Yard

[Hopalong]

Happy that's working well for you, Lighter. I don't have a neighbor I'm comfortable asking to come weed but I might be able to hire my friend's son again at some point. Just now I think I have another week before carrots thinning is urgent though, they're not quite 3-4" yet. So that's good.

I use a cushion etc. There's no way to avoid being on my knees however. When I had my raised beds rebuilt we used concrete blocks, which keep me a bit away from the center. It'll be physically awkward no matter how I do it but I do hope to get it done. Weird very cold snap coming up this weekend with a return to frost! I have some plastic sheeting I'll drape over the beds that night if forecast holds.

CB, I have that exact handle-stool! Bought it many years ago when I worked for the company that started Organic Gardening (the magazine and the movement). The pad's too thin to help but I add an old kickboard kind of thing...actually a squishier foam pad the size and shape of a kickboard, but softer; came with an "ab roller"--remember those?. I stick it across the kneeling section. Helps a bit.

It's unusual for spring to be so drawn out here and that's a gift. Although it's always spectacular, normally it seems to go from winter to 10 minutes of spring and then three humid months of summer.

Tupp, I have a chubby 73-year-old with a bad knee who keeps saying he'll do it....watching him get up and down hurts almost as my own knee! But he's determined to come plant the fig tree that he grew from a graft (neighbor's tree). I'm trying to figure out where it'll get enough sun but still be screened from the worst cold. Patio makes sense as it radiates heat but doesn't get a full 8 hours of sun. Nothing's poifect. A neighbor gave me a nice tomato start (plus cage) and I bartered old but okay veggie seeds with another person who left two Amy's Apricot seedlings (tomato, heirloom, cherry size) on my porch in trade. Read about them and they sound awesome. I really like the seeds and plant trading and gifting thing that's going on here...a neighborhood website's been a treasure.

And my Brit neighbor who loves gardening came over and weeded my front bed for my birthday! That's actually what I wanted (M gave me a third sweater, bless 'im. Needs training....some men think: Woman. Present. Oh, you decorate her. Out come pearls and sweaters. I'd rather have a hoe and hinted strongly that a couple hours paid garden help was what I'd REALLY like. He couldn't get his head around that for some reason. It is the thought that counts though.)

Hugs
Hops

[Twoapenny]

Hopsie I was thinking more of a Lady Chatterley's Lover type gardener   Lol, now I'm thinking maybe we can get you on some kind of zip line like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible so you can kind of swoop in and thin as you whizz past.

I think we kind of missed your birthday?  Belated Happy Birthday to you, Hopsie, did you have a nice day?  Yes I hear you on the sweater versus gardening thing; I am much keener on action rather than stuff.  One of the nicest things a friend has ever done for me is come round and cook dinner.  Simple pasta dish with salad, garlic bread and wine but it's just so nice when someone else does it and you can just chat, sip your wine and unwind while someone else cooks.  Food always tastes better to me when someone else has made it.

The fig tree and other seeds sound lovely.  It will be like a little orchard out there eventually, Hops, it sounds so nice.  I'm still waiting on my compost to be delivered for my spuds to go in but the containers for them have arrived.  I've got small containers at the back and small bags of compost I can use for those, I just haven't decided what to put in them yet.  I'm wondering about putting some tubs out the front but things do get nicked from there so not sure yet - either go for something very cheap so that if it does wander off it won't be the end of the world or something so heavy that it can't be lifted.  Someone I used to clean for years ago lived at the bottom of a very long track through woodland, beautiful house, and they had a very heavy wrought iron table and chairs in the garden - large table with eight chairs to match.  That was stolen one night, they were sat in the garden till bedtime, went to bed and when they got up in the morning it had all gone and they didn't hear a thing.  Amazing what people will do sometimes.

Anyway, I am digressing as always!  I hope your birthday was a happy one and I hope that the garden starts to come together without your knee doing anything hideous xx

[Hopalong]

Thanks, Tupp. Bday was quiet and sweet with an extravagant dinner by M, bless 'im. Coquilles St. Jacques, mit mushrooms...divine. It was my 70th and my consolation prize is gonna be a big party this time next year in my own back yard. Beer, wine and happy hugging people, I hope. I like bdays.

