November Nasturtiums

Never before in my years of gardening in Independence MO have I had so many blooming plants in November! Normally by now the plants are all gone. I just cut down the Persian Shield last week, it had become tattered looking but was still standing! This would be a good year round plant in warmer areas. I am so glad I found it at a nursery this year and my cuttings have taken root so I hope to have it next spring to put in the garden. A pot of Nasturiums at the corner of the driveway burst out in blooms in this months picture as if to celebrate the cold! My sister in law told me on thanksgiving that everything she cut back came back!

Today there are still bronze leaf begonias covered in red blooms, impatiens and blue salvia in my gardens.We have not had much rain and things are dry. I decided to water yesterday in honor of those plants still growing! It was fun laying out christmas lights in the newly blooming dianthus. I can't remember this ever happening before, if it is due to El Nino I say gracias amigo,I can still go out and play with my plants on Thanksgiving and for this gift I am grateful!

                                                                                                                    "Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see

the shadow."   Helen Keller

"Do what you can,

with what you have,

 where you are"     

 Theodore Roosevelt

Persian shield, browalia and heliotrope

On the east side of the house is a nice partially shaded area that gets some morning sun.
The browalia and persian shield did very well but the heliotrope
will have to be in a sunny area next year. It is so fragrant. The tall purple persian shield
starts easily from cuttings in water so I hope to have it for next spring.

Hummingbird Happiness

 I dont have a picture of my humming bird  but this one is very similar from http://humabout.net/ . I had one regular lone hummingbird visitor this year that was a gray green color. I was surprised by him one morning when getting ready to start my car to go out. He flew right up to my windshield and paused  in front of me for a few seconds as if to take a look at me before flying over to my cannas to sip from the red blooms. A couple of weeks later I was sitting in my wheelchair on the front porch around 6:30 on a warm and quieter than ususal evening. I have an iron bakers rack shelf on the porch with pots of flowers and some cannas that had almost finished blooming in front of the porch. There was only one bloom left and quite suddenly there he was , my lone hummingbird just 3 feet from me sipping on that bloom. I was so excited and tried not to move at all. Suddenly there he was right next to me visiting the two pots of impatiens on the bakers rack just inches away. I held my breath with delight and said "Thank you God" as my hummer went to every single bloom on both of the pots of impatiens checking for nectar. I always feel like these precious visits are a special gift from above and dont take them for granted as hummingbirds are not that plentiful in my area.

True to its name the butterfly bush

This monarch has moved on. He was a regular visitor to my two year old butterfly bush.

Concrete Dish of Green

 White and green veined caladium with polka dot plant and impatiens in an old concrete dish in a shaded spot by the sidewalk to the front door.

Sun Coleus

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are
the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

- Marcel Proust

HOLY ELEPHANT EARS BATMAN!

 

The bulbs that produced these huge elephant ears were from our school plant sale and a coworkers yard. I had no idea they would get this big. I could not resist that Batman reference...my name is Robin and I always watched Batman with my younger brothers growing up. I am going to have to put them further back next summer. They just about obliterated my path!

Peaceful Pose In The Garden

Summer Is Winding Down

Here are a few photos of the garden in late summer. My flowers are doing beautifully after a long rainy summer. It was very nice not having to wrestle hoses and water all the time.
The cooler nights have slowed some plants down and I have been busy taking cuttings so I can have a bit of summer in the house this winter. I find it so hard to let the plants go at the end of the season. One day I will have a winter greenhouse to play in and keep my propagation going. The challenge of trying to start new plants is an endeavor that intrigues me. I will be bringing in as many pots as my little house will hold! So far the count is growing with my pots of herbs added in. Fortunately my little garden window in the kitchen works well until it becomes bitterly cold. My husband does not know it yet but I am going to make him climb a ladder and cover it with plastic this winter! I have successfully overwintered a pot of jasmine, dragon wing begonia,coleus and mandevilla vine the past two years and hope to have them for next summer again.

Brunnera at Powell Gardens

 

Emergency flower therapy needed

Today I spent several hours outside tuning up my gardens. This always restores my soul and my spirit after taking a hit. Yesterday was really something and I sure needed to get out of my own thoughts and quick.
So the story goes about Angels in the Parking Lot.

Nine days after I had arthroscopic knee surgery my dear friend of many years came to visit from out of town. I had worked on cleaning house all day in the power wheel chair I have been using due to fascioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy. Coupled with severe pain in my left knee from repeated injuries after numerous falls over the years I use the chair about eighty percent of my day. I have found it to be great to be able to get more things done in my chair than when trying to walk yet have discovered that my weakness is accelerating since I have started using it all the time.

Today I had pushed pretty hard to get the house and yard to a point I was comfortable with. My husband was at work and I had not had my friend over for a year.

I already had an inkling that I had worn myself out when I started having accidents one after the other.... I dropped the chicken that was to be dinner into the garbage disposal, broke a glass vase full of water, plants and colored stones all over my counter where the electronic stuff sits and I fumbled my cell phone right in the dishwater in the sink! Earlier I had gotten my wheelchair stuck in the mud trying to pull weeds and had to call the little kids across the street to come and bring me rocks and pull on the chair as I struggled to get myself free. This incident of course caused more mess as I had mud caked on my tires even after much hosing off.

My knee had been feeling somewhat better though still not good enough to stand in the kitchen and cook as I still try and do most of the time. I find trying to work in the kitchen very awkward from the wheelchair,the counters are too high the chair blocks access to cabinets and the refrigerator door keeps closing on me while I reach to get things. Adding to this I am using my left hand due to my right arm getting so weak now.
Today, I had more messes to clean up than I started with. Feelings of frustration and fatigue were trying to get the best of me but I ignored the twinges in an attempt to STAY POSITIVE!

