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9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 219

Davit,

After weeding and deadheading today I came up with a few ideas for the edible garden. I am going to use my 4 fence planters for strawberry plants. I will need to replace the coconut liners in them next spring. I like the idea of a tower planter and think I have a DIY plan saved on my pinterest wall for that. I want to do some herbs as well.

Hugs4u,

I agree that the garden of Eden likely needed a gardener. Gardening is good therapy and relaxing.

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 6252

It was impossible to look after my Dad when he got sick. We tried, me and my wife that is, my brother was little help. After he died I went through a lot of guilt thinking I could have done more. I wasn't even thirty and it was tiring me out.

And I was working still. He died in hospital and wasn't aware by then that we existed. My first experience with therapy and medication and like I said I wasn't even thirty. It had an affect on the rest of my life.

I know I did the best I could and I know you are doing the best you can. What more do you expect. We are not prepared for this. There is no way we could be, short of coming from a large family, from an older large family, where old age and sickness would be more common. I was not prepared. Some things we cannot do alone. We are not meant to.

You can not change the past and if there were mistakes you can't change that. If there were I'm sure they were not intentional. I did what I could and my Dad was better cared for in hospital. I know this. It was a three hour drive one way to visit him so I could only go on weekends. It haunts me to think I will likely end up the same way only there will be no kids to look after me. I try not to think of it.

Weeds make good green manure and remember they can be dealt with or the world would be over run with them. Some times they get ahead of me but eventually I deal with them. Right now any new weeds between the rows can grow, they won't go to seed this late.

I'm down sizing. Apple trees are large and produce more apples than I want so I'm going to take out another one, possibly two. Last year I took out one. I'm going to make shavings with it for my BBQ. Going to make apple wood smoked chicken.

I still miss my Dad and it is a shame he died young but his last years were not good. He is better off. I also miss what he could have taught me. In some ways I am like him and that is scary. I'm trying to have a better life than he had.

Davit

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 4027

As I get into the 7th week of visiting mom in hospital, I've taken some of the last flowers to mom, from the garden which has kind of run wild. I've been using a hedge trimmer to keep down the long grass, and get a kick out using it, since it's a great way to channel my anger. As I brought some of the last roses up the elevator, some lady snapped at me, asking me if I was actually gardening, since apparently her family member was worse off than mine! It's hard enough to do anything for myself, let alone the chores that need to be done, and there are always additional colourful people to deal with. I transplanted hostas, which are 4 feet tall, thinking a porch could be renovated, but that reno is postponed, for focusing on mom. The patience for gardening has helped with the hospital system bureaucracy, and mystery of disease(s). There's so much to do, that I feel that guilt I started to describe above, nagging at me, since it seems I'm avoiding my mom's health. But gardening is like cleaning, and if weeds don't get chopped down, they can make it difficult to uproot them, as well as be noxious. My favourite book on spirituality has been Sabbath, which describes the need to nourish oneself,and find the rhythm between work and rest, like the one in nature, so we can support each other. It's a daily battle for me, since I don't want to look back, and think I didn't support my mom, but there are moments when both I and my brother have been on the verge of collapse in the last 6 weeks. I'm sure that even the garden of Eden needed a gardener...

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 6252

JayDee

Gardening can become very addictive. Some plants grow well beside others and some don't. Strawberries and potatoes can be grown in a tower made of stucco wire, it has 2" squares. The tower for strawberries is filled with a combination of straw or grass clippings sand and peat moss. The strawberry plants are tucked into the outside of the tower on three sides and it is usually put against a south facing fence. The top foot can be used as a compost bin. Potatoes can be grown in an old tire filled with soil. Squash too. If you have a long growing season potatoes do well in a tower. The plants are kept just barely above the fill and the tower is slowly filled with straw as they grow. Potatoes grow off the side of the plants in the straw and are very clean.

If you have space to start a new garden. Put down black plastic on the lawn or garden area and put tires on it. Poke a few holes inside the tires through the plastic and fill the tires with peat moss and soil. The plastic kills the lawn and helps break it down. If you don't have tires a better idea is mini cages made of multiple layers of chicken wire to make round cages. Anything to hold the soil. News paper can be used instead of plastic but it takes a lot of layers to kill the grass and weeds.

