Little Victories in your garden...doing a HAPPY DANCE!!

well folks, i am very good at moaning when sumthin goes wrong in my yard....but
when something great comes along i am not so boastful....so i just had to share
this little victory in my yard.....a total accident/on purpose of NATURE....but it sure brightened
my day.....: i have already replanted all my baskets from last year with stuff....one
hanging basket i hadn't filled as i wasn't sure what i was going to put into it....;
today, i was getting ready to clean it out....and what do my wondering eyes appear??!!!
my petunias from last year self seeded and were growing in the basket!!!!@@@
this is a first....and who knows if it would have happening if i hadnt cleaned out my
other baskets....but i have self sewn seeds growing into tunias!!!! i love petunias!!
i loved this little gift from nature to my yard....what a huge blessing it was to witness!!!


SO that being said, what is a little victory you have had in your garden ?? may be a bloom...may be
something that you usually kill that is growing good....what victory do you wanna share
with us!!! and don't make me come looking for you or bore you with another victory
in my garden....as i have more than one?!!!

yeaaaaa, Sticks!!! How cool is that??

I guess my most recent surprises were a Hebe and a Weigela, both of which had "layered" new plants on their own (with a little help from Mother Nature, I might add). I've potted them up and there's not much to the three Hebes, but the Weigela (variegated leaf, pink flower) is doing great.

I am one of those people that seldom remember what I have planted where until they start to grow. I have two wonderful little miracles that I am so happy with.

Last year I purchased some of the very small decorative gourds and wee little pumpkins. I left them out in the cold weather and they froze. Since the gourds were trashed anyway I decided to plant the seeds at the end of my nursery beds to see if anything would grow. They were coming up like crazy until we had that very late cold weather and they all froze and died. A week or so ago I saw more coming up! I made a cattle panel trellis and have about a dozen of them planted on eathier side and hope to have gourds or mini pumpkins.

The other is a small bed that I planted mums in last year. The mums did not come back but I must have tossed a packet of CA poppies there because they are sprouting up all over. I do not remember doing that but I guess I must have. I am really looking forward to watching them grow and seeing the flowers.

murmur & tetley...i got excited reading your victories!!! i just love it when that happens...

i will share one more for yah...it is nothing i did for sure, but it is one of lifes little joys to see sumthin growing when it shouldn't be....i dug some crinums recently from a site where they had been for 60 yrs...i transported them here to my house...i have planted them and the like....they haven't shown that they are growing....i am kinda scared, but i am told that crinum is very hardy....anyway, i was saving some seed from the seed pods to send to someone....and what do my wondering eyes appear?@@ the dang things are sprouting!!@@@@ so exciting !!! photo below....(aint it grand to get this kinda gift from nature??) my hubby thinks i am nuts when i get excited about stuff like this...but i call it a gift:)

ps...the photo is showing onion kinda things....when in reality the brown skin is the outside of alot of big lima green size seeds and if i took off the brown skin you would see 10 or 15 'seeds' sprouting....amazing:)

Now that's fabulous!!!!! I've been blessed a few times, too, when bulbs that I'd received via the Internet were forgotten in the garage, and when I found them, they were putting out little sprouts. Very forgiving of my neglect!

This whole process is a gift to me. I've tried gardening for years. But always something goes wrong.. First it was that things were much thirstier than I ever thought imaginable and they dried up and wilted. Then it was the soil was too much clay and they grew only to a point and then were stunted and didn't bloom or do anything.

Then I had issues with time and literally missed much of my harvest and just let them go to seed because I had no clue how fast it would happen.

But low and behold, when I finally knew enough to get some good crops and flowers, we had to move because of a job.

I finally have some time to garden but we transplanted ourselves to the desert. We had to learn all over again what to expect. That was a gift and a blessing the whole time! Something was always dying because of the heat. We couldn't add enough ammendments to make things happy from that concrete we were planting in. We finally get to the point where things are looking nice and a job fails and we must move AGAIN!

My surprise this year is that I actually started with the best soil EVER. AND I know what I'm doing and have spent 450 dollars trucking in loads of compost to add. On top of that, my cholesterol has been going down significantly because of the hard labor of manually carrying 40 pound buckets of compost all over the yard and cultivating it in. I just ate several days of spinach that survived our late freeze that killed everything I had planted, but low and behold the cabbage actually is coming back from that freeze.

This year it's going to happen :) We are really going to eat from this property!

Suzi

suzi...sounds like my story, i am new to gardening...but havent had HUGE failures or moves....but i live in windy and hot west texas....; gardening saved my health; lupus, cfs, fibro etc....it got me to moving my big fat body....100 lbs later....i am still a moving; love it love it....it is a huge gift:)

I have fibromyalgia too. It's amazing how much better we feel when we force ourselves to just keep going. Doing a lot is the LAST thing we want to do. But it really helps to keep moving. My weight isn't coming off fast, but I am down another pound this week and hopefully I'll keep going in the right direction.

Suzi

suzi...you are so right about keeping that body moving....do you have chronic fatique syndrome also?...alot of times those go hand in hand....; but keeping moving is the trick....and MAKING yourself keep moving is REALLY the trick...it is a terrible way to live, but if that is what we have to do then that is what we have to do....and others that have fibro either aren't willing to do that or wont do that; the paradox i am talking about came gradually; i was so depressed cause i had gained 100 lbs...i was sleeping all the time...i had lost my job and was just a mess....the doctor really wasn't helping alot....so i would just make myself get up....and i told myself ....'all you have to do is 'so and so task'....and then you wont have to do anything else today....so i would do that task...and feel ever so proud of that 15 minute task.....and i would say....ok, you can do anything you want to the rest of the day.....but then i would do another 15 min task.....and eventually, i would have worked a couple hours a day......; it felt like torture....which am sure you know , but the getting up and getting moving was the key....it helped mentally, physically and emotionally......

i was in remission until last year and was doing pretty good when i have started going down hill again.....i just keep moving...

