Happy Friday

I did it. I woke up today with a totally normal, manageable mood. Oh, thank God. I will of course tell my doctor that I increased my Lithium. He may want to order a blood test to make sure I'm OK but I doubt he's going to yell at me.

It was an utterly cold and nasty day. Wet rain and 30's - when you're in Houston everyone hates it. You could say we're spoiled and you'd be right, but you wouldn't want to be here during July. It's a different kind of hell. Me, I'd rather feel like a steam table vegetable than some poor wet, frozen thing.

Ron had planned a trip to Sam's club, but he cancelled. I agreed. I didn't want to get a box of candy bars home in the wet, frozen, and windy weather.

Have you guessed by now I'm not impressed with the weather? Ugh! I could never make it in Minnesota or Maine, I think you are heroes if you live there. Frozen heroes.

Speaking of Heroes, my Johnny's package (ordered the day before yesterday) is here already! Wow! Here's the link: http://www.johnnysselectedseeds.com/home.aspx?ct=HG I plan to get that bright red romaine lettuce after I get paid or make a deposit, whichever comes first. Fun, fun fun.

Every time I've started seeds the last couple years, I've wished I had my Seacom PGR. When I had the No-sun balcony in California, the Seacom made the things I could

Mockingbird staring in the window at me...gone

The Seacom made the things I could grow pretty happy. So I love it. It's great for using on plants that are under stress or about to flower, fruit, whatever. I have plenty of Nitrogen in my soil (per test) and I use complete organic fertilizer (Epsoma and Fish Meal) whenever I plant a block, so the liquid antistress fertilizer is a great idea. I love it. I've been wanting it for transplants, just as they come up I could nourish them with some lovely Seacom.

I have small areas (only 80 square feet of beds), so I'm sure the biggest batch I'll make is 5 gallons or so. I made a couple of quarts and watered the outside plants (collards and onions in the ground, collards in the 8-pack, onion transplants in the bucket with some seacom - they loved it). I moistened all my planted Jiffy pellets with some Seacom, and I soaked some Jiffy pellets in the Seacom solution to plump them up. I planted a couple of the "Cutting Celery" from Johnny's in them. Anyway, it's 1.25 ml to 1 quart water. I got a baby medicine syringe and I use that for measuring, the best $2 I've spent in a long time.

When I came in from gardening, I spied a large (24 ounce) bottle of Caffeine-Free Diet Pepsi on the counter. Yum! I remembered at the last minute that's my Seacom. Oops.

The ground is absolutely soaked and I can't do any digging. I can't add my soil amendments and stir it all around with my spading fork, add organic fertilizer, stir and flip it again, and then cover with mulch. Bummer. So, I was thinking. I need to plant my onion transplants, although they look pretty good just tied together. All the rain, and the Seacom, have kept the roots nice and moist. The leaves are 90-some percent green. But I want to plant them, while fertilizing and amending the soil at the same time.

I decided on this: I'm a big mulcher, so I pulled the weeds in a (1x1 foot) block. I scraped back the mulch and stirred up the topsoil a little bit, although it was nicely stirred up by the weed-pulling. I used 1 T each of my Epsoma, Fish Meal, and Greensand (I use 1 cup each per bed, the math works out pretty closely). I just realized I forgot to "do" the gypsum, also would have been 1 T. I poked holes in the soil, leaving about a 3 inch space on each side, and planted the onions. I just covered the roots and came up about 1/2 inch on each onion. When I amend the beds, I like to add 5 gallons of compost, shredded leaves, and dry brown stuff. I had a lot of dead grass that I mowed and bagged. We have 2 wonderful ash trees that contributed a good 20 gallons or so of dry shredded leaves. I prepared the compost 2 years ago and let it cook in a couple of large plastic storage bins. The compost is beautiful. I figured out 1 quart each would about work - onions are not very heavy feeders. I actually did one quart plus a couple handfuls each, mulching in layers on top of the soil. I finished the whole works off with a mulch of shredded t

The Mockingbird is back. I'm telling it it's a pretty baby, yes it is. Birds sure love my Red-tip Photina. I confine it to an area and let it grow. The branches are a nice safe haven for birds. I don't butcher it, just trim off the branches that intrude into the walkways. The birds is still there.

So, I finished the project (about 20 onions planted) with a mulch of more shredded dry stuff (mainly grass with a few leaves). I don't have the store-bought mulch yet but I'm sure the soil is happy. As soon as I got into the house, it began pouring. I'm glad I finished when I did!

The Mockingbird finally left. I'm wondering if it's one of the babies the cats brought home last year. I fed them with wetted down dry cat food (I had the birds in a bowl, by the computer, while I researched what to do with them). They seemed awfully hungry and they really seemed to enjoy it. I put them outside and Mom showed up and took over. I'm pretty sure at least one of them made it, and I like to think it just came for a visit. I wish I had some crickets or something to feed it.

Even though it isn't gardening weather at all, I got a lot done. I'm happy. On Sunday we're going to bring home some used coffee grounds from the vending machine.

Tomorrow, I want to plant some more squares in the new way. I'll remember the gypsum.