I was in a slump too, but mainly because the heat in August is just too much for me to work. But I did the unthinkable (to DH that is) and hired a man to mow and edge our three acres. When I got home yesterday that overwhelming, slumpy sense of futility was gone. I walked around the property and felt like I could breathe again. I recommend you pay someone to do the hard work (even if you only do it once) and give yourself the reward of enjoying your garden that you so richly deserve. I strolled around the place like a baroness, smiling (on the outside, on the inside I was doing the nekkid happy dance) and nodding in the most dignified and sedate manner. Cheryl

Funny, Cheryl.

I'm quite proud of myself since I kept my garden almost weed free this year. I enjoy weeding but of course it depends on the weather. Too cold. Too hot. Anyway it's turning the corner to fall, so it'll just be cutting down some things and leaving lots for the spring. Hopefully, some pleasant fall weather.

Libby

I didn't answer the garden slump thing, because it's not really a slump, but I am back to full time work as a paraeducator at a local high school, and don't have the time or energy I had in my summer off. I see things that need to be done, and don't get them done. Like you, though, I have taken to going out and just doing some deadheading or watering, and when I'm out of energy or light, I just come in and get back to the internet :o) or some reading, or get my lunch packed for the next day.

Some of my pots aren't looking so good, and I think about dumping them on the compost, but then start to wonder if they'll look good again when the weather cools off, so I wait.

I'm glad to hear that you are perking up. I like the idea of doing one thing a day. Now, I also need to apply that to my house.

Sue

Good for you! My one thing today was to go to Fantasy Island (kids amusement park) with the kids. I did take a couple of photos, but that's about it. A good day . . . .

Everything is easier in bite size pieces - I am probably remembering something about eating a whale or something. But even though I keep telling myself this, I too keep getting overwhelmed. - OK, and which is the HB bed???

Nancy.

I got some deadheading and watering done tonight. My butterfly bush was where I left off last night, and I was glad to get that done.

I had to balance our checkbooks and transfer some money for dd, so she has the money to cover the allergy doctor appointment she had today. She has severe ecxsema (sp?) atopic dermatitis, they called it, and they tested her for allergies today. She found out she is severely allergic to cats and dust mites. She has a cat, and it sounds like she is going to try to keep him anyway. She took a pamphlet about that. She also found out she is allergic to peanuts, wheat, and soy.

I wish I would have waited until it got dark out to do my banking, because I didn't realize how short the days have gotten, and I ran out of light, but finished my watering in the dark. Well, tomorrow is a new day.

Sue

Nancy, the Humming Bird Bed is right outside the kitchen window and started life with lots of reds...I got lazy this year and just let the self-seeders take over. They were the pale blue salvias Blue Bedder. They then crowded out the red self seeded salvias that I discovered when I began cutting back the blue ones.

{{gwi:738416}}

Sometimes benign neglect is a good thing!! That is beautiful!!!

Nancy.

This morning before getting ready to head off to work, I grabbed my clippers and went out to my potting garden area and pulled up weeds, trimmed morning glory vines and felt much better. I have more to do, but with the heat and humidity we are having I can't stand being outside very long. I do what I can, when I can and for as long as I can stand it.

I had wanted to check my potted Phyllis Bide rose and was rewarded with a little bloom about to open.

FlowerLady

That's the kind of thing I mean; just do a bit here and there.

I worked out too long yesterday and paid for it later. I have a bad foot injured years ago in a car wreck and it bothered me a lot plus I stiffened up after resting and am stiffer yet this morning...it will pass.

It is very hot here too and I try to get out right at daybreak and then come in before it gets too hot.

I am making good progress though.....now if it would just rain.

Gldno ~ Hope your foot is feeling better. It's my right arm that gives me the dickens. That's the arm that was broken in a car accident about 8 years ago. It's not been the same ever since. I've just been dealing with a bout of tennis elbow so have been having to take it easy with the arm. I did go for a full body massage, paid for an hour and she gave me 1 1/2 hrs. That was just what I needed. Hadn't had one in years. Am saving up my money for another one.

Yesterday morning I got out for about an hour and a half, weeding, trimming, raking, this morning got out for a couple more, mowed, and trimmed and raked. We had some cloud cover and winds so it was better than it has been. Yesterday I also planted some potted things in a couple of gardens.

Now we are watching to see what Hanna is going to do, then storm #9 and then another area that just left Africa could be developing. Sheesh! I've been thinking about all the people in Gustav's path for the last couple of days. After having gone through Frances, Jeanne and then horrible Wilma my heart goes out to them.

Hope you get some much needed rain up there.

FlowerLady

I am usually on the wintersowing forum, I just found this thread and i agree - "one thing for the day"... great idea!!

Carrie

Flowerlady I'd recommend that you start using an elastic wrap support just below your elbow to help with the tennis elbow pain (if you haven't already been using one). They don't get in the way and for me it was an almost immediate miracle in decreased pain and improved wrist/hand strength. Rubbing the elbow with a good-sized chunk of ice until the skin is bright pink also helps get rid of the inflammation and pain (I use a dixie cup 2/3rds filled with water and then frozen, peel the paper back and slide the ice quickly over the painful areas).

