Accessible Gardening: #21 Practical Matters for Phsically Challenged Gardeners, 2 by seacanepain

seacanepain wrote:
TTC, our condolences to you and Dave. My only major complaint about flying is how tightly passengers are packed in. I thought it was just me that felt that way because I\'m such a big guy. The lack of leg room makes me feel like I\'m scrunched up for the entire trip.
The last few days have been nothing but work and sleep. We made some real progress working like this, but can\'t keep it up for long. Today is a recovery day. At first we were working all night and sleeping during the day to avoid the heat, but I am \"a total lark\", to use Kay\'s terminology. I hated working nights when I was in the AF, but I was often put on the swing shift.
We are back to getting up before dawn and working to around 10 a.m. Then, going back out around 5 and working till around 8 pm. Kay prefers all-nighters because the lack of light doesn\'t make any difference to her and it is coolest in those hours. I can\'t sleep well knowing she is outside. She agreed to the early mornings and late evenings as a compromise as long as we can keep up.
We were able to create a new bed for excess bulbs and daylilies. it is close enough I can manage it myself. I walk the entire property every day with my camera, It would be very hard to maintain flower beds in the outlying areas though. It is like I am allotted only so many steps a day. I need to use those as productively as possible. Everything beyond the central 1/4 acre will eventually be given over to shrubs and small trees. Well-adapted ones that can look after themselves once they have been established. I let Kay talk me into using Yaupon holly as a screen on the NE boundary. I hope they all turn out to be males. A yaupon holly covered in scarlet berries is a beautiful sight in the winter, but there is a reason these hollies are like weeds for us. The birds eat the berries and plant the seeds everywhere. They can\'t officially be called invasive because they are natives, but...
A few Camellia sinensis \'rosea\' Kay started from seed were large enough to go in the ground. That\'s a tea camellia. We haven\'t tested it yet for flavor, but as an evergreen, it will give the property better winter blooms even if it doesn\'t make the best. It isn\'t possible to buy a tea camellia cultivar that will produce reliably excellent tea because flavor depends so much on the plants interaction with the climate. The best we can do is experiment and breed the best tea plant for the region.
June doesn\'t have as many flowers as I would like. It\'s better than it has been in past years. When the new lily varieties we planted this spring will come into their own by next June. This year they are establishing good root systems and producing foliage, but no blooms. Most were small bulbs and bulb scales. They simply need more time.
I\'m painting, but there will be no new shower. Some large, unexpected expenses cropped up. Sometimes our progress seems glacially slow. As long as I can see some progress I can keep going though. The nice thing about a garden is that it can be as expensive or inexpensive as circumstances demand. Time and effort can usually fill in for money. That isn\'t the case with home repairs and improvements.

Book of the Day: Deep South--. An unusual southern road trip book. He goes places most travel writers would not think about going. Gun shows, African-American heritage sites, poor white enclaves, etc.
Daylily of the Day: \'Tupac Amaru\'--I wonder how the breeder came up with this name. It\'s from two different Native Mexican tongues. Tupac means warrior or messenger depending on the context and Amaru means the sacred serpent. It could be a man\'s name.
\'Passion for Red\'--I like the way this photo came out.