Voicelessness and Emotional Survival > Voicelessness and Emotional Survival Message Board
Silver Linings
Hopalong:
I've never done much about shrubbery (cost) but I love hearing about your hydrangea cuttings doing well, Lighter. I have one fancy hydrangea (given to me by previous bf, B) and despite me ignoring it nonstop, it's gotten big and full.
Early on I put in some native bay, my best choice (I thought I would do absolutely everything native and organic, forever--just couldn't keep it up). The bay bushes have a lovely mixed trait: they're both airy-looking and full at the same time.
M has grown baby fig trees for the last year from a neighbor's cuttings, and they look great.
Hops
lighter:
Hops:
Dig up some of your stems with roots around your hydrangea. They'll give you little bushes that will grow. I put new fall cuttings in a pot every year, so it gets more sun on the porch, then transplant in Spring. I decided to keep adding my cuttings to the bush in the front yard. It's right next to the dry creek bed, and is a very wet area with some shade, some sun.
The neighbor with the moss garden turns out to be new owner of house with HUGE yard. She has a back yard that's all moss, trees and paths or waiting to become that. They've bitten off a lot, but are committed and had good bones. Huge boulders in the front planting bed in front of the house are amazing. She's transplanted huge fiddle head ferns from their swampy area near the road. I can't wait to see how big those ferns get.... at least 4' tall.
They planted small flowering trees then put lights in them all with buried electric cables.... SO MAGICAL! Just amazing. They put in a long planting bench with a sink Martha Stewart would love.
She'll like my moss yard, but hers is going to be feature area after fearture area. So many places to create different plantings and so many tree stumps for planting ferns in! Just..... amazing. Fire pit area. Back patio area with a ring of large hydrangeas already happy and growing. She's also on a huge hill so it's easier for her to create more features, JUST AMAZING, I'm so happy I went.
Around the corner from her is a yard that's all moss... in the back yard, and mostly moss in the front. I should ask them how they did it... DID they use poison or do they hand pick their weeds? In any case, we all have moss in common and someone to chat about it with now.
At one point I felt like I was babbling and stopped talking. The couple looked at me like the world stopped, so I just started happily chattering on about how to transplant and anchor and create features, which honestly, is about the funniest part. It hadn't occurred to her to plant in her lovely tree stumps just begging for green things. They had the wonder of children... so satisfying to walk their lovely property, which is super special and "fancy" compared to mine.
Hops, the fig trees.... someone just honked a horn twice.... it was like being smacked in the head. Darnit. Things have been so quiet today. Just birds chirping.
Anyway, the fig trees grow well in Georgia. Not sure about where you are, but there's nothing so satisfying as harvesting fresh figs every year. Our fig is at least 20 feet tall now and gives loads of fruit.
I might go and take a big bucket of cuttings and roots to plant somewhere around here and at the new moss friend's house.
Happy gardening!
Lighter
Twoapenny:
You two are going to have the nicest gardens by the time this is all over!
I was thinking today that I'm enjoying being able to go inward and really get to know myself without any external pressures or influences, or having to put my mask on every time I interact with people. I think one of the reasons that interaction with the group lady threw me for such a loop is because it was quite a big jolt in an otherwise calm sea - like a freak wave upended my boat. I am enjoying just being able to focus on how I feel, and work on that. I did some yoga, huge amount of tension in my hips and my shoulders. I kind of chased it around my body and could do with doing more work on my feet and jaw - and I've got time to do it. I'm enjoying having time.
The other thing I'm finding interesting and that's giving me food for thought is how much easier I'm finding the day now that I don't have to be productive. Beyond cooking meals and doing laundry, there's nothing terribly pressing for me to do. So I find myself wondering how different the world might be, if we worked enough to get our basic needs met, and then spent our time doing things we love? Or another way to look at it might be what kind of work people might do if everyone earnt the same wage, regardless of occupation? Would we have more poets, artists, gardeners, potters, bakers? Is there a nomadic busker lurking beneath the suit of many a banker? I just find it interesting to think about how different things are when you can choose what to do with your time, rather than having those choices made for you.
Hopalong:
I remember when I first fell in love with dirt and growing things.
I never became expert but it definitely was a spiritual and primal drawn-out YESSSSSSSS.
Eager to do that now.
So far, baby beets are about 3/4" high and carrots an inch. Thinned beets already, need to do carrots. Kale and spinach are tiny green dots on the dark dirt.
Groundhog the size of a fat medium dog swaggered down the fence line the other day, just feet from my friend and I (on our 8-feet-apart wine visit). He'll do his damage but I've always liked them. I'm liking every animal or plant I see these days, feeling very grateful to be seeing them.
Glad you're making new friends in the neighborhood Lighter, and finding and sharing inspiration with them.
Tupp, I understand entirely. It's wonderful to see how deeply you've entered and embraced suspended time, and in your typical way, have been altered and healed by it.
I think there are more silver linings to come. I do.
Hugs
Hops
Twoapenny:
--- Quote from: Hopalong on April 19, 2020, 10:47:30 AM ---I remember when I first fell in love with dirt and growing things.
I never became expert but it definitely was a spiritual and primal drawn-out YESSSSSSSS.
Eager to do that now.
So far, baby beets are about 3/4" high and carrots an inch. Thinned beets already, need to do carrots. Kale and spinach are tiny green dots on the dark dirt.
Groundhog the size of a fat medium dog swaggered down the fence line the other day, just feet from my friend and I (on our 8-feet-apart wine visit). He'll do his damage but I've always liked them. I'm liking every animal or plant I see these days, feeling very grateful to be seeing them.
Glad you're making new friends in the neighborhood Lighter, and finding and sharing inspiration with them.
Tupp, I understand entirely. It's wonderful to see how deeply you've entered and embraced suspended time, and in your typical way, have been altered and healed by it.
I think there are more silver linings to come. I do.
Hugs
Hops
--- End quote ---
Aw, I have never seen a groundhog! I had to look it up lol, so cute! Do they just eat everything they come across? The veggies sound promising, Hops. I've ordered some potato growing kits; they won't produce anything until September/October time or be delivered for a few weeks as they're so backed up at the moment but it's a start and it gives me plenty of time to tidy the garden up before they get here.
Silver linings for son - much more sociable in the mornings and will sit and eat breakfast with me instead of sitting on his own. Visibly more relaxed and laid back, is laughing more and more interested in showing me what he's been working on. Is having regular contact with college friends and one of the staff from college who is phoning him most days. Came downstairs yesterday and announced he was hungry before making himself a sandwich. He's never noticed he's hungry before and has never asked for food or drink in his whole life. Agreed to come for a walk last night with a face mask on - first time out of the house in forty days. Slept nine hours last night - I think that's the first time in fourteen years that he's slept more than about six hours at most.
For me - I'm just loving having time. I love being able to sit here and write this because I don't have an endless to do list to get through before bed time. I'm going to have a bit more breakfast in a minute, tidy up a bit, put some washing out, potter around, phone a friend, there's lots I can do but almost nothing I must do. It's a massive, massive luxury for me and one I'm enjoying enormously and will endeavour to keep around in some way on a permanent basis now.
Also grateful for the clarity the enforced isolation is bringing. I'm seeing friends and friendships in a different way - noticing the ones who phone and the ones who don't but not feeling as negatively about that as I ordinarily would. Seeing it more as a way of knowing who to let go and who to hang on to :) And really enjoying being able to sit at my desk watching the birds feeding in the tree outside without other people's head constantly popping through as they walk past the house. The birds have taken to lining up on the wall to wait for their turn to get to the bird feeder, it's so cute.
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