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?
I love cosmos! I tried to grow them from seed this year for the 1st time. No luck. I think the soil got too wet and heavy from the numerous heavy rains we had. I'll get small plants next time and cover them with a screen-like covering, no more fiddling with seeds! I wish you great luck with your daisies and cone flowers. I'll bet they're beautiful.
I WISH we had Lunaria because it sounds so interesting. I've only seen it in the silvery dried stage on a visit to MI and I liked it quite a bit. Our dollar weeds are green with a stem leading to a top piece similar to a silver dollar laying horizontally on the stem, but a green color. It travels fast by trailing on the ground, mostly in the grass. Weed 'n' feed doesn't kill it. You can't just pull them up. You have to use harsh chemicals on them, which we don't like to do.
I like your reminder that plants communicate with each other. I remember reading something along that line, also. Not major communication, but a little something. That old saying about people talking to their plants and the plants thriving might actually have some basis in reality...who knows?
I like the Finch's Cottage, such an upgrade for a dandelion. I didn't know finches like dandelions! That could be because we have no finches and I don't let any dandelions bloom before I rip them out. No reproducing allowed for them!!
BTW, did you know that plants do communicate with each other? I read about an experiment done to test whether or not plants had methods of communicating with each other to warn of pest invasions. They do. So those little cartoons of plants waving their flower heads, saying good morning, asking if it will rain...just might be true, if a little exaggerated for humor.
Coloresue, are you referring to Lunaria, the money plant? Love your joke about the dollars in the trash!
I usually cut them and put them in a vase with lilacs as they bloom about the same time. The contrast of the lighter and darker violets colors is quite lovely. Later, as they become thinner and silvery, they'll sometimes glint in the sun, as if providing a beacon for traveling pollinators.
Then, as they mature, their foliage if in the sun will begin to turn read, kind of an advance color brigade before trees begin their own annual wardrobe change.
I'm thinking I could also give some plants more upscale names to make them feel more wanted, even if others consider them weeds.
I think mullein could be a nice high rise hotel; it has several inches of flower buds which the pollinators love. Maybe I should call it something fancy, like a Hilton flower (although that's of boring). Names, anyone? What are great upscale hotels that are tall and slender?
I think the dandelion could be the Finch's Cottage; it's the only flower on which I've seen finches.
We have a lot of dollar weeds, so the day they get weeded we'll have hundreds of dollars in the trash can. ouch....bad joke.
Who else gives names to their weeds?
Please share with us if you name those weeds!! Your suggestion is funny and the names can be funny. Humor is good medicine.
When I decided to make a friend of the feral cat using the side of our driveway as a litter box, named it "Missing", never saw it again.
Named the skink (that I never had seen before, but was nervous about) "Zink", and that night saw it, but have never seen it again.
Think I should try naming the weeds, because in Zink's part of the garden, my husband has not pulled the tall runners of green grass weeds, maybe he is just being respectful of Zink's habitat? When all is said and the garden is done, maybe I should rename my husband, something like Shane? Come back Shane! Or, NOT.
LOL.
Good to hear vinca/periwinkle is so flexible!
Don't be concerned about my hubby's safety, we are only getting some rain and a little breeze. The hurricane is too far away. I pray it doesn't make a crazy course change toward us, but it's not likely.
I finally looked up vincas to understand the discussion on them. They're periwinkles!! Weeds!! No wonder they usually thrive without care. They've always been weeds here, but in the last 5-8 yrs. or so they've been hybridized to get prettier colors. They like our sandy soil so they may have trouble in rich, wet soil or clay. Just FYI.
Last night we had a good strong rain. Clean-up is on Monday, I can only hope.
My understanding is the H. Joaquin is pulling in a weather system from the Mississippi area that's resulting in these sudden hard-hitting downpours that stop abruptly. By late afternoon we've gotten lighter rains that last 15-20 minutes sometimes. Still strange.
I agree the swans are beautiful, lucky you! We don't have too many. I've seen beauties on lakes in MI. My cousin 40 min. from Traverse City but in the country with property has a lot of deer because they planted many apple trees to attract & feed the deer. They live on venison quite a bit. I've seen wild turkey families there, too. MI is beautiful both there, at Torch Lake and near Detroit in Royal Oak (years ago).
Bougainvilleas that I had had long thorns on them. I got pricked by one while pruning and ended up going to my dr. a month later because I could not get rid of the infection, he lanced it for me...turned out to be a staff infection, LOL!!
I have some okra pods on the plants I'm letting mature. Harvesting garlic chives seeds ... I read where they can be sprouted like bean or alfalfa sprouts. Zinnia seeds are drying on the counter. Swiss chard seeds dried. You know what I found are great for seed storage are these tiny canning jars, they're four oz. size. Store in the back of the fridge. I like the book Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth.
Then I put the seeds in a small pan like a brownie pan and rinse out skins and all the floaters..some seeds may sprout, rinse them out as well. Place them in a hosiery dryer bag with an ID marker for the type of tomato seeds and dry in the dryer for about 30 minutes. If your finger nail leaves an indentation on the seeds, dry for a little longer until no mark can be left. Package and mark for ID.
