A Spot With Pots

Does it bother anyone else?

2008-01-17T16:26:00.000-08:00

This morning I went into the kitchen and realised they were spraying the outside of the neighbouring house with insect pesticides. I don't even want to think about the chemicals that drifted into the house while I was unaware. There's something rather special about standing in the kitchen watching them literally hose off the gutters to the stage of dripping with something toxic. I shut all the windows, for whatever good that will do.

And now, here's something further to think about...all those vegies and herbs I've planted on that side of the yard. What kind of withholding period, what do I do about toxic soil, do I uproot all of the plants that are short term crops? There are just so many parameters for growing your own edible garden that you can't control. Guess I won't be making basil pesto today after all, let alone working in the garden.

In some parts of the world there is legislation that means that you have to provide notice to your neighbours before applying sprays...and even put up signposts so that people who are passing by are aware. Now that's the kind of legislation that should be everywhere. The whole issue on 'drift' is a difficult one, things can spread within a kilometre radius and how would you ever know in many cases and there is very little you can do about it.

Had I been at work I may have come home and picked a nice bowl of vegie insecticide to munch on. Then again, how many times have I done that already.

Ugh!

Water restrictions

2008-01-17T05:19:00.000-08:00

Woohoo from 17% of the dams filled in South East Queensland at the beginning of December we are now at 27%. Yes, it's been raining. Quite a bit. The other day the kiddies across the road were splashing out in the rain...less than 5 years of age...that's a lifetime of drought. I got a bit frustrated earlier this year ,with 30 kids trekking in mud after playtime onto the carpet when it rained, until I realised they really don't know what areas of mud are best avoided and how to get it off their shoes. Distracted from their work and looking out the window at water falling from the sky, I couldn't really blame them. It's one of those teacher lines you roll out automatically, "Anyone would think you'd never seen rain before?" Somehow it's funnier when it's true...dry humour.

The Long Dry.
It's been a long time, water restrictions began here in May 2005. The dam levels fell to 35% in September of that year. Ah, those were the days when we still used garden hoses and can you believe we had automatic sprinkler systems? I can't even remember where my garden hose is and bucket watering is better than no watering. Since then we have seen 6 different levels of water restrictions.

It may not be too much to wish for but getting back to 35% could see us through another 2 years until the water recycling infrastructure is finished. Yes, it didn't look like we were going to make it and some cities already had planning documents in place for distributing drinking water on the streets once the public water system failed.

Yes, I am hoping for recycled sewerage water to drink...funny how your perspective on things changes.

And should cows jump over the moon, maybe it might just rain enough to get us over the 35% level in our dams. Some staple foods have risen in price by 60% since last year. The sheep stock is at its lowest since 1920. While full dams won't change the food shortage, much, no water means no electricity, a real problem with the sewerage system..and it goes on and on. It could be worse.

Here's hoping that those around the world who are also in the grip of drought may be getting a spot of rain their way too.

Saving Seed in the Suburbs

2008-01-10T21:41:00.000-08:00

Saving seed in the suburbs - is it possible or worth doing?

Firstly, saving seed means you have to have the right seed...open-pollinated. Don't be sucked in to buying 'organic' seed that isn't open-pollinated. When you buy hybrid seeds you may end up with a very different plant growing from your saved seed than you imagined because of the plant genetics involved...they're not designed for this purpose and stability of following seed generations is an issue. There are many varieties of seed that have vanished from commercially mass produced seed ranges and discovering the odd shaped radishes and black tomatoes is a gardening adventure that is worth going on. The heritage seed, open-pollinated sources have wonderful catalogues.

Once you get into the intricacies of seed-saving there is a slight problem with saving open-pollinated seed. Your different varieties of pumpkins may cross pollinate and you'll end up with a second generation combo. In fact, if your surrounding neighbours happen to be planting pumpkin, then this will also be a problem. Very few of us have the kind of acreage it would take to guarantee 'zero cross-pollination', or the desire to hand pollinate each and every little sucker or even, the inclination to grow plants in laboratory conditions.

My take on it is that cross pollination is not something that should prevent you from going on the seed-saving route. If you are weaning out and selecting plant seed according to hardiness, flavour and productivity it's going to inherit some of those aspects. Our preconceived ideas of what a vegetable should be aren't all that necessary. It's still a pumpkin right...and saving seed according to your gardening conditions is going to produce better seeds in the long run...while there might be a few duds along the way this is 'real' gardening...not the sterile variety of gardening that we have come to perceive as 'the way things are done'. And since most vegies are short-term crops experimenting isn't going to have long-term consequences.

