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?
The gardenia, three heliotropes and a cayenne pepper. There isn't room :P
There's also a bowl of very pretty irises which have finished now, and they definitely can't go out because the drawback of this new garden is that from equinox to equinox it seems to get no sun at all. It's quite sheltered - well, there's a socking great cathedral on the north side, for a start - but literally no direct sun, only whatever heat must be bouncing off the walls.
Who do I know who's got a conservatory?
On the other hand, what could she do? What could she say? I suppose when you've done something as fat-headed as that, with no way of putting it right really, the only thing to do is brazen it out..?
Yes, hyacinths can have a very strong scent if you mistakenly plant a boatload of them indoors. When can they go outside? Have you thought of inflicting some of them on someone else, like someone you're not so keen on? I wonder if there has ever been a hyacinth bubble?
Well, I guess there's one in your house. Snort.
Sharyn: I get headaches from some scented candles, depending on the scent. And once I was in a theatre and the person diagonally in front of me was demonstrating some perfume to a friend. Yep, I got the full squirt straight in my face and the smell didn't go away until I got home and washed my hair. I did lean forward to say "You fool!" (well, I was more polite than that) and she just looked at me.
I get nasty headaches from perfume. I can wear some scented lotions like vanilla scented but others very strong scents gives me headaches. So does scented laundry soap and fabric softeners.
I am a bit green about the gills this morning. I was so proud of myself: potted up my hyacinths back in the autumn and actually remembered to keep an eye on them this year. Overnight, after weeks of anxious watching and strict watering, they've come fully into bloom in my living room.
Turns out I'm really not that keen on the scent of hyacinths in a confined space. Whooo dearie dear...
Seriously, when DD said it was a cucumber tree, I'd never heard of that. So I was really quite baffled, until she told me that she thought it was a kind of magnolia. When I lived in Kansas we called them tulip trees. (But where do the Dutch get the bulbs then and what abt that tulip bubble in the 17th century ... oh we could go on and on.)
But we won't, will we?
I'd love to do hydroponics, and when I do, I'll mimic his system of gutter tube plantings, because hardly any space is needed. I think he might have a website for his "urban garden." ... ... since you said you were seeking more space for your hydroponics, I thought of his "small space" system.
ETA: went and looked online, if you Google "vertical hydroponic garden," you can see ones that have a gravity assisted watering method. I think they're so cool and look quite easy.
Ho ho ho - actually, they're a gourd - same family as melons and squash. Quite easy to grow if you're in a warm climate or have a greenhouse, but they take some space.
With my mom gone, I am doing 150 things at once, including trying to move stuff from the basement upstairs (give more space for my hydro), namely my books. It is a slow process.
I grow lettuce, herbs, and attempting a gardenia (just using the grow lights for that), and will try and use the lights also for a couple of Amaryllis.
But where do cucumbers come from, then???
Signed,
Baffled
I potted up some geraniums to bring in for the Winter and a couple of bean seeds sprouted, flowered and set beans. Unfortunately the cat ate them.
You weren't off topic, and your post was lovely.
Geez, what was I saying-even I cannot figure it out now-I am thinking it went along with another post which was deleted.
My point was the website issues were taking over all the threads.
Coming here to 'Gardening as therapy' has always been like a mini vacation for me.
I am still surprised that my bouganvillia has kept a bloom all through the winter weather. But I will need to go grasshopper hunting, dig around in the dirt for eggs?
The cape honeysuckle vine has been prolific in blooms since October-orange blooms everywhere. A few succulents have orange blooms too. This was nature's design, not mine, but I like it.