Bogs and Pop Tarts

I gave my bog presentation this morning. Have I ever mentioned that public speaking makes me turn red. I've known these people for six years and I still get nervous speaking in front of them.

The lecture went too quickly and I didn't follow my notes. Basically, I convinced 20 people to avoid bog gardening at all costs. I even had a hard time giving the plants I brought as examples away at the end. The woman who won them in the drawing didn't want them.

Here are things you should not ever do when creating a bog garden.

1. Go find good researched based information and ignore it.

2. Enlist the "help" of three specialists and implement all of their conflicting suggestions. Pots float, mosquitoes have a home, crawdads move in, bog is alkaline, extension agent is unhappy.

3. Put a liner in it with no drainage at all. This creates flooding. Also makes a perfect mosquito and crawdad habitat.

4. Use alkaline compost. This kills plants. (FYI cotton bur compost is alkaline big time)

5. Sink large containers in the bog to hold invasive plants. They will float.

6. Put down flagstone before spreading sand, remove the sandstone repeat.

7. Put in river rock before the bog settles, take all river rock out and add more soil and compost. Repeat.

8. Plant all the plants on the hottest day in September and don't water for two days. This kills plants.

It is actually pretty right now. The hardy hibiscus are blooming. We still need to tweak the plant selections, but it is on its way.

While I gave this little program I received a voice mail. The phone says, "You have one new voicemail. Message marked URGENT." Baby Monkey, "Mom, can I have a pop tart?"

Somebody help me.

Some People Can Sleep Anywhere

 
 
 
 

Baby Monkey and our friend Frank were falling asleep all over the place yesterday afternoon. Camping in 107 degree heat will do that to you. I even left Abby at home. She is an almost completely black German shepherd and I was afraid she would run herself to hard in the sun and overheat. We had a good time, but I did have to take a nap this afternoon to recover. Hope y'all had a great weekend.

I guess I should have warned you about that snake. Sorry. I think it was just a rat snake. There was only mild freaking out. I didn't let the men kill it.

Cannon Ball

 
 
 
 
We are camping this weekend. I got to come home last night because I have to work in the library this morning. Tonight, I have to sleep in a tent. Here is Baby Monkey pole standing and dock dunking. Manly and a friend made a tree trunk double seat. They say it will eventually have cup holders. Gotta go to work. See y'all tomorrow if I survive. Have a great weekend.

Sun Salutation

 
 
This is what I found in the garden this morning. Moy Grande hibiscus. Isn't it pretty? Yes, that is my hand in the second picture.

Audio Book as Cleaning Aid

 

Today was the day to start organizing and cleaning up my house. The worst room is my office/laundry room/sewing nook/workout area/dog kennel. Needless to say this room gets junked up bad. I have my little sewing nook that I just love, but it has been so cluttered and messy that I have not sewn a stitch there since Christmas. Well look at it now all straightened out and organized.

I am not much of of housekeeper. Effieciency and focus elude me. Kathy, my coworker, listens to audio books all the time. She even downloads them to her Ipod. This afternoon, I checked out an audio book. Listening to it while cleaning and organizing makes the work seem to go so much faster and it makes me stay in one room. If I leave the room, I cannot hear the story. Excellent. I think I am going to buy and Ipod to listen to books on while I garden. Maybe I will finally get that show place of a garden I have always dreamed of.

The book is "The Widow of the South" by Robert Hicks. So far, I highly recommend it.

Welcome to Our Fritillery Factory

The garden is looking pretty ratty. It has been so hot that the only job that is getting done every day is watering. The dill and parsley are going...going...gone to seed. They need to be pulled up and composted. The passion vine has taken over the back fence, several trees and a swing set. It needs to be cut back. A few days ago, I pulled up a dill only to find a little swallowtail caterpillar on it. I put the baby back on another dill and left them all alone. Tonight, I went out to hack back the passion vine only to find it covered up in Gulf Fritillery caterpillars. When I checked on the parsley, looking for more black swallowtails. I found a Gulf Fritillery butterfly drying its wings and getting ready to fly. I hope all of these caterpillars chew the passion vine back significantly. That would make my gardening job a lot easier.

The flowers in the collage are passion flowers and Turk's cap.

Can you see the eggs in one of the pictures in the collage?

Pin Cushion

I picked today to begin quilting and working out again. Don't really think they have anything to do with each other. It just seemed like a good day to start doing things again. I have not sewn since Christmas. Somehow, when I don't use things, they get lost. How can they get lost when they have not been touched. I think some Monkey or another has been into my stuff again or maybe it was a Manx. A lot of stuff was pushed off of the back of the sewing table. Looks like the work of a tailless feline to me. One of the missing objects was my pin cushion. I was putting my needles into a little glass saucer my mom's friend made for me. (I really should have taken a picture of it too) The saucer just wasn't right. I needed a pin cushion. There are lots of homemade pin cushion patterns on the Internet. There are some really cute needle holders made from soft drink bottle lids and felt. I may make some of them later. Tonight, I needed an instant pin cushion cuz I'm lazy like that sometimes. The picture above is my roll up pin cushion. I rolled up a rectangle of quilt batting and then rolled the roll in fabric and tied it with crochet thread - viola, pin cushion.

Know of any instant crafts?