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?
They worked out tremendously for me, for both flowers and veggies. Not sure if I am allowed to post references to others on here but I was very inspired by a lovely older fellow named Leon, who has his own channel on Youtube - Gardening with Leon.
This summer I planted one for tomatoes for myself at my place, and four for my mother to have on her balcony: one=mimulus, one=bush tomatoes, one=calibrachoa, one=mixed herbs. The trick seems to be to pick plants that appreciate moist (but not wet) soil.
My mother has no strength in her hands or arms and is not able to water planters. This new (to me) idea worked well - I was able to water them only 2x/week during my regular visits, and she had something to look at and not worry about.
GardenArtist: In the end, I did a half yank re the petunias. LOL. I removed the ones that were very obviously powering down, and left the ones that still seemed somewhat enthusiastic about being here. I decided it would be a small experiment - which ones could take days of rain and bounce back? In the end, the clear winner is a red wave. So now I know.
I caught myself wondering what others would think about my half colourful, half empty garden - really? Is that how far my need to please has gone? So I gave my head a shake and decided to just please myself.
Now I am planning which bulbs to plant, and where. I am not particularly a lover of tulips but I have a decided fascination with daffodils. So 2021 may be the Year of the Daffs. We shall see!
Just used up the last of the green tomatoes making "Rummage Relish". Oh, my. The house smells so good!
Are they low maintenance?
Doesn’t Minnesota have a high mosquito population like we have here? Seems like I remember a friend who grew up there saying they had a lot of mosquitoes too. Gosh, they get very cold too. She laughed at me when I said I was cold on a chilly night here. She told me that I would never survive in a Minnesota winter!
Looks like Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia topped the list in 2019.
Glad the traffic in Baton Rouge, LA when she was at LSU was awful.
Oh my gosh, during football season they would do caravans. It was horrible! They are die hard football fans. They had an undefeated season last year along with winning the national championship! Geaux Tigers!
The traffic is crazy! The tailgating is unreal. Streets are blocked off. Traffic backs up for hours!
She is in a good area. She loves being able to walk most everywhere. She says people are more courteous on the road than in Louisiana. LOL
She likes being in an area with lots of coffee shops and restaurants. She has a friend whose brother plays music and is planning to go hear their band.
She knows several people from Louisiana that have moved there and have been settled there for a few years so they are filling her in in the areas to avoid.
She has a friend in Vail and a couple of friends in Englewood. She wants to be in Denver. She knows a few people near her. She needs to find a doctor and dentist.
She went to the botanical gardens and loved it! She says there is a nice farmers market nearby. Oh, she drove to IKEA to buy a few things for her apartment and was amazed at the size. We don’t have an IKEA in Louisiana.
She has been seeing signs about winterizing your car and that’s new for her too.
There are community gardens in the area. Some even on rooftops of apartment buildings. But is is too late here to think about starting anything new. It may very well be windowsill gardening, or maybe houseplants?😉
She says due to the lower humidity the cold is different there. I say it’s still cold! She says, “Mom, it’s not the bone chilling cold like in higher humidity.”
She was so picky as a child. I was afraid that she would starve in college! LOL She actually learned to eat more variety. She never listened to me saying something was good but she had an open mind with friends. I don’t care who got through to her, just glad she started eating more variety!
I am shocked at the food (veggies) that I always served and encouraged her to eat and she wasn’t ever big on trying them. Now, she’s calling me and saying how good Brussels spouts are! It’s all that I can do not to laugh. I refrain and tell her that I am glad she enjoying different dishes.
I guess that isn’t uncommon for kids to act that way with parents.
I loved gardening with my grandpa. I loved the beautiful colors of the veggies and flowers. I liked collecting the figs from their fig tree for grandma to make preserves.
My daughter, age 24 recently moved to Colorado. She is very excited about the change of seasons. We don’t have that in Louisiana. She is enjoying the leaves turning and looking forward to snow.
I am happy for her. It is a treat for us in the muggy south to experience these things. She is most excited about lower humidity.
What have you witnessed from southern transplants that move to a colder area? Think her excitement will last?
She says she is going snowboarding with her friend over the Christmas holidays. She’s all in!
She eats a variety of food but was telling me about a restaurant there that grows their own produce and herbs and has even developed an interest in gardening!
Don’t know where? She rents a second floor apartment. Guess she means growing herbs in a window sill or something like that.
Please tell us more about your gardening ventures. What kind of petunias do you grow? There have been some interesting variations over the years. I need to refresh my knowledge on what's available and plan to start some for next year, although if I remember correctly, unless you get pelleted seeds, they're kind of hard to plant.
CWillie, I envy your carrot success. I planted them more than a few years but never had a successful crop. Perhaps I should just throw some tops with a bit of foliage in a compost pile and see what happens.
NeedHelp, I'm partial to Preservation Hall. My sister moved to NOLA and stayed for a few years. PH was one of the places we definitely had to be when I visited her. I'm not familiar with Snug Harbor. Maybe that's reason enough to visit NOLA again?
I do miss those beignets too. Is that restaurant along the river still there, tempting visitors with the fragrance of fresh beignets?
