Gardening as therapy.

So true, cw.

Nowadays, there isn’t always a sense of community in certain neighborhoods.

New Orleans has an interesting mix of neighborhoods, all with their own history and personality.

I like hanging plants on my porch. Some flowering plants and some ferns.

Sis and I were commenting that the modern trend for rows of closely spaced or connected houses with tiny back yards makes the front porch seem like a good idea. There's really no privacy in your back yard anyway and on a nice porch you can see the comings and goings and connect with the neighbourhood - the way people used to.

My hummingbirds like the blue flowers too! I have red flowers planted in the front yard.

I have a huge front porch with a porch swing but I mainly sit on my back patio.

My beans are alive but I don't think you would give me a green thumb if you could see them, there is a lot more vine than leaves or flowers. I don't care though, I'm happy if I get a handful every now and then (and the hummingbirds like the red flowers).

cw,

Your beans are growing! You have a green thumb.

When I was sitting outside earlier, I was wishing fall could arrive sooner! I do enjoy seeing my plumbago plants in bloom.

I adore the light blue color of the flowers. The butterflies, hummingbirds and bees love my plumbago plants.

I was having breakfast on my deck and noticed that the scarlet runner beans are vining up under the gazebo canopy LOL

TNtechie, how fun!

I made better then pizza and I thought about you and your boys because of the adventures in potatoes conversation a while ago. I modified mine from the original recipe and it was a hit with everyone, love recipes that work with our tastes.

It is worth checking it out and creating another new experience for your guys.

I love reading about how well they are doing under your love. Well done Mom!

We had to make pancake tacos after the commercial appeared... blueberry pancakes with blueberries and strawberries inside/on top. Kids decided they like "normal" pancakes where the fruit gets to your mouth easier and you can let the pancakes soak in a little syrup. But it was fun.

Pam,

I like blueberry muffins too but blueberry pancakes are my favorite! Do you ever make a cobbler? My youngest daughter loves cobbler.

I also like berries in my oatmeal.

We live in the country and our hedgerow has lots of wild raspberry plants, but the kudzu has been moving in. today and yesterday hubs machetted out alot of vines, and got some berries picked. This morning we both went out and were able to get about 8 cups worth,, scared out one deer LOL I make great muffins with them, but this time I may try a pie. And I agree about winter weather,, I'd love it if it only laid on the lawns! But since I am retiring in Sept I will no longer really have to worry about that and can just enjoy the beauty. Although we don;t get much snow here in MD anymore

Winter would be great if it wasn't so cold, so dark and there wasn't so much of it.
Oh, and the shovelling, nobody likes the shovelling .
Or the winter driving🚗❄️

My daughter says the same, Anna. She was living in Colorado for a couple of years. She came back here and misses the change of seasons and the snow. She’s moving back to Colorado soon.

Snow is beautiful! I just don’t like being cold for that long! Although, our summers are absolutely miserable. So, it’s a trade off, I suppose.

Need, while winter often overstays its welcome, I truly enjoy the changing seasons. My husband works from home and our youngest is about to move out (daughters have an apt an hour away, walking distance from university) so our driving is minimized. We load up the firewood, books, puzzles and movies, and make the best of it. Really, the snow and ice can look magical.

Geaton and Anna,

I don’t think that I could ever get used to the brutal winters that you experience!

Geaton, I didn’t specifically look, but when I split another hosta to fill in the row, I didn’t encounter any bits as a dug its hole. I split an old hosta with unfurled leaves during late spring and watered both parts daily. They are thriving. It just struck me as old that my antique hostas are fine but my younger hostas vanished.

Anabanana, did u ever dig into the ground to see if there was any root evidence? My hostas' roots were completely gone. Zero. As if I had never planted anything there. We did have some raucus freeze-thaw cycles last year, but every winter in MN is a nightmare... IDK the name of the breed but they were variagated white/green with purple flowers in late summer.

Geaton, I live in zone 5b and a few of mine on the north side of the house (within 3’ of the foundation) didn’t grow this year. We have oodles of rodents but I wondered about “winter kill” from freeze-thaw cycles. We had summery days with cold nights late into the spring too. Some of my heritage hostas are 60+ years old but I lost Guacamole hostas that were age 15 or younger. My unknown sheltered hostas (ivory and green leaves, small, lavender flowers) on the south side are fine.

I have a hosta mystery: I live in zone 4 MN. I have all sorts of hostas in my yard, some I took from my MILs house back in 1986. They were awesome. Drought resistant, low maintenance etc. This year many of a certain breed never came up. I dug in the dirt to find no evidence of even roots. We don’t have voles, they were not eaten by deer, they didn’t have slugs or any other disease. It’s as if they never existed in our gardens. An internet search turns up nothing. I have been reading that hostas do have a life span. The ones that disappeared were at least 37 years old (the ones we got from my MIL). I just can’t figure out that there is not even root remnants. Thoughts? Thanks!

97,

Thanks for the article and the wonderful advice!