Idea? For your big tubs, since there are cheaper shortcuts to buying actual planters etc., how about: the biggest plastic trash cans you can find? You could put gravel or sand or rocks in the bottom 24+/- inches, depending on their size, then spray paint them some kind of color that works for you, even black. With the rocks and then all the soil weight, maybe they won't get stolen. Just a thought....same idea could be done with boxes, old crates, whatever. A metal animal watering trough would be great too. An old bathtub (not that I know how you'd get it home). I love gardens where people cleverly repurpose anything that holds dirt. (And even more I love thinking of elaborate back-killing complicated projects for OTHER people...ignore!)

I am avoiding my paperwork. Really trying today. Laundry's running, kitchen's tidier.

hugs
Hops

[Twoapenny]

Thanks, Tupp. Bday was quiet and sweet with an extravagant dinner by M, bless 'im. Coquilles St. Jacques, mit mushrooms...divine. It was my 70th and my consolation prize is gonna be a big party this time next year in my own back yard. Beer, wine and happy hugging people, I hope. I like bdays.

Idea? For your big tubs, since there are cheaper shortcuts to buying actual planters etc., how about: the biggest plastic trash cans you can find? You could put gravel or sand or rocks in the bottom 24+/- inches, depending on their size, then spray paint them some kind of color that works for you, even black. With the rocks and then all the soil weight, maybe they won't get stolen. Just a thought....same idea could be done with boxes, old crates, whatever. A metal animal watering trough would be great too. An old bathtub (not that I know how you'd get it home). I love gardens where people cleverly repurpose anything that holds dirt. (And even more I love thinking of elaborate back-killing complicated projects for OTHER people...ignore!)

I am avoiding my paperwork. Really trying today. Laundry's running, kitchen's tidier.

hugs
Hops

Ooh plastic bins with rocks in is a good idea, Hopsie, I hadn't thought of that!  That would work well.  Watering trough would be a good idea as well.  It's a tiny front yard that (literally 6 feet by 2 feet, maybe a teeny bit more) so there isn't a fence, it's just paving slabs and then the main path that goes to the road and a smaller path that runs along the side between the houses so some heavy tubs and water troughs would be good, they could kind of go along the edge to make a fence but would still be easy to move around when need be.  Ooh I like that idea very much, well done, Hopsie!

I'm glad the birthday dinner was nice, it sounds lovely.  And yes, big party next year, in your lovely garden with all your veggies and fig trees, it will be heavenly xx

[lighter]

Hops:

I think a large raised planting bed built for you would have been the perfect bd present. 

A sweater?

Lighter

[Hopalong]

Maybe I can compost the sweater???

LOL etc....

My emoticons died.


Hops

[lighter]

Hops:

I did one of those big paper towel germinating grids with gardens of seeds..... so pretty!  All kinds of seeds! 

THIS solved, hopefully solved, the problem of using the Preen.  I had fun doing it with neighbor 2 doors away.  He can't really see well with one eye, and between us we have everything we need to do most anything. 

We also took cuttings off his Rhododendrons... 3 colors.. red, white and purple.  I want the white ones.  He wants the red and purple.  I don't have any white, but his are beautiful.  YES.

I am SO ready to weed and water healthy happy produce.  Also, neighbor going to get blueberry bush sprouts and I'll get fig tree sprouts for under the power lines.

My back is still upset so I filled the steroid Rx, borrowed neighbor's stretching DVD and am waiting for Yoga for the back DVD to show up in mail.  I'm on ice as I write this. 

Tomorrow I'll pick up free Sedum... not sure where I'll put it, but I'll have a wheelbarrow full. 

Lighter

[Hopalong]

Take it easy on your back, Lighter.
If you're on steroids and ice and in pain,
any wheelbarrow plans maybe should wait a while?

Spoken as somebody with arthritis in spine....exercise
yes, but pushing the envelope gets easier, or it gets
easier to actually rip the envelope as age comes on, imo.

