it stormed here today....it was so dark I thought a tornado was coming...all I could think about was that we were on the 7th floor at work! It always rain when I take drastic measure. I had the irrigation timer put on twenty minutes instead of ten... three times a day. I think the only thing that kept everything from being washed away was that the DWU (city) had shut our water off for four or five hours to repair the water system in our neighborhood.
HAZEL I dont remember having any bad expierences with MG. Are you using the POTTING soil or the GARDEN soil? I only use the garden soil for outside. m.o.f. I amend with the garden soil to reduce the clay content. I go thru about 8-10 2cubicft bags a month repotting stuff and amending. I find it retains moisture a lot better. last week I spilled a bag of dry fish emulsion, scooped it and put in the bin of garden soil. I notice the next day the top of the soil was all furry...looked like a fungas or something. I dont know what that was all about. so I removed it. m.o.f all my potted hostas are in MG potting soil ...been using it for the last two years...now you got me worried.
Sylvia
Nasty nasty person
HotnSpicy, I live between Blanco & Wimb. (2mi closer to Blanco) and my daughter asked me to shake the rain stick she had made a few yrs ago (when she was about 8....she's 14 now) so I did, and it worked! After the 106 degree day, we got 0.4 in. of wonderful rain yesterday evening and the temp went down 38 degrees!!
Sylvia, my bad experiences with MG was with the potting soil. Perhaps it was a "bad" lot. One spring and summer, I used the garden soil just as you are to amend my "native" soil. I quit using it, but I don't recall why.
silverfluter: Thanks for the info, would love to get rid of the buggers(chiggars). I too would have to ask what is orange oil????? Where do you purchase it from?
htop: yes I am just a dirty old lady, LOL not really that old though sometimes I do feel I am.
Orange essential oil can be found at most health food stores and orange extract can be found in grocery stores w/ the spices & other extracts. I'm not sure what makes the difference. Does the orange oil kill only the chiggars or are other little (good) critters in danger?
Orange Oil can be found in feed stores and even Home Depot and Lowes. The number of uses for it are endless. We buy it by the gallon! It is a concentrate, and can be mixed in various strengths for different purposes. It is a staple item in organic gardening, and is a prime ingredient in fire ant control here in the DFW area!
Here is a link to Howard Garretts website where I found 180 references to orange oil:
http://dirtdoctor.com/cgi-bin2/htsearch
www.dirtdoctor.com
Just the other day while cleaning the garage, hubby used the orange oil to clean out the oil catch pan that had collected old oil. Sure cleans up well, and has a citrus smell. The citrus oil is a great deoderizer, even if you dont us it for gardening purposes!
You'll be addicted before you know!
Melanie
This message was edited Jul 9, 2005 9:10 AM
hmmm .... keep the cats away? I use tit to deordrize the litter box ...maybe my cats are immune?
Sylvia
I always thought running into the big box store 5 minutes before closing time, dragging a trail of "mud" from your grunghy tennis shoes, sticks and "chaff" hanging out of your hair, wearing a dirt encrusted tie-dyed t-shirt and homemade "cropped" jeans, and smelling of eau de Off deep woods repellent was normal...I can't understand WHY I get such looks from folks!
Debbie
hahahaha Thanks for the "visual"! I thought that was normal, too!
good one dmj...I bet that description fits lots of us...
Ruthie
Gee, wouldn't we make a sight to see - and smell - if we all got together as we have described ourselves?
:-)
If I go into Walmart not looking like that they don't recognize me. LOL I work in a very dusty, hot sweaty place and always seem to be either coming home from work or (of course) taking a break from the yard. So they think I don't have any other clothes. LOL
About the Orange Oil. Texmel 's post was right on target. As far as I know Howard Garrett and Malcolm Beck will tell you the same thing about orange oil or any other organic solutions. I think we used Pepper spray but there might have been orange oil in it too. It doesn't just drive them away. They told me it would actually kill them. I think we only sprayed once and I haven't had any bites since. I think whether you have to spray again depends on the weather. They breed quickly in certain kinds of weather. But if you spray before the adults lay eggs I guess you don't have to spray again.
I run outside half naked all the time..especially in the morning after i have come down stairs to make my coffee. I got these french doors around the place where I can stand and stare outside to see whats developed. if I see something gone awry I have to go out and fix it right away ...in my tee shirt and undies...or I will forget what i saw. by the time I realize I am almost naked I am weeding... hosing...potting, the full nine yards. Luckyly I got a twelve foot fence around the place. Oh but the mosquitos put a stop to that ...They were tearing my arse up out there!
Sylvia
How FUNNY! If you have a 12' fence, I say "do what ya' want to then" I'd have to have a taller ladder to see ya and turn ya' in! HAHA LOL.
Mel
Well I live in the country and we specifically have left a wildlife habitat around our home...brush and dead trees and undergrowth along with the oak trees and tons of cedar trees etc so I don't worry about anyone seeing me......My bathroom has a huge window over the tub.... and I forgot to mention ...I don't have any curtains or blinds of any kind yet...perhaps someday..LOL any way a friend said...well I can live with the bare windows in the other rooms but in the bathroom ...no way..and then she said well..you never know, someone might just decide to hide out there and watch you bathe...and I said...well if anyone is that interested in watching an Old...Fat...Woman take a bath I think they showld just go for it with my blessings...
