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?
Happy New Year!
mina
Two suggestion: break it up into smaller plants and repot them, and, milk water. If you drink milk, save perhaps the last 1/4" or so of the jug, fill with water that's comfortable to the touch, and water the plant with it.
I've used milk water on morning glories and roses - they both love it and bloom prolifically.
Although I've never grown a Christmas cactus, I guess the trick in getting it to bloom would be to simulate the standard blooming conditions, which I assume would be additional light and perhaps heat. Sometimes moving plants into different areas with different levels of light can do the trick.
Years ago I found that I could easily start seedlings by setting them on bookcases near the lamps. At work, they thrived under fluorescent lights.
Sometimes messing with a plant can help it. Move around some dirt, trim a branch ot two, stick a thin piece of metal/wood down into the rootball then remove it. Feed it some vitamins, replant it in a larger pot-it could have become rootbound. Then, talk to it, Lol.
But then I don't own a Christmas cactus. I am so bad at winter gardening that when I took my tiny 8" Christmas tree outside for some sun, I forgot it overnight- the temperatures dropping to 37° F. Bringing it back in, it is still growing, looks happy.
Maybe someone else will have some suggestions.
My sole surviving rosemary out of about fifteen - painstakingly selected, trimmed and inserted as described in the book in good quality free-draining compost enriched with sharp sand - is hanging on by the skin of its little green teeth. The others will be joining the compost later this morning. I fail again.
In the next pot are three of an unidentified climber. Back in August or September, a friend came to visit and she and I went for an amble round the town. I paused to admire a plant rampaging through a privet hedge, very pretty flowers on small arrow-shaped leaves. J glanced right and left to check there were no witnesses, yanked off three sprigs, said "there you go, pot them up" and handed them to me. Well for one thing I couldn't approve - theft of cuttings! - and for another I was deeply sceptical; but in spite of misgivings I put them in a poop-scoop bag, brought them home and shoved them in a pot.
They're doing great. What is the secret? What is the magic twist of the fingers that she's got and I haven't? This is so unfair!
A @&!** wasp flew into my glass of red wine a few weeks ago and ruined it for me - I was livid, thought "let the little sod drown then" and sat back to wait for that to happen before going to fetch myself a replacement. Ten minutes later it was still buzzing, I was bored and thirsty, so I sloshed out wasp and wine together: the angle it flew off at, and the thought of "Wasp With Hangover" scenes back at the nest, made it almost worth the wait if not the waste of a perfectly good glass of Rioja.
As long as you're organised about it, of course. Cough cough. Fortunately we have a good greengrocer at the market round the corner...
Stacey, I LOVE dahlias, especially the massive dinner plate ones. And they're available in such stunning colors, beautiful intense solid colors or more softly blended pastel ones.
That must have been such a nice discovery, to find a dahlia lover in your area.
Ali, I like your Thanksgiving avatar - so reminiscent of the fall season with its dynamic colors.
What we compulsive and addicted gardeners do is begin planning our next year's garden as soon as we've harvested, mulched and brought everything inside for the winter.
When the snow covers the ground, it's especially heartwarming and enjoyable to get garden catalogues and start the daydreaming and bed layout process.
I grew miniature roses and eventually lost every single one, but I later lost some of my beloved David Austin roses. Eventually I realized that it was because the rose bed garden is on the south side of the house with open exposure from prevailing west winds. And, shame on me, I had forgotten to corral them in burlap to protect them from the winds.
You can also set up a schedule to document first frost, first killing frost, and last frost dates, especially now that climate change is affecting them. We now have one whole extra month at the end of the season; I plan to grow melons which sometimes don't completely ripen otherwise in a shorter growing season.
Sharyn, I plan to take cuttings of all my plant when I move. So definitely take those irises!
CM, I was just reading an article on growing microgreens and how nutritious they are. It was either in Country Garden or Fine Gardening. I haven't grown sprouts in years so that's something I should begin doing this winter as well.
In one planter there is narcissus growing again this year-forgot they were even there.
I may not be able to take any plants with me if I immigrate to Canada.
The orchid is doing great, the flowering stem is coming along with little tiny buds that will hopefully grow to beautiful flowers in the coming weeks.
Our weather here is still quite warm with 70's during the day....this blows me away really as I remember growing up how we would be shrouded in fog with high 50's temps after the first rain.
I killed several small rose bushes the past few years that I think I should have put in pots and brought inside for over-winter... and they would've lived.
So... really... I'm on this thread now in preparation of my next gardening faux pas. Instead of screwing up and killing things, I'll be asking for input. ;-)