Archive for August, 2019
How does your garden grow? Part One
I love flowers , eating the vegetables and looking our the window at my garden and the ponds BUT I hate gardening. In the long before the turmoil that has struck this home especially in the last few months I would , in the springtime, have a blitz for one day in the garden. Usually it was to get my husband to move the stuff that had accumulated over the fall and winter and tidy up. I really don’t like weeding , digging in the dirt and getting all hot and sweaty but I love the results when my garden looks full of flowers and the pond and the waterfall wakes up in the spring.
The pond I have written about and the Ghost Koi
https://thatwoman.wordpress.com/2015/04/12/the-ghost-in-the-pond-continued-2015/
Purchasing the vacant lot next door in 2015 was a huge drain and investment of time and energy.
Illness interrupted the rehabilitation of the now vacant lot, my ideas and wants had to be put on hold but eventually thanks to the help of two little boys who moved so much dirt the ground was level. I was amazed at how much these two little tots worked and how much help they were. I am still amazed!!!
The once vacant lot was divided into two sections and the back section I decided on a mini orchard with still ponds , plantings consistent with non filtered and pumps water gardening. In other words letting the plantings in the ponds filter the water with no fish.
Considering we are two blocks from Lorain’s downtown this was a bit of a novel idea for Lorain, Ohio. After a season of raw builders dirt used for fill where the previous little house had been ,
dodging the concrete and rubble that had been dumped in what was a ravine and small rivulet that runs under the property next door we managed hit and miss plantings of the trees for the orchard.
My husband would use the back part of the original lot as his vegetable garden, we flourished with tomatoes, peppers, potatoes ( planted by the grandchildren ) corn and asparagus.
And so success for a couple of years, the planted orchard of two cherry trees, one peach tree , one pear tree, two apple trees and a plum tree blossomed beautifully. It took a couple of years but this year they all bore fruit and that is another story to come in this urban orchard.
The front part of the vacant lot was planted more formally I envisioned climbing roses on the fence and archways, the side rockery full of roses, butterfly bushes and lavender for the fragrance as we opened the windows.
We have a lovely balcony and it was my mother’s pride and delight to empty the containers , refill with new soil and planted fresh every year with all the plants she received on Mother’s Day. Of course watering was an issue as the balcony is in full sun and south facing. Mum, being mum was forever weeding out the errant weeds that somehow made it to the containers and would water twice a day.
Last year as she fell into decline at 99 she did not have the strength to plant and water so that job fell to me. My mum loved those flowers and her bedroom was off the balcony so she would sit and enjoy the garden from above and sit amongst her flowers.
It has been a terrible few months one way and another , my mother passed in October and January found my husband extremely ill ( as has been documented in the series )
https://thatwoman.wordpress.com/2019/07/11/medical-care-a-consumers-perspective-brookdale-pt-2/
Time and weeks slipped from dead of winter to spring whilst the garden lay dormant , my thoughts were not of how to manage the garden or ponds.
Trips sometimes twice a day for hours dealing with medical issues left me tired, frustrated and lacking energy . I admit it took what was left of any energy to keep the house running and laundry up to date. I had no time or desire to deal with anything else.
In order to wind down before bedtime I would watch my British murder mysteries and also programs from Britain on gardening, basically because they took me back to the land of my birth, to familiar places and happier times . One such program and presenter / gardener extraordinaire is a chap called Monty Don, https://montydon.com/
he has numerous garden shows but the one I would watch every week on Britbox
is Gardener’s World
https://www.gardenersworld.com/
and there by hangs the rest of the tale on how my garden grows this year and the way Britain is rewilding and cultivating the pollinators one flower pot and meadow at a time !!!!! https://www.housebeautiful.com/uk/garden/plants/a28574537/wildflower-seeds-garden/
‘Wildflowers are often capricious so if you have the space, create varieties of habitats within your garden – shade, dampness and wild. You can also, within reason, harvest the seed of our more common wildflowers from the wild.’
More so now than ever, gardeners are being urged to transform parts of their garden into wildflower meadows to help save the bees. The UK has seen a vast decline in the number of bees, and with 75 per cent of all food crops requiring pollination, the rapidly declining bee population has been cause for serious concern.”
and help the sunflower kisses
To be continued
August 3rd- Linked – Chris Ritchey
Every street in this oldest neighborhood is designated by the signs designed by you for Lorain’s Bicentennial. It was supposed to bring a sense of pride to the residents who have continued to stay here and fight for a quality of life, the history of these oldest streets and a preservation of a neighborhood that was.
I wish I could say that those of us that banded together and set up a 501C3 30 years ago had succeeded in our endeavours but thanks to bank dumps in 2008-2009 with over 200 properties being dumped sometimes for pennies on the dollar, the unscrupulous out of town landlords and property companies, drug houses, lack of code enforcement well we have become a saturated solution of the negative.
Two things came together in my brain this week……. the news of a young man of 16 shot and killed by other young men… just two blocks away, the gun shot waking us up as the sounds of killing reverberated through the night air. I watched the news that evening and as I did the TV camera panned up to the street sign on 6th street, YOUR SIGN and my focus changed instantly as once more I was sent back to your passing and then the pain and I realized another mother , that of a 16 year old , would be weeping tears , heart pounding , trying to breathe trying to deal with the reality of the unreal.
Will she experience the tiniest interludes of happiness? You see, once in a great while, when exhaustion forces the body and mind to sleep there are moments, just between sleeping and waking. One such moment came this week the air was cool enough for the windows to be open and for a brief second as the sun kissed the morning to waken the day , the breeze picked up the peppery scent of the petunias in the window box, this body hadn’t quite realized it had aches and pains, there was for that precious second happiness and then “life” intruded once more……. and mothers weep for lost sons in this old neighborhood……..
Another August of holding my breath , fighting back the tears , holding myself ready for the trigger moments , knowing they will come and wanting
Love continues………. and memories of times much happier……..before life intruded
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