This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

[ENABLED] New member intro...

Warm Greetings,  All and to a fellow Oregrowian, Amaris :-)  I am a lurker
on this list because my Internet plate is pretty full with a listowner
"job" on Alpine-L, the Electronic Rock Garden Society, which I love.  It,
along with editing the Emerald Chapter, NARGS News, does keep me pretty
busy.  We are hosting the '98 North American Rock Garden Society Annual
Meeting in Eugene, Oregon in July.  Lots of work, but again, very
gratifying!  Neuropathy, an  up and down thing from two different causes
and a back injury are causing me to rethink and relearn the way I garden
and the way I work in land surveying.  I have rock and woodland gardens,
but am in the middle of rebuilding them so that they are easier to deal
with.  Container gardening is great for the tiny alpines and ferns that are
so much fun for me to grow from seed and spore.  Alpines are great plants
because you can have so many of them in a small reachable space.  Many do
well in containers.  On my kitchen windowsill, I have a collection of baby
ferns that are grown from spore.  My two huge cats devour houseplants, so I
only have a few on some old glass shelves in our dining room window.  On
the north wall of our house, I put a line of cedar plank shelves that are
easy to reach and I grow seedlings there.

I have burned out some old logs to make planters and put easy ferns in
them, along with some spring bulbs.  After a few years they will rot, but
then the ferns like them even better!  When they finally rot down into a
heap instead of a container, they will be great for the soil and make it
easier to weed. Hopefully by then the resident ferns will be nice big
clumps.  But I still am experimenting with the best way to do this:
chiseling, routing, then burning them enough to line the planting pocket
with charcoal to help it to last longer and benefit the plants.  A blow
torch is kind of slow and hard to hold onto.  I used some briquettes in one
of them and that worked better, but then care and a squirt-bottle needs to
be taken not to start a fire!  Exercise is very good for the neuropathy, so
I try to stay as active with my hands and feet as I can, while being kind
to my back, which is according to the latest scan healing.  To make my rock
gardens easier to work in, I am building more on top of them and making
lots of spots to sit and to weed and enjoy them.  It is *very* slow work,
but it is for enjoyment, so I never rush too hard.  Another hobby of mine
is art, mostly drawing and printmaking.  My favorite subjects are
landscapes, architecture --and of course, plants!

I also avoid chemicals.  They are expensive, and so many things will grow
without them anyway.

Warmest wishes to you all on a foggy Oregon morning!
Louise






Louise Parsons, <parsont@peak.org>
Type 2 Corvallis, Oregon, US
"Life is short...Be swift to love and make haste to be kind" Anon.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index