Last summer was not a good one…. especially for someone running a gardening blog. I had several cancer surgeries and June 2 had everything removed. It was a 12 week recovery, so no gardening. i figured I’d just plant a winter garden. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Six weeks later, I had a massive heart attack aka a “widow maker” had to have 2 surgeries, 3 stents and had complications. I was hallucinating and in ICU for 7 days. I was transferred to the hospital that is owned by our insurance and they were so horrible, that i packed and left at 2 a.m. They refused to let me use a wheel chair or stretcher so I borrowed a walker and forced myself to walk out and get in the back of the car, while my husband drove me home. I was very sick, but they were so incompetent and rude, that I actually told them I’d be more comfortable dying at home.
Those of you who know me, know I’m a strong part Cherokee, native Texan, half Irish, who never takes no for an answer. So although it took me 15 minutes to walk the short distance to the door, I did it! I was so pissed off, that nothing was going to stop me, not even a heart attack. I should have spent another week in the hospital but this particular one is like spending a week in a horror movie. I vote no.
It’s 2 weeks and daily physical therapy and nurse visits before I even walk to the bathroom without wobbling and shaking. Finally, two weeks after being so out of it, I was able to get out of bed and walked my dogs outside, but inside the fence. I was standing there just enjoying the mountain and the wildlife and looked to my left and a mountain lion was outside the fence, stalking a baby deer. I said to myself, there is no way I’m going to survive cancer and a heart attack, just to be eaten by a mountain lion when I get home! The lion saw me and the dogs and swagged off at his on slow pace. I came back inside and decided maybe I still wasn’t strong enough for outside, much less having to shoot a lion.
So present day. a year after all this uterine cancer stuff started and I am still tired and HAVE to eat vegan and take a lot of medications that make me feel really bad, but I got out there and started planting my garden! We planted 6 romas today in the yard. Our soil is so rich and full of worms. I put organic blood meal and calcium in the holes to feed the tomatoes (calcium) and ward off voles (blood meal). Also dryer lint is supposed to keep the voles, rats, mice off the plants. we’ll see. I planted herbs in different spots. My pineapple sage is growing like mad, some greek oregano, lemon balm, citronella, and moved a couple of trees. blueberry wasn’t in enough sun and neither was one of the dwarf asian pears. I planted a chocolate habanero in a pot so I could move it far away from the japs, to prevent cross polintation, and chocolate mint where one of the blueberries had been. fertilized everything with DRAMMATIC O and it was stinkolicious. This is special fish liquid fertlizer that has pieces in it. Tomorrow I will be starting tons of seeds for other stuff I want to grow. I had planted beans and some potatoes about a month ago. We have weather so REALLY I COULD grow veggies all year!
I only took a photo of one raised bed that is only partially planted. The wire on the non planted side is to keep kitties out of it. I learned years ago to cover the beds with wire so that it isn’t a litter box for the hood cats. Once i finish filling the box we’ll cut opening to fit around the planted items to allow them to grow, while protecting the rest with the wire.
Just an update. I’ll take more photos as I get time and things progress. Thanks for not leaving my blog while I have been out of sorts.
Happy gardening!
Gardengal Bevy aka Beverly
Filed under: raised bed gardening Tagged: organic gardening
