Accessible Gardening: Practical Matters for Physically Challenged Gardeners #15, 0 by Amargia

Amargia wrote:
Hi, Sheri! Hope you are feeling better. Kay keeps a walker around for her “dizzy blond” days. Something about the shape of the ear canal makes people in her family very prone to ear infections .
Your return made me think of something else I would like to do in the Old Soldiers Garden. I think there should be something especially for the women who have served. Any ideas?
I’ve been educating myself on plant hardiness zone systems. I thought I’d found a system more practical than either the USDA system or the Sunset xone system. The USDA system sounds good until you stop to consider that Dallas and Seattle are in the same zone. The Sunset system has promise, but it
still needs work to be useful in the eastern half of the country. The Kurpin system is something even I can wrap my mind around, butt I can see some problems. We fall solidly into a Kurpin category (sub-tropical). But, I had a much harder time trying to figure out what category Vickie’s stomping ground would be in. (Continental, Mountain or Steepe?) The Kurpin system was developed around 1900 by a meteorologist/botanist namedVladamir Kurpin. Today was the first I had heard of it though. (There might be an article somewhere in our laughable attempts to develop a workable plant hardiness system, Carrie. One that you could actually relate to.)
My attempts to domesticate my wife continue. I was upset with Kay for disappearing into the creek side woods for most of a day. It is a dangerous stretch of woods filled with raveens. Holes and unexpected drops. . I don’t think a person can take two consecutive steps on level ground. I was so worried I went in as far as I could to find her..and discovered why she does it. Along the creek there are plants you don’t see in tamer terrain. I found a gorgeous blue bloom. Can’t find a match for it in the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center database. Maybe, it is a garden escapee or November isn’t its normal bloom time. It could have popped up late after the deciduous trees dropped their foliage and it had more light.
Kay is still in hot water for disappearing so long. They have tracking devices for hunting dogs who get lost in the woods.. I wonder if they have tracking devices for wives.
Photos: Kay ventures into the woods to hug the trees and Braille the different ferns and mosses, but it was the siren call of these blue blooms that drew me in.