I'm here to blow my own trumpet, because no one else will. Mum likes the wonderful perennial boarder I've been planting but just points out any holes all the time.
We built her a new home in our garden in 2022. The process wrecked our garden, but did allow me to spend too much on a fantastic curvy wall that I love, to hold back the higher ground level. Big mistake was not noticing the builder burying a load of rubble and waste and then putting soil on top. Not deep enough. Every time I plant something I'm digging up bricks, stone, concrete, drainage pipe sections etc.! To plant one thing takes super human strength. But I'm nearly there! Today the final rose has gone in and a number of perennials. The existing plants from last year are starting to fill out a bit. It's working.
But I'm doing it all with hypothyroidism that's nowhere near optimally treated because I just can't reach optimal. I've tried every option and all doses for years and just circle the wagons. I also have permanent atrial fibrillation. So I'm a dripping wet mess right now, exhausted and filthy. But I'm proud of myself and the garden I envisaged is taking shape. There's a whole other huge bit of wilderness to tame down the bottom. But not this year!
Tomorrow the last 7 plants are going in. A hydrangea is being planted in a large pot and some grass seed is going down. But it upsets me that it's taken so long. I should have done it all last year. I find having no energy a real bummer!
Hope everyone is having a good day and is less dirty than me
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FancyPants54
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I love your wall and plantings. Gardening is always a work in progress. I love to garden. This is the 1st year in 4 that I have not gutted it. Projects always take longer than expected. Enjoy the process and the healthful grounding of having your hands and/or feet in the soil. Nature is grand and healing.
Strawberries! Is that a fruit cage that you can walk into? That would be wonderful.
Yes, getting my hands into the dirt is something I love. I put gloves on, but 3 minutes later I realise I've taken them off somewhere and am just using my hands. Nothing beats it.
loving your wiggly wall~ money well spent fancypants
That big pink flowery thing in the middle is lovely .. iv'e got a mahoosive one of them planted in the middle of my lawn . .... no idea what it is , found it years ago in an abandoned pot in the alley,
Wow! I am beyond impressed that you’ve done that with hypo and permanent AF. I have these too, and could never entertain the idea of such an enormous project. As you say, having no energy is a bummer. I hate it.
Well done. Give yourself a pat or two on the back!
Showered, but still sweating, now because of the shower rush! Sitting in front of a fan. I have 10 mins to cool down. Then need to dry hair and finish getting ready. I'm having a steak tonight I think.
Not really! It's Monday. It's going to rain by about 2pm. I need to go to work this afternoon so I promised myself I'd go into the garden to finish this morning. 11:30. Still in PJs!
I did! It's been a hard year for gardening. The weather has been all over the place. And it's been so wet the pests are out in force. All my lettuce, rocket, salad leaves, reddish and spring onions were razed to the ground the moment they germinated by ants!
The wall, which replaced a very old, low, collapsing and not functional wall, is one of my favourite things. When I stand at my kitchen sink to look straight down this new flower border and it's so colourful. I cheers me up just looking. It's hard work, but it's worth it.
What an interesting bunch of test results through the years on your profile. It’s strange your TSH has not come down much despite all your various treatment choices.
They make my head spin! And you are right, my TSH barely moves. I ignore it now and try to work off the Frees. But I can't get them sustainably high enough. For a long time I've been unable to fill a spit test for adrenal testing. But I have now found a "chew a sponge" alternative and am going to get that done soon. I need to have a fresh look at what my cortisol is doing.
Well done you! It looks absolutely gorgeous and now that the hard work has been done you’ll be able to get so much pleasure from it in the years to come. You’ll just need to potter at it in the springtime topping up the gaps with a few annuals but nothing like the amount of work you’ve just done! Most of my gardening involves designing and then directing the hubby to do the hard work these days as my sustained energy levels are nonexistent. I can start things with lots of enthusiasm but then flounder halfway through and he has to finish it… mumbling and muttering under his breath! 😂
Ha, ha! My husband makes himself scarce. He wanted a big herb bed, so we incorporated it into the patio areas. It was lovely last year. This year he's suffered a lot of set-backs with it because of the weather and the pests and he's given up. It's now a mass of weeds. That's my next task!
