#14: Practical Matters for Physically Challenged Gardeners

Praising my Lord and my God. Enjoying a Passover seder on Fri night and then celebrating the resurrection on Sun.

Hi, Sheri!

Hi Sheri! Happy Easter! Today is both April Fools Day and Palm Sunday. I imagine that happens every so often.

We're starting to pack -- this is real. Feb. 27 he had the interview and I wrote that he thought it didn't go well.

Applause, applause!!

Mama Kay is making her Easter wreaths. She starts out with thorny potato briar vines for the symbolism and weaves in the long branches of Spirea. Then, adds azalea and whatever else looks good in the garden for color.
This is the first year I can recall when she had roses to work with. I don’t remember the orange blossoms, honeysuckles and roses ever reaching full bloom at the same time. I hope this is the start of something new and not just a fluke of the weather. The garden smells incredible!
Photo #1: A tangle of honeysuckle. Japanese and woodbine. They are actually choking out some seacane. I’m cheering for the honeysuckle team. It is my favorite noxious weed. .
Photo #2: Mystery rose. (a.k.a. the graveyard rose) All we know about it is that it was the rootstock rose for a Mr. Lincoln. It is what came up after a Mr. Lincoln was cut to the ground. It has a warm, heavy,spicy fragrance over the sharper rose scent. .
Photo #3: ‘Zepharine Drouhin’ from Debra. First year it has bloomed. Love the shade of pink. It has a sharper, cleaner scent than the mystery roses . It smells just like rose essential oil.
Photo #4: Owari orange blossom. The Owari Satsuma blooming this year was a surprise since we moved it only a few weeks ago. It apparently likes its new home in the front yard. “Flying Dragon’ Japanese hardy orange are blooming also.
~N~

Welcome back, Sheri. We missed you.
Carrie, I don’t envy you the packing part of the move, but I think you will enjoy the change beyond that.
Debra, LOVE the new rose. We had a deluge just as it was opening. I was afraid the rain had battered it too much, but it didn’t seem to mind.
What are YOU doing for Easter, Cando? Nadi says to remind you about fire roasted peeps. :-) She took us on a foodie adventure. Our over-abundance of canna indica purpurea was on the dinner menu. We all survived it. They tasted a little like mild turnips. She was shooting for a wild southern version of a Boston boiled dinner. My favorite part of a BBD is the parsnips though. It needed a wild southern equivalent of those. .
What is Easter like there, Kb? Are there chocolate rabbits and Easter egg hunts?
Jim is scheduled for surgery on Thursday. It is a simple procedure, but I doubt he will feel like doing very much on Easter. It isn’t the back surgery. The doctors found a mass in his chest that has to be removed before anything else. It is almost certainly benign, but I will breathe a little easier when we know for sure.
He should be home by Thursday evening if all goes well and seems to be feeling optimistic. He made sure our outdoor folding chairs were ready for sunrise services Easter morning. I think the Easter sunrise service is his favorite church service of the year. Probably because, weather permitting, it is held outside by the river and all the local churches come together. Ministers from the different denominations take turns officiating. Sermons are simple and brief. Mostly we just sing, visit and take in the sun rise. Even when I’m up at daybreak, I am usually too busy to stop and watch the day dawn. Easter morning is the one day I do take the time to appreciate it. k*

Oh, dear, many hugs and healing thoughts for Jim! I hate those "masses that are almost certainly benign"!!! I've had those, ugh. It's a good thing Kay is not the panicky type. I had one of those several years ago and I think DH almost died of anxiety waiting for the biopsy. It was an adenoma, fatty tissue, but they sure know how to scare you! I hope everything goes smoothly for you, Jim, on Thursday, and that the people loving you and waiting for results and news are calm, steady, patient and faithful. Oh dear, I sound like a marriage counselor or a guide dog trainer! lol.

I am praying for a swift, uncomplicated recovery. I have also put you on my churches prayer list. our website is " AboutTheBridge.com" with Pastor David McGee.. Services are live-streamed on Sundays at both 9 & 11:15 AM EST (New Testament) and Thursday evenings(Hebrew scriptures at 7pm EST). We have really cool praise & worship with 2 electric & 2 acoustic guitars, full drums with congas, keyboard (he has a double stack, incredible bass) and sometimes Pastor David plays keyboards & electric guitar at the same time!. We are on over 400 radio stations nationwide and many more internationally Also many TV stations across the nation.. All past verse by verse teachings including Ladies weekly bible study are catalogued under the 'media' tab.
I would like to invite all of my friends to join me Sunday for an awesome praise and worship and teaching. I pray that some of you will join me Sunday . ;-) You will be blessed.

Hugs & prayers,
Sheri /Birdie

That's great, Sheri. So DH and I might be driving away from airport XYZ after the flight was delayed and the rental car reservation got all screwed up, fumbling around for a radio station, and might end up listening to Sher's church service? How cool is that!

