I'm not crazy! This is all part of my master plan!!

For all the times people looked at me like I'm a crazy bag lady for toting home:

• seaweed from the beach
• coffee grinds from work
• anyone's dead potted plants
• rabbit poop
• chicken manure

THIS. IS. WHY.

 

No matter how much you spend on fancy potting mixes at your big box store, nothing beats home grown, mineral rich, dark and lovely compost. My veggies will thank me later.

Is It Fall Yet?

The weather's just been ick lately. For a few days in October, we had crisp, sunny days in the southeast. However, we've transitioned into a purgatory state of mugginess and rain with temperatures all across the spectrum. What has this meant for gardening? Not a whole lot. For me anyway. Who wants to be outside?

In spite of this, my bell pepper bushes are still producing at a rate faster than I can consume or give away, and there's that stray pumpkin vine in my compost. Keeping my fingers crossed I'll be able to harvest a few.

Orange You Glad You're Not a Pumpkin?!?

 

Here's a funny story for ya...sometime in August, with visions of pumpkin-lined steps leading up to my front porch, the kids and I planted two flats of pumpkin seeds. None germinated. However, a stray seed ended up in my compost, and voila, a few months later I have a thriving pumpkin vine.

 

 I doubt the pumpkins will be large enough to decorate with before the season is over so I still won't have the pumpkin-lined steps. Still, this made for a great laugh. Ain't life grand?

We Could All Use a Calcium Boost

Since digging up my vegetable garden last fall, I've been saving egg shells and other kitchen scraps to incorporate at the bottom of my vegetable holes this year. Seriously, there's more ziploc bags of frozen goop in my freezer than food.

Yesterday, I finally get my tomato and bell peppers seedlings in the ground, and wouldn't you know it...I forgot the kitchen scraps in the freezer! I so need a tumbling composter because out of sight, out of mind.

At least I worked in a tub full of compost, humus and potting soil so they're not totally defenseless. I even had the foresight to plant marigold seeds around the tomatoes since I read the flower smell keeps tomato hornworms at bay. Guess we'll see.

Utilize Your County Extension Office

For the last few months, I've been hearing references for County Extension Offices in the tri-state area. I briefly thought about contacting them regarding my roses, but I figured if Paul James was 'stumped' I probably would't have much luck with these folks either. (See very first post.) In an unrelated event, I saw an episode of HGTV's Curb Appeal: The Block and learnt that most states offer free compost to its residents. A few weeks ago, I began calling (nearly) every state agency in Alabama about this, when I stumbled across the number for my County Extension Office. Unfortunately they had no idea about the free compost. But since I had them on the line away, I figured I didn't have anything to lose and segued into a diatribe about my rosebush dead stem dilemma. That, they could handle.

This was most serendipitous. I was put in touch with Rachel Dykes in the Ozark office. She is a wealth of information and an excellent resource to have. And even though the County Extension Office is closely tied to Auburn University, they actually returned telephone calls and e-mails about my lowly rose bushes. Who would have thought.

Turns out, the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology to which Paul James referred me, is not the department that deals with stay-at-home moms' sickly plants. Rather, there is a Plant Diagnostic Lab where, for a small fee, plant, soil and bug samples can be sent for analysis. When Rachel suggested I send a variety of cuttings and an entire plant, I jumped at the opportunity. It helped that the plant is probably dead (since cutting it back a few weeks ago, I haven't seen any new growth), otherwise, I might have done that as a last resort. In a few weeks, I'll receive my report and will hopefully be on the right track to fixing whatever problem is hindering my roses.

The process, although straight forward, requires adhering to a few rules. Rather than bore you with an executive summary, I'll attach the guidelines and necessary form for submission as soon as I figure out how to attach files on blogger.com. In the meantime, here is the Alabama County Extension Service's website:

http://www.aces.edu/


I have to say I'm really pumped that I'm finally making progress with my roses. But as for that free compost, no such luck. Not to worry though. I'm still on the hunt.