Gardening as therapy.

Alva,

You live in the perfect climate for gardening! Everything blooms there. I love the gardens in your area.

I love visiting botanical gardens. One of my favorites is the one in Golden Gate Park. It is lovely.

I enjoy going to our botanical garden in City Park in the spring. Our sculpture garden is pretty too. As soon as summer comes around, it’s way too hot and humid here in New Orleans.

You’re lucky not to have the intense heat and humidity that we have.

I have always loved the bogenvillia in your area!

Went through my old commonplace books for the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings book quote. She had bought a Florida old plantation on the bayous. Either oranges or coffee I cannot remember, but this comes from her book 1942 Cross Creek Stories and I love how it tells of our connection to the soil:

"We were bred of earth before we were born to our mothers. Once born, we can live without mother or father, or any other kin, or any friend, or any human love. We cannot live without the earth or apart form it, and something is shrivelled in a man's heart when he turns away from it and concerns himself only with the affairs of men".

I do think our hands must touch the dirt of the earth. I do feel that connection all the time.

Alva, your garden sounds lovely, a true place of peace. Hubby and I returned yesterday from a trip to visit our nurse daughter. After unpacking I was outside, pruning and weeding before the sun set. It just feels good to be outdoors in nature. After work today, I’m on the hunt for more of my favorite annuals

Alva this was the most beautiful thing to read about your lovely garden and all it's secrets. You truly are a treasure.

I'd love to visit your garden Alva, it sounds like a slice of paradise.

I honestly cannot imagine where I would be without my garden.

When my partner and I went looking for a home in S.F. we made a list of "must haves".
For me a garden. For him a garage.
And I wanted most of all a neglected secret garden, abandoned for years and wanting. And full of neglected, once-loved plants.

He got his garage.
I got my garden. Full of secrets --overtaken by beautiful raspberries and nasturtiums. FULL of secrets right down to a medicine bottle (building was built in 1870). I have it still in a mobile I have made, a wind chime sort of thing. So I can PROVE it.

Over the last 2-plus decades I have brought this garden to glory every year, full of jungles of blooms from foxglove to just about anything you can imagine.

Now 81 I am on the downside of this. I will soon leave this secret garden to another. May she search also for "the secrets". Or may HE.
I am no longer planting.
I am keeping it trimmed out daily, walking through a jungle of cineraria, California poppy, fushia, salvia and Mexican sage. Plants I cannot identify nor pronounce.

There's a new fig tree that has grown to a big tree, and two brugmansias, one avocado from a seed I planted and I am extraordinarily proud.
A tiny lemon (meyer) now a lemon tree very pretty with lemon flower sweet. I put the fruits of it on the street when I have given to neighbors. Jake next door returned it as preserved fruit and it is a marvel.

What a joy this garden is to me. The bees, the birds, the robin who comes each year. The birdbath. The hummers I feed when their beloved sage gives up for the year.
Through how many personal illnesses, crises for family has it kept me sane? For I would never have maintained sanity without my hands in the dirt. I have faced down cancer in this garden (my own) and mental and physical illness for all my family.

In the yard in back of me two shelties bicker with every foster dog of outs. And jasmine pouring over the fence. Two ancient Oaks, unusual for our city live there.
To the right a cottage and an ancient apple, a peach that gets peach curl every season. But produces finally peaches that do not taste like cardboard.

I live in a city, but grew up a farm girl, a country girl. And I could not survive without growing things around me. What a marvel this world of growing things, the skunks who live under the cottage to the right, the raccoons who visit over the fence, the rat I battle lest he kill my lemon tree (There's a pepper spray I can highly recommend).

There are things I love. Gardening is somewhere WAY at the top.
And AC figures here, each and every day for this 81 year old.
It is get up around 7 a.m., turn on the coffee pot, let the foster dog out into the yard for her a.m. ablutions, pour in the cream and watch the coffee go all carmel-color. Then look see what the questions are on AC.
Here I have found a community that is somewhat akin to flowers in a garden. EACH is DIVERSE and different from the other. And that is to say they cannot be judged as to beauty.

