I''m Going In

Here is my crazy overgrown winter garden. See the broccoli all gone to seed? Isn't the Swiss chard lovely. It tastes good too. Then there are the misplaced French hollyhocks.

So, I'm going in. I intend to spend the next two days cleaning up this mess. We will also be on a search and rescue mission. Somewhere out there are little lettuce plants, sugar snap peas, carrots, and radishes.

This is the result when you have a tiny garden and absolutely no self control. I am pretty sure I need counseling with regards to my plant addiction.

Here is my comfrey plant in the foreground and my Duchess De Brabrant rose in the back. Can you tell I never got around to pruning her last fall? I know you can't see it, but there is a Celtic knot pathway through this disaster.

I intend to use this Monkey as slave labor/helper. That is his own personal lawn mower. He just came in and invited me to help him with the lawn, so I gotta go.

If I'm not back by tomorrow night, send a rescue party.

Why I Will No Longer Work With My Husband

I know I have mentioned it before, but I love my work. I love my clients, I love the dirt, and I love the flowers. I enjoy myself way to much.

Today I took my husband to work with me. I thought he would enjoy working on this brick patio rehab project. He loved making our deck. He was awesome at putting in hardwood floors for me. He even took a wall out last year. I almost lost my mind, but it turned out really nice. He can fix anything; hot water heater, leaky faucet, my truck, his 36-year-old VW Bug, clogged pipes, etc...

This is really a great guy. Last week our elderly neighbor's home was burglarized. He installed motion sensing lights and rekeyed all of her locks. He even rehung a door for her so it would open and close properly. Then he came home and installed better locks on our garage and motion sensing lights for us as well. He remodeled his grandmother's home so she could use her walker more easily. If you need help, he's your man.

Anyway, we go get the brick and sand and head out to my customer's house. He looked a the brick patio and asked me, "How much are you charging for this?" I told him. He says, "That's not enough." I explain that if I run over budget the customer will understand. I just have to keep good records.

He started to pull up brick. Then he started to tell me what an awful job this was going to be. Then he wandered over and started digging up grass in the area where we are going to extend the patio. Then he told me how hard digging grass was. Then he took a break. He came back and tore the rotted wood off two old planters and hurled them into the lawn. It was now obvious how frustrated he had become. Mean while, I concentrated on getting the dirt out of the two huge planters so we could remove them. He looks at me about 45 minutes into our day and says, "Why are you happy?" Me, "Hey, dude, I love my job."

On our way home he asked,"Would you have gotten more done with Meme or Crystal?" I didn't answer. He says, "You're being pretty quiet." I begin to explained that some jobs are more suited to certain personalities and we all need to seek our bliss, blah, blah blah - sunshine and kitty cats. He says, "Go ahead and say it. I can take it."

YOU'RE FIRED!!!

He did the happy dance right there in the truck.

Rite of Passage

Teenage Monkey shaved the black peach fuzz off his upper lip this evening. For some reason that made me cry. Silly mommy.

Help, We Have Been Invaded by Mayflies

Over the last couple of weeks we have been invaded by Mayflies. There are billions of them. I would not mind them if they stayed outside, but the keep getting in our house.

I did a little web reading on these critters and here is what I found. They are of the order Ephemeroptera. The nymphs live from three months to two years. The adults live from thirty minutes to a few days. There are two adult stages first the Dun which molts into a Spinner. The Spinners are the trouble makers at my house. According to Wikipedia, the adult’s sole purpose is to reproduce. The Spinner’s mouth is vestigial and the belly is filled with air. All they do is fly around, mate, lay eggs over a body of water, and die. They are a food source for cat fish and bass.

Now I know a little bit about these flying critters. I still have the unexplained nightmare of why hundreds of them must fly into my house and commit suicide in my kitchen sink and bathtub?

