Tuesday, June 19, 2012

The Lie and The Truth

"Tiffany" Rose whose fragrance is beyond the beauty
of the flower itself.  This is for the "blog world."


We bloggers lie.  Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help your garden spade?  Well. . .ah, sure, a-huh.  Yep.  But with our camera's we show only what we want the world to see--of ourselves and of our gardens.  There's nothing right or wrong about this; there's just more than what meets the eye of the reader.
Here's the real picture.  My lovely rose bush surrounded
by invasive "horsetail"









While the Things I get to do today take me to abject despair and then from this dark place back to hope again, I thought I would air the dirty laundry, show you what's in the closet, but really just add a picture of part of my front yard.






Where is that lovely rose now?  Hint--top left.
 This is my view without the editing help of the camera.
Since life is just an experiment--that word has been included two or three times a week lately--my despair over the horsetail that is taking over my front yard has moved from the depths back to a place of hope. One of the on-line sources commented that none of the weed killers on the market (and I won't use them anyway) will really stop horsetail, but that it thrives in poor soil. Nitrogen rich soil is toxic to it.  I brightened immediately as I heard my mother caution me about using chicken "litter" in the garden,  "Be careful.  It will burn the plants!"  Wow! So I could pull/dig the horsetail and seriously amend the soil with chicken poo and eventually stop the horsetail.
Gravel path green with newly sprouted horsetail.
It was all clean last week.




A vision of my pull up the bushy, tufted weed and then immediately holding a chicken over the spot and squeezing it until the soil was "amended" plopped into my mind.

Wish me well with this experiment.

10 comments:

  1. I filled three trash cans with weeds this morning. I need some chickens!

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    1. Oh, my! Indeed, you do. And this is one of the many things that Handy Andy cannot fix--supplying you with a flock of sweet, cute, charming, cackling, egg-laying, weed-eating chickens. But have a great summer anyway!

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  2. I have two full trash cans at home from weeds, trimming etc this weekend
    And something's eating my lettuce. And my zinnias. They have holes all through the leaves
    Do you feel better now ? :) :) :)

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    1. There's a wonderful product out that makes slugs lose their appetites--harmless to everything else--that would let your lettuce and zinnias grow their leaves back. Has iron as the active ingredient.

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  3. Oh I could use the slug product...does it have a name? We just pulled out 3 bushes and found about 10 slugs in each.

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    1. There are several products on the market that have the same ingredients: "Sluggo" and one by Lilly Miller "Worryfree Ferramol Slug & Snail Bait." The results are not immediate since the little critters have to eat enough to then stop eating. And you won't see any dead slugs all slimed out, which is good. But your plants will stop disappearing! Good Luck!

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  4. Wow, one weed I can say i don't have in my yard. Loved this article.

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    1. You are SO fortunate. Years ago I vowed that when this stuff finally marched its way into my yard, we were going to sell and move. Obviously didn't happen. Glad you enjoyed my "coming clean." See you around.

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  5. Remember also what's one's weeds is another's medicinal plant. My friend Ron used to harvest horsetail (w/o pesticides) and place in bath... (Used to hunt/harvest for him) and there are other uses as well.
    By the way, old time remedy for slugs is a saucer of beer - they gravitate & drown. Wonder if it would work for pop?

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    1. We've done the beer thing. I've used horsetail for a few things and will explore additional options. I have plenty. Is that you, Lisa?

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