Projects 16

Shingles shots are covered by some health plans. They arent cheap.Mine will cost $250.00 so I have to wait until next year because my allowable is nearly used up on health insurance.

I've tried caryopteris twice without luck.....maybe the white will do better for me. Have planted 80 tiny allium bulbs....both pink varieties. Patti, one of your shingle meds should be neurontin.....I ended up in the ER 3 times when I had shingles.....total relief when the doc finally prescribed neurontin! He said it was 'experimental'. My DH's doc, who is affiliated with Yale, said it's the best med for shingles, nothing experimental about it.

here is the rock wall - a couple pics from one end - that large white quartz piece came from our friends out in western mass and has a nice prominent place. happy how it can out as it is as wide and straight as the wall in the distance. I will plant a couple conifers in front of the wall in picture 2 and move the daylily somewhere to be determined.

patti hope you get the shingles taken care of soon!!!

Patti, ouch about the shingles. It is undeniably one of the worst pains. I don't recall if I shared that I had it in May. Since I was traveling I didn't go to the doctor right away, which was a big mistake because suppressing meds only work in the first day or two. I have learned better now. Usually some acyclovier (sp?) med is given and neurontin always helps reduce nerve pain. I was given gabapentin, same idea, and it helped a little bit. My PCP said once you get it, the body forms an immunity for the next two to three years, so the only bright side I knew was being able to delay the shot by a few years. I was told as long as the sores are covered, it is not going to spread to anyone and the contagion idea is overstated. Hope you recover quickly.

My injuries over the past few months are catching up, and I regret probably having to stop amending soil and planting stuff. Consider that the president of Brazil took a month off her duties recently because she fell and hit her head.

Bill, I really love that wall. If you ever want to do this for money, you're hired!

Bill:
The wall is amazing.I can see the patience needed to figure out how the puzzle of rocks and stones go together.

thanks all - really thought I was going to need more stone as what I had was not fitting together at one point. the final test, as always, was if I can step up and walk across the wall, jump a bit with nothing moving.

have one more little extension I have to do on the earlier wall I built now that the rodies have been trimmed back so hard. that may require a trip or two for filler rocks at a minimum. less than 10 feet. The one pictured was close to 30.

Wow, Bill! That looks terrific! I remember when your first thread was your stone wall along the driveway, and here you are.....still making magnificent walls! Love it! That corner is impressive.

It will also add even more home court advantage to the horse shoe pits :)

And stop a certain someone's runaway horse shoes :0)

RosemaryK, and Robindog, Thanks for the shingle information. I am surviving, just not doing anything productive in the garden or actually beyond t my bedroom. Thanks to all for the well wishes. I got 21 Hosta plants from a coop today, but DH will have to plant them, but hopefully I can go outside and point as to where they are to go.

Wha that redone wall is amazing. Of course I thought it was perfect before, though clearly now a masterpiece. I will see if I can find you a special rock at the Vt house. Patti

Wha, your walls are amazing. I second the idea that you should do it professionally, but then, maybe it would become tedious and not fun.

Patti, praying you feel better each day!!

The wall makes that little nook so inviting....just beautiful! Hope you're feeling better, Patti.....The only thing I could liken the pain of shingles to was being stung over & over by yellowjackets!

NICE!

My GS weill spread compost this weekend.
I lasted 20 minutes,nearly fell over .
#1 compost pile
#2 hunker gardener

Oh, yeah, he's a little cutie!

I'll take a hunker gardener, too.

My DS says while home this weekend, he will move some bags from my trunk, so I'm not stopping the earthworks yet.

Today I was working near Weston Nurseries in Hopkinton, so of course they were a destination. Filled my trunk with perennials and a giant obelisk on sale. It was a great day to be driving around. Tomorrow, the obelisk gets a spot on the hill. It will be a winter project to make a clematis selection and decide if and how the roots need shading.

Oooh, sounds like a lovely trip! Have fun selecting the clem.....

Happy thoughts about gardening make it so much easier to plunge back into the world of crime, drugs and mental illness :)

Yep, DS helped me to place 35 bags of Scotts topsoil around the garden today. It's still amazing to me how much the ground just gulps it up. Tomorrow or Monday, the clematis tower goes into an area that requires a plateau dug into the hill.