My friend and I had a nice laid back visit for an hour and then decided to go out and get a salad at the HyVee store. After our meal she left and I decided to stay and get a few things we needed. She did not offer to stay with me and I did not want to ask, I should have! Holding on to the grocery shopping feeds my desire to keep some independence. I am remiss to ask for help if it is something I can do for myself.

For the past two days I had managed to get out in the car on my own and not have any problems.
I have been cautious about my steps from the back of the car to the drivers door and had not had any falls which have become a constant problem these days.

Well no such luck today, it was starting to get dark but the parking lot was well lit. I got up and out of the chair okay and loaded it into the back of my van. As I made my way to the front holding on to the car, I tripped as I failed to pick up my left foot high enough. This caused the bad knee to buckle. I collapsed forward catching myself from going all the way down. There I was bent down with hands on the ground and backside up in the air with all my weight on knee looking like a stinkbug. I silently bad mouthed myself for allowing it to happen.

I struggled to get a hand on the top of the tire and braced my upper body with my head against the car as I tried repeatedly to swing my right arm up to push with. I cannot straighten my torso back to an upright position without pushing off of something.
.
As my muscles started to shake with immediate fatigue it seemed like I was stuck in that position for an eternity, I was not going to be able to hold myself up much longer and started to go down, when suddenly a man was behind me with his arms underneath my arms pulling me up. I was never so happy to be grabbed by a stranger! Simultaneously a woman from the parking place in front of mine came. She helped me gain my balance and the man made sure I got to the car door. I kept saying "oh thank you, "bless you you are angels". I think I also threw out an, " I'm sorry", while they just humbly said "no problem" and " be careful" as I got into my car and sat there trembling from the exertion of what had just happened.

I dont know why I always feel like apologizing to people who get me out of a fix, do I feel guilty for getting myself into these messes? What does a girl do with a deep question like that, sit around and do nothing? Quit trying?

Now outside observers would be saying "It must be time to reevaluate your ability to go places on my your own". Yet I know if I stop I will lose ground more quickly both mentally and physically. Inside me the words scream " I am not done yet!" My boundaries and limitations are always changing as the muscle disease progresses. It is so hard to allow myself another loss, the news that my knee is not fixable in my condition. I had waited several years to get the doctors to look closer at the knee. My plan was to have less knee pain after the surgery to repair a torn meniscus and increase my ability to stand and walk with braces and walkers. The MRI and Xrays had not shown the fact that I have two sizeable areas of missing cartilage causing the bones to wear against each other. This was a result of the way I had been walking with my knees hyper extended backwards from the dystrophy. I am not unfamiliar with having to change my plans. Actually having the surgery was a leap for me to begin with after having just had my neck fixed 6 months ago.

I have always been an extremely independent person since childhood . Now I fight everyday to hold on to the abilities I have left for a bit longer. It is so difficult to gauge how much is too much activity. I have a clear memory of my first MDA clinic doctor saying to "stay active but don't overdo it", anyone out there know just how to do that?

The next morning my knee was swollen and my spirit injured. That spirit of stubbornness not to give up is what keeps me going. Anyhow after thinking this over I wondered how it must be for so many other people with a worse neuromuscular disease like ALS. I bet they have met the parking lot angels before too and would have interesting stories to tell. Maybe I will ponder this thought some more and start a record of parking lot angel stories in their honor.

For now I must move forward and one of the best ways for me is to handle things is to write about how my life is going and then go play sweaty dirt woman in the gardens. Throughout my journey I have met the parking lot Angels four times. They have never let me down! They are real on this disappearing road called life with muscular dystrophy.

July Joy

I guess its time for my montly post, I really was thinking of letting the blog go, you know those negative thought patterns that you get stuck in your head....
"no one really cares about you gardening from a wheelchair" or "just a waste of time" or how about " why would anyone want to read about an aging lady in a wheelchair" well I say away with you negative thoughts!!! If for no other purpose I have kept a journal of my gardening for this year and that is new for me.
We have just had 5 days of cooler weather than normal for July. We even broke a few record lows getting into the 50's at night. The tomatos are confused! Now a disease has hit them and the folage is dying off. I need to study up on what is happening. I hope the pretty green fruits make it to "fruitian" before the plants keel over.
There are thankfully 5 tomatoes on my kitchen counter waiting for us to feast on. The peppers in pots are starting to fill out and yesterday my grandaughter came over and had great fun picking them. We still have to keep her from taking bites out of them before we get them to the house. It is so sweet to see her proudly carry them in and she made sure I carried her toy while she carried three bannana peppers with her to the car. The two boxes I let her plant have been hanging in there and we may actually get some green beans and squash from them. Now for the flower gardens....I have my first mole problem! Darn critters are persistent. I had planted some ivy geraniums,verbena and dahlias in my main bed and have found them uprooted and wilted on several mornings lately. The soil is all in upheaval. Each time I have carefully replanted them. They still live but are in what looks like suspended animation.
I am going on a hunt for mole traps this week and welcome ideas from those who have been down this tunnel already!
I finally found a tool that helps me deadhead the spent flowers. After much searching I found a long pair of scissors that are normally used for taking care of fish aquarium plants. I can just about reach most of the flowers that need it from the wheelchair now. Seems like there would be more options for that... most of the trimmers I have seen are either too heavy or require two handed operation which makes it difficult to stay seated in the right spot. I dont need anymore dips in the dirt than I have already experienced. Hope everyone's gardening efforts are a success this summer. Here's to positive thoughts and bountiful harvests.