Forgive me gold, but I can't remember - what disease does he have? Great news, so happy for Daniel, Sandy and your families!

So nice to hear something positive!

Daniel has Behcets Disease (I hit the wrong keys in the spelling in my original post.). A simple description from John Hopkins website:

"BehcetÂs disease is virtually unparalleled among the vasculitides in its ability to involve blood vessels of nearly all sizes and types, ranging from small arteries to large ones, and involving veins as well as arteries. Because of the diversity of blood vessels it affects, manifestations of BehcetÂs may occur at many sites throughout the body. However, the disease has a predilection for certain organs and tissues; these are described below..."

It affects eyes, brain, mouth, genitals, colon, etc. It can cause blindness and even severe brain damage and death.

Glad to hear he is doing well.
Gardening is great therapy. With my bad back, it's not so easy to even prune any more but when I'm out there I forget about the pain until I move lol

Does he have Hungarian yellow peppers? If not, he needs some.
Some peppers are on the hot side while some are sweet. They are great to make stuffed peppers with.

I can hook you up with seeds in the fall.

I'm so glad to hear he's doing well *and* doing good! L.D. is showing that when life gives you the pits, you should plant them and make a garden. What a beautiful, life-affirming thing to do with his time. In addition to being incredibly physically and psychologically therapeutic, it's also really *making* something usable and helping the earth. Doesn't get much better than that.

Has he gotten involved in any local gardening communities, e.g. maybe permaculture or organic/veggie/fruit/plant-specific gardening groups? In Portland there are gardening groups of every possible kind, and I learn a lot from them constantly, even online, if energy to go somewhere physical and meet in person is an issue.

There's also this great site called "Gardenweb", I think, that has actual *garden forums* for every area of the country and every interest you can imagine! ;) I peek in every so often in the Northwest Gardening forum and see what folks are up to/struggling with from time to time. Maybe L.D. would like to check that site out :)

I'm going to go out and pinch my tomato plants now and think of my fellow gardener one state down :)

That is awesome news. Maybe gardening/ farming is his calling. He could do farmers markets. I believe being outside can be very healing. True story that I often remember- in 1918, during the pandemic, my great great uncle and his younger sister had the Spanish flu( or scarlet fever- idk), she died and he eventually recovered. Their father was an old fashioned country doctor and he had Emory, hike and hunt and wander the fields around their farm to strengthen his muscles and heal instead of working or going to school. Uncle Emory ended up graduating from agriculture college - and always had a huge garden until he died at age 98.
I am glad to hear the news.

Sandy's house has pure clay soil. This year they were only able to afford some 'Clay buster' to break up the soil so his garden isn't as nice as some. Next year, I hope they can buy a truck load of compost but it's an impressive first garden! He cracks us up because he is always wearing his big straw gardening hat, boots and shorts. Our "Farmer Murphy."

We have a Farmer's Market here 4 days a week, all within 6 miles of D's house. I certainly see this as a great career option for him - doing something he loves to do. Woo!! They have three acres of land so he could grow some serious food quantities.

Fly, you are right. Life did give him pits and he grew a garden with them. A perfect analogy.

Roselvr, he doesn't have Hungarian yellow peppers but I'm sure he'd love some seeds!

So very glad to hear he's doing well. I think of this brave young man often. Here's to a great bounty!

Gosh, we live with him every day and it's amazing how much we already take for granted. I just re-read everyone's posts and tears came to my eyes. This "Aunt Deby" is very proud of him. I love getting phone calls from him. We talk until I can't think of anything else to talk about. I've been trying to teach him how to start a compost pile...

That's such a good update, he's been through so much.

Thanks for the update Golddust. It is always so pleasant to be reminded of the success stories, the healing, the good stuff that goes on around us every day. Please send my regards to Daniel.

What a wonderful place to grow one's health -- the garden! I suggest that the compost be laid on the beds at the end of the season to allow the microbial action to start to break down that clay over the winter. More compost in the Spring, too. Can;t have too much compost, says I!

One thing we learned from a native North Carolinian, and they know from clay soil down there (North Carolina pottery, anyone? :)) is that you don't have to make a compost pile, necessarily, and go to all that trouble of layering, turning, etc. You can also just dig *holes*, at least a foot down, and bury your compostables to allow worms to do their thing in the ground (rather than in containers) with the eggshells/fruit rinds/etc. to make good new soil right there. Much less trouble--just bury it (pick a particular place to make your holes) and in maybe 6-8 weeks, you've got great soil there, fresh with worm castings, to use wherever you want.

Great idea about digging holes but we have wild animal/rodent issues here. I'm thinking he might be better off (initially) getting one of those closed, turnable compost bins as his garden isn't fenced yet.

Course, if you make a real good layered compost pile with blood meal, food waste, lawn clippings, soil and straw, it gets too hot for the animals to bother. (That is what I do.) He is a developing gardener.

Clay is a great soil base once it gets enough goodies in it. It holds water better than most other soils.

There are wild animal/rodent issues in North Carolina farms too :) If you dig it deep enough (that's why I said a foot down), and don't put in anything you wouldn't put in a pile, you'll be fine. We have raccoons, opossum, and now skunk (and the occasional coyote passing through), and we've never had a hole dug up. With eggshells and melon rinds and everything.

OK, Fly, good. Funny that I just got home and there was a phone message from Sandy, asking me about composting. I will tell her your method.

It sure made things a lot easier for us than keeping track of a pile/lasagna layering...

Wow, Golddust, I remember your posts when LD was in the hospital and his condition was so critical. Such good news to read now! Happy gardening to him!

Hey Golddust!! So happy that Daniel is better. How wonderful that he takes care of plants, tends to their needs, watches them grow. Is he growing a healthy vegetable garden? Can he eat veggies? Is his diet restricted or is he able to eat most anything?
Send him our love. Who knows, he might one day write a book about his life experiences.

Three!!!!! I am so thrilled you responded to this thread. How are YOU? Daniel is eating most everything. He is on some very powerful medicine to keep his disease at bay but it seems to be working well for him. So far his tests have been great.

His veggie garden is really funny. He knew nothing in the beginning and his garden reflects it. His plants are planted way too close and he planted plants that generally aren't planted together- but it's a first garden - grown more out of his understanding of the need of survival than of companionship. We're gently helping him refine his technique while loving his effort, which is getting B grades, maybe more for effort than anything else. There's Jack in the Pulpits planted with squash, which means you have to look pretty close to see everything... His garden is almost an exact mirror of his life experience. LOL! Still, the effort is there and nothing has died.

Please tell us how you are!

Hi there Golddust. I am doing ok. Working my two jobs that add up to about 55-60 hours a week. I actually have a day off this weekend. Can't remember the last day off I had. I even worked July 4th and 5th. But that is ok since I need the money. Still no architecture job on the horizon. But I am working and I am grateful for that.
My daughter graduated from law school and just finished taking the Cali bar exam. So she was even busier than me.
I am glad to be alive and I know Daniel is feeling the same way.

Nice to "see" you Eileen, congrats to your DD. You must be very proud. Glad to hear you're doing well.

Golddust, great news about LD. We really needed some more good news on this forum!