Sometimes it takes awhile.

https://orchidresourcecenter.com/6-stages-in-the-life-cycle-of-an-orchid/#:~:text=It%20can%20take%20an%20orchid,to%20grow%20a%20new%20one.

here is a good article. interesting what it says about how to remove dead stems to tell the plant to send another. I’ve never done that.
I do have more than one in this window and have orchids blooming often. ~
The guy that got me started with them told me to use Osmocote (the green container). I see there are two diff kinds now. There is a “plus” in a pink container. You just sprinkle on top and it slowly releases nutrients each time you water. I haven’t noticed how often they bloom. I spend a lot of time away so it’s hard to keep up with when they bloom. The one that is old was one actually part of a multi planting in a large silver pot I bought at Sam’s when they were getting rid of what they had left. I remember I bought several and I gave one to a friend who has since passed. That is the only reason I know about how old it is.
The leaves will be kind of wrinkly when I am away too long and DH forgets to water. I just pour about 2 cups of tap water in each pot and the little dish of stones and the leaves perk up. I also keep an artificial one mixed among the pots. It looks real surrounded by the other big green leaves. I use all white though I do like all the other colors.
My MIL also had a green thumb. She had her African violets in a couple of spots in her home. She would give me huge pot plants. They would get too large for her to manage. I have fond memories of taking her to nurseries. She would always pick out just one plant that she had been thinking about. I think I did try the African violets without success years ago in a different home. I really think my orchid success is more about it being the “right” spot and not anything special I do.
The guy at the farmer’s market had beautiful orchids. He supplied them for weddings. I always visited his booth when we went to that market and tried to learn a bit more but that’s been a long tome ago.

97,

Do yours continuously bloom? Mine still haven’t bloomed again.

My MIL grew beautiful African violets. I want to buy a couple of those. She started new plants from her cuttings. She had a green thumb though. She always had pretty plants in her greenhouse that she was tending to.

I have some orchids blooming now for about three months. It’s an old one. I keep several in a window. One or the other is usually blooming. I just water them occasionally. Also keep a small shallow bowl of pebbles and a couple of sea shells filled with water near them. I don’t mist. I have a pretty copper mister on display. Good intentions but doesn’t happen. I had a fertilizer recommended by an orchid grower who sold at a farmers market. Used it awhile. Trader Joe’s has the best prices I find on new ones. Some of mine are at least 15 years old.

Meant to also add a hello to Garden Artist if she checks in at all.

The peas are about 12' tall now, some are bent over attaching their little strings to the stick.
Some have died off.
There are 2 little pea pods, just two. So cute.

The grasshoppers ate the lettuce.

Everything else planted is a bust in this heat.

End of my garden-fail tale. 🤣😰🐸🍨🍦🍭🍿

I will look again. The foliage is still pretty but I no longer have blooms. I will check different websites on orchids.

I miss seeing the beautiful flowers.

I don't think she had a secret We talked about them. She kept them misted. I don't know that she did anything else special.

I just checked the internet and apparently it is pretty easy to keep them and make them rebloom. You might want to look it up.

Golden,

I wonder what her secret was.

Need I haven't but a nail lady I used to go to kept her orchids and they bloomed and bloomed and bloomed. I don't know what her secret was. She never mentioned doing anything special other than keeping them misted. It's very dry here.

My orchids that I have in my bathroom window have stopped blooming.

I researched online to see if they are able to bloom again. They say that there has to be a drop in temperature in order for them to bloom again.

Have anyone seen their orchids bloom again and did you use this method?

newbie,

I love wild flowers! Sounds like you will have a pretty garden when you finish your planting.

I don't normally post in this discussion, but am sitting at my computer with an ice pack, after taking ibuprufen, because I seem to have done a number on my back gardening. Normally I pace myself, but today I'd gotten a bunch of free plants that needed to get put in quick before they wilted and dried out. It all started because I've been trying to clear some "junque" and have been giving things away for free on Facebook market place and another local "buy noting" group. One of the people to whom I'd given something saw some of the plantings near the house and asked if I liked to garden and whether I'd like some perennials since she was doing alot of dividing. Even though I'm in a condo, we're allowed to have perennials and annuals if we take care of the gardens, and I'm always happy to add stuff I don't have. So, today I got some black-eyed Susan and creeping Jenny from her.  Creeping Jenny is a perennial with bright, small yellow flowers. The flowers don't last long, but it makes an excellent ground cover and works well on edges, rock gardens, even in hanging baskets because its foliage is very attractive. It's also called moneywort because the leaves are shaped like tiny coins. The woman warned me that it was very prolific so I should be prepared to keep dividing it or it would take over! I stopped off at my daughter's to see if she'd like some, but she had both already and asked me if I'd like some marigolds she'd started from seed or any more tomatoes. So, I ended up with more plants that needing setting out. I don't have room for a vegetable garden, but do grow tomatoes in very large pots and also have started some herbs from seed in a large container with wheels on my deck. I live in Maine and we have a short growing season, and have been plagued by about a week of rainy grey days. But I shouldn't complain about the low pressure sysem we were stuck in because it apparenty kept the Canadian wildfire smoke plume to the south of us.