garden98011's Blog

Going to "the other side'
Mar 28, 2008 | 7:50 AM PST

Today, I leave to spend a long weekend at my dad's house in eastern WA.  I am not crazy about E.WA (went to college over there), while we are almost experiencing spring on this side-they are freezing over there.  I packed my 'Under Armour' and ski gloves so I can still run.  They retired to Selah twenty eight years ago, so it's my second home.  My step-mom (72yo)has metastasized esophageal cancer (6yrs), time is of the essence-hers on this earth will end soon.  I am looking forward to the time spent, hopefully soothing her and making her load a bit easier.

Brownthumb had suggested to Gardenbug8 to select a plant to remind her of her sweet sister, Anna.  So, I plan on making that a joint decision with D so she is aware of the love that surrounds her.  We have a lovely lace leaf maple planted for T, my late husband (died of ALS)-I think of him every time I see one!  It will be interesting to see what we come up with for D.  D loved to garden, she did it big-never bought a few bulbs, she would buy 500 or 1000.  My love of cannas came from her, though I only recently ventured to plant any.

I have the kindest husband in the world who offered to care for my mother w/Alzheimer's (who lives w/us)so I could visit D....bless him!  My 17yo promised to keep the castor beans & luffa seeds moist so all that's really left is opening the garage doors for those plants(brugmansias & plumerias, etc) to become more acclimated.  The plants in the courtyard waiting for homes are covered in burlap during the night due to our cold snap-hope one of them remembers to uncover during the day....

Oh, and my puppy is staying home, now that could be the issue.  She is so quiet, it's quite possible nobody will remember to take her out!!!! Thankfully, we have mostly hardwoods, slate or cork floors & a gallon of Pet Ayre!

This was kinda about gardening-more rambling than gardening though.  Looking forward to what God has in store this weekend! See ya next week~Andrea

Double Blessing Day
Mar 15, 2008 | 4:03 PM PST

Today was so blissful, though I can hardly sit long enough to check email and wait for my Ibuprofen to kick in.  First, I am remembering each moment 24 years ago like it just happened-my oldest daughter was born and I still remember the absolute "high" I felt (natural!-but sure wish I would have had an epi!!).  She currently lives in Boise, but is moving back to our neck of the woods in June-sooooooooo exciting, she is lovely.

Remembering the birth is not why I needed the IB.   Today was the second annual "Garden Party"  for my sweet friend (avid gardener) and her family.  Her youngest suffered a seizure January 2007 from undiagnosed Addison's disease ( http://www.annaleesullivan.
blogspot.com/  ) and she has her hands full, but amazing things are happening and we are watching that darling child improve-ahhhhhhhhh-long journey though.  So, we had less turn out than anticipated-it was raining (March=rain in Seattle area), but we were able to get all six yards of compost spread, three yards of gravel to freshen her pathways and tons of trimming, weeding, etc.  Stepping back (after 6hrs), and looking at the tidy yard was so joyful.  Knowing she'll have someplace peaceful to just breathe when everything else gets crazy is such a blessing.  You should have seen the look on her face-what a wonderful woman.

I had to share with all you other gardeners-you know that feeling.  Many of you are still under inches of snow, but just imagine the feeling when you have freshly spread compost.  Your peaceful spot is right around the corner. ~ Andrea

Funny Non-gardening story
Mar 12, 2008 | 12:15 AM PST

My sweet 17yo daughter came home from a movie tonight and relayed this story:

J (daughter) was on her way to meet a friend when she noticed a car stuck in the ditch.  She stopped and asked if the driver needed any assistance, the woman said she had already placed a call to her husband.  Before driving off J asked again-"are you certain you're okay?".  The woman said "yes, just take my advice though, whenever you see an opossum-just hit it."

I laughed so hard-no wonder we see tons of them squashed around here! ~Andrea (P.S. J is so kind hearted...great kiddo-okay, almost young woman)

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Reference Blog
Mar 6, 2008 | 7:13 PM PST

Saturday, 3/1 started my morning off meeting my sweet friend to get going on joint training for the 3Day-we went 7miles.  Last  week, I sold our fountain on Craig's list, had the neighbor boy dig a pond bought a beautiful shimmery orangey-red pot from Aw Pottery & had it plumbed for a fountain.  Today, all  we needed to do was level the bottom of the pond, line everything with old carpet, then the liner plus concrete blocks to support the pot (24x34) and finally place the container on those blocks-doesn't sound like much, but that pot is heavy.  We finished most of the project by dark.

Sunday, 3/2-started the fountain project after church thinking we'd be done in an hour or so-haha. We had to reposition some of the stone patio to level it out-not an easy task.  Being newly married, this project was really good for us to experience together.  I loved having him outside in the garden, he would do something that didn't need my assistance so I would plant a few things then run over to help, we worked well together-though I tend to be a bit more of a perfectionist-working on that. I also took time to hand paint round-up on every piece of lamium I found poking its leaf through the ground, normally an organic gardener, but had absolutely no remorse! We were finally ready to add water at 5pm!  It looks beautiful. So much for the supposed "2hr DIY" as the directions in the magazine where I read the article stated.

Monday, 3/3-checked on new fountain-hmmmmmmmmm water level was down 4"-bummer.  Told DH he saw it as well, but was hoping I had drained it for some reason!  (So wish I had) We finally agreed the earth had to settle and that was the cause-made us feel better at the time (denial is good).  I refilled several times throughout the morning....major bummer-down about 6".  Now we have to drain that huge pot, move it off the blocks, emtpy the pond (not huge-half circle 54x24deep), until we find the leak...not looking forward to the process. Off to my dental appointment, love getting my teeth cleaned, feels so good after.

Tuesday, 3/4-Started acclimating plants little over a week ago-wee bit soon, should have waited-but that first sunny day got the best of me.  Today the brugs are showing a lot of new growth, the plumerias are shooting new leaves and the palm leaf begonias are visably larger.  Plan to pop some more in the garden this weekend.  Some new EEs are even breaking through! My mom starts a new social class from 11:30-4:30 today..so I have free time, should clean the floors, but bet I'll putter outside after exercising!

Wednesday, 3/5-Took care of Annie today (my sweet friend's 4yo daughter w/Addison's-had seizure 1/2007-brain damaged)WoW is she getting better, started a new tube fed diet to help w/seizures and reduce meds-slow going, but she's being healed daily.  Her mom is a gardener so we discussed several options for her design at the church and I went to three nurseries to find the plants for budgeting purposes-hard work, but had to be done-haha!! It was the perfect day to be roaming around those nurseries-loved it.  Was finally able to purchase my tree fern-decided my garden could hardly hold one, let alone two(selected the one on the right under my misc.album).  They had some sort of white bug on them when they returned from the Flower & Garden show, so the nursery wouldn't let me buy it until it was sprayed, etc.  They will care for it until ready to plant 4/15!!! So exciting-it's almost 5' tall.

Thursday, 3/6-Have a class this morning, but am hoping I will get outside this afternoon. I need to make room for that tree fern!  Looks like the sun will shine all day, we had ice on the windows when I drove my daughter to school-spring weather. Okay, here it is 6:30 and no gardening was done today.  After class & running around purchasing plants for the church project w/my mom (fun though!), it started to become overcast and is now raining.  I did survey and compiled a list of things to send to Bugnut and am excited about that.

This blog is truly for my reference-my creative writing skills were only utilized when in college (lonnnnnnng time ago) or while writing a resume (lonnnnnnng time ago as well)~Andrea