Is anyone else an atheist with BC besides me?
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Does anyone garden for the simple joy of playing in the dirt?
I love to come home from work and water, weed, and just futz around the garden. People tell me my flowers are pretty but I think I'm the visual equivalent of tone deaf. I mean it's nice that people find them pretty (so I don't look totally incompetent) but my neighbor gets the credit for choosing what types of plants I grew from seed and what color.
I just enjoy watching things grow, figuring out when to fertilize, and just getting my hands dirty. And I agonize over slugs, root rot and other threats to my plants.
Anyone else feel that way?
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Oh Rico, I wish I had your talents. My sister has to choose my flowers, show me where to put them, put them there herself, and take care of them for me! I like the way they look but shudder to think of putting my hands in the dirt. And slugs? ewwww!
Want to take care of my plants? :-)
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My neighbor handles the selection of plants and supervises their placement. He also keeps a watchful eye to make sure I'm caring for them properly. So we're not that different. Except I really enjoy it.
When we move up north, I will take care of your plants.
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Welcome home, Layne.
Even when the actual death is clearly the best thing, there's nothing easy about the process. But it really hits home when it comes to the logistics of bringing a life to closure through the distribution and disposal of personal effects. I haven't had to do that. My mother took care of my father's things a year after his death. I dread having to do it for my mother.
I'm glad you're done with that. Now you can focus on your own healing.
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Oh, Layne, it's so good to have you posting again. I hope that as the numbness fades, you're able to find comfort in your mother's memory . . . and in the knowledge that she's helping people even now. I think all of us who are lucky enough to have one or both of our parents still alive tremble a little thinking of their advancing age and increasing frailty and wonder when we'll get the call and how we'll respond.
Count me as another one who likes to play in the dirt. My pride and joy is the woodland shade garden I built out of the overgrown mess that bordered the backyard when I bought the house. My goal was to create something like what you'd see if you were hiking in the Smokies and came across an especially pretty clearing. Some of the plants took better than others (the ferns have pretty much crowded out the anemones, for instance), but that's nature for you.
My vegetable garden is another story. $%&#&# rabbits (sorry, Rico). They're getting fat and happy on my beans, chard, dill, parsley and lettuce. About the only things they don't touch are my basil and tomatos. The $&%^@! squirrels take care of the latter.
Linda
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I just finished planting 29 hostas in a bed that surrounds an old oak in our back yard. Now the capitol of the state I live in is called Little Rock and in my yard one plants flowers not with a garden spade but with a pick ax. Planting in the Ozarks is aerobic activity. Since it is 90'F here, planting also makes the need to go to a spa for a cleansing sweat completely unnecessary.
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A woodland shade garden. Ohhh, wow. I would love that. Unfortunately, I live in the city and my lot is a lofty 30 feet wide. A woodland garden wouldn't fit. Sigh.
I'm so pleased to hear you're feeding the rabbits! LOL. Thankfully I have not found myself in that position. Said with enormous relief. Squirrels, on the other hand, are another matter. They give me the equivalent of the squirrel middle finger. I find pieces of my bulbs left in conspiculous places. The least they could do is either eat the whole thing or hide it. Sheesh!
Ahh, the pick ax! I developed a serious love affair with the pick ax when I first started my garden beds. Some rocks but the real problem is the clay. But then my neighbor encouraged me to rent a big-ass roto tiller. The darn thing almost killed me, at one point pinning me against another neighbor's car (horribly embarrasing to say the least) but it did a wonderful job on the new beds.
The hostas sound wonderful!
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Dear Layne ... sending you a huge hug. There is so much numbness at first, and a huge sense of loss. I miss my dad more today than when he died 1 1/2 years ago.
Rico ... I am passionate about my flowers and gardens. I'm truly only at peace when I'm digging or planting. I'm putting in a rose garden now. I miss the fabulous rose gardens I had when I lived in San Diego. I'm not to excited about our vegetable garden ... just the tomatoes. But my flowers ... that's another story.
I'll post some pics soon.
The hosta garden sounds so beautiful. My hostas are blooming now. I have one side of the house in the shade and created a hosta garden there, along with bleeding hearts and giant garden phlox.
Hope everyone has a good day today,
love,
Bren
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Speaking of tomatoes -- my DH has always planted tomatoes and always had great success with them -- until last year. Lots of blossoms but not enough pollination. Why? Very very few bees around. This year, lots of bees hovering over the flowers and the raspberry bushes, but not interested in the tomato blossoms. Made me think we should put up a sign in "bee-speak" (but don't know the language)
. So he got onto the internet which told him that vibrations might be just as important as bees. Aha! He took his electric toothbrush sans the brush and ran it gently against the plants, hoping the pollen would dislodge and drift into other blossoms. (Enjoyful was here at the time -- hope to see you again soon, E
)Well, a lot of the blossoms just fell off! Our tomato crop is going to be small at best, but we shall definitely have oodles of raspberries! And I've picked about 3 quarts of luscious strawberries. Mmmm good!
Bren good luck with the roses. They love lots of horse droppings -- any wild stallions around your spread?
Hugs to all!
Linda
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The only wild stallion around here is Mr. Tim. (At least he thinks so.) bwahahaha!
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Banana peels are good for roses too.
