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 haven't heard anyone call moths millers for years and years, I think when it comes to things going bump in the night they aren't so bad... 🤣
The garden centre didn't have any deep purple lilacs, just white, light purple and a variegated one (didn't know those existed) so I ended up getting the little Japanese maple - third time's a charm?
They sell for 4.00 a bunch around here.
you are more than welcome to come to my yard and pick all you want. I will let you do it for FREE and keep the profits.
I think they are bitter. Not a fan of bitter.
I did try some dandelion wine once. "Once" being the important take away here.
I make a dandelion salve that is great for bruises.
I've also been working on my very neglected deck prepping it to be stained, I've been down on my hands and knees scrubbing away because that seems to be the only method that is working to get up the mildew and crud. Oy.
I have some Oriental Poppies that I would like to move. Has anyone had success moving poppies.
Go avs!
I told him to buy good soil, to start a compost pile and add organic matter, I've told him to bring cardboard home from work and lay it over the grass and weeds and to add soil and mulch on top of that, this year I told him how I started a new bed last year by simply cutting open bags of much and laying them over the grass, I told him to go online to read about lasagna gardening, and I have told him repeatedly to make a plan he/we can work at slowly over the years.....
He has apparently dug all the soil away from his foundation (because it was "sh!t") and rather than spending enough to fill it with better soil has planted in the depression. OK, this is wrong on so many levels... how do I help him understand that for the sake of proper foundation drainage beside his house he needs to fill this hole in??
Digging around the foundation sounds a bit like that. Maybe your nephew needs supervision?
Interested about the Lasagne gardening.
It will have to wait until I recover from our last project/transplanting a big plant.
Dh is recovering too.
This is a decent, but older, explanation:
How to Make a Lasagna Garden (thespruce.com)
It's basically layering mulch type ingredients around plants; the grasses, etc. eventually settle and decade, so it's not only a mulch but also a soil additive.
I totally disagree with the paper shown as being an additive, b/c I recall reading that colored paper such as that shown can have unhealthy chemicals arising from use of the colored ingredients. Lead comes to mind, but it's been awhile and I'd have to research that issue.
Cardboard with designs (such as those for household fixtures or equipment, with advertising and photos on the exterior) is not something I would use. I've used the plain cardboard and/or just cut out markings, such as those on cardboard used for shipping. Grass obviously shouldn't have been sprayed or "enhanced" for growth and lovely green leaves.
The problem I ran into was laying straw or hay (I can't remember which) out as mulch. A code enforcement office, ever diligent in searching out offending residents to chide and cite, did in fact issue a citation for the straw or hay, arguing that 'it attracts rats!".
Over the years I learned that in this "city", grass clippings drying for composting, harvested seaweed drying out also for layering on the garden, and other things which I've forgotten, ALL contribute to attraction of rats. Or so they claim. I held my tongue and didn't ask what attracted the two legged variety to the city employment staff. That probably would have earned me a trip to the local jail.
Dad had a good source of "lasagna" ingredients. We had lake privileges at a very close, walking distance lake, which annually dredged massive piles of seaweed. Being gardeners, we lined up to get the seaweed, and sometimes one of us kids helped heap it into the trailer Dad built, then spread it on his or my garden to dry out and enhance the soil. I did manage to get one load spread on my garden before the lawn police saw the pile.
My daylilies and roses loved it.
Do I understand this correctly?
The cardboard is used for creating mulch?
What I seem to be confused about are some instructions I read somewhere, that says just put the cardboard over existing grass, weeds.
As if you were making a whole new garden, instead of digging up the old existing grass?
If the cardboard decays, won't the garden drop down?
P.S. I presented this idea to my Dh who said: "Does that mean we have to get a subscription to a newspaper?" He is so funny.