Accessible Gardening: #21 Practical Matters for Phsically Challenged Gardeners, 1 by seacanepain

seacanepain wrote:
Carrie, Kay said the same thing when I mentioned the name of that daylily. I guess people think of the work of Frans Hals when they see those colors and name their plants accordingly. There is a lilac and a rose named after Abraham Lincoln. I guess breeders think the positive associations of some names are more important than the possible confusion the same name might create.

Your package is on its way. Can I talk you and Ray into some iris? Lol. I just sent off two stuffed packages full of iris and we still have extra. I have one other victi....uh..recipient in mind, if she doesn\'t take them off my hands, I\'ll see if the Bread of Life Mission store can give them away for me. I think I hear Old Miss Helen laughing in her grave. We took some rhizomes in exchange for helping her divide her iris beds and they have multiplied like Star Trek tribbles in our sandy soil. Even after all we have given away in the last few months, we still have an abundance of iris. I was tempted, but there are only two \'Art Gallery Fringe\' and a \'Sunset Bay\' daylily in your box.

I want a little in ground vegetable plot near the back door. This last bunch of iris had to go to make room for my veggies. I\'ve badly neglected the vegetable garden Tigger left behind simply because it is too far from the house. My back hurts when I think of pulling the water hose out there or carrying tools back and forth. Beans, collards and a few eggplant just don\'t seem worth the trouble. The sweet potatoes in Tigger\'s garden have thrived despite my benign neglect. That garden space may become all sweet potatoes next year if it\'s left up to me.

AG, it\'s about an hour\'s drive to the beach from here. That makes our summers easier to bear. Real estate brokers call this the emerald coast because of the intense green of the water. Everyone else calls it the redneck Riviera. Panama City is insane during spring break and not in a good way. Other than that, the beaches are great. On a visit to Key West, I made a snap judgment on seeing the beach there and told Kay I liked it better than the beaches back home. Kay laughed until she cried. When she could finally talk she told me how the beach sand we were walking on had been imported at great expense from the Bahamas. When I started to walk into the surf she stopped me and handed me a pair of ugly water shoes. Unsuspecting tourist end up in the hospital all the time because of coral poisoning. You\'re walking on a bed of sharp, brittle coral covered only thinly by that Bahamas sand. It was an eye-opening trip. I am now loyal to our home beaches.

Kay believes she would like to live in Vermont or Maine. She is as innocent about Northern Kingdom winters as I was about coral beaches. She has lived most of her life on the Gulf coast from Texas to Florida. She can count the number of times she has been in snow and has never experienced a winter in the north. I grew up in Pennsylvania. Have I mentioned how much I hate driving in snow?

I\'m glad the kids took good care of Zoe. We gave Fenny whatever she wanted that would bring her comfort when she was so sick. We turned her into a total prima donna. It\'s a good thing she is old and sleeps a lot. She would be driving us up the wall, otherwise. I bought her Rachael Ray dog food with a rating of 4, instead of her 5 star Blue Buffalo to save a few bucks. This old, mongrel farm dog has become a connoisseur. She huffs and grumbles and makes sure we know this new dog food isn\'t up to her standard. Gotta love \'em.

Pic: Deep Sea Crinum--Blooms in summer and mid-fall. Sweet scent.