Trouble Maker

This plant is a trouble maker. It got me questioned by the police. I have had to explain over and over that I am not growing anything that someone might want to toke. Our Meme and her man called me wanting to know why I planted weed in their flower bed. I have had to tell several black sheep type family members not to try to smoke it. Finally, it bloomed and I have proof of the real purpose of this monster. Meet my Texas Star Hibiscus.

Here is a more well behaved cousin. I am happy to introduce our Southern Belle. Isn't she pretty?

This gentleman is a little worse for wear. Looks a bit tattered and torn. Presenting Lord Baltimore.

Plant Water Bottles and Three Sisters

My plants are spoiled. I like to make plant water bottles using plastic water and sports drink bottles with the bottom cut out. I stick the neck of the bottle into the ground and put a stick through the hole to keep the bottle from blowing away. I then put a cup or so of earthworm castings or compost into the bottle. I water through this. The compost/earthworm castings slow the water down and the plant gets a shot of compost/worm casting tea. The water is delivered directly to the roots and there is no run off. The roots also seem to stay moist longer.

Here is a tomato plant with it's own personal water bottle.

My three sisters row has taken off. Planted together are squash, popcorn, and red noodle beans. The beans grow up the corn and the squash grows low and shades everything. I went ahead and put large tripod made of bamboo in to help support everything. In the picture above, the tripod fell over. This has turned into yet another lush jungle in my backyard. It very effectively hides me from the monkeys.

I was thinking this kind of planting wasn't' going to work. Last week I gave everything some earthworm castings and they just took off. All of my veggies get a weekly foliar feeding with a diluted organic liquid plant food. A close look revealed that the squash is putting on fruit. The varieties so far are round and striped zucchini.

Buggin You

I hope this works. A friend sent this to me tonight and it is darling

Tagged

A few days ago the folks at Poor Richard's Almanac tagged me. I finally got around to it today. Bored with myself, I asked the Monkeys to tell six things about me and here is what they came up with.

First the rules.
1. Post the rules.
2. Write six random things about yourself.
3. Tag six people.
4. Let the people know they have been tagged.
5. Let the person who tagged you know you post is up.

Now on with the Monkeys
1. I am crazy. (You would be crazy to if you had to live with three house apes)
2. I am on the computer too much. (No I am not. Now go make me some popcorn).
3. My kids scare me. (I'm not scared just baffled).
4. I do and don't like Teenage Monkey's music. (I cheated and put some music I like on his ipod. He just thinks it is his music)
5. I put rabbits in the dog's kennel. (I have to keep them seperated or we will have more babies).
6. My son's like me too much. (Aw.)

Here are the six I tagged. Notice I put in a few couples so they have to tell on each other. That is how Silence, Richard, and Ourfriendben did it and it was hilarious. I also added my kid, my sister, and a new blog I like.
Double Danger
Our First Garden
My sister at In Stitches
All Kurt All The Time
Weed Wackin Wenches
The Manic Gardener
Have fun. Only play if you feel like it. No tagbacks.

The Incredible Compost Crew

Our Boys have some friends over today. We are going swimming later this afternoon. I asked them, thinking they would laugh at me and run away, if they would like to tear apart my compost pile. The neighbor boys were all into it, so my boys agreed. It took them about ten minutes to deconstruct the pile. This made them happy and saved my middle aged back.

It turns out this was a teaching opportunity. They wanted to know why we did this. Before I had a chance to answer, Middle Monkey spoke up and said, "To recycle." Then one of them asked, "What do you do with it?" Baby Monkey replied, "Dig it into the dirt for the plants to eat." They were very interested in all the bugs that live in a compost pile. Which lead to the question, "How do you get rid of the bugs?" In unison, my boy exclaimed, "You don't get rid of the bugs! The bugs are part of it. The bugs help make compost."

I explained that compost has a lot of uses. It holds moisture and cuts down on the amount of watering we need to do. It also reduces the amount of fertilizer the plants need. It keeps the food scraps and yard waste out of the landfill. Compost is very useful stuff indeed.

I was very proud of my boys and their knowledge of compost and very grateful that the compost pile was turned for me.

New Rain Barrel is Ready for Action

My new rain barrel is ready for rain. I bought the barrel for four dollars at a local feed store. Of course we washed it out very well. The gutter attachment, plumbing parts, and gutter guards cost less than twenty dollars. We were able to put this together for under twenty-five bucks. Considering the rain barrels I have seen for sale were all more than one-hundred dollars, I think we came out pretty good pocket book wise.

I finished up a big project today for one of my customers. It was pulling up and replacing a brick patio and adding on to it. The bricks are called Chicago antique. Apparently, they were hand made. Every brick was slightly different in size. This job was like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle from Hades. It didn't help that the temperature was over 100. We were almost finished and taking a break when the Ozarka delivery man showed up. He was a very cute, well dressed young man and very friendly. Before he left, he walked back over to us and handed each of us an ice cold bottle of water. That was the best water I have ever had in my life. If I have to buy bottled water, I will stick with that brand.

Another Ridiculously Big Plant

It figures I would play my own game first. Middle Monkey here again with Abby and a giant Pampas grass at our neighbors house. I cheated and shamelessly copied Weed Wackin Wenches photo. Their's is way bigger and they didn't pose a ten-year-old boy in front of it. Anyway, do you think the scale may be a little off? Sort of looks like the grass is trying to eat the house.