Self-pollinating vegies are less of an issue. Interestingly I discovered that tomatoes grown in their original surroundings were pollinated by a native bee. Now that was a surprise that challenged my definition of self-pollinated plants as a category unto themselves!

Saving flower seed is an easy place to start, since you're not eating them who cares if they are slightly different to the parent plant? If you save the seed of annual flowers this is going to be very convenient in the long-run.

This doesn't mean that acquiring special plants from catalogs is something you won't do and there are cases where you just want a particular variety...but the joys of saving and growing your own seed is a part of gardening that everyone should experience. I think we've lost our sense of adventure in gardening...cuttings, seed-swapping and eat-and-plant. I mean what did people do before store bought seed and plants took over?

I guess the only seed that I would consider 'not worth saving' is when it comes to fruit trees. There are too many years of growth involved in producing a fruiting tree and by the time it reaches that stage it's going to be harder to remove and a serious setback. AND seed from your favourite fruiting tree is no guarantee that you will end up with the same plant. When I was a teacher up north the kids always brought me mangos...on a daily basis...they didn't bring apples thank goodness. Cherry mangoes are vile. Many of the mango trees that have been planted are stringy or bitter in taste and I imagine that people have just planted the seeds or they have self-sown. The mangos that the kids didn't bring very often were the fabulously sweet bowen mangos that are total ambrosia.

Take care with sourcing fruit trees. This is one area of gardening that you want to get right the first time or you'll be wearing the mistake for a very long time.

Granny square slipper number two

2008-01-10T03:18:00.000-08:00

I picked up the pattern for hexagonal granny square slippers (more booties than slipper) and I've been busy crocheting rounds. Every round is a new stitch that I have to learn: treble crochet, puff stitch, cluster stitch...but they are coming along and it's at the right challenge level to keep me interested in the project. I don't know if they will turn out the size that I need to fit my foot though...fingers crossed...and if not they may be fine with a thick pair of socks (or the hexagons might end up being used for another project ; ) ) . It is interesting finding out the 'real time' that is required to produce hand-made objects as opposed to just going out and buying manufactured articles. Aside from that, producing things that have a longer life sounds good to me...what I do remember is that hand knits are very durable.

The knitted and crocheted dishcloths are brilliant: the crocheted one cleans very well and the knitted one dries quickly. No more disposable supermarket cleaning cloths for me...one small step towards being more environmentally responsible. We are having a lot of rain, so the crocheting /knitting bug makes up for not being able to garden as much.

On the gardening front I am planting out aster seedlings. Strawberries are turning mushy in the hot humid weather (sigh), the sunflower head now has been stockinged and is hanging up to dry and I'm investigating how to grow chickpeas (so far they look like a good potted option as they are likely to get away from you, they are high in protein and as legumes they are great nitrogen fixers and can be dried and stored long-term - win win all around). I have also planted out various versions of sweat peas...hopefully they will improve the soil (but anything I've planted has improved my horrible 'new house' soil) as well as being pretty to look at. And I am delighted that I can't plant seedlings without having to cover over the worms in my garden that I have inadvertently exposed to the elements with my digging...I now have 'real' soil.

Granny Slipper

2008-01-08T00:57:00.000-08:00

I was trying to replicate a slipper pattern I'd seen, but couldn't find on the net. I rib knitted a rectangle that was foot length (k2p2), made a granny square, then double crocheted the square and around the edge of the rectangle to join the two pieces and form a border. I crocheted a cord, threaded it through and voila. Not quite the same pattern. If you know which one I'm thinking of please let me know or if you have any suggestions for modifications.

Here is the finished 'object' LOL.

Apple and Date Cake

2008-01-07T00:22:00.000-08:00

Apple and Date Cake (with toffee on top)

Step one:
1 cup of dates chopped in half
2 green apples, peeled, cored and cubed
1 tsp of bicarb
1 cup of boiling water
Place in bowl and allow to cool.

Step two:
125g butter chopped
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 tspn vanilla
1 1/2 cups plain flour
Mix in food processor until it forms a ball of soft dough. Combine with apples and date mixture with a wooden spoon. Place in greased tin and bake at 180 degrees celcius for 45 mins.

Step Three
Heat 60 g of butter and 1 tblsp of milk in microwave (20 seconds or less, in order to melt butter and remove). Mix in 1/2 cup of shredded coconut and 1/2 cup of brown sugar. Spread topping over cake and place in oven for another 15 mins.
Allow to cool. Take care when turning out, I used gladwrap over the top and supported it with my hand as I tipped it out of the tin.

