Our Organic Garden In The Middle Of The City

When I'm down and blue, feeling sorry for myself, I find comfort and solace in our garden. It's as important as the food we get from the earth and the eggs the chickens produce. And in some ways more important now with Wally in a more advanced state of dementia.

Our friends are gone now from the weekend. I went for a bike ride, played cards and we had a barbecue on Saturday. But now that everyone is gone, the caregiver taking his girlfriend back to the train station, it's just me, Wally, the dog, cat, and our garden. Wally and me, and our memories. I'm not sure what Wally can remember but I do for him. It's all we have.

Sometimes, I feel like tossing it all in. All the work and care to keep a house and garden up, to deal with caregivers and doctors, give it all up to hit the road in search of something better. But then I go outside and sit by the fountain remembering better days of laughter when Wally and I worked the land to make what we have today. How could I leave that behind?

Evening is approaching, my tears fall, the music of yesteryear plays, and I dream for Wally and me of better days. What more can I do?

Our Organic Garden In The MIddle Of The City

It's been awhile since I've posted because we had a defection from our ranks. The caretaker I had for Wally, who, as readers of this blog know, is my spouse and has vascular dementia was left by the caretaker without so much as a word that he was going, that and three hundred dollars. It's okay, the one before him took eight hundred, I got off cheap this time.  Prince Albert turned out to be a frog, or I think a more appropriate title, Toad. The weasel left in the dead of night back to his hole in Cleveland. I really feel sorry for Cleveland, the pollution goes much further than the Lake Erie or the Cuyahoga  river. It goes all the way to where this creep lives.

I've had to place an ad, (again) in Craigslist but this time, and I hope this time, things will turn out for the better. But instead of being cheap and not paying the twenty-five smackers for an ad in the job section, this time I did pay. We now have someone with knowledge from the jobs/healthcare section. He's straight too. We're as queer as three dollar bills but I'm not holding it against him. He is a trained technician in the field of home care. He actually helps, and rather than being told what to do, he knows what to do.

I'm not use to it yet, really, I actually got to eat a meal today without trying to feed Wally while doing it. He's a nice guy too, even if he is hetro. Now that we have someone here to care for Wally I can get back to writing, gardening and bicycling.

View of Budding grapes and when to use the copper solution

The grapes are budding out. When you see them about this size, five or six inches in growth, that's the time to use an organic copper fungicide. This will prevent mildew from ruining the tender ends until they grow bigger. Once they do grow more, you don't need to use the treatment. It protects the sprouts when they begin producing grapes. Just give them a good spritz once and that's it. Tomorrow, I will use the mineral oil to protect them from bugs and keep that up about once a month until the summer when they'll be ready for harvest near the end of summer.
Already I can see how they grapes will be hanging down beneath the trellis, enticing us until they're ready. Oh, goody.

And Oh, if you should go to Cleveland, and I don't know why anyone would,  don't pick up any toads, they are good for the garden but not the ones in Cleveland.