How to Get Through The Tough Times The Old Style Way.

maryb

mrswive wrote: »

I'd like to thank whoever posted the tip re cooking pasta/rice by bringing back to the boil then turning off the gas and leaving for the required time (sorry I can't remember who it was). I've done this a couple of times and it does indeed work a treat. I reckon if this method was used just 3 times a week it would add up to 26 hours of unused gas/electricity a year. I don't know how much that would save cashwise, but I do know that there's no way I would leave a gas ring on for 26 hours for no reason!!

I do it for potatoes too, and they don't fall apart that way.

Hippeechiq

Shegar
I'm so very sorry to read about Gary. He is so young - 51 is no age at all to find yourselves in the situation you are in.

I know what it's like to care for someone 24/7 without ever having a break, and the overwhelming tiredness and mental exhaustion that comes with it, so I really hope that Social Services are everything that you want them to be and that they ease the enormous strain that you are under - at least you're headed in the right direction.

Greyqueen & Kidcat Thank you for your suggestions re pots. Unfortunately I'm 25-30 miles away from both M0rrisons and Ikea, and I have no transport since losing my car last year (although driving that far would negate any savings made anyway). I've just looked online at the Ikea bags, and agree, something along those lines would be ideal....shame they're not available to buy online.

Actually, I'm within walking distance of a Te$co and they do a small resuable bag, but it's cobalt blue with red ladybirds all over it....16 of those in the garden would be a bit much I think! - although they would probably hold a similar amount of compost, so I may have to consider it.
They also do a large, less garish one, which I have that measures 16" wide x 15" tall, which is made of a similar(ish) material (for want of a better word) to the Ikea one, but which I think would be too heavy to lift once full of compost. If I can't source some cheap buckets, would either of the above do, do you think?

I shall also be watching with interest to see any tips on watering with minimal water as we are on a meter here. I'm sure I read somewhere that you can use your dirty washing up water - referred to as "grey water" to water plants, but that can't do them any good, surely?

Am loving the idea of the multiple-holed plastic milk bottles - quite ingenious :T

GreyQueen

Can't claim any credit for the idea, hippeechiq, stole it from a book or a magazine somewhere. Have just had a quick thought; got any used compost bags from last year? Turned inside out and with the top rolled down they'd make sturdy planting bags. Have even known people to grow spuds in them, just need a few drainage holes poked thru.

stiltwalker

Hippeechiq wrote: »

Actually, I'm within walking distance of a Te$co and they do a small resuable bag, but it's cobalt blue with red ladybirds all over it....16 of those in the garden would be a bit much I think! - although they would probably hold a similar amount of compost, so I may have to consider it.

I was just about to suggest those, I had things in them till last year when we moved and got a proper garden (as well as the umpteen million buckets! - how I managed to cram that much in our tiny backyard I'll never know!) Just snip a few drainage holes in the bottom and away you go, the ones with gussets work best as they open up best. They do look "cheerful" when you first plant up but by the time the courgettes have grown there will be that much foliage you won't notice the blue and ladybirds. I also do thing in bags of compost, once you've filled up 2 or 3 buckets or bags leave the remaining quarter or third of compost in the bag and roll down the top, snip a couple of drainage holes in the bottom and plant up. The rolled down bit makes the writing less noticeable and also gives you something solid to grab to move and if like me you do potatoes in them you can roll it back up as you earth up. Tomatoes will be quite happy in a grow bag up against the wall but you will need to water, water, water as they will get thirsty like that and there is no depth of soil to retain the water.

As for the remembering - some people think I'm part elephant, and at 38 1/2 weeks pregnant I actually look it at the moment! I remember because of the tale of the budlia - have you still got it? If so keep a close eye for catapillars particularly if you have anything from the brassica family growing - I lost a whole big bagful of cauli plants two years ago overnight :eek: the little blighters had hidden in all the folds of the bag and come out to munch when I wasn't looking!

HTH and good luck with the growing stuff. The results are well worth it for taste and satisfaction.

THIRZAH

Have you thought about asking in any charity shops to see if they have any IKEa bags in the back-or can they save you any?

We have a pile in the back of the shop where I work-people donate stuff in them-we keep them in case anyone buys anything heavy-but a shop might be willing to let you have some for a small donation

RAS

shegar wrote: »

picked hubby up from nursing home today,he is happy to be home..........

I wonder what its going to take to get back to normal again? our lives have changed so much since hubby had the stroke so I think what we see is what we get.........I wonder if im in denial over his stroke, because when he was in a brain rehabilitation centre the Dr there told me I was in denial...........