Verdict: a good special occasion cake or dessert. If you like apple pie and the caramel taste to pecan pie you will love this. I used dessicated coconut for the topping, but shredded coconut would look better.
Source: Alex Sloan.

Green Thumb Sunday

2008-01-05T20:35:00.001-08:00

*~ Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit ' As the Garden Grows' for more information ~*

More Flowers

2008-01-04T21:14:00.000-08:00

Masquerade and a stripey flower spider. The flowers tend to fade in the harsh sun here, so the overcast days have really brought out the bright yellow and red.
Climbing white iceberg and lavender ruffles. The wire trellis behind is what the icebergs are supposed to aspire too...two years later....not even...LOL.

Adding: I cut off the sunflower head today. I have covered it using a stocking and hung it up. No I have no idea whether I will eat them or not..but it's probably a good idea to learn how to do stuff like process sunflower seeds, even if only once.

Flowers

2008-01-04T21:01:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning and something felt different...it wasn't raining. We have had a steady drizzle going for weeks now. As a result the garden is looking pretty good. I'm a fan of cosmos and have three varieties growing at the moment. The light green feather foliage, the height and the fact that they can handle drought very nicely makes them a winner. I have them growing between the roses.

The giant zinias are also another garden winner...very hardy and quick-growing. They also flower non-stop.

Bonica is also putting on a show at the moment with its pretty little ballerina roses.

Granny Square

2008-01-04T03:51:00.000-08:00

After learning how to treble crochet (double US) in rows I thought I'd have a go at a Granny Square. It took me four hours to work it out.

At first I tried to crochet into the individual stitches in the round...yes, it didn't occur to me that 12 double crochets were not going to fit into 8 stitches LOL (yes I know NOW there's another way to make the initial round rather than using a chain and I'll have a go at that too). After I realised the stitches were meant to slide things went a little faster.

I'd describe the four hours as complete and utter torture (no idea how to read a pattern), but persistence did pay off.

Here is the result:

It's not quite right, but a fair attempt I think. I'll work out what to do with the loose ends tomorrow.

I'm also thinking about acquiring some double point knitting needles so that I can make some socks.

Crochet Effort

2008-01-03T21:29:00.000-08:00

Unfortuneately all I could do was chain stitch...and it took me a while to remember how to hold the cotton properly so that it would feed through for stitches.

I found a few sites with instructions for double crochet (US single crochet) and worked it out.

I then started a potholder/dishcloth thingy (and I found that challenging).

I chained 35 stitches and used a turning stitch as I did 26 rows. I used heirloom 4 ply cotton worsted and a 4.5 mm hook (because it was the only hook I had). This gave me a 20cm square.

I then slip stitched around the edges for a very minimalist border. It took me approximately 4 hours (not including unpicking it when halfway as I didn't pick up the last stitch in each row and ended up with a leaning side. No, there is no photo of that : )

I thought it might be amusing to show the other side too: I had difficulties working out how to slip stitch the sides, as you can see it's a little crooked in places. I had to learn how to slipstitch.

Here is a sample tatting stitch using larger thread (I keep sample stitches in a mini photo album). Now if I could just learn to crochet pretty edges like this one LOL, instead of the awful slipstitch edging.

Garden Update

2008-01-02T17:24:00.000-08:00

Strawberries and carrots.

Seedlings

Cherry tomato seedlings and basil self-seeding everywhere.

Climbing beans and passionfruit vine and the herb patch (I don't think I am about to run out of rosemary).

Mega-sunflower with a stem as thick as my arm.

Knitting

2008-01-02T15:12:00.000-08:00

Apparently, if you're a beginner knitter a scarf is a great place to start...something with plain old garter stitch. Way too boring! As a kid I had metal knitting needles in my toybox (they were solid things that would never snap, definitely not the stainless steel we have now) and I did knit a scarf or two for my teddies and some owls (basic garter stitch 4cm by 5 cm and some felt and buttons to turn them into something that looked like an owl) I wasn't particularly good at knitting..I preferred cross stitch and tapestry.

My Mum was rather into knitting and she used to pull apart adult jumpers that were a bit worn, wind up the wool and re-use it to make kids jumpers for my sister and I (since we were growing so quickly she didn't think we'd get enough use out of them to justify buying new wool). She also crocheted. The clack of needles or a tatting shuttle in the background was something I grew up with. I did learn how to tat lace - but knitting and crocheting was a tad challenging. The only thing I ever made was a scarf, glove, sock and beanie set for my senior year of highschool: trip to the Snowy Mountains...with help.. and a huge amount of frustration. I think most of them fell apart, from memory. That was so long ago. Anyway, there are many video and picture tutorials on the net and I still have my children's book with cartoons showing you how to do knitting and crocheting stitches (really).

