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.

If You Show Me Yours' , I'll Show You Mine

Here are a few pictures of Middle Monkey, one of his hibiscus blooms, and a couple of bunnies. The other bunny had dirty feet and a squirmy attitude. The brown bunny is fat boy. He has grown too big to hold in the palms of our hands.

No, my child does not have a tiny head. Those flowers are really that big. We thought it would be fun to see other big flowers and plants and pets. Even better, pictures of big plants and pets. To start us off here is Weed Wackin Wenches with Diva Dog and a giant Papas grass. I will be looking for your big blooms, big plants, and cute critters. If you feel like showing me yours instead of making me look for it. Leave me a comment. To repeat, we are looking for big flowers, big plants, and cute critters. Feel free to cheat with photo shop or trick angles.

Player #1 Cinj has what looks like a spider eating something

Player#2 Jack with a dinosaur

Player#3 Jack again as monster baby

Player#4 My Sister with her hydrangeas and daylilies

Player#5 Brenda with Abigail in the garden

Player#6 Tomato Casual showing the everything is not bigger in Texas. But the wenches already proved this.

Player#7 Kathleen with Hollyhock munchers.

Player#8 Silence Dogood has tamed a tiger

Player#9 Sherry love is in the air over at her blog

Player#10 Double Danger has a giant agave

June GBBD Hardy Hibiscus

Just in time for GBBD this month, one of Middle Monkey's hardy hibiscus plants bloomed. This is Malvaceae Hibiscus moscheutos. I think this one is Moy Grande. My hands are pretty little, but even so, that is one big flower. We have four other varieties. Next month maybe the Meme will bloom.

Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Garden for hosting GBBD each month.

More Toad Drama

As if last nights toad incident was not enough, tonight two of the monkeys rush in and shout, "Guess what K caught?" Then Baby Monkey shoves a Mason jar with a big ole toad in it right into my face. I scream, "GET THAT OUT OF MY HOUSE!!!!" "But, we want to keep him." Me, "No, NO REPTILES OR AMPHIBIANS IN THE HOUSE EVER. " "Okay, we will put him in your water garden, " they reply. "DO NOT BUT THAT CREATURE IN MY WATER GARDEN. IT WILL EAT MY FISH OR MAKE A MESS OR SCARE ME." I hollered while melting down. Manly Man intervened and I am safe.

Oh, BTW, I found a worse bug story.

One more thing. Somebody out there in the blogosphere wound up here through google looking for this.

Sitting on an ant pile.

I can't recall ever doing that. Double Danger has a whole bunch of advise on keeping this from happening to our backsides.

Toad Up Pant Leg, No I am Not Kidding or Copying Silence

Over the past eleven days I have been working in my garden in the evening from about 7:30 til dark. I have managed to get a lot done. I have also seen a lot of cool things such as lady bugs, lady bug larva, fire flies (way too cool), assassin bugs (also cool), and baby bunnies.

During this time, I have been crawled on by a lot of bugs. Fortunately, I am not afraid of bugs. I kind of think they are cute, unless they sting. I let pretty much any bug crawl on me and I sort of like it. Unlike Silence and her hilarious post on a bug up her skirt, I am pretty much at one with the bugs. Not in the house though, I don't like bugs in the house either, Silence.

Well, anyway, the bugs are not the only things hanging around the garden. We have toads, which is great as they eat some of the bugs (hopefully mostly bad bugs). We are organic around here and do not spray or bait. We do squish. We squish the squash bugs.

Much like Silence, I like to garden in long cotton skirts. I also like to garden in loose cotton pants. They look like pajama pants. Well, maybe they are pajama pants. Just don't look over my fence, okay.

Tonight I weeded until almost dark. Unfortunately, I did not water until it was almost pitch black outside. The moon was helping a little. I was carrying a watering can through the garden gate towards the tomato plants at the back of the garden when I startled a toad. Well, I was moving pretty quickly, trying to save daylight, and the toad and I intersected.

That stupid toad jumped right up my pant leg. The encounter did not last more than a few seconds, but I think I jumped about a mile. Fortunately, no plants were trampled during my toad extraction. I don't know who was more upset, the toad or me. I do not like to touch or be touched by toads. Monkeys laughed at me. I am plotting my revenge.