It is a delight to be the spouse of a hard working, joy-filled, dedicated man.



Wednesday, November 19, 2008

I Forgot

I forgot just how dark winter can be. No girls, we will not be moving to Alaska. Unless of course the Holy Spirit drags me there, um I mean, unless it is where we are supposed to be, in that case never mind.



And Linda, I'm not so sure you are exaggerating about the deer burping thing, because my husband is also that light of a sleeper. That is why we have " Nut- Job" radio (What The Heck? and What Time Is It? ) playing all night long. Somewhere in his late forties, Dirt decided that he was not such a dedicated farmer as to continue to jump out of bed at every little sound. Now he figures if Fluffy Joe wakes him up by barking louder than George Noory and the crazy people, then it is a real problem and he'll get up.

As for the alfalfa pellet inquiry, they give off a lot of really good stuff, not the least of which for this particular garden of a reclaimed lawn area is a little boost in the humus department. But they will be slow to release nitrogen and several other mineral and vitamins into the soil. Worms and other soil friendly little critters love to feed on alfalfa pellets. Some of my best flower years are when I have spread them on the top of the soil about this time, in the rain they swell, making a terrific mulchy goodness.

A local garden personality in this area, Ciscoe Morris, years ago recommended a blend of alfalfa pellets, fish fertilizer and Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) and water enough to swell the pellets, as a side dressing for roses early in the spring and every so often through the growing season. It was great and I have used it ever since. Although it didn't really help my roses come back from their formative years struggling with our back yard shade.

I just learned in the last year or two, that roses not grown on their own root system, the ones with the graft knob just above soil level are not on their own roots, do not last for very many years. In light of that new discovery, I'm not so surprised that I have lost most of my original roses I bought many years ago. Ugh, some discussion make me feel kinda oldish.

My head feels much better this morning, even the singing pipe in my left ear is turned down a little, so I am going to tackle the world today! Well not really, I promise I won't try for the world today just my garden project, but this could mean that I will actually get done when I think I will. And that my dear Reader is a blooming rarity, like a neverarity really.

7 comments:

Empress Bee (of the high sea) said...

i'm happy to read you are feeling better honey. years ago we had banana trees in our backyard and we would put fish heads and remains in the dirt and boy did we ever have bananas!!!

smiles, bee
oxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Ralph said...

Funny you mention how dark winter can be - I still don't think I have adjusted to daylights saving time. Most of our morning include a statement by me, "I don't know why I have to get up before the sun and stay up long after it goes down." I usually just get stared at. Righly so.
Ralph

LindaSue said...

Thanks for the clarifications! DH likes to run an air purifier all night just for the humming sound that drowns out most other noises. I could probably sleep through a live production of Evita but he is a light sleeper. The alfalfa sounds interesting! I also have grafted roses but in the 6-8 years they have been in the ground they are still doing OK. I haven't lived someplace all that long (gypsy? or just wanderlust?) The dark thing - yes I do not enjoy the long darkness - we stay up about two hours past dark so we are totally boring to most of the world. Bee tickled me with the comment about fish heads and remains - I've had every feral cat in the county in my yard!

Susie said...

Lanny thanks for the info on those alfalfa pellets. I found that very interesting. Maybe I should try that sometime.

Anonymous said...

anybody that talks about fertilizer for the garden has got to go on my blog list :-)

KathyB. said...

Is that there kitty Fur Bob ? I think Fur Bob and Miss Marple would get along famously !

Alfalfa pellets you say ? I think I might give them a try. BTW, I was given a rose as a present when we first built our house. About 2 years after it was planted the very pink rose turned white and has been blooming white for almost 17 years now. It is also very hardy and quite forgiving of abuse and neglect. All this to say I now know why my expensive roses did not do so well. Guess that old root stock is the best root stock if we want our roses to be around for grandchildren.

Hope you are feeling much better and today is one of restoration for you Lanny !

Connie said...

I'm late in reading this as I am behind with my blog reading, but I hope your head is feeling much better by now, Lanny.