Spring is anxious to arrive! Volunteer crocus in our front beds
On February 3 at 10 AM I was wheeled into surgery to get my new left knee. A few hours later I woke up in the recovery room, had a nice chat with the nurse (little of which I remember), then it was off to my room to be greeted by Sue. They got me out of bed to use the bathroom at 2 PM, meaning the leap of faith to put some weight on that knee using a walker and strong arm of a nurse/PT person. What an odd experience - but - success. Sue sat with me until after dinner, I spent the night (being checked regularly by nurses - vitals and all) - and the next day at 11 PM had my trip to the PT room, got dressed and headed home.
The unveiling - 24 hours after surgery
What followed was figuring out how to get in and out of bed, using the walker to get around the house, starting with home PT - then after a week moving on to a cane - then a week after that tossing the cane too. Today (one day short of 3 weeks post surgery), I drove myself to my first off site PT. I did a bit of grocery shopping, stopped at a coffee shop - and look forward to a few months more rehab and daily exercises.
I am pretty amazed at a few things. The whole process has been pretty much pain free. I used just Tylenol a few times daily after my first day home. Strength in the knee has built up quickly - I am a 0 degree angle when extended, and 112 degrees when bent. Full speed ahead - and I now eagerly anticipate getting the right knee done in October. All of this went so well because of the skilled doctor and support team at the hospital, and great home care at home by Sue and Caitlin. I also have to thank hiking and gardening - it is clear that having strong leg muscles really helped the whole process.
The knee today - much improved, much healed
That out of the way, let’s talk gardening.
Initial seed starting took place on February 20. One partial flat was seeded with various greens - 3 cells of chard, 1 of collards, 1 of kale, 1 of spinach, and 7 types of lettuce. First growth was noted this morning - February 23 - one of the chard cells showed life, 3 days from planting. The flats are on constant temp, inexpensive heat mats in Eli’s bedroom (my office) on the top shelf of the bookcase, loosely covered with Saran wrap.
Also on February 20 was planted various types of tomato, pepper and eggplant seeds that I deemed would be stubborn or erratic due to seed age, or questionable status of the fruit when the seed was harvested. Among these seeds are Aunt Ruby’s German Green saved in 2012, Ferris Wheel saved in 2013, Giant Syrian, Green Giant and Ferris Wheel saved in 2014, Green Giant saved in 2015, three lots of Cherokee Purple and four lots of Cherokee Chocolate and one of Cancelmo Family Heirloom saved in 2016, two lots of Cherokee Purple and two lots of Cherokee Chocolate and one of Cancelmo from 2017, stubborn World War 2 from 2023, and Chocolate Bell, Fire Opal peppers and Skinny Twilight eggplant saved in 2025 from fruit that may not have been sufficiently ripe. I don’t expect to see much happening in this flat for several days or longer.
On March 1 I will plant 2 flats of tomatoes from recently saved seeds for back ups, main plants, projects, and local plant sales. I will probably plant 1 final flat with some flowers, herbs and tomatoes that had germination issues.
My next speaking engagement is March 21 in Shelby for the Cleveland County Master Gardener event. I’ve also tentatively started regular weekly Instagram Live shows, most likely Friday afternoons. My latest one (from last week) can be found on the reels page at my Instagram account, @nctomatoman ,.
