What have you done today in the Garden?

Hey Pac— ahhhh there’s one of those moths again…this time in flight. Excellent. The cactus dahlia is really lovely. I do not know that one. squirrels and a hawk to round it off.
great theead.

 

Thankx .

 

I was lucky back then. My wife reads a lot of medical stuff in magazines. She told me that there were plastic hips available now on the NHS.
When I saw my surgeon for a consultation, I mentioned it, but he said he didn't know anything about them. But six weeks later when I had the operation, he said as a fellow golfer, he was going to give me one of the new plastic hips!

After the operation, the next day he said he had trouble with my hip as there were calcified spurs around it which he had to chisel off and then work out where to put it!
But it was fine, you wouldn't know I'd had it done. When I went back six weeks later to get "signed off," I gave him a bottle of Glenfiddich. He looked a bit startled, thanked me and then said, "I'll be able to put this on my appraisal!"
I was back playing golf in less than eight weeks. It was only my left hip that needed doing, the other was fine. It was a legacy of playing an awful lot of squash in my younger days, being left handed, I was always turning on that leg.
I've had no problems since.

 

DHR happy to hear your new hip has served you well .

 

Yesterday was mowing, edging with the string trimmer and planting out the horseradish and mint in or around one of the small raised beds. Today was finish cleaning up the wisteria cuttings and getting them into the green bin. The rotten lumber is piled up until I can cut it into smaller pieces to dispose of. Started moving rocks from the area to extend the base of the hillside where most of the blueberries are. Spent time cleaning up a scattered bage of mulch my puppy used as a toy. The bag weighed about 25 pounds the same as her. Had difficulty appreciating her playfulness.

horseradish and mint out of their pots Have been trying to think what to plant here. Solution found.

Staging more rocks to extend this bed.


Wisteria trellis dismantled, stacked and most rocks removed to side hillside base. Still not sure what to do with the wisteria stumps, but will probably remove them in the future. Once the fall rains come will leave a row of sword ferns and find new homes for the others. This area is a couple hundred feet from a water tap. Next I need to remove the small brick patio. Fortunately they are loose. I am beginning to think about how to easily mow with the riding lawnmower.

 

Very creative planter you have there and cute welcome flag. So much has been done already this season. You have been buzzy.
Maybe a solution for you when flowerbeds are located 100 feet from the water faucet.
In my garden all the flowerbeds are watered by hoses connected to soaker hoses to the flowerbeds. It might work as well for your garden. I use a brass hose faucet manifold . Attach hoses to the manifold secured at the faucet add soaker hoses needed for each flowerbed spread out around the plants.
Pic of brass manifold secured at the water faucet . Has on and off valves . On Amazon.

 

That is some hard work, Jewell! I sure do like the way your gardens are developing. You must be over the moon. Chapeau.

 

Re hip joint replacements:

My dad was in a horrible car wreck in 1944 when he was 15. The driver was drunk, and took a sharp L turn at full speed on a cold rainy night. There were a lot of kids along for the ride. They hit a giant oak tree head on. The driver and 2 passengers were killed. Daddy went through the steel roof and landed high in the tree over a branch like in old cartoons. He had many major injuries, and was in a coma for ten weeks, and spent over 1 year in the hospital. It is a miracle he lived. One of his injuries was his left hip joint was smashed to smithereens. They could only remove the bone fragments in 1944, and Daddy walked for many years without a hip joint. One of his doctors was one of the surgeons who developed hip replacements and the surgeries in the 1960s, and he had 7 total hip replacement surgeries, plus a spinal fusion to repair the damages from walking so many years without a hip joint. Counting the accident he was in, he had to relearn how to walk 9 times in his life. I met a nurse at one of my first jobs who was on duty in the ER when the accident victims were brought in. She was a student nurse, and knew everyone in that car, they were friends of hers. She had to do the post-mortems on the dead. She told me details I had not known, and she was surprised that Daddy had lived.

Just thought that might be interesting to those who have had hip replacement surgeries. My 93 year old Mother had fractured the same hip twice, and hip replacement surgery when she was 92. They had pinned her hip with the first fracture. After her second fall, it was not an option.

*******

Have any of you ever tasted a rose of Sharon flower? I read recently where rose of Sharon flowers and leaves are edible. I have never really had a desire to eat them, but thought I would taste one this afternoon. I picked a dark pink one. It tasted okay. They put them in teas, and you could add them to a salad, or make food coloring with them, decorate cakes... The taste was pleasant. Maybe I will pick some this week, and take them to church dinner for a surprise.

 

Rose of Sharon Tree, A Beautiful Edible - Eat The Planet

here are some ideas of what to do with rose of Sharon flowers and leaves. I have hordes of these bushes.

Be back later...

 

Potted on some of the wallflowers, picked some fruit, no need to water because we've had rain showers for a week or so.

