Recycling walkers

What do you do if you come into possession of old, non-folding walkers? Here are a few suggestions. A rack for a water hose. This way I don't have to carry the hose from the faucet which is near the northeast corner of the shed to the tomatoes which are near the southwest corner of the shed. I've run it along the north side of the shed, behind the hosta and across the back of the shed, then wrapped it in a figure eight around the walker. It's only about another twenty feet from here to the tomatoes.


And here is the tomato garden, with marigolds. You can see one of the walkers being used as a tomato cage. The other two plants are in genuine tomato cages. None of my tomatoes have ripened yet, but my neighbor gave Lexi some from his garden yesterday to give to me. I think we'll have BLT's for lunch (Lexi says she'll just have a BT - she doesn't like lettuce). I didn't get my plants in as early as the neighbors did.


And another use: to mark baby trees so my legally-blind neighbors don't destroy them when they mow my yard. Robbie suffered a brain injury in a motorcycle accident three years ago, which left his vision extremely impaired among other things, but he likes to use his riding lawnmower, and often mows some of my yard. The first time he did it last year, he did cut down one of my baby trees, which I had not protected with a walker. That tree has come back and is now doing very well. I still have a walker around the smallest, thinnest of the trees. And there is a tomato cage around the one you see in the background. I should pull that one up (the cage, not the tree), but I need to wait now until we get some rain to soften the ground around it.

Note the differences in the walker designs. This one would not work well for hanging the hose on.


In the front yard, I have one walker by my crepe myrtle, which is blooming now. Unfortunately, I cannot see it from the house because the tree which blew down in February is still lying between it and the house. I need to start cutting that tree up, branch by branch, and dragging it to the burn barrel, but I'll probably wait until October when it gets cooler. I put the walker by the crepe myrtle a few weeks ago when Melissa asked if they could mow the front yard for me, too, and asked if there was anything there that I needed to protect. Actually, the bush is large enough that I think I didn't need to put the walker there.

Melissa's poor vision is the result of an inoperable brain tumer. She's at her parent's farm near Frankfort this week, and is seeing her doctor in Lexington. They're afraid the tumer has grown.


Here are a couple more pictures of my yard. First my herb garden from another vantage point, showing the south end of the house. The double window is over the kitchen sink. It's great for look out of when washing dishes. (There's a dishwasher here, but I don't like dishwashers.) There was euonymus planted under this window when I moved in that was blocking the light and the view. I trimmed it back, but within weeks it was back up in front of the window, so I got rid of it completely. I want to transfer some of the daylilies there, but haven't gotten around to doing it yet. The two small windows on either side of the chimeny are in the living room. The fireplace was at one time a working one, but now has gas logs in it. However, the valve in the gas line has a problem, so I can't use the logs. That really doesn't bother me.


And in front of the house, there is plenty of pennyroyal and goldenrod.