The weather has been perfect (well, sort of perfect) , and both Bobby and I have been out working in the yard for the last couple of days. I was in bed by 8:30 last night and probably sound asleep by 8:31. I am all done for the day, and had my shower, and now relaxing with a bowl of chips and my black bean and corn salsa, and a bottle of my apple kombucha. It will be another early to bed night. I want to move my hop plants that we got last spring. They didn’t do much the first year, but this year, they (all 3 of them) are coming back stronger, and I think that they might be spreading out some , too. We had them trellised up cords last year, but this year, I want to move them where they can trellis across the front porch, and maybe along the side fence. If we get hops flowers this year, I want to use them in my kombucha. Last year, i bought some hop pellets from Amazon and added them to a batch of kombucha and it turned out really delicious; so my next batch of kombucha, I am going to use more of the hops (from the ones I bought) to flavor the kombucha. Bobby ordered another back yard pool, which we always need to cool off with during the hot summer months, and the one we have had was just completely worn out, so it was time for a new one. I was not going to garden this year, but somehow, the gardening bug bit me (might have caught it from @Beth Gallagher ? ), and I now have the aerogardens started again. The oldest aerogarden was destined for the roadside, or the thrift store, because the pump was barely trickling; but Bobby decided to see if he could fix it, and ended up ordering another pump for it, and now Mr. Bobby has his very own aerogarden, with tomatoes and cucumbers started in it. My new aerogarden should be here on Tuesday, and then I ordered another seed pod grow kit that was 50% off. While I was finding that, I noticed they also had one of the faux-aerogardens for almost half price; so all of that will arrive on Wednesday…..
All of the aerogardens are full and producing baby plants, or at least trying to do that. The grow light on my old Sprout AG stopped working, and it is only sold in a set of 2 for $30+. I have had this aerogarden since 2016, so there is no way I will use up 2 more light bulbs for it in my lifetime; so I am not ordering 2 new grow lights. Instead, I have some rose cuttings in this AG, and have it sitting right next to my 9-pod AG, so it shares the light from that, and that seems to be working fine for the cuttings. These are just the small top cuttings, so it is hard to say whether they will eventually grow roots or just die, but it is not hurting anything by them being there, and the AG pump is working fine still. I have been going outside and working in the front yard, a little at a time, working (in my Gardening Chair) and then relaxing feet up on the front porch for a while, back and forth. Bobby has the swimming pool set up, and it is warming up, but we have not tried it yet this year. Still having a lot of rainy days, but getting hotter. I said I was not going to garden again this year, but the Gardening Bug bit me, so here I am weeding and planting and having fun in the yard. It won’t be too much longer and I can get Poodle’s Shark Suit out and we can be cooling off in the little backyard pool.
We have been having nice weather again the last few days, and I have been outside working in the garden and yard most of the day, and definitely worn out by bedtime. I have most of the weedeating caught up, and the little iris gardens cleaned out of weeds (a never-ending job) and all the flowers and shrubs have been watered. So far, my cuttings all seem to be doing okay. My DIL, Laura, took some of the fig cuttings I started for her along on her trip to visit her family in western Oregon. The weather there is similar to here, although not as hot and humid, so I think the figs should grow out there, too. I am looking forward to getting the Aronia cuttings and hoping that they will root, and by fall, I can set them up along the front of the lawn and make a low hedge with them eventually. We are getting into the heat of the day, so time for brunch, and relax for a while. I am enjoying the gardening weather ! I have been chatting with my son in Washington now, too, and sent him a quick snapshot of my “weedeating look”.
Spent most of the morning out working in the yard and iris gardens, and then it was just too hot and humid; so I came in and then made liver and onions for lunch. This afternoon, I went back out, and I weeded around the raspberry bushes, and now I am completely worn out, showered and clean, and relaxing inside for the rest of the day. We are talking about moving the raspberries to the little garden area out front, and I will be able to take care of them better out front, plus they should get better sunshine out there. If Bobby rototills the little area, then I will move the small new raspberries there and then I can put up some T-posts and wire to keep them upright and easy to pick; so next year, we will have berries there. We are moving into the hot days of summer, and once that happens, I will pretty much be done with doing outside stuff except early in the mornings, and I am enjoying being able to get outside and work in the garden while I still can do it.
I found a facebook group for plant exchanges in the Huntsville area and joined it. Today, there was a lady asking about comfrey, and so I write back and said I just divided a plant and have some new starts starting to come up from that. She said she has a butterfly pea vine to trade. I have never heard of a butterfly pea before, so I looked it up, and it is a beautiful vine and the flowers are used to make blue and purple tea. The peas are edible, but people grow it as an ornamental. However, I found a website that talks about medicinal benefits. I had to laugh when I read the Latin name for this plant and then looked at the picture of it. It is called a clitoria ternatea. Have you heard of this @Mary Stetler ? https://jerrysjungle.com/the-powerful-magic-of-butterfly-pea-flower/?v=7516fd43adaa
Save us some seeds! I have never seen that here. It looks fun! I am putting up self heal this week and can all summer for a lot of the health benefits.
Today, I tried doing the Brer Rabbit in the Briar Patch maneuver, and it did not go so well for me ! I was happily out in my gardening chair and weeding around the pink knockout roses by the driveway, which are on kind of a little knoll up from the driveway. I turned my chair around to prune back the wild rose that is also up there, and my chair was just enough off the level that it went over backwards, and sent me somersaulting through the knockout rose bush and upside down underneath the pickup and I was stuck there. Thankfully, falling in the chair,( I smashed the roses) but it was the chair that actually went into the roses or I would have not only been all stove up now, but also full of rose thorns. Anyway, I hollered for Bobby, but he was busy with the weedeater , couldn’t hear me, and could not see me underneath the pickup truck. The neighbor lady heard me, and she got Bobby, and I finally got turned around enough that Bobby could help me get up and out of there. My poor rose is squashed, but should come back okay. I hurt everywhere, but no real damage done. Interestingly, my Apple Watch did not even ask me if I fell. Bobby said it was probably because I was so actively moving all around before I fell, so it did not perceive it as a fall. If the neighbor lady had not come over, I could have also called Bobby on the Apple Watch, and he would have felt his buzzing on his wrist, even if he didn’t hear it. This is the “before” picture, and i was on the left side of the rose where the ground was fairly level, until I turned the chair around to trim the wild rose.