Garden Thread

[Tippyclubb]

Lets make this a garden post and all questions, tips , advice will be here.

I have a patch of clay, everything dies there.  I have done everything-- mixing sand, compost, manure, dirt in the clay.  Now I am just fed up with this patch.  What can I put there that grows in clay other than Coneflowers?  Have a bunch of those already.  Anyone with experience with clay?

[newleaf09]

Ugly as it is, don't cut or cover the foliage to your bulbs until it's pretty yellow.  They need to make the energy for next year's flowers.  We can't grow tulips here, too warm.  Kind of like trying to do cut flowers...still worth it for the pleasure it brings, then throw them out.  

I am on my first week of sick leave and will stay out until I finish and turn back into a human.  I was really hoping that the 10 years older look was totally related to the dehydration.  You mean it's not?  And here I was thinking that with losing 15 pounds I was going to be so good-looking when I finished!  Crushing disappointment.

[portann]

Denise,

Thank you truly - I could bawl just reading your post.

Aren't garden threads great?

Maybe it's how tx drains us and makes so many demands. Then some of us collapse after the marathon.

[GSDgirl]

Port, My motto was "when the goin' gets tough, Denise gets goin' ".  So I know all about fleeing.  I wish I was Lal's age too.

I am 47 and TX aged me probably 10 years in looks and I'm not sure about everything else yet.  I would be driving down the road and just start bawling for no reason.  Everything came to a head the evening I decided to drink a half pint of vodka (I know, I know) I haven't drank in so long, like 15 years, and the waves of anxiety, and my doc wouldn't give me anything except zoloft and told me it would take 3 weeks to work, and, and  DUHHHH.  Well I didn't know what Soma & vodka would do.........ride to hospital in the ambulance, scared my mom and hubby to death.  It was stupid but self medication "seemed like a good idea at the time.......not.  That is over and done with and I guess the psych is helping.

Hinest, it took me a year to feel like myself.  Not saying that it will for you but if it does remember that you are not alone.

Denise

[portann]

That sounds great about your neighbor's custom upside down tomato plants. I'd rig something up if I weren't so lazy. I'm going to try the topsy-turvy this year. I've had mixed results with veggies, except for my Thai chilies which were an amazing success.

I'll  definitely do the mulch over the tulip leaves. Totally hadn't thought of it. I have a huge compost but haven't turned it over for I don't know how long, so don't think I should use that.

Last time I visited a psychologist was when I was having conflict with my younger son. In the end, I didn't want to talk it out with a stranger, just wanted to 'flee'. (I love fleeing.)That's what I did for a month. When I returned home, my heart still ached but I'd adjusted or at least resigned myself.

It was really good for me to get away but I'm not up to it this time, physically or emotionally. I feel so d-amn decrepit and feeble and wish I were Lal's age.:)

I do have the post-tx blues and thank you so much for telling me that you also went through this. I can't put my finger on why.

[GSDgirl]

There is a guy close by me that has been growing tomatoes upside down waayyyy before the topsy turvey came about.  He used 5 gallon buckets hung on a clothes rack with wheels and pushed them in & out of his shop way into late fall.  He used coffee filters at the hole in the bottom so the dirt wouldn't come out.  Good luck if you try it, they are all the rage.

I know some landscapers that do a lot more planting than we do, the big expensive houses in the upscale neighborhoods.  They just cut them off and claim that it doesn't hurt them.  I would just spread some mulch over them to hide the dying leaves.  Or you could pull them up & replant in the fall uughgh  I don't do that, I put mulch over them or let the mostly die and the cut them.

As for the post tx blues...................I had that real bad.  I am just a little over a year and FINALLY feeling good.  My joints & muscles are still killing me but I can handle that.  I actually went to a psych and am still going.  It really helped to talk to a neutral party.

LAL!!!!  Great news on finishing up the finals!!!!

Denise

[portann]

Congrats, Lal, on doing your last final today. I'm eating some mango and imagining having a papaya tree like you. Whew.

To all:  I think I overdid it and come Memorial Day weekend, I'll have to be outside day and night, planting a gazillion seedlings, new dahlias and rose bushes.

Two questions:

Has anyone ever tried growing tomatoes upside down?

Any ideas for what to do about dozens of tulips, post-blooming?

I have about seventy for the first time. Before this,  I just had a few,  let the leaves die to feed the bulbs and would hide the leaves among summer growth. This year I'll have so many browning leaves everywhere. Any ideas?

Nice to get back to the thread. I had a couple of bad post-tx days (days 14 and 15) Monday and Tuesday. It was a bummer, I kid you not. Just kind of went blue, real blue, as in emotions. I had some fries for breakfast at a diner this morning and snapped out of it. Sure surprised me.