Name Change

I really like "Chlorophyllic Mojolicious."  A lot.  And maybe someday I'll change the name back.  But I hope not for a really long time.

See, some of you who know me know my mother-in-law Janet lives with us.  She has for a really long time, maybe about five years.  Now, most people shuddered when I said she was moving in, and I'll be honest, I thought that this was going to be a disaster.

I was also raised with many examples of parents moving in with their children when they were not able to take care of themselves.  My faith also stresses the importance of family, and not just when family is fun or not-problematic.  (At least, in my opinion.  I've since learned that others' mileages may vary, and that's fine.)

Janet is a quiet woman, for the most part.  She's got diabetes that is difficult to control, so often has blood sugar drops.  She also can't hear, but can only wear a hearing aid in just one ear.  The other one is beyond help.  She has a small dog, Sassy, and I'm not sure which one depends on the other one more.  Janet likes to be industrious, and hates to just sit around, but she also doesn't drive, which means that her independence is tied very much to whether my spouse or I are home and can take her where she needs to go.  We juggle the best we can, and for the most part it's actually worked out.  She takes care of my dog and cat while we are gone at work during the day and the house is generally not vacant then, either.  She does make dinner at least half the time too, which is nice.

Janet was also recently diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimers.  I do have my reservations about her doctor, but they have her on medicine which seems to be helping.  Mostly all she has right now is forgetfulness and transposing numbers.  She also can't find words sometimes, and I either way until she does, or if it's urgent, fill it in for her.

Why I have renamed this blog:  Janet doesn't remember much sometimes, but she does remember growing up in Southern Ohio, in the very Northern fringes of Appalachia.  And she remembers her mother and father growing much of their own food.  And she remembers how to do it, how to preserve and dry, and all the things I would like to do.

One thing that I have read about folks with Alzheimers, dementia, and similar disorders is that keeping them active and engaged is important.  It was with that in mind that I insisted we expand our garden and she is now involved.  She is excited to help me hill the potatoes when it is time, and when we found out we could use the green unripe apples on my tree to still make apple jelly she was pleased.  I got her two cucumber plants for the garden so we can make pickles.

The garden began as a way for me to connect to the natural rhythms of the land around me, bring me closer in tune with the Earth Mother and Sky Father.  If it supplemented our grocery purchases, all the better.  However, now I think I was asked to start if for another purpose, to help Janet stay with us as long as possible.  Hence the name change.  I'll change it back when it's no longer for that, but again, I hope it's not for a while.

So far, I've been getting about half a cup of raspberries a day.  No strawberries yet, but that's to be expected.  I think (and Janet has confirmed) the onions are ready to have their leaves bent over to bulb up, and we might be ready to hill the potatoes.  The cucumbers, beans, and squash are doing fine, but that bed seems to dry out quicker than the others.  We've had several days of rain and it's bone dry.  Two of the three tomato plants have actually come back, but the third is done.  I have a TINY green pepper though. The herbs are just HUGE, so I think I need bigger containers so I can separate them out. The first batch of basil and mint is dried and ready to be unhung, only to be replaced with another bunch, and I think the oregano could probably get some trimming too.

Instead of going to Chillicothe for the family reunion tomorrow, I think I shall stay home and get started on the apple jelly, pole the beans, and maybe see if i can plant those things C. gave me.  They may not survive, but we'll at least give it a shot.

To Water or Not To Water

This is the annoying thing.  The weather forecasters say "Oh, it's going to rain!"  So I wait...and wait...and wait...nope. No rain.  Now it's dark and late and I'm tired and don't want to haul the hose around.

I'm not one of those who jumps on forecasters for every erroneous forecast.  If people were honest, they'd realize that they are fairly accurate.  And I'm pretty sure it rained somewhere in the viewing area even if it wasn't over my back 40 feet.  Either way, there was no watering from me today, and I hope there's rain tonight or tomorrow.  I have this sneaking suspicion that if I water, it will rain.  I don't think that's a bad thing.  The beds seem to be draining well, so I am not worried about flooding.