I will have to check that out, Sheri. I could sort of go to church with you. :-)
I appreciate the thoughts and prayers. The pain from the surgery isn’t really any worse than the pain the mass itself was causing me and it is much easier to deal with because I know it will ease up and go away soon. I think a mastectomy was the right decision.
In the case of men, they skip the preliminaries and go straight to a complete mastectomy. That isn’t as physically hard on men as it is on women. I should recover from it in a week or two. I won’t get the full lab results for a month, but I’m not very worried. Men only account for 1 or 2% of breast cancer cases. The odds are very definitely in my favor. The only reason the doctors are concerned is because I have lost so many close female relatives to breast cancer. I’ve lost a sister and a niece in the last decade and have another niece who is currently fighting the disease tooth and nail. Doctors believe having a high incidence of breast cancer among close female relatives and being over 50 puts me in the higher risk group. The odds are still in my favor though. I’m looking forward to being able to get a hug without flinching.
Do you like the new drug delivery system better than you did the first time around, Carrie?
We had severe thunderstorms yesterday followed by a cold front moving through. But, it doesn’t look like it got cold enough for long enough to do any damage. We did unpack the sweaters and jackets we prematurely packed away for the season. :-) (Jim)

Oh (Jim) please keep your sisters aunts nieces and other female relatives safe. Ugh. I hope everything goes well. I hate those 'waiting for lab results' things. Been there, too. Don't you need some of those chest muscles? (Wondering what a complete mastectomy on a man involves...)

Yes, Jim, this pump is definitely working, and I can now say that the old one never really did. I am on probably 1/3 of the drugs of I was before, with plans to discontinue even more of them. Interesting that when there is no more loud screaming pain all the time I can hear the pain of a headache that will, in fact, respond to ibuprofen. Amazing, a headache, you take ibuprofen, and your headache goes away!

Thoughts,hugs (gentle) and prayers Jim.You will be on my mind this week.
Carrie, So glad you got your meds thing straightened out.
Amazingly the cold spell here did'nt get cold enough to freeze.My wild fireplant and dwarf iris are blooming.
My best garden poison ivy is doing more than well(grrrrrr)
Pansys are doing great.
Must be spring!!!!

I just found a patch of PI myself. (Thankfully, not the hard way.) I thought I would try vinegar –laced boiling water before I resort to a commercial herbicide. The neighbor hit the seacane on our side of the road when he applied herbicide to the kudzu on his side. The smell was wicked, but it seems to have done the job. It will be great if it knocks it out completely. Seacane grows about as fast as kudzu and the slope beside the road is so steep, I don’t think the ladies would have been able to keep it down with the push mower. Seacane can grow to 20-30’. You have to catch it when it first sprouts to be able to mow it. Seacane, cow itch vine, what I call burn hazel and the locals call sting weed plus poison ivy in the shady portion makes that slope our worst problem area.
Carrie, the doctor didn’t have to cut into the muscle much I gather. He said it was sitting atop the muscle. I have some arm exercises I have to do, but that’s it. Since I use a manual w/c when I use one, that was good news. My doctor is on vacation which was why it was going to take so long to get the results back. He cut me some slack though and called me with the results as soon as they arrived at his office, instead of at my next appointment. Benign. Kay’s relieved. She says men are hard to train and it would have been a real nuisance to lose me when she finally has me ALMOST trained.
I’ve been planting seeds in containers. Kay fills them for me and takes the containers to the nursery bench after they are seeded. Had to construct a second bench to have a place for them all. We say every year we are going to clear out all the old seeds in the seed bank. We might actually achieve that this year. Probably keep everyone we know supplied in fresh herbs and veggies, but it is a pleasure to see this once-upon-a-time wasteland being so productive. Found a new favorite among the herbs. Sweet marjoram. Love the smell of it. (Jim)

Hip.hip.hurray, for benign growths! I guess no growths at all is better, but benign is way better than some of the other options... Let me know how the vinegar works out.

So very glad about the tumor Jim. I would hate for Kay to have to train someone else too.LOL
Hot vinegar works good on weeds. LMK how it works on PI
I might try it too.
I went to walmarts and Krogers in Russellville last night.Totally injoyed it. bought another potted fern,Butterfly bush,some outdated Oriental lily bulbs(for $1) My Iris is blooming away.
One would think I'd be on top of Depression right now.....Wrong. It keeps coming in spells.I will stay on top of it.

Depression sucks. All I can tell you is that you are not alone. hugs, katie

I'll second that!