Gorilla Gardening

It has been a weird day here in my garden. I went to the back door to go outside and the little fellow above was sitting on my deck raising cane. Apparently, he was very dissatisfied with my performance as a bird feeder filler. He was mad, I mean, really really mad. After I gave him more seed, he flew off. Now what was that all about. Get mad at me and then don't eat the food you were so determined I provide? A few minutes later he came back with a female. It's always about a girl. I took the picture above through my dirty glass door.

After taking care of the Cardinal, I went out into the garden and noticed something behind my fence. Someone has left me two bags of leaves. Now, I have been known to ask for the neighbors bagged up leaves and I have been known to just swipe them when no one was home to ask. This is part of my gorilla gardening activity. I also sneak seeds into family members' flower beds, plant things while people are on vacation, and collect seeds everywhere I go. Now bags of leaves are being delivered. Odd, but good.

This is a terrible picture, but my Mutabalis is in bloom. See the different colors on the same bush (not the red to the left. That's Martha Gonzales). The booms start off a dark pink/apricot and then fade to a very light yellow. I love this rose bush.

The Sweetest Thing

Remember yesterday when I took worms to school. Look what those sweet kiddies did for me. I have a whole stack of handmade thank you cards.

Here are a few excerpts

Dear Ms. M, than you for comeing to tech us about plants I eprech ate it. It was fun. I like to plant seeds- Dawn

Dear Ms. M. thank you for coming my mom haves a Lot or plans to plans are cool and priti I like to smile them. do you I Do- Halo

Dar Ms M. Than you from coming and sharing a boat your plant your so SWEET - JT

Dear Ms. M., thank you for comeing to oour school and teaching us bout plants and woums come again - Patrick

Ms. M. than you for comeing and showing us the soil in the werms the werms wer rilly cool and how did you holde the werm. Ms. M. I have a qushtin for you how did you hold the werm without it herting you -Ivree

Dear Ms. M. thank you for comining to our school to teach us about plants and leting us see the worms. I really liked the worm eggs - Colby

Ms. M. thank you for coming to tell us stuff about plants. My mom loves all kinds of plants and she love to buy them. -Blayne

do you have bunny if you have two can I have one please check yes or no- J.

Thank you Mom for coming to char with us. We like it my class like it. We wot you to come naks week.

I was drawn with short hair, long hair, pig tails, and blue eye shadow. One little boy even drew the worm bin. I feel pretty good about life right now.

Debbi

Sorry this is all center aligned. Blogger won't let me change it today.

Take Your Worms to School Day.

Today I took a container of worms to school. I spoke to and took questions from sixty second graders. This made Baby Monkey the star for a day.

The topic was soil. Ever tried to keep sixty eight year old children on topic? We talked about composting and organic and inorganic materials in the soil. We talked about what plants do for us. We talked about the longest Night Crawlers they have ever seen. Eight year old kids tell monster fish stories.

One of the teachers had two containers to plant. We added some worm castings to one. The other was just potting mix. They are going to see if the compost makes a difference in the way the plants grow. These are going to be crazy container gardens. She had seeds for Bachelor’s Buttons, tomatoes, wax beans, and pumpkins. I can’t wait to get a look at these in about four weeks.

They looked at the worms with a mix of awe and disgust. One poor little girl got one on her arm and had a complete melt down. She may be scared for life, but she will live. They caught on pretty quick that worm castings = worm poo. I got lucky and was able to find a worm egg to show them.

They asked some really good questions.

“Where is the worms head?“

“How do worms see?“

“Why are there so many worms in that eggshell?”

“What is the biggest worm you have ever seen?”

Here is what cracked the teachers up.

Little Girl, “Where do you get worms?”
Me, “I got my worms from my friend.”

Me, “Any questions?”
Several children at different times, “One time, in my yard….”

The question I dodged, “Where do worm babies come from?” I was not sure how I would get around the fact that there are not girl and boy worms, well not exactly - Yikes!!!

They kept me talking for a full hour. Children are more fun to talk to about gardening than grownups.