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?
One day, at the beginning of fall, I was backing out of the driveway, stopped to change gears, and one hummingbird got in front of the car, facing me, it elevated straight up into the air, and straight back down to eye level, again facing me. Hovering really.
Was it demanding to be fed? I just don't know, but I think it was trying to send a message. The nearest neighbor has a bottlebrush tree. I don't think they would intentionally poke my eye, just accidentally if it zoomed by too close. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
Zoom you? Poke your eyes out? I don't think even a hawk would do that unless you look like a tasty rodent.
That half 'n half seeds idea was excellent!
That moment, however, has passed me by, and the seeds are still in my dresser drawer.
My squirrel must be hibernating already, and I am out of peanuts, but will buy more.
Maybe he didn't like his new name, Ratatouille. Having real fun around here was set aside for financial and paperwork reasons. However, I did transplant some plants into larger pots so they could live.
We had a bit of California rain last night, only the slightest bit, now the sun is out.
Georgeous time of year! My windows have been opened daily, bringing the light inside more. Really want to start feeding the hummingbirds, but not sure if I should do this.
Will they zoom me, poke my eyes out?
Late tonight in Illinois my faithful flower friends are going to get stung by the nasty 30 something windy air.
Most made the move to their nursing home, the greenhouse and the other brave ones decided to stay
put on their own while one geranium asked for a blanket. She will move tomarrow to the "nursing home".
In the morning I will slowly peek to see who is still alive.
Keeping fingers crossed 💜
GA—without a doubt my mom is where I got the love of flowers and now spending time in the yard is where I feel closest to her memory. She was a true plant lover and knew them all by name.
CWillie—I’m in LA, that’s Lower Alabama! We have freezing temps for 2-3 months a years but not even every night then. So the gardening season is long. But the summers are cruelly hot, so there are trade offs. The pansies will bloom from late October til late May.
And I too love the visitors to the garden. My bird feeder has had a wealth of cardinals lately. So nice to see. Even if I do feel a bit ripped off that the males get the show off feathers and color while the females are destined to look dull! Oh well, all in the grand design!
Once a butterfly landed on my hand, resting there for only a short time, but it was an exciting interaction with such a beautiful and delicate little creature. Another time one of the visiting rabbits became almost tame after I had been feeding it. It hopped up to me, thought for a moment, then laid its head down on my foot and took a nap. That was so exciting - I felt such a natural bond with this sweet little bunny.
I've often thought of gardening as Nature's Symphony. Spring is the prelude, beginning softly, slowly and metamorphosing into Summer, with its diverse array of color and texture, and which is the main portion of the natural symphony. Fall is the dramatic closure with a stunning finale.
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is one which most closely reminds me of Nature's Symphony. His Ode to Joy (actually Schiller's) is a choral masterpiece which equates to Nature's magnificent Fall array and blend of beautiful colors.
Daughter, so glad you mentioned pansies. My neighbor gave me some seeds and I need to get those out today. I’m hoping for pansies in snow.
Belle, your insight is spot on. There is a beauty in all seasons. I, too, want nature to take its course. Although ironically, I just “rescued” a praying mantis from the first freeze. I told him he was going to freeze and he hopped onto my shoulder, came indoors and went straight for the terrarium. So... today’s to do list is property taxes and baby crickets - that’s a first!
I don’t think any of us would be on AC if we weren’t nurturers (despite sometimes wanting to run screaming away.) So here’s to those making life more beautiful.
Cant take credit for the sunkissed and dirtblissed phrase, that was only001!!!
I enjoy your posts as well 💜
Need a garden sign for this for sure!
This fall, my plants remind me of aging people. While some are still blooming beautifully there are those that are showing decline. Some I have moved into the greenhouse for intense care (like nursing home), and some I have moved to a warmer spot closer to the greenhouse for a little bit more extra care (like AL). I get sad watching them slowly die and find myself reminiscing how pretty they were during the season...like flashbacks I get of my parents lives who are now in AL.
I too, can't discard a plant if it even has one bloom on it.
Lately, when I've been dead-heading to save seeds for example, I relay that to how people impact our lives... they are like seeds...there's good ones and bad ones....
Tried to explain to my husband yesterday how my mind wanders while gardening and he says yes I definitely think too much.
I usually cover as many plants that I can with sheets to protect them from the early frosts but this year I'm thinking to just let them go.😢
I get those thoughts of giving up on them...like stopping all meds, you know like, end of life stuff... like I'm putting them on hospice or something...hmm, do I just let the frost "nature" do what it does and the plant do what it does? When I think of this, I picture myself faced with the decision I may have to face some day with my parents.
For myself, I want nature to take it's course.
I don't want my loved ones having conflict in their mind on what to do with me. Leave me be, sun kissed and dirt blissed, even in the frost!
If only my plants could talk and tell me their wishes!
I remember the impatiens she grew; she really had such a knack for gardening, as did her sister who with her husband ran an alpine and bonsai nursery.