Welcome to my garden (s)_

Later, after a shower, it is out to check the garden. Not before checking the Blood pressure for the day, of course.

Life, if you stay somehow connected with the earth, can be good. Even in hard times. If you can study the rose, look at the clouds.................................
Just saying.
Gardening has saved my soul, if soul I have to save.
I wish for you only today to LOOK at what is growing outside your doorstep. LOOK at it.

There is somewhere in a book by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (The Yearling) a quote about what happens to us when we lose touch with the earth. I have it somewhere. I can search it out. But the truth is that it isn't good. We must get our hand in the dirt. It is, has been, always will be, for me--salvation. And when I cannot get to that good loam, then please let me re-enter it and nourish what is to come.

Thanks, Golden.

Plumbago is fairly hardy so I’m thinking it will survive but may not bloom this season.

Gosh, sounds like your gardener destroyed your plant and created more problems than help for you.

I just read about Virginia creeper. Wow, fast growing plant! Looks pretty too. I wonder if that grows in our area. I will have to check.

Our old gardener was terrific but he had a stroke and isn’t able to return to work so we have this new guy.

He apologized for chopping down my plumbago and said that he would be more careful in the future.

cw - years ago in my childhood in Ontario the forget-me-nots were crazy wild. I hauled them out by the handful regularly. Echinacea are nice. Being in the frozen north i am not familiar with ginger.

need - Aaargh!!! hope your plumbago grows back soon. Once a zealous garden helper slashed the main stem of a Virginia creeper I had growing all over the side of the house and over the roof of the front porch. It slowly died and I had a heck of a job pulling it down, and cutting it up for disposal.

We hired someone to trim all of our Asian jasmine ground cover and they also cut down my plumbago!

It’s growing back but it may not bloom this season.

I've been out this morning moving plants and dealing with two bullies of my garden, european wild ginger and purple coneflower. I do love them both but why can't they stay where they belong!!

We have seen hummingbirds here starting last week - I was able to get a lot of stuff in the ground and in pots in early March. Nearly everything that needs care had died while I was caregiving up in north Texas. My husband did keep my potted plumerias and some coleus pots alive, but that was it, it was a summer of high temps and little rain. I have watered and watered some of the spots where stuff has lived for decades - some are making a reluctant appearance after nearly two months of watering.

I ran into some hardcore gardeners at the local Ace Hardware and found out that everyone lost their Mona Lavender giant pots last summer, except one gardener who buried her pots in the ground. The conclusion was that the pots themselves were keeping the roots too warm.

It makes me so happy to see all the birds visiting my naturalized garden, this morning there is a big flock of sparrows - a mix of chipping, white crowned and white-throated - and now there is a pretty goldfinch that's already showing his bright yellow summer feathers.

Anxiety,

I agree that marigolds are super easy to grow. Lantana is too. It practically takes care of itself!

I love all of the colors. They are so pretty.

Anxiety,

I usually see hummingbirds in my backyard. I love them. I am amazed at how fast their tiny wings can flutter in mid air!

Zinnias are so vivid and bright. What color tulips and zinnias do you have?

When my daughter was driving back home from Denver she said that she saw fields of gorgeous sunflowers in Kansas.

Anxiety,

Tulips 🌷 are so pretty! I love watching birds and butterflies in my yard. The squirrels are fun to watch also.

My peppers are growing. I’m hoping they will produce lots of bell peppers 🫑! I want to plant green onions soon too.

cw,

My brother is going to plant lettuce too. He’s doing great with his hydroponic garden.

He has a beautiful aquarium with fish in it. He bought another tank to do his gardening.

I am jealous of his success! My green peppers are growing but at a much slower rate.