Thanks Guys! I got another fern. and some marigolds and petunias. Think the depression is licked again for awhile.
Will have to stay inside today probably. There are storms on the way. Will have to do houswork!!!! How depressing, LOL. Maybe I'll rearrainge furniture.
My DD from Texas is coming down this week. We're going to see about arrainging for cataract surgery and she also has an infected ingrown toenail. Some kids need a moma even when they are 50. LOL. Gotta take her fishing. Did i say she was depressed too.
My thought for the day-----Any law inacted with more than 50 words contains at least one loophole.

How come DOWN to Texas from Boston but down to Arkansas from TX? Down to Houston, up to El Paso, but down east Maine? Your friend, prepositionally confused. Or maybe geographically confused.

Carrie, You are not geographically challenged----Just us Arkies,specially me.I live on a mountain, My town Clarksville is in the valley(I always go DOWN to the valley)After that down or up is potluck. Except north is always up.Eastern states are back east or up east.West is always south. Why? I don't have a clue. If I have a map in my hand I'm very careful about directions.Or if I'm on a walk or hike I'm careful. Now---Have i confused you completely?LOL

I was totally dazed and confused as a child. We alternately visited two grandmothers, one in Virginia (down South) and one in Maine (Down East). I couldn't make heads or tails of the United States. I used to go UP or DOWN regardless of where I was going.

I guess it is one of those Einsteinian relativity things. lol.
Everyone here is on some sort of anti-depressant. My Cymbalta is supposed to help with the neuropathy in addition to the Depression. I don’t think you can have chronic pain without some Depression. I’m reading up on arthritis. I didn’t even know Degenerative Disk Disease was a form of arthritis until recently. Duh, love the way doctors explain these things to you. You really do need to do your own research and educate yourself. Kay and Nadine are having success incorporating alternative medicine into their regime. I’m going to check out alternative methods. I’m blessed with a doctor who doesn’t automatically disparage such things.
Busy, busy, busy and Nadine has been using the house computer for work. I’m sneaking in while she is taking a break.
It is going to take more than one application of Rodeo to wipe out the wild cane, but the ladies have stayed on top of it so far. The PI looks dead, but I’ll keep an eye out to see if it re-sprouts.
Planted some unfortunately named hairy toad lilies for late summer and fall color in the shade. I’m trying ‘Blue Wonder’, but I will add more toad lilies if they are successful. It looks like we will be facing longer summers and are trying to adjust our plant choices accordingly. I found zinnia,, marigold and salvia seeds on sale. That should keep things colorful this year. Searching out heat tolerant perennials. Looking at all the different things in the mallow/hibiscus family. They do exceptionally well in our area.
Vickie, is your DD going to have the cataract surgery in FL like you were once considering? (Jim)

Planted some creeping. Clear red verbena for ground cover around the daylilies in Jim’s Old Soldiers Garden. Perhaps that will save some weeding and prevent quick evaporation. Keeping moisture in the soil long enough for the plants to draw it up is always a challenge in sandy soil. Groundcovers help with that. (There is a plant family to consider, Carrie. Verbena is a good choice for a Texas garden,) the daylilies are starting to bloom here. ‘Spiced Custard’ was the first to put in an appearance, even before the native orange kind. Found some pink snapdragons on sale. They had done their thing for spring, but I’m hoping they will be like the yellow ones I have. Rest through the summer and bloom again in fall. The yellow ones have even re-seeded themselves…under the open stairs. :-) I was going to transplant them, but Jim says he likes the look of the bright yellow against the black steel.
Harvesting dewberries, strawberries (just a few) and the last of the snow peas. Have started planting the seeds of different gourds, (bushel, snake. Swan, birdhouse and a mixture of little ones.) I just like growing gourds. I don’t mind cleaning and cutting them, but I need to find someone who likes to paint and finish them. Also, planted cantaloupe and watermelons. Staying with the small varieties of melons such as ‘Sugar Baby’. I never have a great deal of success with the larger melons like ‘Carolina Grey’ (blossom end rot) and they are easy to find at roadside stands if I want one for a large get-together. I have volunteer corn this year. Never had corn volunteer before. Planted some squash and beans at the base and watching to see what comes of it. Could be popcorn for all I know. Lol. k*

Sugar babies are gooooood. I've got Verbenas in my containers. A beautiful DL. Not even a bud on mine yet. Have you tried Zinnias and marigold for hot weather plants.
I bought two bromeliads kinda like a flat aloe, but they are pink. I feel like i found a treasure.
For Nitas eyes. We'll wait till we get her checked out from my doctor than decide where to go. It'll have to be the most economical place. Gotta get her infected ingrown toenail taken care of first. Figure I'll have to pump her full of vitamins and minerals before her bloodwork will pass muster too.
Kay, popcorn is good too.

The TV was broken on one of the flights we flew on and I had to watch 6 hours of cooking shows. Now I am lusting after squash and pumpkin custard/bread pudding.