I learned this after working in seed saving in Agricultural Research for a company for many years. If you only have a handful of seeds to save you can place the seeds on a paper towel or piece of cardboard in a sunny window sill.
I have never seen a rabbit dance - it must be very special and unique. Could you video it for a YouTube posting or would it be too dark if they're dancing in the moonlight? And probably since you'd like to see another, they'll do their dancing somewhere else!
You really do have an abundance of wildlife. You can keep the alligators though; I'd really not want them wandering around my back yard! On the other hand, maybe I'd try to send them after the speeders that zoom up and down my street.
Interesting that I've never seen a frog or toad, but had always planned to create a toad house to encourage any that might be around to take up residence.
Deer are abundant in some of the wooded areas in SE Michigan, especially along some of the freeways that border woods. Sadly, some are also just too close to those freeways.
We count the swans in the natural lakes; the most I've counted has been about 2 dozen at one particular lake where they congregate. Usually they're in pairs; sometimes one is in the nest while the other is grocery shopping in the pond or lake. We really love to see the swans; they're so graceful and beautiful.
One of the things I want to create for my garden is a swan made either from willow or grape vines, then fill it with flowers, like a large container planter.
I've never seen a wood stork. We don't see more than half a dozen herons, egrets, sandhill cranes or other long legged wildfowl. They're usually solitary in this area, although I've occasionally seen two together.
Once, late at night when I was walking I witnessed 2 rabbits dancing!! And I mean DANCING. I'd forgotten about that until just now. It was amazing and super special. They didn't touch each other (like a slow dance!) but their movements were face-to-face with leaps and jumps that must have meaning to them. It was like a segment out of a Disney movie. Maybe a mating ritual? I'll never truly forget that special moment, even though I don't understand it. I'd love to hear if anyone else has seen this.
I like visits from opossums, frogs, toads, woodpeckers of many kinds, tufted titmice, whipoorwills, ospreys, red hawks, huge grasshoppers and huge smooth green and brown moths, many kinds of butterflies, rare salamanders, skinks, bald eagles and raccoons. Anywhere there's fresh or brackish water there can be alligators. And Fl is absolutely loaded with lakes, ponds and marshes. Alligators are frequently seen in the water. Our raccoons act the same as yours in our many campgrounds where everyday is a feast day. It's intriguing to see the many creative methods used to keep the racoons out of the garbage cans. Since we have had the huge, heavily lidded city issued garbage cans for automated pickup we don't have raccoons getting into them any more. Yay!
I've seen raccoons, squirrels, deer, rabbits, herons, and wood storks get used to people and lose their normal fear due to people feeding them. I don't like to see this since it's not good for the wildlife.
Herons and egrets are fascinating - they're so elegant, so graceful, and have the ability to stand motionless on those long thin legs - they're kind of the ballerinas of the wildfowl kingdom.
It must be especially rewarding to have the opportunity to watch so many different wild creatures.
We have the usual red, grey and black squirrels. The latter two will face off and one ends up scurrying away. The greys have magnificent fluffy tails. Maybe their body temp is lower and they need thicker tails to keep themselves warm.
We've had a few rabbits, tame and feral cats, an occasional opossum, and definitely a raccoon presence. Sometimes they're so bold they don't even scamper away when a human accidentally encroaches on THEIR territory- they do seem to act as if we're the trespassers.
Decades ago a neighbor told me that they know when garbage pickup day is. Momma Raccoon brings out her babies the night before and they have a buffet dinner. It's probably their "dining night out". And they do a little bit of rearranging as well, knocking over garbage cans, sorting through for the best delicacies....leaving a mess....
I've only seen one garter snake in over 3 decades at this location.
You're spot on! It was a very special bonding experience. Feeling closer to nature in this manner is always welcome.
Finally in west central FL we've gotten some cooler breezes and less humidity!! Fall is arriving!!
I've been looking and watching our lizards and I'm seeing a good increase in the anoles!! We have one who reigns at the large front windows. He's bigger than most others and stands guard over his kingdom, fighting off would-be-kings. One such loser has no tail. Then there's the lovers, throwing their reddish throats out to attract the girls. They are all over the place but it took my son the biology major to update me. So mea culpa, I was wrong about the anoles making a comeback.
Snakes: We have some snakes, which are good for vermin we don't want. I feel I'm interrupting when I round the corner and the black one is sunning itself on our walkway and I startle it. I don't want to lose it.
Ibis: The ibis are always welcome as they pass through eating bugs out of the grass in front. I wish they'd stay longer, & they are beautiful.
Herons: I love watching herons stalking lizards. They hold perfectly still, then slowly take a step forward, eyes never leaving their victim and somehow not appearing to move. They can hold perfectly still for a long time before they strike. They strike lightning fast and rarely seem to miss.
Sandhill cranes: These cranes are very large birds with red on their heads. Happily they are thriving and increasing in number here.
Okay, that's my happy news today!
That's interesting that they clicked to signal a safe approach. And I'm guessing that your son felt a bond with them after watching the babies so closely. There's a special bond with nature when someone can see such an event on a daily basis, and almost feel a part of the event.