Well I dont see the same person any longer as much as I want to, he has changed so much.........I do believe that now after 2.5 yrs after the stroke that what we see is what we get, he is very slightly mobile and will always need 24/7 care..........

well I will try my very best to keep him living here as normal as possible, I dont want to put him in care home for life, it seems much too early at 51 yrs old to be in there, and people seem to forget that he was once their friends ,he use to go out doing various sports, fishing etc,.....

But after a few months people tail off and you dont see them at all, its so unfair, and if you bump into one of his so called friends , they say" Oh I must pop up and see gary sometime, oh by the way ive been so busy doing so and so".......

to me I feel like saying something to them, its bad when people use pathetic excuses to why they have not been to visit him, , I feel like saying ...."he can talk he as not lost his speech..".......im sorry to come on here and sound bitter but im talking about friends that he has known for years .......gary say (well its a case of out of sight out of mind....)....he just misses his old life and friends so much

shegar

DO say something to his old "friends" - ask them to come over for coffee and to have a chat. And then suggest a day and time.

Accept that some will shy away but you never know, some may take you up on it and Gary may slowly develop a new social life, because it sound like that would make a huge difference to his quality of life, and yours.

You may be right, what you have is what you will get but I know several people who have had strokes at quite an early age. What I see now is people who have definately improved over the last 5 years, albeit still showing signs of their reduced capacity. Their speech has improved as has their mobility. Obviously their mobility problems are nothing like as bad as Gary's, but the chap who needed a walker and was very slow is now walking slowly without the walker.

kidcat

I would definitely look at the Tesco ones and wilkinsons do some re-useables that may well be handy (think theirs are green) . I originally bought "proper" planting bags from B&M and they were £2 for two, I have my potatoes in them at the moment.

Someone mentioned something about adding more soil to the potatoes as they grow foliage? how much do you add?

GreyQueen

kidcat wrote: »

I would definitely look at the Tesco ones and wilkinsons do some re-useables that may well be handy (think theirs are green) . I originally bought "proper" planting bags from B&M and they were £2 for two, I have my potatoes in them at the moment.

Someone mentioned something about adding more soil to the potatoes as they grow foliage? how much do you add?

kidkat, the potato forms it's tubers on the rootstem (hence earthing up ones growing in open ground) so I guess the more earth yoi pile up around the stem (subject to the leaves being out in the sun, the better. HAve heard it suggested to do it in stages rather than a single deposit. HTH.

jackieglasgow

hippeechiq I raised my potatoes in those bags the year before last and had a bumper crop, last year I used those bendy buckets but the cros was not as good, whether it was just a coincidence or not I don't know. I used black bags and the bags which the compost came in, inside them too, to keep them as dark as possible as I was told this would help.

Hippeechiq

GreyQueen wrote: »

Can't claim any credit for the idea, hippeechiq, stole it from a book or a magazine somewhere. Have just had a quick thought; got any used compost bags from last year? Turned inside out and with the top rolled down they'd make sturdy planting bags. Have even known people to grow spuds in them, just need a few drainage holes poked thru.

Sadly not - this is my first year of trying my hand at growing anything.

But you point out stiltwalker, once I start planting up in whatever container I decide on, I will have some spare bags as I go. Valid point also about there being no "depth" to a grow bag, so that's a no-no really with being on a water meter. The less I have to water the better.

Yes I do have a massive buddleia tree in my garden! What a memory!! I was brain dead at 38½ weeks pregnant! What a lovely time of the year to have a baby Those night time feeds wont seem half as bad with it being summer, and light in the early hours.

H0mebase (which I can get DDs boyfriend to give me a lift to as it's just down the road) have extremely good reviews for their growbags, and I was wondering if I should buy them anyway for the compost? My logic being it would have all the nutrients my plants will need.

I will buy some tomato plant food (unless you can recommend something else?) but everything will have to make do with that or go without as £40 (and £40 is my max) isn't going to get me far....I don't even have a trowel

Left everything I owned when my marriage broke up except the clothes on my back 10 years ago, and lived in flats until a couple of years ago, so this is my first garden (albeit paved) since then.

Will have a look at the smaller Te$co ones when I go in later today - if I can take the heat....it's seriously hot down South today!

We don't have a B&M down here, but we do have a Wilkin$ons I like the sound of the green ones kidcat, so I may have a wander into town over the weekend and see what they have. At least then it gives me a choice, so thanks for that

I appreciate all the advice given