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?
Tiger, my cat, just en.joys my company and he wants to play. With anything that moves, gardening tape for tying plants to stakes.
Your yard must be beautiful with all those rhododendrons - they are lovely shrubs!
Sharon, perhaps you could train cats to be garden helpers?
My lilacs ate blooming, I hope the rain we are having does not knock the petals off.
Sharyn, I think a cat that helps with planting would be great asset to gardeners! Did you train him or is he a natural gardener?
Raining lots so haven't been able to weed or prune, not complaining though.
Maybe my garden will grow if they plant them! lol.
As to buying more bulbs, well, you know that gardeners can never have too many bulbs. Marilyn Monroe might have felt that way about diamonds, but I'd rather have bulbs any day.
I saw photos of some lovely grape hyacinths today that will be added to my ever-growing "to purchase" list.
That's a good idea to leave some fall/winter jobs to help get the gardening activities going in the spring; it's easier to start with some cleanup than start with the whole tilling, digging and planting, even though it's exciting.
I'm guessing a lot of the contributors to this thread were out in their yards today as well.
I know that itch to get out in the yard in the Spring, so I usually leave a few jobs undone before winter such as cutting back my perennials. Today I spent some time outdoors doing a little pruning before this mild weather forces bud break and I am too late. I have a flowering crab apple and a dwarf blue spruce that are really getting too big for my property, but I like both so I will try to rein them in rather than cut them down.
One gardener I know is going to do this with her veggies - it will avoid the discomfort of an older body bending over to plant and harvest.
You might be able to save on energy by digging up clumps of hosta and planting them temporarily in pots, especially if you have some of the ones that are biodegradable, the kind that sometimes are used by commercial growers and found at commercial stores. I used to save mine and re use them, just planting the whole thing - pot and all. The plant had already acclimated to its new home, and the pot would just decompose but the bending to plant could be done leisurely instead of all at once with a lot of hostas waiting for new homes.
I would be careful of wood chips if they're fresh. Organic gardeners disagree on whether fresh wood chips deplete soil of nitrogen. Some claim fresh wood chips aren't harmful; my experience was the opposite. I spread a lot of fresh wood chips on my garden, my irises and daylilies and even some of the weeds began turning yellow, a sign of nitrogen deficiency.
I will never use fresh wood chips on my garden again. However, it wasn't my choice - I was forced to find a way to dispose of them because a neighbor complained and the city cited me for blight - I guess they haven't figured out that wood chips CAN be a good source of mulch if properly cured.
Hostas used to be shade lovers, as you probably know, but I believe some of the many new hybrids can tolerate more sun.
Some people take a spade and chop to divide hostas. I like to be a little bit more gentle, carefully separating the roots after digging up a clump.
I've grown ostrich ferns for years and love them. If given the right conditions, such as those similar to a wooded area, they'll spread very easily. They thrive in woodland type areas with shade; in fact, they grew best in total shade. They won't thrive or spread as much in sunny areas.
Some occasionally popped up in sunny areas and turned brown in mid to late August during the dog-days of summer. I felt sorry for them, even though the color stages through they went were a preview of fall.
I'd keep them in as much shade as possible, forest or woodland type atmospheres.
They're very, very easy to grow. Once I planted them and watered them, they grew well. Again, they like a woodsy atmosphere. If you have clay soil, I would amend it first with compost and mulch around the plants with leaves, but not right up to the stems as they need some room to breathe.
For planting around a patio, give them enough space from the patio that the roots can spread out, or their growth might become blocked.
I know the feeling of gardening becoming more difficult with age!
Planting is always therapeutic; I understand part of CA are getting really, really heavy rains now, so it's good you helped the little bulb survive.
It is a great day in the month of March!!
Now I can say my head is not yet screwed on straight. Today will be interesting.
Plan: Extricate from contacting or responding to npd persons living in Oz.
Recovered from this before, I'm good! Continue planting, wisely.