I am tickled by the pictures of Snow Hill salvia nemorosa which was on sale at Weston's nursery. July should be a time of more blooms next year, and perhaps more butterflies.

I hope Patti is getting some relief from pain!

Thanks, reading all your posts in misery. But I know it could be worse from talking to friends. I am afraid it is still erupting despite the medication as I found a new patch on my arm today. Not a good sign.

I planted my hosta yesterday that I got from Woodthrush's coop Had to do it as DH didn't have time to before he left the island yesterday morning. Nice selection of 21 Hosta at about 7.00 each. Big root systems and they were easy to plant as I had already prepped the area last week. But didn't feel up to much today. I was hoping for rain, as I didn't have the energy to water them in, so that isn't good. DH arrives back tomorrow. At least I have the Red Sox game to watch tonight that hopefully will not be painful too. Patti

Ohhh! So sorry, Patti. Good thing the plants aren't entirely urgent and you can take it somewhat easy. Shingles had a lot to do with my slow start on the garden this year, so I know of what you speak.

I know you are a different zone than the North Shore, but I didn't think things could still be planted. Hope you will be feeling better overnight.

My rule of thumb is to plant most perennials by a month before a hard freeze, which means I'm working fast this weekend even as I keep buying choice salvias, nepetas and dianthus on sale. I have planted peonies into late November, though. Many conifers are OK to plant now, but some will dry out, so I have requested those for early spring. The Cape surely has different growing periods for zone 7. Others may have a different experience, but my house is in a protected valley, meaning our deep freeze is last.

Finally, the real reason to stop planting is to have time to rake up the worst of the leaves as a kindness to the neighbors deeper down the valley.

We've been promised rain but the clouds keep passing over, so getting the soil really damp, as Patti mentioned, is the other issue.

I now wait until all leaves are down before raking - spent the last two days cutting back perennials so the seeds do not self seed - also trimmed several jm's and trees - and slowly taking down the t-plant set up - 2 rows down and 2 to go - I burn all t-plants since we had blight several years ago - no leaf left behind.

Great plan Bill.Thanks for the JM trim tips.I'll send pix after I finish.

We don't move irises after early Sept.

Thanks Bill you'r the best
#1 Before ,
# 2 After
Just one branch made a huge difference.

Wow...it does! Looks very nice, Jo.....

Nice, Jo!

Bill, hank wants to know if the stone wall is in play?? LOL!

it might affect a lefty - and no he can't bounce shoes of the wall.

Oh, he's "foiled again!"......quote unquote....😀

Hehehe

you will never guess what I did today....................give up?

made several trips to a friends house to collect wood I cut up last year and pick out some choice large rocks - will make a couple more trips tomorrow for the rest of the wood and more rocks. great day - also mowed the lawn and burnt up another row of t-plants, one row left.

I expect to see pics of another wall soon.

I really admire your industriousness Bill.Such a great feeling of accomplishment to see the firewood.
DD stacked ours a week ago,now its falling over.The cats love to jump on it.

Finally there is enough fortified soil in parts of the garden. You can see the fertle zone as it migrates toward the hill. See the edge of it? This sand trap hole is where I plan to put a 6' tall modern plant tower after still more excavating by hand. It doesn't look too likely to me that anyone can grow a clematis here considering all the sand, but perhaps I'm wrong? The last shot shows a section that's gotten work on the soil for the past three years. It was once complete desert too.

This message was edited Oct 20, 2013 8:04 PM

Quite a bit of progress Rosemary.. The efforts will be rewarded.

Looking good, rosemary!

Yes, lots of progress there! Dump a little compost into the hole & a clem should grow.....

Thanks for the encouragement because I'm feeling pretty silly for spending so much time on this. So clems aren't necessarily very sensitive to the acid sand in the area? The soil sale is over, so the clem project will wait until spring, when I hope to have renewed energy for digging in sand.

With any luck DH will think of a new way to deliver soil and compost to this back area, such as hiring it to be done at the same time as our water feature in the other corner of this hill :) Since we both have jobs somewhat dependent on the federal govt., February will be our deciding month.