Pottering would be nice. But we have a lot of problems in this village with bind weed. Keeping on top of it is like a military campaign. Has to be dug out or pulled out if digging not possible, all the time. Keep the weed weak and we can win. Let it go and it's like a jungle in moments!
Thankfully, I live on the side of a mountain in Wales and wherever you put a spade or fork into the ground, you’re bound to hit the rock of Gibraltar! I’ve never known land so rocky! Not small rocks either, these things are boulders! What we have managed to dig up over the years has been very good for rockeries, but is way beyond me and the old man now! The grandsons are now coming into play and they’re pretty good at helping out with the hard landscaping! We don’t have too many problems with things like bindweed, but I did plant some Russian Vine a few years ago and trying to keep that in check is a nightmare!
I thought I had cut it all off a couple of years ago as it was really annoying my neighbour by insisting on smothering the trees on her side not mine. It's as prolific as ever this year!
Rocks make for hard gardening. But you must have a nice view, which makes up for it?
Thank you for this post. I had all but given up hope of ever being able to get out there again and do the things I love but this has made me feel it could be possible if I believe it.
Never stop believing. It's important to always work towards a goal and hold the faith. Things can be done, they just take longer and are physically more tiring/exhausting. But the sense of achievement at the end is huge.
If I need a small, positive fix, I choose a drawer or cupboard and empty it out, clean it down and only put back the essentials and donate or throw away the rest. That gives me such a sense of achievement. I find myself keep going back and opening the drawer or cupboard to look at its beautiful symmetry. On better days I can tackle bigger things. I've just finished emptying my parents house. They lived there and kept everything for 65 years. It was a marathon task. But there was no urgency, mum lives with us and has everything she needs now. So I took my time. I emptied 65 years of mostly junk, one hatch-back car load at a time until the very end when clearance people came for the furniture and garage contents. There were times I thought that would be the end of me. But I have done it! The house was sold at auction on Thursday night last week! Such a relief.
Assume you can do almost anything. But do it slowly and in small sections.
Hey FancyPants......WOW, you must be proud of what you've achieved, it looks wonderful ,and gardening is very hard work, but you've done wonderfully well given health issues, and i have the same problems.
i have a half-acre garden and it takes all my time and its exhausting , but i plod on and am pleased with what I've done, and like you the ground is full of stones, and I've planted dozens of new shrubs hoping they will survive.
The plants cope with the stones and debris quite well I find, but the getting them in is the really hard part. I've taken to digging really big holes for them, deeper and wider than necessary and filling them with compost and then the plant and then the top soil. It seems to give them a chance to get established. I do loose a few, but whip them out and replant. It's a learning curve.
Motivation is a real issue. I try to get going with small goals. Doesn't always work. Once I start I can usually carry on with bigger things. Again, doesn't always work.
What does that mean? That you didn't like me posting it? You didn't have to read it. We don't only have to talk about misery here. For someone with this illness, plus atrial fibrillation, this is a major achievement.
Perhaps you could reconsider and share your life win here because success like this shows that life can continue and be worthwhile with this insidious disease -and even though FancyPants54 may have a way to go to find her sweet spot of health maintenance she is able to live her life. This post is about hope and living in the now - it cheered me up!
crikey that seems totally unnecessary . Whatever gets you through the difficult times are worth celebrating and sharing with others struggling with the same issues dont you think.Our lives are not made up of separate boxes
Wow! It's beautiful. I too really like the curvy wall. And that rose is stunning. Well done! Don't be too hard on yourself, I think anyone expecting to finish this in a year was ambitious (or in corporate speak a 'challenge', or 'stretch target'🤣 that you should have been achieved in 3 months).
My photos don't really do the changing heights or the curving shapes of the wall justice. It's just lovely. I said to my builder, I need a wall from here to here and expected a straight line. He said "leave it with me". He's a great builder. He did such a good job on mum's home and the patios and everything.
The planting will mature very quickly - we have no holes in the planting at all - quite the opposite and I have to remove several THUGS this autumn that have taken over!