I just turned 40 and have been fighting with this for I guess about 8 years total. I have had at times reached places of feeling like I wanted to die. But my income is dependent on me staying very active no matter how much I want to do otherwise. I run a daycare in my home. I am open 24/7 and I'm not qualified for anything else since I've done this for 20 years. These kids and their parents depend on me. So they keep me moving all day long.

I stopped going to the doctors a long time ago. I never do anything for myself unless it's herbs or diet and exercise. I've tried everything from running, walking, swimming, row machines etc.. I've hurt myself many times. I'll go 3 months or so feeling sorry for myself and order too much pizza just to get through the weeks. Then I'll get up and sluff off everything and get back to it.

My weight unfortunately has gone up 5-7 pounds per year for at least 10 years and I've tried everything reasonable. I've done some pills and potions and liquid diets. But mostly I always look to stir fry's with no oil and extremely watered down juice etc. I eat all natural and organic when I can. But I do go through spells where I love my chocolate and soda. That's so bad!

My pain is manageable most of the time. I rarely take anything for it. I deal with chronic headaches, joint pain and heel spurs with plantar fascitis, reoccurent bladder infections, acid reflux, arthritis in my sternum, dizzy spells and of course fatigue, memory issues (fibro fog) and terrible dry skin, multiple chemical sensitivities and allergies. I used to think that I was falling apart and all these things were separate issues. But somewhere a long the way I learned that they were all linked. Mostly, I ignore it all and practice eating well, thinking positive and working through all the crap :)

Suzi

OMG you and i sound very much alike....; except that i had the 'luxury' of quitting work....ie the doctor said to STOP work; i lost my university job after 6 months....thank goodness my hubby was there....it killed us financially...but illness doesn't ask permission....i found like i wanted to die also....was falling, couldnt stay awake for more than 3 hours....but yet when i got up from a 20 hour sleep felt like i needed to continue to sleep...was living hell on earth

joint pain and heel spurs with plantar fascitis
fatigue, memory issues (fibro fog)

the above is me too; do you have orthotics? the new doctors are recommending an over the counter orthotic(they used to fit you with custom made ones to the tune of 300.00....you can even get it on ebay...pro step is the vendor....(i have just gotten thru a new foot issue and that is the 'new way to deal with it) (that might save you a few bucks) they are also recommending aspercreme for the heels and ice 2 times a day with stretching excersises...and if you forget that there are tons of websites that concur the same thing

memory issues were significanly helped removing sugar and white flour....i still have a problem but not as bad

fatique...try to stay out of bed even when you want to sleep....but another thing that helped me is a anti depressant that has a stimulating effect...effexor

plus, i am not sure if you know this....but the reason we are experiencing pain, memory loss etc is cause the body is not getting restorative sleep(REM) (rapid eye moment)....that is the sleep that is the deepest sleep and helps the body repair itself....; the way i was finally able to get REM sleep again besides excersise, proper nutrition.....was to take another antidepressant that alot use for fibro called elavil...aka amitriyptiline...; the effexxor and amitriptilyne has been what worked for me....i have been on it since 97....; i am just telling you what worked for me....maybe you will read something that might help you....

i know it is awful and not easy....if you need to vent feel free to e me....

Thanks :) Actually, I'd say that I am doing about 80% better about 80% of the time. I still have my days where I feel like crap. For the moment my feet are in tip top shape, not hurting at all. It's come and gone a lot through the years. But I've done a lot of feet exercises and yes, tried the orthotics. I seem to have been cured this last time after wearing MBT shoes for 6 months. I've been wearing them 8 months total and pain free the last 2 months. In fact, the last 2 months I've been barefoot and out in the garden most of the time. I do expect them to get worse again at some point. I know I shouldn't be barefoot and I'll regret it at some point...but not really. The freedom of going barefoot is so worth it! My first pair of MBT's are getting a little worn. They have been good shoes. It's just so hard to buy something that's 250 dollars. UGH.

Suzi

okay...do tell, what are mbt shoes? i have worn birkenstocks for years....and they are the ones that look like regular shoes(thank god) so the feet have been happy until about 3 or 4 months ago and spurs are yelling!!!

MBT shoes are pretty normal, a little large and clunky. They don't have a traditional heel. So when you walk you really roll all the way through the motion. But what makes it work so well is that it causes you to balance better, stand up straighter and it gives the back of the legs and thighs a good stretch all the way up the legs. Over time it strengthens muscles that we don't normally use as much. Ideally a person should wear these shoes about half the time and regular shoes about half the time.

Just google MBT and you'll find out tons :)

Suzi

Sticks & Suzi, you two both have my admiration, to say the least. I consider both of YOU "Garden Victories" and we should all do a happy dance in your honor!

:)

You are very sweet :)

How's everyone doing today? It's a gorgeous day today. My knee is acting up though so I'm not sure I will do any gardening. I may just wait and give it a rest.

Suzi

I did not know that Brugs would come back after winter. Mine did! So that's a victory for me! I have mine in the garden and it came back. I took cuttings from it before winter thinking it would die out.

I also had some pretty Coleus' that I overwintered that I thought died. Now close to the dead stem I see tiny leaves peeking out. Yea!!!