That Wasn't Very Smart.

I almost electrocuted myself this evening. Yesterday, I cleaned up a big mess on my front porch. This motivated me to clean up a few more messes. Our deck is a mess and so is the tiny backyard the Monkeys play in. Our vacation, the rains that followed for ten days or so, and the mad dash and craziness that comes with getting three children back to school caused me to neglect it. It needed mowing bad. Really, it could have been baled. We had a small Memorial Day party at Mamala's house this afternoon. The boys and I arrived back home with just a little bit of daylight left. I told the Monkeys to pick up their toys and I went to get the lawnmower. It is a really little bit of lawn. It takes about ten minutes to mow it.

I have two lawnmowers. One is an old fashioned push lawnmower the other is an electric lawnmower. When the grass gets too tall, I have to use the electric machine. So I set up the lawnmower with an orange electric cord and proceeded to mow.

There are all kinds of kid accouterments in that yard; trampoline, swing set, log cabin playhouse, and the dog trough. Yes, Abby needs a dog trough not just a water bowl. This is pretty much a lawn mowing obstacle course.

I started mowing and was trying to get it done. Gustave is supposed to bring us rain tomorrow, so I needed to get it done tonight. I was just about done and it was just about dark when it happened. I ran over the extension cord. Sparks flew. Monkeys fled in a panic. Tailless cats jumped from the deck to the roof. The dog looked at me like I was retarded. I unplugged it and we are all fine.

Moral of the story: Do not mow in the dark. Has anyone else ever endangered their life doing yard work?

Blue Butterfly

Look what bloomed for me today. This is Cleredendrum ugandense or blue butterfly bush. It is not hardy here in zone 8a. This one is grown in a container and overwinters in my greenhouse. The bush is about four feet tall, but I have read that in areas where it is hardy, it can grow to 10 feet. This little flower makes me happy.

What a Mess

Things have gotten out of hand. The Monkeys have been allowed to run amok and their stuff is everywhere. My front porch was a disgrace.

Skateboards, roller blades, and socks were everywhere. That's right, I said socks. Someone took their socks off on the front porch and left them there. One of my containers was knocked over and broken. The plants looked pitiful. There was a table I found on the side of the road and brought home. Don't know why it was upside down.

Now isn't that better. A little paint, a broom, and a few more plants from the back deck and the front porch looks a lot like a gardener might live here.

Please ignore the black paint. I don't know what they were painting and pretty sure I don't want to.

Maybe this is too much of a good thing. Our good neighbors really filled this compost up. The bunnies are getting nervous. I am going to create a dry shade garden behind our back fence. I will take some of those grass clippings and use them to start the new beds. A four to six inch layer of them should make a nice mulch. When the time comes to plant, the soil should be perfect.

Tomorrow, I take on the deck. Believe it or not, it is worse. Anybody else have a mess they need to clean up? Please share, it will make me feel better.

160 Degree Compost - I Finally Succeeded

It happened. The thermometer in the compost pile reads 160 degrees. The grass clippings and coffee grounds did it.


This should not matter to me. Organic matter does not need to heat up in a giant pile in order to become compost. I know this. I have had a compost pile since I was 12 years old. Compost happens without too much effort from us other than piling up the stuff, getting it wet, and waiting. Unfortunately, a couple of years ago I took a master composter class. They taught us about bacteria, yeast , and fungi. We were schooled in the importance of carbon to nitrogen ratios. We learned how important oxygen is to a composting system. Lectures were given to us on the need to reduce waste in our landfills. We made a compost pile, watched it heat up, turned once a week for three weeks, and it made compost. We were then sent out into the big wide world to teach others about compost.

What I came away with was a competitive need to have my compost pile get hot. It became and obsession. I tried and failed. I had a faulty thermometer. The compost pile got sort of hot at 140 degrees. Today, I have finally succeeded. This is my hottest compost ever.

Pineapple Salsa

I went shopping with my mom and sisters today. We visited one of those fancy pants gourmet shops. They had all kinds of samples. I tried a pineapple habanero salsa that was wonderful. It was too hot for anyone else, so I did not buy it. Instead, I came home and made up a batch of my own with a lot less heat.

20 ounces of crushed pineapple
1 Large red onion.
1 Bell pepper
3-5 Serrano or jalapeno peppers
1/4 Cup cilantro
1 Teaspoon lemon juice

Throw everything in the food processor - Done. This stuff is really tasty with tortilla chips. I also saw a recipe that suggested serving it with salmon.

Morning Glories and Angels' Trumpets

Nice things happen in my garden in the morning and nice things happen in my garden at night. The Grandpa Ott’s morning glory along with the volunteer pink morning glory bloom very prettily every morning. Humming birds love to nectar on the morning glory blooms. After dark my Angel’ trumpet opens up beautiful white blooms that smells very sweet. These blooms attract a large grey moth. By midmorning all the pretty blooms are wilted and sad. I feel just like that during the heat of the day; all wilted.

Uses for Coffee in the Garden

We had our calender committee meeting at a Starbucks last night. I walked away with about 20 lbs of coffee grounds. Usually I just dump them in the compost pile and give a little to the worms. I did a little research and here is what I came up with.

1. Coffee grounds have an NPK of 2.-.36-.67
2. Coffee grounds are acidic. My soil is alkaline so this is perfect.
3. Coffee ground repel slugs and snails. Maybe, I should sprinkle some on the deck. Earlier this summer, I walked out on our deck and stepped on a slug. Horrible, the stuff of nightmares.
4. Worms like coffee grounds.
5. Coffee absorbs odor. My mom had a horrible smell in her house. We never did figure out what it was. Anyway, we put out bowls of coffee and it really helped.
6. Coffee has a 20:1 nitrogen to carbon ratio. This is about the same as grass clipping so it should help heat up a compost pile.
7. Taking the coffee grounds from a coffee bar or restaurant keeps them out of the landfill and helps reduce production of the greenhouse gas methane. Methane is 25 times worse for the environment than carbon dioxide.

Go get yourself some coffee grounds. It makes your compost smell good.