Gardening as therapy.

We shall see if my iris garden develops as I want next spring.

I received a package of the iris I ordered first of the year. They came with bare roots and green tops. I am soaking them over night then planting tomorrow. This iris farm suggests using 1tbsp. Epsom salts to to 1 gallon of water after planting. It is to help with photosynthesis. Then use a fertilizer of 6-10-10 in early spring and again a month after blooming. In early September use 0-1010. If you are wondering what these numbers are ....the first represents nitrogen, the second is phospherous, the third is potassium. Sometimes referred to as N-P-P or N-P-K. The K represents potassium on the elemental chart. This is recommend for bulbs/rhyzomes. I will be following their recommendations. Happy gardening.

Corporate narc is concerned about grand opening. I will tell my manager tomorrow to not schedule me during the 2 busiest days of it because I feel she will be scrutinizing every move I make. She never had a problem with me at other stores. Its the whole grand opening. Plus I will tell my manager to see if he can get me transferred back to my previous store. I cant quit now. I need to hang in here until we do actually move. Working in light industrial is out of question for me because of my back. Nursery work is very hard physcially. Thank you for the compliment!!! Hugs!!!

That's right Sharyn, go with what you know-a job, a career, transferable to a nice nursery in Idaho!!! Aren't you quiting anyway when corporate narc comes back?
Always your choice!

Send, GREAT news!!! I worked many years in agricultural research with tomatoes. I am not bragging, I have an AA degree in plant science which is easily applied to ornamental horticulture. I love gardening and plants. I am not successful with all types of plants. I am so happy your roses are responding. You are a natural green thumb.

A neighbor called to talk about the landscaping requirements in the neighborhood.
I could not figure out why she was asking me. Turns out she had helped a neighbor do exactly what she was asking me about for her own yard.
I offered free succulents, but she didn't want them.

Sharyn, Amazing, did as you suggested and within 4 days the rose bush had new leaves. Just a little time and care goes very far with plants in our garden.
You may have missed your calling, as a landscape expert you are very good.
In the spring those leaves were tender green, and the new leaves came out with an edge of purple/brown color, kind of like darker leaf lettuces vs. iceburg lettuce.

As are other posters here, on Gardening as Therapy. It makes a huge difference to get advice from my AC friends instead of trying to look up everything when it is not reported specific to the problem. My rose bush is no longer dying or hibernating, and it likes the sun. But temps of 105° must have challenged its survival.

Thank you!

We used to tent camp when Kelly was little, with her godparents and thier family. All that old camping gear comes in handy in the winter when we lose power!!

Have a tent now, but it has no air conditioning.

Cwillie, Did have to hire a driver twice to get the RV down off the hill, but took only an hour and he was gone. Needed a full-time driver maybe.
So when I was parked in a space for a time, I put down a tiny brick pathway, but no plants.

Since I would have to hire a driver (after I win the lottery) I expect that little chore could be theirs! Although back in the day (I think there may still have been dinosaurs roaming the earth) when friends and I travelled cross country with a tent I did notice some of the campgrounds had excellent washroom, laundry and shower facilities.

Cwillie, This was our tiny house. The downside is that no matter how big or small, you still find yourself dumping the tanks on the road, or hooking up to the sewer while in an RV park.

Thank you Sharyn. We also went on a grasshopper hunt with the hose and broom
as our weapons.

If you have grasshoppers, damage to the leaves will be obvious. Since they hatch in the spring, make sure toy remove all leaf debris from the soil level. Removing topsoil 2-3 inches deep and replacing with new soil. Try planting some type of grass as a border around your roses so the grasshoppers go there to munch. If that does not work, use either organic or chemical pesticides.

Lol!!! Send, I would think in your area of Cali, the roses do not go dormant, mine don't. With heat in 105 degrees, there is stress on plants and leaf loss os normal. A good compost at the base of the roses is ideal to protect moisture. Deep slow watering once or twice a week depending on your soil type. Fertilizing regularly is a must and prune after each bloom session. I prune down to leaves of 3. It sounds like you are doing a great job. So keep it up.

Sharyn, or anyone:
You helped me trim the rose bush earlier this year. Recent blooms were fine, all gone now. In addition, all the leaves are gone except a few brown leaves at the top of each bare branch. There are grasshoppers, heat is 105°.
Don't want to give up yet.
Should I trim it again? Feed it? Put in in the shade?

Ovrrall my garden did not pan out as hoped dud the drought. My area of central Cali has struck water restrictions. I have decided that I will not put any major effort into my garden because of this plus we plan to leave Cali in 2 years.