My "one thing" today as usual became multiple things and I got overheated; now I'm inside cooling off. We've had terrible drought and it was impossible to do anything with the yard for weeks now; until rain this past week. So I'm out there pulling out weeds and trimming back dead blooms and dead branches. I've been switching out with coming indoors to tackle the closets. Fall cleaning indoors and out today!
Granite, the gardening physical therapist

Here is a link that might be useful: the tennis elbow wrap I prefer

Things have been so hot and dry, I haven't kept up like years past. So any rain we have had has made the weeds grow and the perennials just barely hang on. I finally made myself go out this morning (starting to be cooler in AM). I planning on working on one bed a day or until one black garbage bag is full. Luckily I have off the next 8 days. yippeee!!!

Well, I took off a couple of days from doing much garden work. Finally picked up my piles of stuff from some of the beds and dumped them.

Today just watered some. We are very overcast and they are still saying we may get some rain from Gustav here in SW Mo.

Foot is better, but I am wearing my good walking shoes everywhere. That seems to help.

Anyone who is having joint problems might give glucosamine chondroitin a try. Three years ago I couldn't squat down without yelling in pain and had to hold on to something to get up. The cardiac RN at dh's rehab told me about it and I have been using it ever since. It was worked wonders for me! It doesn't help everyone but it certainly has me. I don't even think about getting down to mop floors now or squatting to weed.

I planted broccoli, watered the black beans, tomatoes, sweet potatoes and red potatoes.

Sounds like a good size garden, right?

Number of plants.
brocc. 4
black beans 2
tomatoes 6
sweet pots 2
red potatoes ? as I just planted 6 starts.

haha, big time farmer here.

A big vote here for glucosamine chondroitin!!! I grind up the pills for my tom cat, who has a problem with his left shoulder. I should take it more often myself - I only think of it when I am pain. Another big vote for Massage Therapy - another good thing I let go for a while. It is interesting to note: Drs. really don't know a lot about soft tissue and the damage that can be done there....they will order an Xray for a sore shoulder, when it needs an MRI. They study this for 2 months - Massage Therapists do it for 2 years.

I should take my own advice more often!!

Nancy.

Gldno, that is one pretty bed, today I dug some lilies, a phlox, a couple of perennial geraniums freeing them from the bed overrun with couch grass. This is not a big bed but it's taking me forever to get the plants I want to save out of there. Just a couple more and I'll be ready to tackle the couch grass. I'm potting these up for the winter and will replant in the spring.

Nancy how much of the glucosamine chondroitin do you give your cat. My old girl only weighs about 4 pounds now and is on thyroid meds. She limps around a lot maybe it would help her.

Annette

I picked rowan berries and made jam. With a dash of brandy, btw. The trees are loaded this year. I got carried away and picked more than I could clean in a day. Was surprised my 2 yo boy helped me clean the berries - he was pretty serious about the business.

timbu, I had to look up Estonia and your rowan berries...thank you for the post. Are your rowan berries of the yellow or red variety.

BTW, I was amazed at your mild temperature! I always , wrongly, assume that countries in the northern latitudes must be extremely cold.

What other fruits do you have?

Timbu,
I wisited Estonia over 30 years ago while still in high school. What a beautiful elegant country! I was born and raised in Belarus.
~Natalie

Wow, gldno, you've done some research! Yep, we get a whiff of the Gulf Stream warmth here, though we already had a first frosty night. You'd be amazed if you checked the climate of NW Norway!
My berries are red-orange, the trees really look lovely when full of them. I usually cook them with apples, but this year the apple harvest has been poor.
Other than that, I've got pears, cherries, gooseberries, red and black currants, strawberries, and I'm trying to grow grapes (first year, a very hardy Latvian variety named Zilga.)
I've worked for one summer as a farm harvester in Minnesota, so it was interesting to compare what grows where. The farm grew many things that I could only grow in a greenhouse, such as eggplant, chiles, basil, zucchini. Things that were difficult for them included fruit trees and onions.
Natalie, I've never been to Belarus. I guess you miss it much.

Nothing going on here garden-wise. We have had over the last two days a wonderful 3.5 inches of rain leftover from Gustav.

We were needing it desperately.

I hope sometime today or tomorrow to tour the farm and see what I can see. Nell's pictures got me thinking.

Gldno1,

I am a firm believer in A-task-a-day and I just recently trimmed some lilacs along my property line. I must have liberated two sections of about 6'x3' and when I told my wife, she said I was acting more like I had just forested the entire Louisiana purchase!

Thats an awesone picture. What type of salvia's are they and what are the yellow tumblers nexts to it? The pink to the far right is cool too. I wish that was more the view out my window rather than the jungle of weeds, dead grasses, and great expanses of bare dirt that I have.

One more question. I have a thicket of tall daisies that have gone by (the flowers have gone black and are drying ready to seed) Do I leave them to self seed or should I cut them(some not all) back and allow them to flower again? (keep in mind this is Connecticut).

Thanks,
Mihai.

Mihai, I would be bragging too....lilacs are like trees.

The salvias are salvia farinacea Blue Bedder. Those are all self-seeded from the year before. The yellow are heliopsis, don't remember the variety except one was Loraine Sunshine all self seeded. Sometimes the variegated one L. Sunshine will be true from seed and others just the plain green leafed variety. The pink next to them is perenial garden phlox, Robert Poore. The large bloom in pink in the back is hibiscus moscheuotos, a perennial that I raised from seed.

The daisies probably will not rebloom this late if you are zone 6 or colder. If you don't want to leave the dead blooms clip them off down to the green base. I often leave my dead perennial tops on to act as a mulch to the plant over the cold winter.

Then in the spring I do a general cleanup of the beds.