The drawback to this is that they need more water than growing in the ground. Peas can be grown in a flower bed if there is a fence they can climb. Peas and beans fix nitrogen on their roots and improve the soil. But they are hard to weed around.

Some plants take up a lot of space so if you don't have it then the farmers market is the answer.

One final word on weeds. Plastic barriers don't work because roots hit them and go down and under. Better is a trench around the garden or flower bed. Grass roots will not cross the open. Sun light kills them. They also grow in a limited depth so won't grow under the trench. It is easy to cut any that do one a month with an edging tool if the trench isn't deep enough. This doesn't work for thistle whose roots can be more than a foot down. Pull thistle in the middle of the day when all the nutrient is in the plant, not the root.

Davit.

PS if you are going to have a serious garden of small to medium size an electric tiller is a good investment.

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 219

Davit,

Very impressive bounty you are rewarded with. So much simpler than having to run to a farmers market to get fresh grown vegetables or fruit.

Today I have to weed the flower beds, then deadhead the spent flowers. I have to do it before it rains. While I'm out there, I am pre-planning for an edible garden next year so am deciding which flowers can be moved where to free up space. I know I want to plant some strawberries next spring. Then I need to start the next session here. I'm a few days behind now, but have more of my equilibrium back.

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 6252

JayDee

I still plant enough potatoes to make it till spring. I used to make fries also and freeze them for that time when I'm waiting for new potatoes. I plant enough onions to make it till spring too and when they start to grow I cut them up and freeze them. I freeze pesto. I freeze carrots and apples. They don't keep in my root cellar. I dry herbs. I make gallons and gallons of apple juice. I freeze raspberries and pumpkin for pies. Winter squash makes it till Christmas or a bit later. Peas get froze. Beans get froze. Spinach gets froze for lasagne. I have three freezers and Karin brought one too. I make elder berry jelly and crab apple jelly. I freeze rhubarb. Tomatoes usually get used so I don't freeze much. Cucumbers go for pickles. Cabbage goes for sauerkraut. Cauliflower and Broccoli get frozen. (microwave blanched) Asparagus gets eaten as does summer squashes. Beets get pickled. Some stuff gets made into wine. I trade wine for labour. My gardens are big enough to turn a tractor in. My sour cherry tree got core rot and died. I planted another one. This year we added Blue Berries, Black Berries and Strawberries. I plant a few hundred flowers besides the perennials and bulbs. Tiger lilies, Iris and tulips. There are roses and lilacs and numerous flowering perennials I can't remember the names of. I pump out of a pond to water the gardens because the well wouldn't have enough water. Four rain bird sprinklers and I hand water (with a hose) five flower beds and two green houses. There are flowers planted in my grain roller and manure spreader.

This year I added 60 gladiolas to the thirty petunias and thirty marigolds in the manure spreader.

I grow cantaloupe in one of the greenhouse and grapes in the other.

Other than mowing the lawns my life is spent gardening. I start plants indoors in march, weed all summer and harvest all fall. I have my saw mill set up and am trying to find time to make lumber for my shop for this winter. My other hobby. Some days are slow but steady from eight till eight but I enjoy it. and I do find time to smell the roses and sit on the deck with a coffee. It is late and everything is watered so I have time for the computer. Today because it was raining I made bread and more pickles. Between storms I managed to pick and freeze more than one and a half ice cream buckets of raspberries. I will be making green tomato mince meat for Christmas.

So I guess I grow the majority of what I need. I used to have animals too but I'm too old for that now.

Gardening is very relaxing if you like that sort of thing. The other thing is that there is no comparison to the quality of home grown if the soil is good.

Davit.

My raspberry pie is made like lemon pie with fresh or frozen loose berries and a glaze (a cup of mashed berries strained and water sugar and corn starch cooked and poured over the berries in the shell) with whipped cream and more berries on top, in a pre cooked shell. Very good and never fails.