I am focusing more on my indoor gardening. I bought an orchid plant back in March. It is in my kitchen window above the sink where it receives an eastern exposure with some direct morning sun. I mist it daily in addition to it receiving humidity from washing dishes. The bloom stem died which I pruned back to leaf level, repotted in a slightly larger pot and water thoroughly about every 10 days. Since they bloom generally once a year, I shall see if it grows a blooming stem again. It has grown more leaves which is promising. Here's to indoor gardening.!!!

Send, sorry about that. A few extra characters somehow got picked up when I copied the URL. Now I can't post a private message.

If you've still got my earlier message, copy everything in the URL except the two letters framed by "less than" and "greater than" symbols. (Can't post the letters or the symbols here b/c of the filters.)

105 degrees? That's terrible, especially with a drought. I thought mid 90s was bad enough.

I don't use any plant feed, but I'd think twice about feeding it in a drought; it might try to grow and not have sufficient water. In fact the drought could be causing the bloom drop/loss.

One thing you can do is feed it with milk water, if you drink milk. That way it gets moisture as well as nourishment. My roses and morning glories love their milk water.

GA, Thank you for the referral to a gardening website, page not found. However, I did peruse the website, interestibg, but that site is not working well using the drop-down menus. It's okay though.

This avatar is an actual photo of my bouganvillia, self-grown. That, and my accomplishment today of achieving level 10 on the brat thread: "Caregivers Behaving Badly" makes for a pretty good day.

Going to go feed the bougie soon, with plant food. March, then August= twice in 5 months-but the 105 f degree temps are causing loss of blooms-or an early fall.?

Christmas was an awesome time growing up. Without going into details, no extended family, my parents put themselves out extravagantly. It was magical and almost fairy tale like.

My post was erased. Be back Cwillie, to talk about about me tiny house avatar.
And about the biggest Christmas Redwood trees in the state park, where gardening was trail maintenace as camphosts. A retirement dream with a downside.

Rent a cabin when you get a yen to hibernate in one, a whole lot cheaper and more practical than owning one I think. I still like the idea of Send's tiny house on wheels (what thread was that discussed on?), then you can pick whatever climate suits your mood. All I would need is a driver!

Stacy, that post is awesome! What great memories. My Uncle used to dose the tree with Angel hair.. don;t even know if you can find it anymore?
As for the cabin in the woods.. that was Hubs and my dream when we were getting married.. to buy a cabin/house in WV and add a hot tub. BUT as there were no jobs around where we wanted to be that dream bit the dust! I am still dreaming of a retirement house in the country.. wish me luck with that as the family home in WV will probably get sold... I mean I do live in the county,,, but I want a small cabin style place with the river at the end of the drive and ,,,wait, that is what I will be losing!

Hi All! CHRISTMAS, a magical time, and yet it has become incredibly commercial too, sadly!

Growing up in a British household, or perhaps it was just my parents and our family, or maybe it was just a much simpler time back in the 60's, but we used to have Christmas Music on the HiFi, from Dec 1st through New Years, and our Mom was Baking furiously every day, and her Christmas pudding had already been made for months!

Ou Mam would always have us write to Santa, and then burn our letters up in the fireplace, as "the ashes" would magically transport our lettes to The North Pole, Lol unbeknownst to us, she had previously written Return Letters from Santa himself, and had them safely tucked up out of the way on a ledge right in the fireplace and she would wait just a bit, and together we would return to the fireplace where she would reach up to get the letters back from HIM , and they always had slightly singed edges from the "travel back", but that was always a hit, and a lifelong memory and tradition that she carried on with my children. She was a good Egg!

My Dad was an old fashioned Variety Store Manager, when I was a kid, and as the Manager, he did all of the store orders directly from the Sales Men, and went to a lot of trade shows. He must not have ever failed to mention that he had 6 children, so he was given A LOT of Samples and special goodies from them, which he would gladly receive and stock away for Christmas presents for us kids. Remember the old Variety stores? Everything from books, music, small appliances, radios, batteries to makeup, health and beauty, candy and toys, things for the home, cards and every holiday decoration you name it, they had Everything!

