Yesterday the actual temperature reached 90 degrees and the humidity was typical for a Michigan summer day. In other words, it felt like I’d been hit in the face with a hot, wet cloth when I stepped outside. A sensible person would have gone immediately back into the air conditioned house. But I’m me so I decided to do a little gardening in the heat.
For the last week I’ve been struggling with an impressive increase in pain in my spine and leg. This has made it hard to do all the things I need to do. I decided to take it easy in the kitchen but I have definitely been keeping busy.
It’s probably the same in a lot of places. You have moles. They’re destructive little things that can tear up a flower bed and vegetable garden in record time. They’re the bane of people who want perfectly manicured lawns. And they’re tough to defeat! But I fought the mole and the mole lost! So why do I feel so bad?
With the flower beds in front of the house looking so much better I was feeling pretty good about the work so far this summer Even after getting rid of the weeds and planting the first round of new flowers there was still work going on out there. But in the vegetable garden things were not going well at all!
We’ve been hard at work restoring the flower beds for the last few days. That’s why you haven’t been seeing much of me. But my absence has meant big changes on the flower beds! In spite of losing Pete for most of those days Mr. C and I have been able to accomplish a great deal. It’s been really fun! And the results are amazing for such a short time!
Big Changes on the Flower Beds
Although we took yesterday off work day two on the flower beds was productive. It may not look as though we got a lot done in the pictures but, trust me, we worked!
Work Day Two on the Flower Beds
After procrastinating for a couple of weeks because I was a big baby about my sprained foot we are finally getting to work on the flower beds! It’s going to take a lot to restore them but the start we got to today makes me feel confident.
Getting to Work on the Flower Beds
June is the month strawberries are at their peak here. Everyone goes strawberry crazy! There are plenty of u-pick farms nearby but I have my own strawberry patch in the garden. Since strawberry plants become less productive over time I’m going to propagate new plants so I’ll go on having thriving plants and fresh strawberries. Imagine doing this with your plants to grow your own free strawberry plants.
Grown Your Own Free Strawberry Plants
As part of my Goals and Challenges for 2017 I wanted to get the flower beds back into shape. Sadly a lot of the perennials I had planted were mistakenly uprooted when Mr. Comfortable “weeded” for me a couple of years ago. Other plants just came to the end of their lives. Now it’s time for me to begin restoring my neglected flower beds. I hope you can use some of the tricks I’m using to help your flower gardens!
Restoring My Neglected Flower Beds
When we still owned our farm we not only had an amazing garden and livestock but an abundance of wild edible plants growing on the land. Since my spinal cord injury the idea of wrestling a 130 lb. lamb makes me cringe but I still want to use the land we have to expand the sources of food I grow. And edible landscaping can be very attractive.
The Comfortable Coop 