This message was edited Jul 10, 2005 8:25 AM
LOL! I hear ya Ruthie. Luckyly its a bunch of gay guys in the building behind me and i think they could care less.
Mel you dirty old man! lol it never occured to me there are guys in this forum....except for Mitch...just discovered Trois was a man yesterday...and charley a few days before. I will have to be more careful in what I divulge around here. :)lol
Sylvia
Sylvia, don't bother about me. I'll just hide out in the shadows. hehe
I'm male too
I do the same thing too
Mel is Melanie. No "guy" here.
I said that, cause I too do not close my blinds, but dart strategically from room to room when trying to get the dirty work clothes off at the garage, and make it to the shower! But..... if they're gonna watch.........
Oh my...I am so embarressed! Sorry Melanie. lol
Sylvia
LOL!! Sylvia, we all get caught now and again! I've taken to waiting until I'm really sure of the gender before I make a gender related remark anymore! Thing is, when I read - whether it's books or on the posts - I always read as though I'm watching/listening to a movie. That means voice, inflection, and usually a kind of picture of the person. When I find out I've gotten someone's gender wrong, I have to totally re-work the movie!!
;->
Haha maggiemoo I know that's rite!
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I found its better to click on their name and hope there's a pic of them on their member page.
Shonuff wish more would past a pic. Less confussion to this old man.
My whats her-face has been nick named chester for 31 years.
I'm charlie!
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Now, some times I am called chester & hersef charlie.
When she is seen as a person or a pic I'm enclosing ya can tell hersef aint no male.
Then I remember my oldest. Her name [was] charlene till school, Been charlie every since.
Oh well !
Lol we all gotta be somebody; or sumpin!
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(not an edit, an after thought)
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This pic was done as it is because I had intented to use it as a border on her (Poncho Page)
She makes these things well as dusters and other denim stuff.
[Bragging]
Butterfly Yard Art also! Have shipped them to several states but most are picked up here.
50 or more western dusters to a given riding club. See 'Horse-Shoes from the Heart' on my heycharlie blog.
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Do I got a point heah?
Shonuf I do.
Some say born to this or that.
Others might say born in tha country and heah I'll stay.
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My truth is, I was started in tha hollow of an oak tree where there is now a lake. Sardis OK.
I was borned at Dallas Parkland. 1935 of-course.
I went ta school in OK Tx Ca and last but not least, tha Army!
I talked me po mama into lying about my age.
At 16 I was 307th MP.
Haha, don't worry, It wasn't me! Never wrote a single DR. Your family was safe with me!
Wouldn't ya know, after a year they kicked me out. Lost a Brother in Korea and I was still underage.
Something about 2 brothers in tha same family!
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Devastated, No!
In 1953 I went dwn to reinlist. Haha I was legal.
I thought about Navy but they had a waiting list of 30 days.
Down tha hall there was this Sgt Paratrooper guy. Interesting story!
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I had hit him upside tha head with a riot stick, lol probably several times and had him put in a duce1/2 truck.
Temple Tx.
Him and many more 82 Abn troopers taken back out to North Hood.
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We jus dumped them. No DR report, no company punishment no nothing!
This guy, a WW2 Vet
couldn't remember my face. Couple of years from 16-18 can make a differnce I guess.
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He sat rite-thar and thanked me! For the kindness I had shown. Gosh!
I joined the 82 Airborne that day!
I started off with country smart and street smart form around tha country.
I was mostly jus stupid.
Both enlistments were a blessing to mesef!
Can I realate this to gardening?
You betya!
From previous post here and there I have mentioned early life gardening.
While in tha 82th which is in NC I learned alot.
Anywhere in the area of that time there were farms most every where. Tobacco farming was most places.
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More often as not they had a home garden.
I could drive out some few miles and buy from them.
As I recall it was some of tha best I've ever eaten. Not because It was NC! It was Home Grown!
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I have ta mention here; I was charged $.25-75 cents.
They didn't mind my questions. They were proud some one cared!
[Like this forum]
From tha East ta tha West I have similar stories.
Some are 50 whatever year memories some are not!
Some are older here and some are jus starting but its tha same.
Townhouses to tha neiborhood and many open spaces.
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Ya got bug bit lol or want too!
Happy Gardening!
I found a way to my hearts delight which is tha land.
I am a hurt person, old and many parts done told me, Don't! Ha...
Lived I have in townhouses and neiborhoods. Home is by lot size.
Many post I see are same type situations.
I would like ta think, your pain, local situation is an afterthought.
You can do it. Haha, for sure!
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When your first seed sprouts, you are as a child !
I am grateful for that.
A child I am!
_______________________
My cell is down, my electricity was off.
My what's her face is trapped in Denver going to Ca.
Current is on, lol how did ya know !
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Most of my garden has bit tha dust. Not all! Some was planted with thought.
Haha, might be a waste of time.......! Naw.
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Garden for life !
Gee Charlie..you were born at the old Parkland on Maple? I live a couple of blocks from there.
Sylvia
Nice Ponchos!