There is of course some larger lesson here, about doing what one should do regardless of the promise of a gift from the heavens.  People who pray for work but don't put in applications would seem to be an analogy. So in the gardening-as-life-lesson realm, point taken.  Procrastinating because something might happen to make the task unnecessary or easier, when in actually it's just getting harder by waiting is a long standing failing of mine.  Now I get it from the garden too.  One day, that lesson will take.  But not today obvious.  Maybe tomorrow.

I was gifted with some new tomato plants to replace the dying ones, and then also some cabbage and muskmelon.  I will need to probably finish the pallets, throw some dirt in them and see what happens.  Everything that isn't the tomatoes seems to be doing well, and I've gotten about four to eight raspberries every morning, although the promise of more to come.  Herbs are drying; the mint seems to have gone faster, so I can take that off, store it somehow, and then hang more.

And water tomorrow....

Better Late Than Never

Happy Summer Solstice!  I spent the day out in the actual sun, trying to get the back yard into some semblance of order before our "really informal, not quite last minute but might as well be" solstice party on Saturday.  Still the larger things should be done.

It's much later than it should be, and as usual, later than I intended.  I wanted to have started and finished the week of our frost free date, however we just didn't have the time.  I have to rely on my spouse for some of the heavier lifting, and the construction projects, and it was just now we got to it.  He ordered two cubic yards of dirt which is maybe enough for what we intend to do...but maybe not.  We shall see.  I think 1.2 cubic yards of it are still in the driveway, which will make parking interesting for our party.

Now that things are all built (except the pallets, that's still a work in progress), next year we can probably get started 'on time.'

Stepping back a bit.... I was torn on what to do with the caterpillars in the herb garden, and finally decided to get new parsley plants.  I also got some dill, being told they would like that too, and planted those in some small pots, one for each caterpillar.  You know, so they can have their own rooms.  Well, I couldn't find one of them, and then the other was sort of hit and miss.  Finally I found him and after several tries to pick him up so he'd stay put but I wouldn't squish him, I moved him to his new home.  The other one, I never found.  I put the pots near the large herb pot (so perhaps the missing caterpillar would find its way to one of them), and just decided from that point on to let nature take its course.  But with some amount of checking every day to see where they are.

I've spent an inordinate amount of time worrying about caterpillars.

That was last week, I think ,a few days after my first post.  This week my spouse had the day off on Thursday (today) so we had plans to work in the backyard.  I had work obligations in the morning, and while I was gone he built me another vegetable bed, and filled it, and also cleaned up around the raspberry bushes.  Yesterday I began planting strawberries in one of the pallets, after attaching the landscape fabric to it, and I finished that up today.  The strawberries feel like they are happy.  I actually got them at Lowe's not my favorite greenhouse, since Dill's tends to follow the seasons rather than what late-to-get-to-things suburbanites want.  I seriously think I would be able to go there in fall and get spring stuff.  Dill's also was confused by my request for diatomaceous earth.  They did bring me some super poisonous stuff for the ants, despite me explaining it was for a VEGETABLE garden.  You know, for things I'd be eating.  They got it eventually, but were out of the product.

The potatoes appear to have gotten beaten down during a storm early this week but have come back, and the onions may be ready to bulb.  Peppers are alive but just kind of there and the tomatoes...well, I should not buy plants because they are 'little' and need to be taken care of.  I think those will need to be replaced.

Now I have an empty bed, but never fear, back to Lowe's I go.  (also did have the diatomaceous earth as well.)  Two cucumber plants (for MominLaw), a zucchini, a squash, and a few string beans.  I will plant those tomorrow.

Lettuce and spinach will have to wait until next year, and who knows if I'll find a place for broccoli and cauliflower again.

Some early (for me) harvest:  I've already frozen some basil, and I'll probably cut more and hang them to dry.  And it looks like the raspberries are starting to come in!  I need to reinforce my deal with the birds, to enable us to share the wealth as it were, especially now that I've added strawberries to the mix.  The apples need to be thinned, I've read.  Anyone know what to do with early not even close to ripe apples?

I've also discovered that the 'here's what I did' is really not exciting blogging.  But hopefully that will change as things get planted and it's just 'wait and see.'

I did get an opportunity to sit on my deck with a glass of water and watch the birds at the feeder.  Just kind of nice.  We also have our first squirrel sighting, which makes me very happy.