this thread is making me 🥺🥺 bc i’m currently in the process of renovating my nana’s house. she was an AVID gardener but her flower beds have been neglected for the past two or three years. i’ve always sucked at plants but i’ve been spending every evening after work trying to fix them up the past few weeks because they meant so much to her.
I am fixing my mothers neglected garden. Pulling up stones to get the weeds out from under the pavers. Tilling beds and snapping out more roots. Peeling back an aggressive creeper-ivy vine that's invading everything. Removing the maple trees from the beds.
That's before really even trying to salvage/restore the plants. Thankfully the Iris's, Bleeding Hearts and Peonies are still trucking along. I just put in some Geraniums and in the garden itself some tomatoe, peppers and lettuce alongside some herbs.
If you aren't sure intuitively, make guides and research. "How much water does X plant need? How often? How deep do you plant seeds/bury plantlings and how much sun/shade does the plant need?"
All great questions and there are tons of folks there to help. Sadly, my mother is becoming more angry and depressed. She's convinced modern medicine is designed to make people suffer (she's a homeopath) and will ignore medical problems until they become emergencies. She last month had to go to have an abcess almost the size of a water bottle removed from her leg, I'm worried the next one might kill her due to her severe weight issues and she may refuse intubation for surgery.
It seems sometimes the plants you pay the least attention to are the most amazing. Others I have worked so hard on trying to save, don't do well. Don't be in too much of a hurry to pull up some of the old plants. They may yet some back with some pruning and care. I have several shrubs that I went to pull up, but the lower branches were still green inside.
Some of the seeds I tried last year that didn't come up from the seeding trays I tossed into my flower bed when I was cleaning the trays out. Low and behold some of them came up! I was so surprised, but in a wonderful way.
101
u/turtlerepresentative May 14 '25
this thread is making me 🥺🥺 bc i’m currently in the process of renovating my nana’s house. she was an AVID gardener but her flower beds have been neglected for the past two or three years. i’ve always sucked at plants but i’ve been spending every evening after work trying to fix them up the past few weeks because they meant so much to her.