Our Jazz is fantastic! Snug Harbor on Frenchman St. is the place to hear jazz.
Ahhhh, yes the candy! As for pralines, Southern Candy is phenomenal! Order some online for yourself! They are on Decatur St.
Some of my fondest memories as a kid with my grandpa were in the kitchen making pralines with him.
The things I remember best are the incredible heat and humidity, and the delicious chocolates of Maison Blanche, which unfortunately apparently are no longer available. I've never had such delicious mint chocolate! The beignets from the outdoor market in the Jackson Square area were so tempting, delicious, and probably fattening. But who could resist them?
Preservation Hall is on the opposite end from a high end opera and symphony concert hall, but PH is alive with so much jazz music and rhythm that it ranks on the same level of pleasure and musical entertainment.
Oh, and I remember the pralines given to customers of stores in the French Quarter.
I can share a cool story about a Louisiana winery. When one thinks of wine, Louisiana doesn’t come to mind. North of New Orleans is St. Tammany Parish, about an hour’s drive away.
A little farther away from the burbs, past Mandeville and Covington, going into Bush is a winery! it’s in a rural section of Louisiana, lots of farm land, nurseries with several varieties of plants, some horse farms, dairy farmers, etc.
It was started by an attorney who got sick of corporate life and pursued his dream to have own a vineyard. It’s called Pontchartrain Vinyards. I have gone to events there. It’s nice and they hold jazz concerts in the fall that are really nice.
Of course the wine is flowing and they also have meals that can be purchased or you are allowed to pack your own picnic basket. I love to hear about people who follow their dreams. He had his naysayers but he made it happen!
I love Napa and Sonoma. This isn’t the same vibe. California has my favorite weather. It’s in our muggy climate and it’s a small winery but hey, we have a vineyard!
We kept food inventories. I created a list of what Mom and Dad purchased regularly, added dates and number counts, plus amounts left. When they removed something, they checked it off on the list, taped to the freezer. That way we could easily see what was being used the most and in need of restocking.
That included food, cider, and of course the all important food, ice cream.
I'm wondering if anyone cans? If you garden, like CWillie does, you can store so much more with canning, although it is a hot process with all that water boiling on the stove during the sometimes hot late summer.
We also bought food dryers. Mom and Dad dried peppers; I dried apples. And we both experimented with other foods, like tomatoes. I wasn't that pleased with the end result; dried food just didn't have the taste or quality of fresh or frozen. But it was good for long term storage.
What I never got around to trying was drying grapes to make my own raisins.
Do you have an extra freezer? I don’t. I have a side by side fridge, older model with ice and water in the door. There really isn’t a lot of freezer room.
I do cook double batches a lot and freeze one for later but I don’t keep something in the freezer for more than a month or so. I never remember the shelf life on things. I need to print out a chart. I do write the date and name of the meal on the freezer bag.
My daddy grew them in a large container like you do. He always gave me some. The neighbor across the street wanted some too. He had plenty. I loved having them without having to buy them too.
Do mirlitons grow in your area? My dad had tons of them! They need a trellis to climb. My grandpa grew eggplant and we stuff it here with seafood too, crab and shrimp. Or simply breaded and fried. I like to roast eggplant and sometimes my husband throws it on the grill.
It’s a very popular dish here. They are stuffed with a shrimp dressing or sometimes ham. Very southern dish that is commonly served at Thanksgiving dinner.
My gardening yields are tiny, barely enough for me let alone extra to sell 🤣
Stuffed peppers! Fajitas, Stir fries. roasted red peppers! You have it all covered!
Do you sell at a farmers market? You should. I love buying from the farmers markets.
Louisiana has great strawberries. The strawberry farmers here sell everywhere! Local groceries, festivals and fairs, farmers markets and restaurants.
We have Louisiana yams that are similar to sweet potatoes. I think the vines are beautiful too.
Our rice crops are a staple here. Red beans and rice, shrimp creole, jambalaya and on and on and on. We cook tons of rice.
It’s interesting how different regions have different food. My daughter recently moved to Denver and she was telling me that there is a restaurant near her that sells New Orleans food. Normally natives from New Orleans would run from a place like that because it isn’t authentic New Orleans cuisine but she said that the chef is a transplant from New Orleans. So she’s happy about that!
She says she’s in a very walkable area and there are beautiful gardens everywhere. She will not miss our humidity. She’s getting adjusted to the higher elevation but the snow will be a huge change for her.
She seems to be settling in, most things are unpacked, only a couple of boxes left and she mentioned that she wants to get some easy houseplants for her apartment.
I haven’t had houseplants in awhile. I used to grow African violets. I love them.
A friend said she could not eat green peppers because they are 'less ripe' than yellow, orange, or red.
Online:
"Red peppers pack the most nutrition, because they've been on the vine longest. Green peppers are harvested earlier, before they have a chance to turn yellow, orange, and then red. Compared to green bell peppers, the red ones have almost 11 times more beta-carotene and 1.5 times more vitamin C."
Thanks for the plethora of information. Great response!