|
|
Post by lilolpeapicker on May 17, 2015 16:53:23 GMT -5
You came to a good place for your outdoor needs. We like to help. And it is good that you care about your place. It has been very cold this year except for the last 2 weeks here. Now it's too dry....need rain. Are we ever content? Discontent yields action! Good luck.
|
|
|
|
Post by brownrexx on May 17, 2015 18:18:31 GMT -5
Caring for a parent with Alzheimer's is extremely difficult. I used to send my Dad to the Senior Center during the day when I was at work and he really enjoyed it too. They picked him up in the morning in a bus and dropped him at the center for the day and even fed him a nice hot lunch.
Check out your local Senior Center or some other form of Adult Day Care. It really helps.
After Dad worsened I hired someone from an organization called Home Instead to come and stay with him overnight in his home. This allowed Dad to stay in his home for an additional 2 years before moving to an assisted living facility and it was much less stressful for me and my family.
Good luck to you. |
|
krystal55
Sprout
Living the Blue Collar Life in Southeastern Indiana - Plant Hardiness Zone 6A
Posts: 8 
|
Post by krystal55 on May 17, 2015 18:57:52 GMT -5
The weather for us southern Hoosiers has also been very dry for maybe a couple of weeks. And yet the weeds are tall and flourishing! Field grass all over my beloved garden waving merrily in the winds that never seem to stop blowing. I should actually just turn that place into a wildlife preserve, a small one, but hey. I see other folks with little 'wild' areas between the houses. Not in town, though! There are probably restrictions on doing that.
I might have to throw in the shovel and simply cover the offending items near my garage with tarp and rocks. And if mum insists on having golden barberry, I'm sure I can find one at our nursery for ten bucks or so. Plant that dude over again someplace NOT so near the garage entrance, and maybe with a little luck and help from above, I can live here long enough to see it grow nicely into a golden globelike shape once again. They do need pruning. Maybe there is a variety that doesn't, or I could plant it where it won't bother anyone if it grows huge.
Most likely, about half this year's garden will have to be covered up with "poor man's mulch," that is, landscape plastic. I have used that for eons, it lasts about 2 yrs before it gets ragged and needs replacing. I've used it for all my pathways even though they can be slippery esp. when there is dew or we've had rain. I hold it down with rocks and step stones and, formerly, garden pins although the metal pins will rust. I always put it over areas that were full of weeds to control that stuff till I could get around to planting the areas. If much of the garden this summer is under plastic and, meanwhile, the taller perennials that are doing well are just kept de-weeded and mulched, the place won't look too bad, just different. I'm putting some of the "back forty" into grass this summer. Whenever I can find the time! and the wind stops blowing long enough for me to lay plastic AND broadcast grass seed.
Mom always insisted on having extra smaller flower patches around the sides of the house, including the one where the golden barberry is dying. Those are full of weeds too. And our beautiful spruce and pine trees are being invaded by various popup trees, also poison ivy which I am allergic to. No Rest For The Weary...
|
|
krystal55
Sprout
Living the Blue Collar Life in Southeastern Indiana - Plant Hardiness Zone 6A
Posts: 8
|
Post by krystal55 on May 17, 2015 19:06:54 GMT -5
Currently my mother is on 3 different meds to control her Alzheimer's and they have done her much good over these past 3 months. She should have been getting treated by a neurologist last summer but no one knew what was wrong with her and the general family doctor thought she could just take anti-psychotic drugs. So she (the doctor) just pushed pills which did more harm than good. Finally she recommended a neurologist which has been the answer to a prayer. Mom might have 2 extra years, maybe more, before her condition worsens till I can't live with her anymore. I only work part time now (I call that my 'job that pays' and the home caregiving 'my primary non-paid job') because I have no help at the moment. The family visits but they don't do the kind of work that I have to do for her. It seems when you are the unmarried sister, and parents live to be old and sick and are still at home, little sister is the one who gets left holding the bag. My bro and SIL are even planning to retire next year, sell their home and travel the country while living in their RV. And yet my mom's expenses mostly are my burden. But, oh well! I can see the path of my bro's cash flow...right into the RV's gas tank! Mom says we will see them even more rarely than now. I think it's a bit selfish on their part...
|
|
|
|
Post by octave on May 17, 2015 22:10:45 GMT -5
Krystal55, I get 70% of my garden work done via lawn-mower.
If it's growing on a flat surface I'll mow it, and that's all is needed for many weeds.
The only "weed" I won't mow is poison ivy, everything else can be controlled by an inexpensive mower.
I think that should be your first step.
Not sure how good landscape plastic is, I'd much rather use cardboard for paths.
|
|
krystal55
Sprout
Living the Blue Collar Life in Southeastern Indiana - Plant Hardiness Zone 6A
Posts: 8
|
Post by krystal55 on May 18, 2015 11:41:12 GMT -5
My mother was probably right years ago when we started this "new" floral version of our old garden (from 1970 to 1992 it was mostly vegs) she predicted that annuals would be the best choice, as perennials do return yearly but they get full of weeds. Annuals can be stripped out and you start with a clean slate every year. This garden did not exist for a couple of years after my Dad died (1993); it went to all grass. Then finally my mother agreed we should "do something" again. In 1995 we began with several burningbushes, and a patch of flowers in front of that. Then, as years passed and our enthusiasm grew, so did the garden....it got bigger and bigger. The dimensions reached approx. 60 x 80 feet. Only about 1/3 of what we had at one time, but large enough. It was absolutely beautiful when flowers, shrubs and trees bloomed and we had good weather conditions and the two of us women were slaving side by side! But now we are both older, my mom won't be able to get outdoors at all anymore, and it's all up to me. The weather conditions have been a challenge as well. Global Warming???
Once I get some new grass growing in the back, it should measure about 30 by 80 feet. Still too large, though. I have iris growing along the sides, well DID have...many of those got iris borer and wet rot, so they have been eliminated. I still have work to do on that. This year it seems even the iris that were doing OK have not bloomed much. Too much grass. I'm considering just getting rid of all the iris, it isn't worth my killing myself. Over the rest of the garden we have small pathways 2-3 feet wide, weaving amid either perennials or patches where annuals have gotten planted. I've had the iris mowed off before but farther into the garden that would be impossible. This is the kind of garden that would have been great with decorative-rock or cement pathways, but I could not afford that so I used plastic. Not sure where I would get enough cardboard...
A weedeater (of my own) could be used for controlling grass and other problems in there, too. The man we pay to mow uses his riding mower in the areas surrounding the garden that are still grass. He uses a weedeater to cut the grass along a little strip that runs between the garden and our fences. My mother rode her own riding mower along that little strip, but the man who mows now can't get thru there, his machine is too wide! Formerly I used a hand mower along there but it was old and the mower-man had to start it up for me, the string was messed up somehow. I WOULD like to have a new hand mower, something that would actually start without me dislocating my shoulder... I hear that nowadays there's a make that starts up with the press of a button, wouldn't that be nice!!
I hate those fences. They are old farm type fence, ugly, and the weeds and grass ADORE them. We had the garden enclosed because at one time, dogs roamed around the neighborhood and you know what they can do to plants! Now that we no longer have dogs of our own, the neighboring dogs have stopped visiting, as far as I can tell. But I am not sure about removing the fences.
|
|