Plus every year the store itself was decorated for Christmas with all new stuff, so my Dad would bring home, all of last year's decorations, so our house was lit up, if you can imagine! We had a huge pink plastic Christmas tree for a couple of year's that after the lights went on, Dad would then cover/smother the whole thing Angel hair, that made the lights all hazy and pretty, then he put on all the bigh red balls, it was hideous really! Then of course we had the industrial sized red and green streamers and huge paper balls and bells running accross the vaulted ceiling and the beam of our living room, there wasn't a staple gun that my Dad didn't Love! But come Christmas morning, Wow! It was an event not to be missed as each of us got our one true gift that we had wished for, and then a Bagillion other little gifts our Dad had gotten off the sales guys! He was a Gem of a Dad, and Loved us kids to death!

Of course Santa didn't leave our stockings out on the mantle, nope, he delivered them right to our beds, so that you would wake up in the morning on Christmas day and feel the weight of that big ole stuffed Stocking againgst your leg! I know now, that it was a stall tactic, to try to keep us kids in our beds, just a little bit longer! Gosh, so many more things we did at Christmas, it was Brilliant!

They made our childhoods magical and fun, they were the best parents ever and I miss them every single day! I thank God for my siblings, as they each carry traights from my folks, so its like I still have little pieces of them here with me! You can try to reenact your childhood with your children, but it's never quite the same, so I did incorporate some of our traditions, but made up new one along the way too!

Stacey, Whoops, I left instructions for making the comment box bigger on another thread. I knew I had read your request somewhere, but by the time I figured out how to, I was somewheres else. You will find it, soon, I hope. It was for you!

Cwillie, Was thinking of a winter vacation somewhere, Mammoth would be nice.
We can always count on you to bring back the reality of it all.
If I was in the freezing cold, I probably would not be able to walk, or even go outside. Gone are the dreams of wishing I could hike into a forest to find and chop down my own Christmas tree. My hubby and I are challenged to find, unpack, decorate our little used 12" tree yearly. This is my tradition, not his, so it is like being a pagan trying to celebrate Christmas around my home. It is just us.

GA, That's okay, it's only 40.8 degrees here today. Your visual of winter has really cooled me off! As far as the mindset about the summer heat is concerned.
When I changed the 105.6 degrees farenheit to only 40.8 degrees centigrade, that was intended to cool me in my mind too. So, winter is also cool.

Welcome, Arlene, from New Zealand!

My garden has roses in it, daphne plants, arum lilies, a camellia and lots of other things. I use my garden as time-out, I like to go and concentrate on something else.
Arlene Hutcheon, New Zealand

Aw, CWillie, I had such a nice little fantasy there for awhile...forgetting about the excessive heat this year, the dead or dying honeysuckle that never bloomed, raspberries and grapes that never fruited... (but of course the mulberries at the abandoned house next door fruited and left a purplish mess on my driveway).

But alas, "hope springs eternal" in a gardener's mind, and there's always next year.


Your description reminds me of the movie Baby Boom with Diane Keaton, especially the scene of a blizzard at her old rambling farmhouse when she stumbles back into the house with an armful of wood, only to be told that there are multiple leaks in the roof.


Stacey, I love the images you created of fall. I too love to see pumpkins, especially after the vines have died and the fat round pumpkins have a chance to take center stage.

In fact, I think maybe a trip to a cider mill would be a nice outing for Dad. I remember decades ago when I was a child (actually, that would more likely be in a previous geologic era) and we went to a cider mill, got fresh cider, and then went into a charming old stoned walled basement extension to get out bushels of apples. I can still smell the fragrance of apples in a cool environment.

Mom of course got her Northern Spies, best for apple pies and turnovers (my taste buds are beginning to crave one of her turnovers), and Dad got bushels of eating apples as well.


On the subject of fall and holidays, what are your special experiences, activities and visits during the upcoming holidays? What do you do that's perhaps a bit out of the ordinary? Are there communities where you go to see the holiday lights?

What special activities do you plan for your parents or relatives for whom you're caring? Do their AL, IL or other facilities have tree decorating activities? Christmas singing?

One of the local communities has one street on which all the neighbors make and put out luminaries, perhaps about every 10 - 12 feet. They're all lighted on Christmas Eve. It's absolutely stunning - I drive by that street and feel as if I'm transported to a magic place, a place of peace, beauty and serenity created by simple decorations.

(We know CWillie is going to be spending her time chopping trees, splitting wood, and hauling it into the house). Willie, if you weren't so far away, I'd send you a fresh apple turnover!

My apple mint didn't even sprout this year, the lemon balm isn't very healthy, so the only herb I have left to make wreaths is oregano. I do have some yews and arborvitae that both contribute to nice wreaths.

Stacey,

Did you have problems with the squash vine borers this year? Maybe that's whats sabotaging your pumpkins?