Cherish that builder! The builder that did my mums was dreadful despite achieving awards - he brought me to tears at the corners he tried to cut - but that made me smile!
Oh goodness, I know that feeling. Many years ago now we used our first ever builder to do some work in the house here when we hadn't been here long. My goodness, he was dreadful. It really put me off and from that time until we needed to convert a little stone barn and extend it to make Mum's home, I simply did all the repairs myself. I went on courses etc. to learn.
But this is a younger man, in his early 40's and he lives in the village. We socialise with his family too in a small diners club. He's a dream. He goes out of his way to do everything as well as possible. I said I didn't want any sharp corners or edges, everything rounded off. He obliged. We needed to ensure mum's walker fitted all the garden steps and doors. He worked out a perfect solution for and "attic" so that we have storage in a place that is open to the rafters.
When it came to paying the snagging bill a year after completion, he had to come back to ease a door catch, and put a small amount of mortar around the corner of one window frame. It had been missed. That was it. We have zero cracks. It is so well insulated and so pretty. Then he started on the hard landscaping and transformed it. Best of all mum can get outside and wander around the hard patios to sniff the flowers.
At the very end we said we needed him to create us some kind of wood store because our old wood store had become mum's bathroom! I had in mind a little shed thing. This is what he made and we adore it.
What a wonderful thing you have created! To have the vision to create something beautiful from the remainder of the 'building plot' is amazing! No wonder you are patting yourself on the back-it is very well deserved!!
I'm avoiding looking at the huge project to come that's necessary to tame the bottom part of the garden. Chasing a man with long ladders and power tools to make a start.
I'm not sure I found any energy. Sheer bloody determination on a go-slow is what did it🤣
Tortoise and the Hare is alive and kicking over here. Mind you, I had a tortoise as a child and teen. There was nothing slow about Herbert. And he was the nosiest of creatures. I'd put him on the lawn and go and do something at the bottom of the garden. He was there in moments! A closed gate, fence or wall were just challenges. He tried to follow my dad up into the attic on the ladder!
it looks absolutely amazing I think you should be proud of yourself, I know what it’s like I’m gardening as well , and every so often I’m on a chair for a breather but we’ll done
I wish I could garden a bit more trying to downsize my house and move, which is too big and not financially "viable" I have a lovely garden, but rather overgrown, after seven years of really bad health, I've decided after 21 years to 'move', I live by myself, retired, a real history "nerd" the house is full of historical "gems" which I have to 'throw out' I'm not really strong enough to do so, my sister who lives around the corner, "trying" to persuade me to relent twenty years of my acquired "gems" she means well but oblivious to my love of history, she is also retired but more set to the 21st technical way of things [which I really abhor🙄😖] I am being dragged into the era of commercialism and AI, kicking and screaming, whilst my garden suffers, a 20ft by 20ft plot, I am realistically too sick too tender🙄🍒🌹🌼🌲🍃🍁😢😢
I'm sorry to hear that you are too unwell to cope with the garden and that the house is now too big for you also. That times comes to most of us I suppose, and faster to those of us with poor health.
I've just cleared out mum and dad's house. They lived in it for 65 years and never threw anything away. Literally. I have a suitcase full of my own baby clothes to dispose of! My pram wheels were in the attic, the carry cot. An ancient camping stove and tons of magazines and newspapers. Literally nothing thrown. I like old things, my house is pre 1742, although we have no idea when it was built before that. But I have learnt to distinguish between really good, worthwhile pieces that enhance my life and just old stuff. The old stuff has gone or is about to go. Clutter is death of the soul. When it came down to it mum and dad were boxed in and stuffed with just old junk. About the only thing of possible worth is a book that a neighbour just gave to dad one day. It's a very old periodical history of Britain. I've seen others of it's ilk selling well in antique auction houses. The rest was literally worthless. There is no need to keep all that.
So if you do want to downsize so that you can manage your living environment properly again and take pride in your home, start with all that sort of thing. Don't let anyone make you part with something that's lovely or that speaks to you. But do let the general clutter go. One bag at a time. One cupboard or one drawer a week will be a great start. There's no rush.
