Summer's gone

The rains have come and they are welcome to me.  Good-bye long hot dry summer, too hot, too dry.

Despite the physical set-backs, I did still have some good times in the garden this year. Hopefully, I can heal up well and get back to it next year!    Garden 2015

Slowly but surely (?)

This foto is from May, when I was still quite swollen and in a lot of pain.  Today, as August is turning into September, the swelling is gone and I only feel a little twitch of discomfort.

"Only a twitch" provided I avoid several types of movements that involve gripping and twisting, and lifting anything more than about 15lbs tops (the cat is 13!).  It's still quite easy to aggravate and takes a few days to settle back down if I do something stupid.

Sigh.

I don't know what this means for the garden next year (or, ever). I've had some ideas about how to manage my work differently, both in terms of time and tools -- but even that is contingent on me being well and with some strength returned.

Fingers crossed -- on my left hand.

Ow-ie

So... turns out you can get tennis elbow even if you don't play tennis. You can get it from doing a whole lotta yard work, especially with the repetitive motions involved in weeding, pulling up blackberries, and wielding hand shears like a ninja.

So... I'm not going to be working in the garden for two, possibly three weeks. And I need to rethink my work pattern so this doesn't happen again.

UPDATE May 29:  So, 3 weeks is looking more like 3 months. I'm in physical therapy now and making great progress, but I have to accept that the risk of re-injury will be great this year.  Gardenbooty has ceased for 2015.

I can still do a few things with my left hand only and my boyfriend is helping with the absolute necessities. My hope is that the fantastic progress I made this year will mostly hold and in 2016 I can pick up where I left off, but with a different work pattern. No more 3-day weekends.

More mugwort

Sunny days

This weekend I:

• Weeded herb bed
• Worked on herb bed's border
• Continued work on removing blackberries down to the grandfather roots
• Weeded & mulched the fern/hellebore area
• Continued to weed & mulch the North fence strip
• Worked on the walk between the two raised beds
• Continued weeding peony area
• Continued weeding crocosmia bed
• Continued wedding sidewalk strip

April's Over May So June

Tasks this weekend:

• Weeded Russian sage on back garage strip
• Weeded walk between the back beds
• Considered how to mulch strawberries since I have no straw, hmm
• Worked on triangle beds
• Weeded garage strip
• Continued removing boxwood
• Considered iris bed
• Worked on digging up blackberry roots
• Worked on weeding and mulching North fence strip
• Planted one parsley in herb bed
• Emptied two worm bins into compost pile
• Readied one bin to be used again (the other will be cleaned for recycling)
• Planted two sweetpeas
• Weeded two raised beds - decided one is for tomato, the other?
• Planted two bachelor buttons

Organized. Bona Fide.

Another weekend - bit by bit

Between warming, drying, coffee-drinking sessions, I managed to:

• work on the pebble border (a tedious task I should probably give up on, ROI-wise)
• continue removing butterfly bush on sidewalk strip
• weed the walk between the raised beds
• move blue-flowering groundcover plant (name?) from North strip to under ash tree
• weed the crocosmia bed
• begin reclaiming* North fence strip
• thin arugula seedlings
• check recently transplanted lime cedar
• go to Garden Fever for: sweetpeas, bachelor buttons, parsley
• weed winterberry area

* Reclaim - when "weed" isn't a strong enough word.

Mugwort

Usually the mugwort comes up, blooms, and begins to fade before I even realize it's there. But with the early warm weather this year, I'm out in the yard early. Early enough to see the magic mugwort.

Long weekend

OMG, the grass is so high already!  I'll do this instead:

• weeded dahlia bed
• finished make-shift border work on back beds
• trimmed the all-consuming rosemary (front yard)
• worked on removing the dead lilac
• weeded crocosmia bed
• weeded blueberry beds
• researched splitting mugwort
• tidied potting area
• worked on pebble border (raised back beds)
• moved lime cedar
• began removing mimosa in front
• weeded area around fern & hellebore
• worked on cleaning up basement steps
• weeded the sidewalk strip

Then take an epsolm salt bath.

Get with the get down

Gardenbooty.  Shake it around.

Saturday:

• Removed soil from strip against basement wall
• Turned compost
• Tidied potting area
• Pruned & weeded lavender walk
• Moved echinacea on sidewalk strip
• Flagged back corner hostas (to visualize for moving)
• Worked on removing dead lilac
• Weed/mulch fence strip
• Weed/mulch winterberry area 
• Weeded sidewalk strip

Sunday:

•  Mulched transplanted fern
• Tidied potting area
• Weeded crocosmia bed 
• Weed/mulch back Russian sage
• Planted arugula seeds in herb bed
• Weeded dahlia bed
• Attacked blackberries
• Dug up & split one hosta into halves
• Took hosta half to neighbor
• Drank a glass of "job well done" prosecco

Winter prep

The old firepit will house strawberries in 2015 -- if I get my act together and if climate change doesn't turn Portland into an arid desert this year.