is the public garden in Barcelona visitors most often post about anyway.I’m a desk chair tourist. Have fun.That’s the important thing to do.
Debra, I know MK would like ‘Candle in the Wind’, ‘Easy Ned’ or ‘Hyperion’, if any of those are still available. All are yellow and, at least, slightly fragrant. ‘Stars Over Alabama” is a given. (That’s the title of an old song, isn’t it?) PJ is going through your daylily spreadsheet again as I write. I guess he is planning to re-send the spread sheet with some notes. Sorry, this is a busy time of year for us. All the fall bulbs are in now, except for my hyacinths. There are some scraps of screen in the salvage pile leftover from when we walled in the back porch. Maybe, that would work to protect them. As an insurance policy, I could put some in a raised, sniff level bed in the Fragrance Garden. Our local botanical garden will have its plant sale later this month. Things will begin quieting down after that until Feb.
The lantana/butterfly love story continues. ~Nadine~
Nadine, got the spreadsheet. Packing Sunday, shipping Monday. Having muchly fun with it both days. :-)
Since leaf peeping in the deep south can be a little disappointing, I've decided to take up butterfly chasing as an autumn pasttime instead. The lantana still have most of the flutterby's votes as favorite bloom, but my vote is for this mum. (Jim)
Like the color combination.
Sheesh, what is it with men and tools. Jim has fallen hard for a new pole grabber tool he bought. He is wheeling around testing it out on everything. Grabbing pinecones, stones, scraps of paper, coins…my hair! :-( I wonder how old males have to be before they start behaving like real grownups? lol.
Harvested several kinds of radishes from Jim’s deck farm. French Breakfast and what appears to be a white Daikon. He planted from a packet of mixed varieties so we never know what we will get. There are even some rattail types, the ones grown for their edible pods rather than their roots. This is our first experience growing those. k*
Just for the record, I was NOT pulling my beloved wife’s hair with my new reaching tool. I was conducting and experiment. I was considering recommending this better made tool to someone who just started a thread on this forum. I had to put the tool through its paces before I could honestly recommend it. Kay had her hair pulled back with one of those things women call butterfly clips. Seeing if I could open it seemed like a perfect way to test the tools control. It worked well, but I guess I should have told her what I was doing first. You think? I’m convinced she wasn’t as startled as she pretended to be. I think it was a ploy to make me feel guilty so I would go ahead and build some shelves she’s been wanting. I finished the shelves so I should be out of the doghouse now. I wonder if Ralph Nader ever had days like this? (Jim)
Jim, I know Kay is very thankful that you have such a curious inventive mind. I also know you are very thankful she does too. LOL
Yesterday I had one of those “duh” moments. I’ve decided to cut myself some slack and say it is just because I’m a beginning gardener. A wild daisy I planted grew to outlandish proportions and that made me think. (Something I should try more often, I guess.) I am keeping my Bee Corner from eroding by creating a terraced rise every 12'. I make the terrace walls with tires. (That comes as a surprise to all of you, I’m sure. ;-) PJ jokes that we misunderstood him. When he talked about retiring he didn’t mean making all these “whatzits” from old tires for Amargia.) But, since he’s such a nice old Papa Bear, he still cut off one sidewall of each tire I use in my terrace project. They make good planters that way. If you don’t take off one side wall they get too hot in summer and, besides, it gives more growing space and looks better minus the side wall on top. I line the painted tires up touching one another across the face of the slope and fill the tire planters with amended soil. Therein lies my “duh.” I stopped to ask myself why I’ve been putting native plants in well amended soil. The joy of native plants is they grow in native soil. If my daisy is any indication, they don’t benefit from highly fertile soil. It was so big it was gawky. My defensive self reminded me I did it so I could keep up with what was where, but had to admit that was just as easily done by putting the natives behind the tire planters. That still gives me a landmark. I could just as easily log the solidago odora as being BEHIND tire #5 in row #3 as IN tire #5 in row #3. The tires have to be backfilled with native soil anyway.
I was lucky. Yesterday was an overcast day with an occasional soft drizzle making it perfect for transplanting. I was able to correct my blunder in a single day. There is room on the bees slope for more garden variety plants now…backed up by the natives.
PJ spent yesterday setting up a new television he got as an early anniversary gift. (He is recovering from the lifting, bending and stretching and enjoying his new toy today.) I think it was a fantastic gift since I got his old TV for my room.
MK is rearranging the w/c garden AGAIN. Tabletop planters are the hands down favorites of w/c gardeners so she is moving the raised planter we made from the old fridge. Visitors love that planter even though it isn’t the easiest planter to work in. There were objections to getting rid of it. It will be given yet another incarnation as part of a retaining wall by the road. The side with the more elaborate concrete and tactile paint work will be facing the road. With the promise of a new tabletop planter taking its place in the w/c garden, everyone is satisfied with the new arrangement. ~N~
One of my neighbors planted potatoes in old tires. As the potato grew he'd add another tire and dirt on top.worked good.
Congrats on your own TV.
I completely cleaned my craft closet in the computer room. Came across all kinds of goodies I forgot I had. I'll be in seventh heaven making Christmas decorations.
It was very cool and damp today.
yea, vicki! :-)
Thank you, Debra! I haven't open it yet, but the package you sent arrived late this evening. Took the new FedEx driver two passes before she found the road. I've really got to talk to the city about getting a street sign.
Way to go, Vickie. Will you come organize my craft supplies now? :-) They've changed things around on me again. Nadi is taking over the artroom as her space and the baby barn is now a sitting area and craft room. We discovered it isn't advisable to have things like sewing machines and brightly colored paints where curious little boys can get to them. I don't mind working out there as long as I have a heater in the winter and a little window unit air conditioner by the time summer rolls around. I can organize things the way I like with some expectation they will stay that way awhile. Nadine and I decided the paints needed to be in a separate place and she has claimed a coner of my workroom. The mess in the barn is all mine. It is mostly sewing and jewelry making supplies. My mother insisted my brothers and I learn to sew. I asked Kay once if she wanted to darn a sock from a pair she was especially fond of. She took it,. looked at it, said, "You darn sock!" and tossed it in the garbage. lol. I tried something similar once with my Grandma Knaub when I was young. She paddled me for being a "smarty pants" and stood over me while I darned my sock. (Jim)
Oh, WOW, Debra!!! I know now what I will be doing tomorrow. ROFL (Jim)
yep. sent all but about four from the list. :-)
....ad the next day too. :-)
i gave two sacks full away today and STILL have plenty for myself. I looooov-v-v-vee daylilies. :D
Thanks, Debra. We have daylilies in every garden now, even the veggie garden. . The first few raised planters we built were too wide. It is hard to reach the center. An island of low-care daylilies in the middle takes care of that problem. I planted the daylily in a 5-gal. pot and sank it, pot and all, in the middle of the bed. . We can adapt the surrounding soil to the needs of the lettuces (hot peppers, come summer) and not adversely affect the daylily. I chose ones I thought of as harvest colored, like ‘Spiced Custard’ to hang with the veggies. I know if I have a pretty to look at while I’m tending the veggies, I will be more likely to work in the vegetable garden. ~N~