 

@AAnightowl Hip replacements is a life saver/ changer for so many. Even though it is in the top 10 of most painful surgeries for recovery and takes months. Now it’s a common surgery giving new life to thousands all over the world. Very sorry to hear of your father’s injuries and suffering. Isn’t it amazing he recovered with so much to over come. Someone was watching over him that night.

‘Hibiscus syriacus ‘ tea is one of my favorites, hot or cold it’s the best and many recipes online. Or hibiscus liquor.
https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/hibiscus-liqueur

Some tidbits from me : My first luv as a child was the hibiscus flower, born in Hawaii. It is ‘The State Flower’ of Hawaii. Another small tidbit : The hibiscus flower is inscribed on my gold wedding ring with wide-knuckle arch band outlined in black onyx.
Now : Waiting on my hibiscus buds to open , keeping the deer at bay using Plantskyyd.
*Interesting link ‘Eat the planet”.*
Thanx for sharing.

 

Yes @Pacnorwest those brass fittings are my saving grace. With only two spigots they are a must. I’ve never liked flat land so am pleased with living on a slope. Don’t know why but have always found areas with rocks and elevation more interesting than the normal flat suburban lots.
@Sjoerd i quickly forget where I started and only have my visions for the future. Fortunately I have taken enough photos to look back. Very handy when planting new things. I have to keep an eye out for the yuccas coming back and not planting on their remains.
Sometimes things develop organically like the driveway raised bed. (A visitor hit the metal post for the old abandoned clothesline) somehow a bed is now developing around it with my beloved native sword ferns and rampant mint.
@AAnightowl very interesting information on the rose of Sharon.

Finished clearing the area by the wisteria stumps, watered it because there are some little pink geranium plants I want to save and relocate, moved two ferns by the driveway raised bed that delineate an old clothes line and continued with extending the bottom terrace for the blueberries and future strawberries.

Only one more fern to move, but don’t know where yet.


‘it’s going to take a bit of mulch to fill this terrace but the berries will love it.


New bed around the driveway raised bed. The ferns will take a few seasons to look lush after the rough treatment. This area is shaded by a big leaf maple in the afternoon. The tomatoes and kale didn’t do a lot last summer so am hoping these plantings might do better.


My working area and fellow digger, Trixie. Photo taken from the path above

 

@Jewell the ferns will shape up nicely by next season. They are easy care and it’s always a good thing to have some easy care plants. If I may suggest another nice shaped fern easy care is the cinnamon fern ( Osmunds cinnamome ) .
Very hardy and stay green thruout the 4 seasons. They don’t get as ratty looking or develop huge amounts of spores set adrift in winds as the western sword ferns ( Polystichum munitum) . Every couple of years I separate them and plant new cuttings in dry shaded area under trees.

Another nice fern is the maidenhair ferns , (Adiantum pedatum ). They are native to the PNW forests like many other ferns mentioned. They like hillsides with rocky slops and streams of water.

Cinnamon fern full plant


Cinnamon fern leaf

 

@Pacnorwest , I love those ferns. I have some new ostrich plume ferns, but they are not very big yet. I HOPE they get huge like they are supposed to. I also have two pots of Boston ferns that need up-potted, or divided. There are also small wild ferns growing here and there.

@Jewel you must be VERY STRONG to move those giant rocks. I have some to move, but have not done it yet. I was hoping my DS would move them, but he has so much other stuff to do. I may try moving them later when we get some cooler weather. I have some smaller ones to figure out where to put them.

I did do my main mowing today. That takes several hours with the rider.

Our power was out almost 2 hours this evening. No idea why.

 

@Pacnorwest great suggestions. I do have one maiden fern. It’s doing well. They can’t be allowed to dry out so unfortunately I lost one that was under a house eve. The evergreen deer ferns seem to be well suited for glacial till and I’ve been able to divide them. I wasn’t successful with cinnamon ferns in the past but may try them again. The wind, sun and poor, quickly dry soil conditions have been a challenge. My favorite tassel ferns have gotten sun/wind burned as well as the Japanese painted ferns, even after I moved them. My other favorite is the autumn fern. Colors are nice and is evergreen. Had them at my other house and the size is nice. Will probably get another as space allows. Sword ferns are definitely the easiest and a once a year trimming keeps them tidy (plus any and all organic materials on the soil is gold). Unfortunately the changing climate is seeing many of them dying in some areas so any and all I can preserve I am happy to do.

@AAnightowl i don’t lift the rocks. I couldn’t if I wanted to. I can use leverage to roll them onto the handcart which I lay the handle over the bars for grass catcher on my riding lawnmower. Easy peasy and my little electric mower hauls them for me to their new location. Just have to work smarter when strength isn’t the strong suit. (I think of the rocks I bought over the years for landscaping. Here the yard and neighborhood is scattered with rocks and boulders. This area was a weird dumping ground at one time for the advancing and retreating ice age glacier. (Sometimes silt, sometimes gravel, sometimes boulders) Geological history is quite fascinating to me.