Evil weeds must DIE

It’s becoming oddly satisfying ripping weeds out. I went out and weeded and watered the garden but still had the urge to rip up the little yard-wrecking (they’re the spiny ouchy weeds for the most part) plants by their roots, so I tackled the back strip that was originally all neat and tidy and mulched and had become overgrown with grass and weeds so much that the bushes (more plants that I can’t name) were hidden. It looks much nicer now, but has a ways to go. A year ago, I couldn’t be bothered to do it.

Memories (lessons learned as a child)

My parents were awful parents. Really. Not “my parents wouldn’t let me have desert before dinner” awful, but “make me sleep surround by cat sh!t and never bathe me or even brush my hair” awful. I was spared the physical abuse my oldest 3 siblings got (I was #5), I think because they were just too old to chase after me when I screwed up (my dad was 50 when I was born and disabled, my mom 43)…but they loved to garden. My mom had a HUGE herb garden and my dad was always in our very large greenhouse doing something. I loved that greenhouse, especially the earthy smell. My most prominent memory was when my dad decided to mess around with a Gopher Plant. The sap is toxic but he ignores that kind of information…until he got the sap on his hands and rubbed his eyes. Ever see a grown man scream like a little girl? I ran as fast as I could into the house to get my mom and dad ended up spending almost a week in the hospital, and many more weeks at home with patches on both eyes. Being the ever loving wife my mom was, she just scolded him and made the older kids take care of him. So besides the non-gardening lesson of taking care of your ailing husband better then mom did, I learned that gopher plants are not worth it even if they keep the gophers away.

I don’t know a flower from a hole in the wall

I know some flowers…a few even. But I don’t know what this one is. In a previously mention post, I promised pictures and here’s a couple. These never bloomed last year so I mowed them down and was thinking about pulling them up to use for herbs….I’m glad I didn’t :D Can you tell me what they are?

The composter to end all composters

Ok, not really. It’s actually kinda flimsy, but I don’t plan on bathing in it so it should be ok. After turning the compost in our crappy 32 gallon can, making a mess and having the can break in 14 million pieces, I went to Costco and got this 175 gallon container. It says 90 on the website – but it’s 175 and the sucker is huge (it’s also about $58 in store). Our nearly full 32 gallon can only filled in a little bit. I’m happy we’ll be able to put all the grass clippings in it, I’ve only been able to put about half in thus far. It’s attractive in an ugly kind of way…at least it’s “90% recycled material”.

Lessons from the field

errr, garden. This will likely become a page all to itself, depending on how much I find I’ve learned.

To start, I have learned the peas need very little nitrogen. So little that even dried grass clippings as mulch at their base will “burn” them. There’s a reason the Earth Juice has a separate formulation (no “Grow”) for legumes!

I’ve learned that pinching off the flowers on still small plants will encourage the plants to grow larger and better suited to bear fruit.

I’ve learned that watering in the morning and keeping the leaves as dry as possible is better then other times and methods, to keep bugs and disease away.

I’ve learned Rosemary is a PITA (Pain In The A*#) to grow from seed. In fact, I can’t seem to do it all. Time to get starts!

It’s late and I’m drawing a blank on the other stuff I’ve come to know, so more to come…..

Earthworms move slow…right? Right??

So I’ve always been of the notion that earthworms are slow. I mean, they let you pick them up and they move around in your hand slow, then inch around in the soil slow, but apparently when they need to, they have some get-up-and-go!

I went out to check on my progress from today (even more satisfied seeing it again!) and there were 2 really big worms on the surface around the zucchini. I watched them for a minute, they were really big and “something to look at”, you know? So I went in the fence and got close and I swear to [whoever] those little suckers were in the ground like lightning! 8O One was so fast I didn’t see it move, but the other one, it was like a cat darting after a mouse. 8O That quick. Seriously! Crazy stuff!