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?
Schwarzkopf do a blend, apparently. Personally I don't set too much store by prescriptive combos - the balance depends so much on how well any particular plant is doing in any given year, and how mature the leaves are, and how much sun there's been to concentrate the oils... keep chopping until you're happy with the fragrance, I should.
What recipes are you looking at?
Namaste dudette!
Actually, Garden, I have a photo of myself aged ten grinning broadly as my sunflower towers over me. It was beginner's luck, of course; but ever since I have taken a deliberately amateur interest and had modest success - usually by being a fool rushing in where angels fear to tread. My daphne cuttings rooted in a small narrow-necked pottery vase, for example - it wasn't until I looked up daphne care that I learned that they will only root with hormonal rooting powder, bottom heat and the right gritty compost. Well, my daphne obviously hadn't read the book. I start every year with good resolutions and think 'oh well next time' by around about late May when I realise I've missed most of the sowing windows.
The RHS is very useful for technical details, that's why I was looking it up this morning. "Avoid planting dahlias by wooden fencing" it says - to which I thought, yup, done that; an exchange repeated with almost the entire list of dos and don'ts, as I'd mainly done the don'ts and skipped the dos.
You wrote: "The answer to the riddle will be provided, once the puzzle is discovered." Is this from one of the Stargate episodes, in which Daniel is advised by either one of the women who's "ascended" or the zen master, in the episode in which he's able to view his son?
I also was thinking about ash from the wildfires, although potash is available in other forms.
You must be pretty close to the fires, or directly in the line of wind drift. Better keep your windows closed.
I believe CM is referring to the Royal Horticultural Society. If you need some relief from the CA wildfires, google RHS and check out the photos of some of the shows. They're spectacular!
So you solved it, Cwillie!
478 M jackpot tonight!
Replant Hothouse Squash?
Sorry Send, I guess I am dense today, are you referring to sweeping up the potash? I assumed you were making an oblique statement about ash from one of the CA wildfires?
I knew no one was reading my posts above.
Doesn't anyone want to have some fun?
Join the crowd! What I've described is a ritual that I go through annually.
But your plants will look at you with admiration when you plant them next to their favorite companions.
I now discover that I have planted everything in the wrong place, and that I have pretty much made one bed into an All You Can Eat buffet bar for earwigs. Also that the reason the black-fly vanished overnight from the viburnum was probably that it was next door to said buffet bar, and apparently earwigs enjoy aphids as a savoury.
Well I'm not starting all over again. The plants will just have to look at me reproachfully until I get round to moving things.
I'm thinking that a lot of vining plants cover easily cover some of the space if allowed to just remain on the ground and spread out, acting as a ground cover. That's probably the first and easiest step I'll take. But I do want more flowers surrounding the veggies, to provide continuous color once the veggies finish producing.
We're having a short rain event right now - it's bringing some wonderfully cool relief to the stifling hot heat we've been enduring. I love the fresh and cooling fragrance of rain.
Currently my small garden is thronging with bees because the borage (see picture inset) is in full flower, with the buddleia next to it about to blossom. It has got to the point where I counsel the dog to go and sunbathe away from his preferred spot on the path because I don't want him to snap at one in error and start something he and I might both regret.
But I digress. We have honey bees, bumbles and some leaf cutters in quantity, and then I thought 'oh how interesting!' - a bee with a bright, deep yellow face and broad stripes the length of its body staggered across my field of vision and headed off to the far end of the flower bed. I went for a closer look, and realised that this wasn't some novel species. This individual - presumably a teenager, has to be different - had decided she preferred dahlias to the borage and was busying herself with Bishop of Llandaff - the bright colour was coming straight off the flower stamens. If I mean stamens.
She was smothered in it, like a little child after chocolate dessert. I dread to think how much mockery she was in for when she finally got back to the hive.
I'm going to try to get a fall garden in if August isn't swelteringly hot, but I'm holding my breath.
In the meantime, I'm going to start planning a xeriscaped garden. If these extended stretches of 90+ weather are the future for Michigan (not even considering how bad it must be in the southern areas), I need a whole new plan, probably emphasizing pumpkins, squash and watermelon. Their roots can easily be mulched and the vines can also act as mulch if there are enough plants to cover a bed.
We used to punch holes in large juice cans, sink then in the soil, then pour water in the cans. It was a quick and direct way to water the roots.
But there would have to be a lot of sunken drip hoses to do that for other crops.
I saw one farmer's patch of all watermelons - the foliage was lovely, and so thick that it was just as beautiful as a field of flowers.