Hydroponic systems are fascinating but they mostly seem to be much too complicated/scientific for me, but I do have ambitions to try to grow some lettuce with a DIY Kratky system someday.

I’m growing peppers in a pot in my backyard. Well, my brother decided to grow peppers in an aquarium in his house. He already has peppers on his plants!

I know nothing about growing vegetables in water. Supposedly, they grow three times faster in water. He also has herbs planted in his aquarium. No fish in this aquarium, just plants!

I just bought a new Christmas cactus. My only other one is from a cutting I took from one my son had, mine lived and his is now dead. My mother always had them, I so remember her putting hers in a closet every fall when she wanted them to bloom. The darkness always brought on so many blooms.

It was surprising to me when a tiny Christmas cactus survived for a year, then flourished on my front porch.
My dH waters it-he is frugal.

I see it every day out there.
It is encouraging, and I remember the neighbor who gave the blue floral planter to me when they moved.

I need to buy some soil too, cw.

I just bought new clay pots at the garden center for my porch and patio. Now I need to purchase the soil and plants!

I just pulled my summer bulbs (cannas, dahlias and glads) out of storage and the poor things are in an advanced state of growth. I'm going to put them out in my garden shed to try and hold them back until I can pot them up, garden centres aren't even open yet and I'll need new soil to do that.

My dormant orchid has started blooming again. Yay!

Bounce,

I buy a lot of Bob’s Red Mill products. Love their oatmeal, polenta and cream of wheat.

Bounce,

Sounds delicious, plus it was a fun activity for your family to share together. I guess seeds have protein like nuts do. I love poppy seeds in muffins. I get those at the coffee shop sometimes.

My neighbor buys bird seed for the birds. He builds beautiful bird houses. He has a beautiful garden.

My grandma made homemade ice cream that was the best! Sometimes she made peach or strawberry ice cream too. She mostly made vanilla.

We loved doing that. Grandma had a fig tree in her backyard. She made preserves for us. The neighbor had a pecan tree and they swapped the figs for pecans. Grandpa made pralines with the pecans.

Fond childhood memories.

Pepitas are shelled, just like sunflower seeds are shelled. I think eating the shells is like chewing on flavoured particle board, but you for sure do get lots of fiber 🤣

CW,

I buy the seeds but I think it would be a special treat as a kid if mom is doing it!

Bounce,

Buy some pumpkin seeds to enjoy even though they won’t be the same vibe as eating them the same way that your mom did them.

My mom, grandmother and aunt picked crabs to make stuffed crabs. They were amazing! Our moms had a lot of patience, didn’t they?

Pumpkin patches are fun to see this time of year. I still watch the Charlie Brown Halloween special on television every year like I did as a kid. The Christmas one too.

IMO peeling pumpkin seeds is tedious and totally not worth it, especially when you can go to the store and buy ready to eat pepitas.

Bounce,

I love pumpkin seeds. So, do you buy a fresh pumpkin and remove the seeds to roast them? I just buy a bag of roasted pumpkin seeds. They are delicious.

I have been buying large bags of almonds and making my own almond butter. Super easy to do. I put a spoon of almond butter in my oatmeal with a spoon of maple syrup and a splash of almond milk.

It’s my favorite way to eat oatmeal.

I tried to cut a jack o lantern once and made a huge mess! LOL 😆

Occasionally, I buy pumpkins for decorating. I have never bought one to cook. I wouldn’t have any idea what to do with it. I would need to do some research.

I buy canned pumpkin to make pumpkin bread. I have never made a pumpkin pie. There is an ice cream place near me that does seasonal ice creams. Oh my gosh, the pumpkin one tastes like frozen pumpkin pie. It’s delicious.

I never drink pumpkin spice lattes. I hate flavored coffees. In my opinion they are for people who don’t like the taste of coffee.

Once in awhile I buy pumpkin or sunflower seeds to sprinkle on top of salads.