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Prayers did not work for me to get the DIEP breast reconstruction procedure and I do not believe there is a god out there. If so she would have known that the DIEP is the best way for me and not the TRAM. I have decided it is better to go without breast rather than have the TRAM. I can not understand how so many women can get their insurances to cover the DIEP and I am having such trouble. It is on to an Independent Medical Review but no prayers this time as they do not work as their is no one listening.
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I am SO HAPPY that you posted this. My mom was just diagnosed and I am not handling it well at all. I am an agnostic... not religious whatsoever... and people keep telling me to pray or that they will pray for me. I'll take what I can get, but at the same time... I don't really think its going to help. I think being a non-believer makes this A LOT harder...
Anyway... guess I just want to say I can sympathize with you. Good luck with everything! And again, thanks for posting!
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Bumping
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{{{Layne}}}
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Bren, you are too funny
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Thanks Madalyn, I hope it comes out in my favor and I am very hopeful.
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You can try daffodils/jonquils which squirrels do not eat. The little rodents may dig them up, but if you are quick you can replant them.
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Trying to upload some garden porn here . . . it's been awhile since I've photobucketed anything, so bear with me while I screw it up:
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Linda, that is SO lovely! But does the sundial get enough sun?
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Wow, Linda! What a spectacular picture.
OMG, what a hilarious story about your mom, Layne! Being an animal lover, I try to love the squirrels but wish they would leave my bulbs alone!
In spite of the hot weather, I spent most of the day playing in the dirt. I got the first part of the watering system set up, thanks to my very smart neighbor. So now I've got something to entertain me for a while until I get it done. It's a very repetitive task, kind of like pulling weeds. So I get to sit on my front porch, talk to the neighbors, enjoy the sun, and put a couple hundred pieces together in the right order. Very zen-like! And if I don't get the pieces put together tightly, the resulting shower lets me know!
I hope you folks also had a lovely weekend!
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It's body temperature weather here (98'F). I spent the day moving the hose around the newly planted hostas and the fern bed. I had to fill the bird baths twice because of the evaporation. Last afternoon I watched a small bird just sit in the water. She didn't move but just sat there. It is hot. Tomorrow I drive my sister to Little Rock for an eye exam. The forecast says it will be 100'F but with the humidity it will feel like 110'F. Ugh. I guess we are in for a long hot summer.
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Linda ... your yard is beautiful! It looks nice and cool in the shade!
Notself .. another 95 degree day here .. with the heat index at 106 degrees. Somebody remind me why I live in So. W. Virginia!
The apples are falling off one of my trees .. and the deer love it. They come out about dark and happily chomp away next to our picnic table. I just wish they'd eat the whole apple. I saw one two days ago, take a bite and drop the other half. Well .. all those halves on the ground attract lots of bees.
Sometimes I let Tank out to chase the deer just for fun! And sometimes the silly dogs don't even notice the deer a few feet away smacking on apples!
I'll try to post some pics of my zinnia's. They are awesome right now.
Notself .. like you .. I have to do at least one thing outside, even in the heat. I dug another hole in my rose garden. It's a work in progress.
Dutchy ... sure hope you get some help with your medical.
Welcome to the thread to our new gals.
love,
Bren
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For the love of pete ... I did something wrong downloading that pic!
Those are zinnias from the garden.
Below is my mom and Tank on the front porch.
Me and my sis.
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Bren -- That's an awesome display of flower power! And girl power too!
Sometimes we have deer wander into town and get a little lost -- guess they're looking for apples! But the masked bandits are night-raiding the mulberry tree, which is fine with me cuz I don't particularly like those seedy mulberries.
Temp in Niagara this week is in the 80's, with a cool breeze coming off the lake. Guess I'd better go outside and do some digging....aw, after lunch
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Hi Dudess,
I know this is an old post, but I just came across it and it struck a nerve. I was just diagnosed with ILC last week after 3 months of testing. It didn't show up on Mammo/US/or MRI. Finally, the breast Specialist did a biopsy and it came back positive. I still don't know stage yet. Going to the oncologist on Wed. I consider myself agnostic with atheist leanings. I too have been getting a lot of prayer offterings which I just take with a smile and a thank you. I think sometimes this might be easier to deal with if I did have a faith in a supreme being rather than the randomness of nature. A friend of mne told me that I don't have to find my strength in faith or god, but I can find it in my family and friends and inner being. I am trying really hard to do that, but I do envy people that have a hard core faith in bigger plan.
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I too envy those with faith in a "bigger plan", life after death, or something. Doesn't make dying seem so bad. Sure, it's sad to leave your loved ones, but if you're going to something "better" that sounds OK. But I don't believe in that. Once I'm dead, that's it. And it depresses me to no end. I don't want it to end.
Edit: Sorry for the bummer post. I LOVE the gardening pics!!! I want to be fertilizer -- that's my idea of immortality.
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OMG ... another huge pic! ... Sorry gals!
I forgot I changed my avatar and was stunned to see Mr. Tim's pic on this site. I'm a goofball!
Elizabeth .. count me in as another large fertilizer for my gardens after I'm gone.
Kar .. there are times I'm sad because I can't get my old faith back. It was actually easier to believe ... but I just don't have it in me anymore.
love to all,
Bren
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