Boy oh boy, I wish for the days when you could pile in the car and head south without worrying about passports and supplemental health insurance.
Anywaaaaaay. I'm sorry, but this plant looked like a fossilised dog poo. Chacun à son goût and all that, I know, but that's the fact of it.
However, they would make the perfect gift for the neighbor who's husband died in the spring...just finding out now. She says to me: " I am surprised you didn't know, you know e v e r y t h i n g !" Not meaning it as a compliment I am sure.
Conflicted....gift the seeds, or plant the seeds?
And thanks to everyone who's ever posted, for helping make this thread so pleasurable and relaxing, at least for me.
So, what special decorations are our AgingCare gardeners planning this year? Carving pumpkins has become an art, far from the basic and simple wide grins or menacing scowls of the days when I grew up.
And once again I'm reminded of when we were children and went across the street to a small grocery store to buy those charming little creations out of wax - lips, coke bottles....but that's all I remember of them. I do remember some kind of pumpkin candy, a soft candy that we used to love. Does this jog anyone's memory as well?
I've planned to put up a Halloween wreath I made years ago, with popsicle sticks for a fence on which a little felt black cat has perched, fall colored silk leaves, felty pumpkins and I don't remember the rest. But unfortunately, it's in hiding and I can't find it. Guess I'll have to make another one.
Grapevines should be ready for harvest now; I'll enjoy a nice lovely afternoon cutting, wetting them down, and winding them to make a batch of wreaths for the next year.
Perhaps I'll take out a mug of cider to enjoy while I'm sitting on the porch winding grapevines. Over the years I've seen some very creative applications of vines woven into arches. Someday...someday.. I'll try my hand at that.
On the subject of the harvest, does anyone have a root cellar, and is it attached to your house or your garage? I've thought of adding one to the garage; I think it would be easier than digging out next to a house. But I'll have to protect it from the critters who might want to feast on some of the contents.
Anyone see any special decorations that they'd like to share? I took Dad out about a week ago to see a yard decorated so heavily that I knew the owner wouldn't even be considering mowing the lawn until after Halloween.
In addition to the RIP signs, there "bones" stuck into the ground, a giant inflatable cat holding an equally giant pumpkin, and more of the standard Halloween RIP signs, gravestones, and more. There were literally decorations every 3 - 4 feet throughout the front yard. I've seen a lot of decorations, but this yard was just packed with them.
BTW, has anyone seen that Lowe's has had Christmas decorations for at least a few weeks? And we haven't even passed Halloween or Thanksgiving!
One is cute though; it's a large bear with movable arms. I'd like to know how someone made movable arms on a blow-up, although I haven't gotten close enough to check it out; it's more likely a mechanical bear.
I usually head for the magazines and see what the latest contributions to gardening are. The blow-ups are merely an attraction on the way to the important magazine section.
CWillie, thanks for a kind of whimsical rendering of the changes of Fall. As I read it I could envision baskets of apples, a pantry filled with home canned garden produce, a root cellar filled with apples, as well as spectacularly beautiful landscapes, and as with the poem that Send posted, the quiet period of rest and contemplation as Fall provides a respite before Winter arrives with its frigid challenges, but also the magnificently beautiful snowflakes and excuse to stay inside, huddled up with a quilt, a mug of cider or hot chocolate (or something stronger if that's your choice), and, of course, a good book or magazine to read.
The rooster's hallylooyer. Love it! What's the date of it, please?
When the Frost is on the Punkin
By James Whitcomb Riley
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock,
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin’ turkey-cock,
And the clackin’ of the guineys, and the cluckin’ of the hens,
And the rooster’s hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
O, it’s then’s the times a feller is a-feelin’ at his best,
With the risin’ sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.
They’s something kindo’ harty-like about the atmusfere
When the heat of summer’s over and the coolin’ fall is here—
Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossums on the trees,
And the mumble of the hummin’-birds and buzzin’ of the bees;
But the air’s so appetizin’; and the landscape through the haze
Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days
Is a pictur’ that no painter has the colorin’ to mock—
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.
The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,
And the raspin’ of the tangled leaves, as golden as the morn;
The stubble in the furries—kindo’ lonesome-like, but still
A-preachin’ sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill;
The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;
The hosses in theyr stalls below—the clover over-head!—
O, it sets my hart a-clickin’ like the tickin’ of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock!
Then your apples all is gethered, and the ones a feller keeps
Is poured around the celler-floor in red and yeller heaps;
And your cider-makin’ ’s over, and your wimmern-folks is through
With their mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and saussage, too! ...
I don’t know how to tell it—but ef sich a thing could be
As the Angels wantin’ boardin’, and they’d call around on me—
I’d want to ’commodate ’em—all the whole-indurin’ flock—
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock!
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
-Robert Frost (1857-1963)
Thank you Garden Artist for this special thread!
This discovery reminded me of how much I miss Borders; I could get literally any magazine there. It was such a treasure house of reading materials.