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 219

Davit,

I noticed the days are getting shorter, I was finally able to water my flowers this evening and it was getting dusk as I watered. I came inside just to look at the clock. Some of my flowers needed the water badly. My impatients were drying up fast and look droopy now. A good rain would have been nice while I was unable to water the past few days.

Raspberry Icecream sounds good. I think next year I will plant an edible garden. Do you plant enough to stock over for the winter? Canning and/or freezing? I made bing cherry jam decades ago from two trees we had in our yard. (Different place than now.) I had enough jam for 2 years. I froze half and canned half. It seems the frozen lasted longer and retained its taste better.

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 6252

I got rained out before I got all the raspberries picked. I did get the better part of an ice cream bucket which I spread on wax paper lined cookie sheets to freeze. I prefer them froze loose and then put in bags unless I am going to make wine out of them. Then it doesn't matter. First apples could be ready in a week or so. They just go for juice. They don't keep.

I put the juice in two litre milk jugs and freeze it.

We have peaches coming to can when Karin gets back. I will have to thin the beets and make soup. I only thinned half the rows. Carrots need thinning too.

She should be landing in Oregon soon.

I'm going to go dig up some new potatoes for supper and then it should be time to put the bread in the oven.

Tomorrow is supposed to be cool so I may make a casserole. After that it gets hot again. Keeping busy keeps the demons away for me.

Looking forward to pumpkin pie this fall. Living with the seasons is different than just going to the store.

Promised not to run my saw mill while I'm alone, but that may be a promise hard to keep. I'd like to be done before it is time to harvest. So much to do before winter. Was thinking about making Rhubarb wine too. It is very good. But unless I can find someone with green rhubarb I'll have to peel mine.

Doing what I can to get by. And I am still going fishing when it cools down.

Has anyone noticed the days are getting shorter now.

Davit.

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 6252

Karin has left to go stay in the next town where she will catch a plane tomorrow morning for Oregon to go to a wedding. I was invited but am glad I'm not going. Besides I don't have a passport. I used to enjoy flying and even flew air ambulance a few times. It is not something I want to do or have to do. So I don't know how well I would do. Any way it isn't going to happen. Stress has my blood pressure up. It has done that a few times now. The next five days should be interesting since I will be alone. Never bothered me before. We just share a house, but a person gets used to another person being there. My garden is doing well and I'm starting to harvest bits of it.

Lots of clouds but no rain.

Davit

9 years ago 0 +0 / -0 6252

I know if you buy Lemon Balm tea it comes with Lemon Grass added because Lemon Balm loses its lemon smell and taste when it is dried. So it is on my list for next spring or even this fall. I have lots of room. My Tiger Lilies are done so I could move them to the new flower bed any time. Or I can wait till spring. Nine spikes on my Gladiolas, there are sixty plants. I have Lemon Balm growing in four places and in one I let it go to flower just to see what colour they are. Looks like they will be white or a very pale blue. Very tiny flowers. I dry Lemon Balm for tea which unlike Chamomile works as an anti anxiety rather than a sedative. For this reason I reserve it for when I get restless and agitated. It is real easy to grow.

I don't know if mosquitoes could survive here, it is very smokey tonight. The sun is going down red.

It might rain tomorrow. If it does it will be the first rain in a couple of weeks. It has been too hot and dry. I've been running sprinklers but it is nothing like a good rain. I have one Eight ball Zucchini almost big enough to stuff. (grapefruit size) and some regular ones that will go for dill zucchini soup. Onion, dill, zucchini, a pinch of Turmeric and some black pepper and sliced potato coins that are just cooked enough to be still a bit crisp. I have new potatoes now.

I don't like anyone weeding or thinning in my garden. It is my space.

Lavender sachet's are supposed to have a calming effect so I'm growing it too. It is slow but this is only its second summer. I grow herbs too because they are expensive and you never know how fresh they are. I'm growing Valerian also but this is it's first summer. It is in the green house but I think I'll put a few plants in the flower beds. It might grow better outside. It is almost time to collect Marigold seed. I have over 200 plants all through the garden and flower beds. Good pest control.

Davit

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