It does all sound lovely. I fairly urgently need to figure
out where to plant the fig tree. Need sunny but out of wind.
Near house deprives it of some sun hours, yet stops some
wind...patio pavers reflect heat, etc. Dunno, dunno.

Hops

[lighter]

I walked around the forest with oldset dd yesterday.  We found wee Hemolock trees, ailing with wooly adelgid.  I plucked 2 and put them in pots with bug juice to kill the adelgid.  I hope they do well.  Will just have to see. 

I borrowed a chain saw on a pole from a neighbor. I have to put it together out of the box.  I think he plans to come by and help a bit.  That will be nice.  I dread picking up limbs after I go all happy taking them down, and I will.  It feels so good to get the suckers and unhealthy lower branches out of the trees.

I bought Thai Basil and am attempting to root them 3 ways.  In water. In rainwater.  In pots. Will see.

Lighter

[lighter]

Hops:

Did you find a place to plant that fig tree? 

I love all the seed, seedling, weeding trading you've been doing.

All my seeds have started sprouting.  It's seems like a miracle to me, but I'm completely enchanted when I see hummingbirds.

Spring is drawing out beautifully.  I feel so blessed.

Lighter

[lighter]

I've been faffing about, lining up projects and things to be planted... trying to suss out where to plant what while my back is unhappy.

Yesterday I spent about half an hour each on a pole saw, blower and weedeater, but not happy with how my back was feeling.  As I went from job to job, not accomplishing a lot, but something, I checked my rain barrels... .made sure they still have mosquito rings and found something floating in the one by the firepit.  I took two sticks and pulled it out.  It was pretty heavy...... could have been an otter but I think it was a very large squirrel.   DO we have otters in this area?  I think we do.  The neighbor said he saw 2 at the nearby pond. 

I'm cleaning the back porch today.  Lots of hummingbird activity after refilling the feeder.  They chirp, or click sort of.  I've never heard them make noise before, besides the large insect noise of their wings. 

It's a tad breezy..... sunny.  Getting sort of hot.  I'm really going to miss this cool weather. 

Cleaning out old candles, and candle holders, taking down cobwebs... getting outdoor shower up and running today.... cleaning windows.  Yup yup yup.

Lighter

[Hopalong]

Lighter, you sound like my dream of productive me, who lives in an alternate universe. I'll bet your place is magical.

I decided I didn't want the responsibility of bringing in a fig tree every winter. So M is planting both of them at his place. I doubt they'll thrive as he has very little sun. (My primary objection to the idea of living there one day. I'll wait for our own place but SOME Southern exposure is a deal-necessity. All that's off the table for now, whew.)

Anyhoo. All kinds of stuff happened in my yard today. None for me. But my guy returned with three helpers to plow through my big list: cleaning all patio and porch planters and refiling with fresh soil so I can plant flowers in them (and cherry tomatoes). Cleaning and refilling birdbaths. Forking and mixing and liming my compost bins. Hollytone on the blueberries, boxwoods, hydrgangea and azaleas. Watering everything. Mowing and blowing. That's it but it felt amazing.

One downside was I was on the patio trying to talk Esteban through my detailed list, which he kept interrupting to translate instructions into Spanish, and to make sure he got it all I was really concentrating hard...and then it hit me that I was on my smallish patio with three guys, maybe four, and although nobody was in my face, nobody was wearing a mask, either. Could have kicked myself. Not going to freak about it but did call M to confess, as we've kept our careful pact for so long now. Sigh. All that vigilance is exhausting for my old brain.

Worth it all, I hope.

hugs
Hops
PS M said not to worry about it and he'd risk death to come over and hug me anyway. Awwwww.

[lighter]

Hi, Hops:

I'd like to think there wasn't any danger of catching Covid on your patio.  I think I'd be more upset IF I knew anyone in my area who had had it. Anyone in any of my groups.  I'm less worried when outdoors.  Especially on breezy days.  I had a chat with a neighbor earlier..... it was so nice to sit and catch up.  It didn't cross my mind we might be downwind from each other.  That USED to drive me nuts.  Not so much anymore.  It's nice M wasn't upset with you. 

