It's become clear to me through posts and PMs that there are some gardeners here just waiting for the chance to discuss gardening!
So, I was thinking... how do you use gardening, or how does it affect you if you need a break, need some respite, need to relax, need inspiration....how do you use it as a therapy tool in caregiving?
What are your activities: Do you go out and pull weeds, read a magazine, design new beds? Look through garden catalogues? Go to garden stores?
And what interests have you added to your gardening? Visit estate or garden displays? Do you go to garden shows?
Does anyone design and plant Knot Gardens? Raised bed planters? Assistive gardens? Pollinator gardens (and have you thought of ways to help the bees and butterflies?)
Are your gardens primarily for pleasure or food, or a mix of both? Do you grow plants for medicinal purposes? Which ones, how do you harvest and process them? Any suggestions?
Do you grow plants that can be used in crafts, such as grapevines for wreaths and lavender for lavender wands? Do you make herbal products such as creams, lotions, chapstick?
What else can you share about gardening and the means in which it nurtures your soul?
I don't want extensive work t
o do in the garden, I will only plant one tomato plant which will be mire than enough for us ( most people I know don't cook anymore).
That's what I thought you meant, but I don't have a safe place near a window to get them started indoors. I would have to clear an area of furniture or whatever is there and I'm afraid the plantings would have an accident and end up spilled on the carpet or tile or furniture. Watering can be tricky to do without getting some on furniture, etc. by accident. This has happened before and I don't want to risk it. We're in zone 10 and are fairly free to plant year 'round for most things, so I'm choosing to bypass the difficult or risky methods and look for small plants. Thank you for your interest and suggestions. I'm still open to hearing others that you have. ;o)
No, I haven't started seeds indoors. It makes sense but I don't have the energy or desire to do it. Indoor plants can end up being messy and I've long been against them. I have artificial trees and plants indoors and live ones outdoors. I do think your idea is a good one for most people to try.
I'm going to do winter sowing in milk jugs for spinach and lettuce.
Colorsue-have you tried starting the seeds indoors in a flat, then transplanting outside? I have to be careful with certain seedlings because of earwigs, but once they reach a certain height, earwigs leave the plant alone.
Plants like music too GA. A radio while I garden is motivating,LOL!! I play music when I clean house too.
I love cosmos! I tried to grow them from seed this year for the 1st time. No luck. I think the soil got too wet and heavy from the numerous heavy rains we had. I'll get small plants next time and cover them with a screen-like covering, no more fiddling with seeds! I wish you great luck with your daisies and cone flowers. I'll bet they're beautiful.
I WISH we had Lunaria because it sounds so interesting. I've only seen it in the silvery dried stage on a visit to MI and I liked it quite a bit. Our dollar weeds are green with a stem leading to a top piece similar to a silver dollar laying horizontally on the stem, but a green color. It travels fast by trailing on the ground, mostly in the grass. Weed 'n' feed doesn't kill it. You can't just pull them up. You have to use harsh chemicals on them, which we don't like to do.
I like your reminder that plants communicate with each other. I remember reading something along that line, also. Not major communication, but a little something. That old saying about people talking to their plants and the plants thriving might actually have some basis in reality...who knows?
I like the Finch's Cottage, such an upgrade for a dandelion. I didn't know finches like dandelions! That could be because we have no finches and I don't let any dandelions bloom before I rip them out. No reproducing allowed for them!!
BTW, did you know that plants do communicate with each other? I read about an experiment done to test whether or not plants had methods of communicating with each other to warn of pest invasions. They do. So those little cartoons of plants waving their flower heads, saying good morning, asking if it will rain...just might be true, if a little exaggerated for humor.
Coloresue, are you referring to Lunaria, the money plant? Love your joke about the dollars in the trash!
I usually cut them and put them in a vase with lilacs as they bloom about the same time. The contrast of the lighter and darker violets colors is quite lovely. Later, as they become thinner and silvery, they'll sometimes glint in the sun, as if providing a beacon for traveling pollinators.
Then, as they mature, their foliage if in the sun will begin to turn read, kind of an advance color brigade before trees begin their own annual wardrobe change.
I'm thinking I could also give some plants more upscale names to make them feel more wanted, even if others consider them weeds.
I think mullein could be a nice high rise hotel; it has several inches of flower buds which the pollinators love. Maybe I should call it something fancy, like a Hilton flower (although that's of boring). Names, anyone? What are great upscale hotels that are tall and slender?
I think the dandelion could be the Finch's Cottage; it's the only flower on which I've seen finches.
We have a lot of dollar weeds, so the day they get weeded we'll have hundreds of dollars in the trash can. ouch....bad joke.
Who else gives names to their weeds?
Please share with us if you name those weeds!! Your suggestion is funny and the names can be funny. Humor is good medicine.
When I decided to make a friend of the feral cat using the side of our driveway as a litter box, named it "Missing", never saw it again.
Named the skink (that I never had seen before, but was nervous about) "Zink", and that night saw it, but have never seen it again.
Think I should try naming the weeds, because in Zink's part of the garden, my husband has not pulled the tall runners of green grass weeds, maybe he is just being respectful of Zink's habitat? When all is said and the garden is done, maybe I should rename my husband, something like Shane? Come back Shane! Or, NOT.
LOL.
Good to hear vinca/periwinkle is so flexible!
Don't be concerned about my hubby's safety, we are only getting some rain and a little breeze. The hurricane is too far away. I pray it doesn't make a crazy course change toward us, but it's not likely.
I finally looked up vincas to understand the discussion on them. They're periwinkles!! Weeds!! No wonder they usually thrive without care. They've always been weeds here, but in the last 5-8 yrs. or so they've been hybridized to get prettier colors. They like our sandy soil so they may have trouble in rich, wet soil or clay. Just FYI.
Last night we had a good strong rain. Clean-up is on Monday, I can only hope.
My understanding is the H. Joaquin is pulling in a weather system from the Mississippi area that's resulting in these sudden hard-hitting downpours that stop abruptly. By late afternoon we've gotten lighter rains that last 15-20 minutes sometimes. Still strange.
I agree the swans are beautiful, lucky you! We don't have too many. I've seen beauties on lakes in MI. My cousin 40 min. from Traverse City but in the country with property has a lot of deer because they planted many apple trees to attract & feed the deer. They live on venison quite a bit. I've seen wild turkey families there, too. MI is beautiful both there, at Torch Lake and near Detroit in Royal Oak (years ago).
Bougainvilleas that I had had long thorns on them. I got pricked by one while pruning and ended up going to my dr. a month later because I could not get rid of the infection, he lanced it for me...turned out to be a staff infection, LOL!!
I have some okra pods on the plants I'm letting mature. Harvesting garlic chives seeds ... I read where they can be sprouted like bean or alfalfa sprouts. Zinnia seeds are drying on the counter. Swiss chard seeds dried. You know what I found are great for seed storage are these tiny canning jars, they're four oz. size. Store in the back of the fridge. I like the book Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth.