Thank you, Debra! :-)
It is probably safe to sing in your own home to your cats, Vickie. I would advise against singing in the car though unless you are known to law enforcement. My sister and I were pulled over on a trip to St. Augustine because of our singing. I can't carry a tune in a 5-gallon bucket, but I don't think it is bad enough to get me arrested. The State Troopers simply thought we were way too happy to be sober. :-)
“The world seems sad in winter’s gloom. But, all is well when the jonquils bloom.”.
We put all the jonquils in the bed alongside the front walk. Here’s hoping Jim is right and we find out in a couple months. They don’t like being moved at this time of year. What we have growing and blooming at the moment is the tough, jonquilla so often seen naturalized in the coastal parts of Texas. (The smaller ones that are usually described as “charming.” The larger x odora never puts in an appearance until true Spring in my experience. The species jonquilla are brave little things that poke their heads up every time there is a winter warm spell from Thanksgiving to Valentine’s Day. The winter bloom are a paler yellow than during their main bloom season. I know from the feel of the bulbs these did not like the amount of shade which couldn’t have been helping. X odora can handle some shade. These love sun. (I had a pine taken down, but the remaining one is casting more winter shade than I anticipated.)
The front walkway bed requires little digging to maintain so I’m hoping I can work around the bulbs the remainder of the seasons. The foliage melts away as soon as it starts getting hot. The massing will be high impact in Feb.-March and the promiscuous blooms will be fully appreciated along a walkway used every day.
Jim and I compromised on a few paperwhites in that bed. I’m a little wary of massing paperwhite narcissus. Many people just don’t like the scent of paperwhites. I suspect the critics got a concentrated nose full of the worst scented cultivars. (Some are better than others, but they all seem to have a strong scent that can totally pervade a house when they are forced inside during winter. I don’t mind their scent. I just like them better outside. k*
This message was edited Dec 28, 2011 1:51 PM
#13 Practical Matters for Physically Challenged Gardeners
Ach, I wish we could PLANT paperwhites outside.
What are the earliest blooming bulbs there, Carrie?
Sorry to jump in here, but I wanted to say THANK YOU to Kay for mentioning my book, Accessible Gardening by Joann Woy! Thank you so much! I'm working to update the book for a second edition that I'm hoping will come out sometime this year (2012). And also...if anyone has anything they'd like to contribute to the book...please contact me! I truly truly value the input and ideas I receive.
Wow--you're welcome to jump in any time!
Kay, snowdrops, iris reticulata (?), those are the first. Early crocus come soon after the snowdrops. I planted a patch of the tiny iris in a spot there's NO WAY I can get to them in the winter so I don't actually know when they bloom. But we're on the fall side of winter; it hasn't even snowed and it's only gotten really achingly cold 2-3 times. We've got a long way to go before we can even think about spring bulbs, unless it's planting them.
I feel the way I'd feel if I'd been churning butter by putting cream in a jar and shaking it, like they do in kindergarten, and just found out you could buy butter at the grocery store! There's a BOOK??? Not just teamwork, like Armagia, or hired help like Katie and I use, but a book with instructions and so on? Hmmm. I have to confess I didn't garden at all last summer; it was just too hot. I got my flats from Mitch and planted them out, most of them, but other than that it was just too much, too hard, too hot, too hard to get out the back door, and too revved up about our trip.
I echo Carrie, jump in anytime, Joanne! You have the perfectly named book for this forum. I swear we didn’t steal your book title. :-) I think Carrie, the grandma of this forum, had to go through a prolonged back-and-forth before everyone agreed on the proper semantics. Was that a challenge with the book?
Carrie, Kay had me read an Isaac Asimov short story about a time when people almost never went outside. Now, she’s talking about buying me a mushroom log. Think she’s trying to tell me something? I like working in my deck farm once I get out there. But, as things are, if it’s a day when I can’t trust my legs even for a short distance, I have to go out the back door and completely around the workhouse to get to it. We are debating a sliding glass door to replace the front door. It isn’t a problem for most wheelchairs, but mine is a little larger than norm. I’ve seen some hardware in a w/c ramp catalog that allegedly makes sliding doors accessible, but I’m just not sure about it. I know the width is good, but I’m afraid the bottom track of the door would eventually get damaged. Any experience with those?
Debra, I admit ‘Fourth of July’ does look like it belongs in the Old Soldier’s Garden. Is that pic from your own garden? Nadine reminds me that the scent of roses isn’t considered particularly feminine in Japan and other parts of the world. Thinking of roses as girlie is a cultural bias and I need to become a man of the world. 4th looks like a good, manly rose. lol. BTW: I’ve decided to forgive the ‘Zephirine Drouhin’ you sent Amargia her pinkness. She’s a tough gal. She and her offspring are still lush and green despite some nights below freezing.
Hang in there, Vickie. I got a Jung and a R. H. Schumway’s catalog today. The cavalry is on its way to save you from the winter blahs. You’ll have to buy your felons some catgrass for helping you make it through the winter. (No, that wasn’t a typo. Felon and feline are synonyms in my personal vocabulary.
Nadine is working on a post for Amargia’s blog on Gardening and anger management. She and Kay are arguing about the title N. has given it. “I garden, therefore, you live.” ROFL. I think we’d better do our blogging on DG where people have already become accustom to our particular brand of humor. HEY, that might make a good t-shirt design, Debra. I would buy one for Kay. (Jim)
Jim, that photo is from my own 4th rose. The fragrance is clean and bright, too, not at all cloying or frou-fy.
"Clean and bright" sounds like the lyrics from the Sound of Music "Eidelweiss".
WAIT -- I'm the "Grandma?" What does that mean? How about Vickie, she's older and technically, a biological grandma. I'm only a grandma by marriage.
This message was edited Dec 29, 2011 6:08 PM
Some of the old roses have a sharp, spicy scent. Very manly. ;-)
Moon, looking forward to the updated book. Will it be available in hardcopy or as an eBook? If it’s on Kay’s list, I’ve probably heard parts of the original in an audible format. (I think it’s great when writers let the National Library Service make their work available to the visually impaired in audible format.) But, I’m highly visual and find it hard to follow audio books. I still enjoy books I can hold in my hand or, at least, one I can see the words of on a computer screen. I’ve noticed some of the books on Kay’s list are older than I am. A few are older than Papa Jim and Grandma Carrie. :-O At least one of them is even older than Kay. I believe Vickie has them all covered. Yeah, I'd say it is time for some updates on the subject.
Carrie, I did try to warn him you would nail him on the Grandma Comment., but he was on a roll. I assume what he MEANT to say was you have MOTHERED this forum from its earliest days.
I like being outside in our version of winter. (CT. winters were a different story.) Have you guys ever noticed things hurt more when you are cold? I don’t mean arthritis and stuff like that; I mean minor injuries like bumps or scratches hurt way worse than the same bump or scratch would in summer. That seems backwards to me.
Seriously, I wish I had got the mushroom kit for Christmas. I would like to learn to grow mushrooms. It has nothing to do with avoiding that blazing orb in the big, blue and green room with the broken thermostat. It’s all about mushrooms sautéed in butter. Maybe, I’ll trade PJ my carnivorous plant terrarium for his mushroom log.
Kay planted tomato seeds in peat pots today. It seems like she’s pushing it a little. They will have to go in the ground in March. I hope it works. Fresh tomatoes can’t come too soon for me. ~N~.
I think Now is right for March planting. We always started ours in February for late April and May planting.I am so tempted to plant just a few seeds just because. I have got my Jung catalog.Now I want Bakers Creek catalog.
I have never been sure which are Jonquils and which are Dafodils.Have both.Have'nt seen a sign of any green (except for the Fairy Bells which never died down.)Walked around outside a little today.Was really nice.
LOL Jim! You are so right about our felon felines.They are also unrepenant rascals.
Carrie, I am a great grandma!!! I have 2 grandsons and one great grandson.But I also have a bunch of step grand and great grand children.I am blessed.I AM 71 AND PROUD!! And thank you for all you have done for our forum.
Nadene, You have such a fun family.
I am postponing my trip cause I am having flooring put in and painting the whole inside of the house. Gonna go and pick out the tiles tomorrow at Lowes. My grandson is going to paint the walls first. May also get the paint if I can decide what colors I want.
Jim, I had patio doors in Texas(loved them.) The tracks are pretty sturdy.But they might cause problems getting over them for a WC.You might could build a removable little bridge.Those tracks are a bugger to clean. Think Toothbrush,LOL
Welcome to DG and to the Accessible forum, Annie. I treasure all my how-to books on gardening with challenges, but if I could pass down only one to the next generation of gardeners at Amargia, it would be yours. Few writers have ever attempted writing about how to garden despite mobility challenges, gardening when you have visual limitations, gardening late in life and creating a basic primer on gardening in general within a single book. To top it all off, it is a pleasurable read. Not at all dry. I like the quotes (especially the one at the beginning) and the real-life examples. .
I think you would like this book, Carrie. It isn’t one of those “Rah-Rah, you can do this! books that leaves you asking “Okay. That sounds great, but HOW…” It ranges from the usual raised beds to techniques like the “garden-in-a-bag” on a tabletop. (The bag garden works well when knocking containers over is a problem.)
Debra, are any of the clematis you grow fragrant? I’m looking at a Montana and a ‘Betty Corning’ for the fragrance garden. I love the scent of Autumn clematis, but they can be thugs in this area.
The current wisdom is that larger tomatoes grow better before the real heat sets in so for best results in Zone 8 now is the time to plant the seeds. We are usually very successful with cherry and grape tomatoes, but the harvest on larger varieties has been disappointing in past years. It will be fantastic if I can get a good harvest of Roma or Cherokee Purple just by planting earlier. k*
Kay, I don't know. I have the Florida sieboldii, Arctic Queen, Filigree, Duchess of Albany, Silmakivi, and Daniel Deronda. Never checked to see if any are fragrant. Guess I'll remedy that omission this coming Spring. :-)
Happy New Year, friends.
My puter is still down so I'm at the local internet cafe.
Back soon.
hugs, katie
Katie, thanks for venturing out. Happy new year to you.
Jim, I will agree that I nurtured the forum at times, but it was Sherri and Vickie Leaflady and scraps and the other Fibromyalgia folks who really got it going again. I just barged in and said I don't have FM, but can I play too?
My daughter broke up with her wicked, bad, horrible boyfriend and replaced him with two dogs this fall. Seeing the difference they make in her temperament, I am more inclined to understand you folks with doggie friends. Happy New Year to all pets and pet custodians!
This message was edited Dec 31, 2011 3:57 PM
Did you get to do your Santa gig, Kb? Good to hear from you.
Wow, Debra, I didn’t think your part of the world was that conducive to growing clematis. I know Clematis florida is said to be slightly fragrant. If you take Sweet Autumn out of the mix, I’m afraid Kay will have to settle for “slightly fragrant” when it comes to clematis. She is exploring a U.K. mega-site for clematis lovers so she might come up with something. Who knows? Two years ago I didn’t know there was such a thing as a fragrant daylily and now we have a small collection of them. BTW, Debra, it’s supposed to be really cold later this week, down to the mid-20s, do I need to protect the new DLs? Do you protect yours when it gets that cold? Stop that, Vickie. I see you and Carrie rolling your eyes. Hey, “very cold” is a relative term. :-)
I can only imagine that MK is planning to rip out most of our cannas to make room for all the new fragrant plants. Canna is almost void of fragrant varieties. There is only one I know of that sort of smells like cilantro.
I’ve been reading your book, Annie. I do remember this one. It was where we got the solution for the Braille problem. MK (Kay-Kudzu1) was legally blind early on and they knew her vision would get progressively worse so she was taught Braille in high school. Braille seemed simple to her because she learned it when she was young. That wasn’t true for a very elderly man who wanted to keep on gardening after he began losing his sight to age-related macular degeneration. She borrowed a Braille writer from a diabetic friend that wrote Jumbo Braille, but that didn’t help him much. (Diabetics often lack the sensitivity in their fingers to read standard size Braille.) Finger sensitivity wasn’t his biggest problem though. He just had a hard time remembering the Braille code. He was a very intelligent man, but learning new things must get much harder after a certain age and he just couldn’t remember it all. She finally tried the technique you describe for that situation. Well, we did simplify it a little. We used the house numbers you can now find at home improvement stores or even Wal-Mart instead of making numbers ourselves. The numbers usually come with pre-drilled holes for attaching them to the house with screws. You can either attach them with screws or, if the stake isn’t wide enough, leave them hanging on the stake attached with fishing line threaded through the screw holes. He gave each specialty melon he grew a number and kept a record of which melon corresponded to which number on cassette tape.
Papa Jim is proud of himself today. He lost 10 lbs. He walks the entire property almost every day now using a walker or with Kay along to balance him. He tried to slip one passed us yesterday when Kay asked him if he had taken his walk. He said he took a nice walk with Lee Ann. I was racking my brain for a friend or neighbor named Lee Ann. Kay didn’t fall for it. She told him that virtual walks with DG writers may be interesting, but they don’t do much for the cardiovascular system. Then, I got it. Lee Ann Starks’ article about the winter landscape written in the form of a virtual walk around her property was one of the articles of the day. Lol.
Well, time to put the black eyed peas on to soak. Happy New Year! p(*＾-＾*)q
~N~
Nadine, they will be fine. Mulch them with leaves or pine needles or something if you want, but the ground isn't nearly cold enough to hurt them. :-)
Hey, Lee Anne is a friend of mine, and I KNOW she couldn't get down to walk with Jim without stopping to see me. I only live 4 or 5 or 9 hours away from her and we've never met. She wouldn't dare pass me by like that!
How does Jim do all that walking with the pain? DH is about to begin a weight loss program at the local hospital. We don't know yet what it will involve--liquid diet, low calorie, but I can't imagine it won't involve exercise.
Happy 2012 everybody!
I bribe Jim to do 15 min. of exercise a day. We push him a little because it seems only logical that losing the excess weight will ease the strain on the spine and lessen the pain. The promise that the pain would eventually be less just wasn't enough incentive for him though. it is hard to work for less pain in the future if it hurts more NOW. A good massage can give him a few relatively pain free hours and I once studied therapeutic massage. Our deal is 15-minutes of exercise earns him a massage. I think sometimes he needs a more potent prescription for muscle relaxers. (Methocarbomol), but the doctors seem hesitant to increase his dosage.
Actually, Morgan, the old man Nadi mentioned, did learn a usable amount of Braille before he died. He was never able to read a Braille book. That requires knowledge of Grade II Braille. But, he learned enough Grade I that he was eventually able to use a Braille labeler around his home and garden.
It is funny how Braille finally clicked in his mind. He brought me some of the imported beer I like for my b'day. We got to playing a game with the carton, empty bottles and full bottles. Braille is composed of a cell of potentially six raised dots. The empty carton represented the Braille cell. Full bottles represented raised dots and empty bottles represented blank places in the cell. A summer of playing the game on breaks and he knew the alphabet and the number sign. After my b'day, we did use a six-pack soda carton and soda bottles. of course. lol.
That's a great system of bribery, Kay, and you're 100% correct, pain now = less pain later is a hard equation to sell. My trouble with doing PT exercises at home is they're BORING! At PT, 1)I got dressed and left the house, 2)interact with people who aren't related to me or employed by me, 3)drive 4)get praised (even if it's only "good, that's 10 reps.") Doing my exercises at home I get none of that. So I regress.
Hey, it's Debra's BIRTHDAY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!
Nadine, make your opening paragraph MUCH shorter--it should just be a teaser. And the article should be comprehensible without it because sometimes they get disconnected.
Thank you, Carrie. :-)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEBRA!!! It must have been tough growing up having a birthday so close on the heels of Christmas. Most people would still be broke from excessive Christmas generosity. :-) Do you have a place for a tea olive? Will it grow there? I think you should have something that is in bloom on your birthday.
Thanks, Carrie. I'll remember that. You should find "I Garden, Therefore, You Live" on Amargia's DG blog in a few days. Mama Kay is up for renewal here and is checking into changing her user name from kudzu1 to AmargiaX without losing her journal or trade list. I'll post it on the Amargia Experiment blog when that's all ironed out. We are making "simplify" the word for 2012. None of us have the time and energy to maintain an independent website.
I am resolved to do some real body building kind of stuff this year. It became clear today I need that. Mama Kay is demolishing the old stone well on the north end of the house. I wanted to help, but the fact that the sledge hammer is painted pink didn’t make it any less a brute tool in my hands. I tried to hit those “sweet spots” and “shatter points” Kay indicated, but I found it impossible to wield a 20-lb. sledge with any precision. And, Mama Kay is as possessive of her smaller sculpting tools as I am of my pens and brushes. I’m relegated to cleaning up the debris after she does her thing with the hammers and chisels. We want to keep the hand pump intact and unharmed to be re-used as part of a rustic fountain. The fountains available are either too frou-frou or too tacky for Amargia. Well, we do already have a tabletop fountain by the front door. It’s one of those tiny battery operated type whose main job is to help Kay locate the door. It certainly isn’t meant for wildlife, but I caught a cardinal trying to drink from the tiny reservoir of that fountain. She was beak to snout with a dragon, but didn’t seem the least intimidated since she was 3 times the dragon’s size. Dragon wasn’t very successful at protecting his castle. Ms. Cardinal drank almost all the water in the castle’s lake. The Cardinals are long-time residents of Amargia and personal friends of Papa Jim. They should have their own fountain.
Aside from starting on the well demolition, Kay and I got the last of the erosion barrier tires out of the Old Soldiers Garden and into my Beezare Corner. The bees appear to approve of the name I chose for our corner. They were crawling all over the sign today. I guess because it is the most colorful thing around at the moment. They did appear somewhat disappointed by the taste of the flowers on their sign, however. (Kay’s offering a reward for anyone who can come up with a more creative name for her Fragrance Garden.) PJ worked in his deck farm, but I think he spent most of the time doing maintenance on the emergency generator stashed there. One of his resolutions is to keep the maintenance up on the generator so we don’t find ourselves without power come hurricane season. ~N~
Wow, Carrie. I just went back and looked. You are dead on target! I should have dropped the first paragraph entirely. The second paragraph made a much better hook. Good thing I can get paid just to correct spelling and grammar. I have a lot to learn about the creative end of it. ~N~
Nadine, I would love to try a tea olive and will be happy to make a place for it. Been wallowing in a black funk for some weeks, now, but starting to come out of it, I think. :/ Planning where to plant will help. Thank you. (hug)
Oh, Debra, don't let turning 29 get you down! (Sorry, that was kind of mean, but I couldn't resist.)
So far today I've called 2 different branches of the medical records department and had to just leave a message both times. IF a baclofen pump would work --baclofen eases spasticity in MS patients and some SCI people, but it also makes you, or me at least, very stupid--it's a great idea! Pump the medication right into the spinal cord where it's needed, bypassing the stomach and brain--my brain isn't spastic and neither is MOST of my body. So that's what "they" want to do to me now, implant a baclofen pump. Problem is, I already had one in the early 90's and IT DIDN'T WORK! And they want me to get the records showing that I either had the wrong kind or it was badly handled or something!
My puter is still down. I{m at the internet cafe.
Christmas went well. I had lots of stuffed animals )in part due to neighbor Dana and an excellent thrift shop in San Diego=. symbols are all different on this typewriter. Also had twenty'five pounds of candy. Was out for a couple of hours and all went well.
Had a bug of some sort over New Years. Watched lots of dvd's and increased weight loss to thirty pounds. MUCH less pain but I agree it's hard to lose when the pain is there and demanding your attention (and ice cream). Threat of knee surgery was a good motivator for me. I'm working my way into the Fat Flush Plan. Down several sizes in my jeans.
New growth is starting on some of my trees and plants. Our weather has warmed up a bit. I'm hoping for about six months of spring weather.
hugs, katie
CONGRATULATIONS on your weight loss, katie. Did I tell you DD#1 dumped evil, pernicious, violent and detrimental BF? A happy day for us.
Way to go, Katie!!!!
That's fantastic, Katie. Giving up sugar helped me drop 20 lbs., but it has leveled off now and I'm not losing anymore. Scratching my head over what to do next. Reading a book on diabetic cooking that really puts the focus on taste and using what is in season. Hoping to find some inspiration there. Does the weight loss mean you are going to be able to delay the knee surgery or will it go hand-in-hand withe surgery?
Vickie, Nadi decided she likes shopping in the wee hours of the morning like you do. We did an allnighter so she tried it. Now, she says she is willing to wake up and go out in the wolf hours for the purpose of easy grocery shopping.
I hope it is just a touch of S.A.D,, Debra. S.A.D. is wicked! It makes everything feel worse than it really is.
Do yu WANT to try a baclofen pump again, Carrie?
It was just the routine smoothing and leveling in the garden today. I will be so happy when the hard-scaping is done and I can play with plants again all day. I guess I will print my journal and let my DG subscription run out. I've got a rinky-dink trade list anyway. Last one to have their subscription run out is AmargiaX. :-)
Found Nadi some safety glasses and a mineral pick so she can take any frustrations out on the stone well. I don't think lack of creativity is her writing problem. She just needs more marketing savvy. That, unlike creativity, can be learned. k*
Kay, if they can make it work, sure. I'll try anything at this point. This spasticity is very painful. But I KNOW a trial will work....I need those records from the 90s. Maybe it was a different brand or not implanted correctly or something....they were new and experimental then. I just don't want to go though the same experience again, obviously. And you could try giving up salt. It's just a hypothesis--but it seems to me that salty food a.makes you want to eat more and b.makes you retain more than water.
Kay, we can all go play in the "Sandbox" at ATP. Almost everything you can do here and it doesn't cost anything.
ATP???
All Things Plants? That looks interesting.
Amargia’s insurance went up dramatically this year. That is going to bite! We need to tighten our belts and go to only one DG account. In my more cynical moments, I see the banker talking to the insurance executive. He says something like, “Hey, those Amargia folks have been making double payments on their property loan. What do you say to jacking up their insurance to slow them down so I can milk all the interest on their loan.” Gr-r-r-r.
I’m cynical in general when it comes to insurance. What a cash cow! If they keep draining people though, they are going to find out what every farm child already knows. Cows will turn on you, if you prod them too hard.
I’m trying to count my blessings. I almost choked when I saw what my father in PA pays in property taxes. No wonder the Amish are packing up and moving to Ohio.) Our property taxes are still fairly reasonable.
Carrie, the Air force gives you a hardcopy of your medical records when you retire. I’m covered there. I have 20+ years of medical records in my files. (Hm-m-m, don’t know how well that would work for you. It would probably have to be a really big file cabinet to hold 20 years of your medical records.) I wish I had Kay’s records. Doctors, especially young ones, are obviously confused when they examine the backs of Kay’s eyes. They inevitably ask about records of her surgery. Re-attaching the retina was a surgery still in its infancy when Kay had it. I gather there have been major changes in the techniques and materials used since. Problem is, the Eye Foundation hospital where Kay had the surgery done no longer exists and the retina surgeon who did the work died more than a decade ago. I have no idea where to find her medical records, if they still exist at all. The doctor named all his retinal artworks after famous painters. He called the work he did on Kay’s eye his Picasso so I assume he did some off-the-wall things to restore her sight. If the confused expressions on the faces of young ophthalmologists are any indication, they would find those records very useful.
I have Nadine helping me inside today. A med she is on has made her extremely light sensitive. Although cold for this area it is very bright. Kay’s leveling in the Fragrance Garden. (Jim)
SOMEONE, didn't want to have to switch over the journal so they renewed the kudzu1 account. There is probably a way to change the user name on an account at DG. There is on most sites. I asked Admin., but they haven't had time to answer yet.
Is winter an okay time for planting shrubs and trees there, Debra? If so, we will go ahead and ship a tea olive. k*
Better to wait until end of February. While it is quite mild now, we are notorious for bad cold and ice spells between the third week of January and the first week of February. Looking forward to it, though!
Carrie, Dave and Trish started another site called All Things Plants. It's free and is quickly building members. He started by copying all members on Cubits to ATP. The focus is on plants, gardens, and related topics like beekeeping and farming. There isn't an Accessible forum, but threads can be started on the Sandbox forum, which is a general catchall.
Oh jeeez, splitting us up even more! Well, as long as Internet Brands will pay me, I'm working here.
Don’t worry, Carrie. None of us at Amargia are moving. DG is our internet home. It is the only place you can get the current gossip about Squatch, Loch Nestle, Ms. Bear and The Old Dodge. (The latter appears to be a southern relative of Steven King’s Christine.) Most of the gardeners at DG know and remember a very important gardening fact. Gardening is hard work and frustrating at times so you need to have lots of fun while you are at it. Checking out the other sites is like visiting the neighbors. I have this theory that Dave creates gardening websites for the same reason I write. He has to. It’s an undeniable compulsion.
Annie, if you are still lurking, this talk of the different gardening websites has brought a suggestion to mind.
I initially thought a chapter on computers and websites for accessible gardeners would be an absolute must in an accessible gardening book. I have some reservations after reading older books that tried that. I did not learn how to use a computer as a gardening tool from any of the books that included such a section. What I did learn is how quickly anything related to computers evolves and changes. There was no mention of the internet in the book I just read and it was one of those that ARE younger than me. The author primarily wrote of the computer as a garden record keeping tool. The web and websites related to gardening would greatly multiply the problem of info obsolescence happening quickly, but it might also offer the solution.
I still find it hard to imagine a book not mentioning the computer as a gardening tool. The solution might be your own website. You could maintain a web page that could be updated when a URL address changes or a website drops into the void to be replaced by a better one. Direct readers to the website when the information in question might be obsolete in a foreseeable period of time. If the hassle of your own website has absolutely no appeal for you. A STABLE website that keeps the pertinent info updated might be available. e.g., there is probably a web page where a list of seed companies that carry pelletized seeds can be found. (Pelletized seeds are good for V.I.’s and those with reduce fine muscle control. Sorry, but I’ve read so many accessible gardening books back-to-back lately I can’t remember if pelletized seeds were in your book or not.) It would give an information dense book a longer shelf life.
Pelletized seeds leapt to mind because Papa Jim is working on a machine that pelletizes seeds. He saw that the going price for them was several thousand dollars, said “That’s ridiculous!”and went to design his own with what he has in the workshop. As an F.Y.I for anyone interested, Johnny’s has a wide range of pelletized lettuce seeds this year. Better than the usual selection. ~N~
Don't include internet sites and links -- they change too often.
Yes, Annie, your own website to direct readers to would be best. Someone else's website would be chancy. Web addresses would date the book quickly. If it is just a site to hold compiled data it would be simple to maintain, Basically, it would be like having a books appendixes online.That is one reason we decided to keep the list of recommended reading and websites in the intro of Practical Matters, instead of having Carrie create a Sticky. We can check and update the links whenever we refresh the thread. I don't know anything about writing, but couldn't you politely tell a reader to Google it. Well, to use a search engine. Just give them an idea of what to write in the Search Box.
Speaking of refreshing threads, does anyone need a new thread? We are up to 118 post. How long can a thread get before it becomes a problem for those on dialup?
I spent most of the day outside.I'm tired, but I feel good. (Jim)