Getting your planters and patio cleaned up sounds wonderful.   It feels so good to have things clean and tidy for what comes next.  I'm a little surprised you can't just plant the darned fig and leave it.  I have one that was a seedling when I planted it and it's as big as a small shed now.  Hardly any care at all.  We get lots of figs every year.  Yummy.

Do you have many blueberry bushes? Do they give you lots of berries?  That would be so great to have a hedgerow of berries.  We used to go to a local blueberry farm and pick tons to freeze and make cobblers and blintzes.... they're closed now.  Those bushes were huge... jut rows and rows of them.  All different kinds. 

I finished most of the back porch cleaning and celebrated with an outdoor shower this evening.  I missed seeing the sky and trees, but the candles made up for it. 

If you aren't going to move in with M.... is there still house hunting in the works?  This might be an OK time to buy.  I get the feeling househunting isn't on the list of priorities right now.

Lighter

[Twoapenny]

The gardening activities and humming birds sound lovely, Lighter.  Sorry about the dead whatever it was though.  That bit not so nice, but everything else sounds so lovely, especially mention of candles and an outdoor shower   Sounds like heaven.  I'm glad you're being careful of your back.  So easy to overdo it and pay the price the next day.  Even sweeping is hard on my lower back, it feels sore very quickly; we've only got a little yard to sweep but I try to do it once a week so that it's only ever a small job to do.  I tidied up my little patch at the front of the house.  It did occur to me that I could just cram the whole space with tubs; it would make it easy to re-arrange from time to time and it's so small I can reach each part of it from the outer edge so I'd be able to water everything easily.  There's a path that runs along the side in between all the houses and it's just used for people to store their bins, but there's moss growing on the bit by my place and it looks like it might lead you away to a magical fairy garden.  I've got half an idea that once my garden's looking nice I might try to brighten the alleyway up - give it a good sweep, pull up the weeds and plant wild flowers at the end - there's a long patch of bared earth that just sits there so I wondered if I could cover it in seeds one year and get meadow flowers going there.  It is all used as a dumping ground; people chuck their fag butts over the fence when they finish smoking and loads of rubbish gets dropped when the bins are emptied so I don't know if I might get a bit precious over people making a mess out there if I tidy it up.  I'll give it a think.

Hopsie I'm glad that you got so much done yesterday and it's nice that M is wiling to risk death for a cuddle   Lol.  It's easy to forget, my friend was saying that she went to take the delivery off the driver the other day, just old habit, he sort of shrieked and jumped back and she felt terrible and was apologising endlessly.  It's a new and uncomfortable habit to cultivate, isn't it.  We all forget sometimes.  I find myself touching my face a dozen times a day, even though I know I shouldn't.

[Hopalong]

Well, Lord, if we can't touch our faces inside our own houses....sigh. Don't ask me about dry noses.... Love the yard plans, Tupp, I hope you'll cover it with tubs of flowers and vegs! Superb fantasy. I hope you can realize some of it. And tending your alleyway would be a great way to practice NOT getting steamed about other people's inconsiderate/stupid/uncivil behavior....bring out your inner Buddhist.

Lighter, I have 5 blueberries, which I consider miraculous. I planted six, never watered or weeded or cared for them for two years. They're not big (maybe 2 feet max) and I have no idea about yield yet. By the time I'd wonder (they're way back at the end of the yard) I just figured the birds had enjoyed themselves already. This year I might see if I can find a small stretch of bird netting to increase the chances.

I have so much weeding to do and it's a battle with my knee/back/laziness to do it. But it's ready to be tended and if I want to, I'm well set. I want to do no more, keep it as minimal as possible. I'm already overwhelmed with what to choose for planters, and just have old seeds to work with.

(Nope, house hunting's on long-term pause, I think. I'd rather wait for more compelling conclusions from our therapy and not rush it. It felt too anxious before so it's a relief. Plus, I'm not up for all the work of it, nor is he right now.)

hugs
Hops