Had to check that out. Pumpkin bread pudding with ginger sounds good. We rarely grow pumpkin. For it to be successful, you have to plant them in March which means you harvest around July. People just don’t eat pumpkin in July! You can hardly give them away. If you time the planting for harvest in fall, foliage disease almost always does them in. 98% of the fresh pumpkin found in the stores at Halloween and Thanksgiving comes from points north. It is part of the great pumpkin-watermelon exchange. We get our Halloween pumpkins from the north and the north gets its 4th of July watermelon from the south. lol.
Planted some old spaghetti squash seeds. They came up. Yay, I like spaghetti squash. (Jim)

Pumpkin-watermelon exchange? You shure couldn't grow a melon here by the 4th, that's true, but I never realized it was an exchange, like....the Columbian Exchange, or the NYSE? Love it.

I guess we exchange rice and peaches for blueberrys and cranberrys. I love pumpkin. Love maple syrup more.
No daylilly blooms yet. Am I rushing the season. It got warm so early it seems like the middle of summer.

Mmmhmm, Vickie. I've had trouble eating after hospital food and hotel food, and med changes have messed with the way stuff tastes. I using more salt and sugar than usually and trying to tempt myself with whatever sounds like "comfort food". Maple syrup and pumpkin pie are BOTH on the top ten comfort food list, in fact, I may make a dish of pumpkin with eggs, milk, spices, etc, and cook it up for myself. With DH in TX and DD and I at home, I really am the only one who likes the stuff I like! DH cant eat dairy, and I LOVE cheese and milk and creamy, cheesy stuff! DD doesn't like things that have crunch or texture and I LOVE nuts seeds raisins whole grain quinoa and things that you need dental floss to get out, ha ha ha. Anyway, so DD is on a looong weekend school trip to Washington DC and DH is in DFW and I am racking my brain to think of what I like! (I give up.)

Carrie, Don't forget garlic,cinnamon,all spice,ginger.
DD thinks she's ready to go home tomorrow. Hope i can persuade her to stay for the cataract doctor.

Vicki, I always have them, but right now my tired palate is saying "don't you need more SUGAR, SALT or maybe more BUTTER?" It doesn't realize that I have been eating low fat low sugar for years without it making a peep! Now all I hear is "Make it sweeter! I can't taste that! More SALT"

Sorry all Kay is sick and I may be a little distracted for a bit she is on sabbatical recovering.

Vicki, those are good spices I also try to use something like Mrs. Dash seasoning sometimes it is the blending of the seasonings that hits my tickler.

Carrie, hope you find something to spice things up for you that you like an unhappy palate is a bother and makes food boring.

Yes, it does, Jim. I hope Kay's "sabbatical" doesn't last a literal year!

Kay, hugs and prayers going out to you. LMK if there is anything i can do.Hugs for Jim and Nadene too.
DD is back to her home. Nothing much accomplished,bUT AM STILL WORKING ON IT.
My flowers are doing good.No DL blooming yet.
Vickie

hi Vickie ...I've been awake for a while. I didn't think anyone else would be up. my yard is exploding with spring. huh....daughters! not sure how I feel about mine today. I think they would probably say the same about me if they dared. Mother's Day is very emotional in my house.

Happy May and Happy Spring!

I’ve been reading Fresh Food from Small Spaces: The Square-Inch Gardener’s Guide to Year-Round Growing, Fermenting and Sprouting by R J Ruppenthal. I was considering adding it to our list of useful books in the Practical Matters intro since most physically challenged people garden on a small scale. The author writes of EarthBoxes, e-buckets and other container techniques. Has anyone read this one? Anyone done any sprouting? I was surprised by the list of seeds that are good for sprouting. I never got beyond alphalfa sprouts. K*

I found a recipe for our summer pumpkin. It uses cinnamon basil instead of the usual pumpkin pie spices. I think that will give it more of a summer flair. It is time to cut back the cinnamon basil. This will be the first time we have used it in cooking. Also, found a cookie recipe that combines cinnamon basil with lime zest. That combination sounds sort of Thai so I will try it as a dessert for a Thai meal.
You should be able to grow basil easily in a DFW area garden, Carrie.. Do you like any of the different basils. I like Genavese for cooking, but purple opal and lettuce leaf are pretty in the garden. ~N~

Yummy yummy I am hoping to have a container patio garden. Maybe I can get a summer crop of tomatoes or basil.

The receipes sounds great. I love pumpkin pie way too much to even consider changing the receipe. LOL
I've grown basil in ETEX and here too.My favorite was regular basil but Lemon basil was good too and of course the infamous chocolate basil--NOT! LOL Also had the purple basil,It had a kind of a sheen that was so pretty.
I found 3 fleas last night in the house. The bug killer people will be out next week. One gets all kinds of bugs when one lives in the woods