My trouble was when I first moved in my siblings decided to put all the parents family 'goodies' from previous house, at that time I was on toppamax or 40 minute pill for my epilepsy, and I got 42 years of 'stuff' left up in the loft 🙄 most of which has never been touched to this day! "One cupboard or one drawer a week will be a great start. There's no rush." now there is a rush I am terminally ill, I need to someone move fast!
Thanks FancyPants54 its trying to move slowly, very slowly, persuade myself as you say getting rid of the general clutter, old receipts, etc, pounds of dust [almost think the dust is holding the house together🙄] finding material "Where did that come from?" but occasionally good memories, "Some I should'nt have that?" I believe I will be getting visits from siblings who have not visited me in many, many years?🤫Stay cool😎
I admire your determination and I am inspired by this post. My own stamina is declining year by year with this disease and it is incredibly frustrating if you are used to being able to crack on with anything you want. In fact, the frustration of seeing things taken away from you bit by bit is the worst element of it, I believe. Coming to terms with that may be harder still. It was lovely to see a really positive post. Thank you and well done!
Thank you. And I'm sorry you are loosing stamina. I am wondering if I could find a personal trainer in my area with understanding of chronic illness and low stamina/energy and try to work with them.
I'm out there again today. It's been very humid. I'm so sweaty. But I'm pleased with what I have done.
Keep it up as long as you can. I went out for a brief dog walk but it got too hot and had to return after a bit. All this hot/cold stuff confuses my body and it doesn't like it. Takes about three days to bed into whatever kind of temp it is. Once it's done so all is well but the choppy/changy confounds it and throws up crazy symptoms.
PT sounds like a good idea. There is a PT in America who has thyroid probs herself and gives advice on the internet. If I could remember her handle, I'd post it.
The changing temperatures we are having this year are exhausting to me. It's up and down like a yoyo. Yesterday was suddenly much hotter and very humid and nearly did for me. Today is hotter. Next week will be back to cool. My body has no idea how to regulate itself like this.
Blow your horn and enjoy your garden! I have a t-shirt you'd like - it says "Good things take time". Have a great day and get better. The garden will help!
I feel your pain ( and palpitations, shakes, dizziness, sweats and all the rest of it!) as I too am a reasonably controlled though not perfect hypo who loves getting stuck into the garden.
Not much more to add really but keep doing what you’re doing!
My husband walks past my 8 hour of slog and mutters “doing a hole, plant a plant - repeat” …. No appreciation here either!
Oh dear! He's really out of the loop. Those holes can be really hard. Especially as I have so much stone and brick and other rubbish to find underneath it all. I have a recently developed issue with my legs that makes crouching down really painful. So I have to do everything with straight legs and just bend right over from the hip. If I have to dig a deep hole that can be very tiring! I was always good at touching my toes and the floor. Now I have to be able to go lower than the floor!
I'm at it again this afternoon. Hydrangea planted. A few bits of bedding. Procrastinating about a Alstroemeria and if I should pot it or plant it in the border. Apparently they can spread quite a lot.
great to see what you’ve achieved…I wouldn’t dare share my garden pics although I’m very proud of what I’ve achieved in the last few years especially after a mini stroke during lockdown, followed by insisting I saw a wonderful endo who actually believed my hypo symptoms despite a TSH of 0.1 or lower. He put me on added T3 and with some juggling of dosage I’m probably better than I have been in years on T4 with a minimal 5 mcg T3, split in half. (Higher doses of T3 gave me awful palpitations )
I’ve got flowers on my beans and the purple sprouting is looking healthy though tomatoes are a fail! I still find I feel I’ve never done enough but we should be proud of progress no matter how slow. I’m very jealous of your wall! I’m doing my veg in big pots.
You have done well to come back to gardening after a stroke. I’m amazed that you are doing better on such a small amount of T3. Keep doing whatever it is that you are doing because it is working. Veg in pots is a great idea.
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Aching legs getting worse !! 
I've been diagnosed with Thyroid Antibody Resistance... Great!
Very anxious about test results 
Frustrated after yet another 'normal' result.