I decided to attempt a dishcloth: Flower pattern using knit and purl stitches with a moss stitch border. I used 4.5mm needles/US 7 (bamboo-so much nicer to hold) and peaches and cream 4 ply. Not sure if I like the mixed strawberries and cream colour though.

It took me three hours. I'm painfully slow at knitting, but I can cast on, knit and purl. I'd forgotten how to cast off, but it wasn't hard. Locating cotton for projects is a tad challenging: I have 4 and 8 ply, but 12 ply is something I can't find anywhere. A lot of people will use double threads of 4ply to create 8 ply. (Even locating 12 ply wool is hard here, which is ridiculous considering wool is a major export).

I've also acquired a crochet hook and my crocheting skills are even worse than my knitting skills...but surely I can attempt to crochet a granny square or two (possibly an afghan). My sister used to crochet slippers for everyone...she once knitted a jumper and it was so funny, when she finished one sleeve was double the length of the other. All those hours knitting and she hadn't realised until she tried to stitch it together! I think Mum knew all the time...and was waiting for the storm to come when my sister worked it out. Ever tried to tell a teen something that was going to upset them? No, my Mum didn't fix it for her...she just laughed and said, "Well, you know how to fix it don't you?"

Mum could do a lot of crafts but she found it hard to teach others how to do them and share their pain LOL. I'm still amazed at the way she would just pull out needles and make up a pattern as she went along holding up the wool to our arms and guessing. My Nan used to teach handicrafts to other people and she'd always send us a parcel of things she had made each year: crocheted swans, a wardrobe of dolls clothes, dutchess sets and so on. She continued to teach other people even in her eighties!

I still have a little set of doll's clothes she crocheted for me. Look at this! Isn't it cute? Complete with matching underwear LOL. The dresses have little press studs in them.

Ok, some tatting work I did years ago. Mum taught me how to use the shuttle and I worked it out from there. I went to the State Library to borrow a very old pattern book from the archives and then made these in the thinnest cotton I could find: thousands upon thousands of knots in one round, very time consuming. If you could imagine taking some sewing cotton and tying a knot in it: and how many knots it would take to make a round...it takes a lot of patience.

Green Thumb Sunday

2007-12-09T05:42:00.000-08:00

Plant Fossil

*~ Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit ' As the Garden Grows' for more information ~*

8 Things To be Grateful for Meme

2007-12-06T01:01:00.000-08:00

I've been tagged for a meme by Stuart from Gardening Tips N' Ideas to write about 8 things to be grateful for....
Welllll
1. It's only six more working days until vacation.
2. A little more than a week.
3. 36 hours more to go (because no one counts unpaid time)
4. That's 2160 minutes.
5. And 129 600 seconds.
6. Eight more sleeps.....(deep breath)
7. Not long now....
AND there's going to be a huge party...with Maccas and iceblocks and lots of sugar and salt and food colouring and pin the nose on Rudolph
8. And Santa might come a tad early

and then

home to their families for 6 quality weeks of family time : )

And I am truly grateful for having taught each and every one of them.

THE END!!!!!!!!

P.S
You have just been tagged if you haven't already done this meme : )

Green Thumb Sunday

2007-11-30T23:13:00.000-08:00

William Shakespeare

*~ Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit ' As the Garden Grows' for more information ~*

Garden Wildlife

2007-11-28T03:59:00.000-08:00

Tree climbing snail out for a bit of a walk on a rainy day. The snails had been sheltering in the nearby bromiliads
Hairy Caterpillar

8 Happy Thoughts Meme

2007-11-25T20:24:00.000-08:00

I was tagged as 'meme-victim' by Barebones Gardener from Barebones Gardening. Rules are as follows:When tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you. Then post these rules before your list, and list 8 happy things about yourself. At the end of your list, you must tag and link 8 other people.

I am thankful
For my family and friends and for all those whose lives connect with mine and make it that much richer.
For blogs and bloggers and blogpeople.
That it's raining and I don't have to bucket water.
For the simple pleasures of beautiful flowers and fresh green vegies.
and that it's not long now, vacation time is getting closer : )

I happened on a blog the other day called Three Beautiful Things and that's all there is to it...three beautiful things about life every single day.... and if you google it... you'll see how 3BT has spread its viral happiness all over the blogging world. How great is that?

I'm leaving this meme open to anyone who wishes to be tagged.

Can you Reuse Potting Mix?

2007-11-25T03:00:00.000-08:00

I'm kind of into reduce, reuse and recyle and doing what is sustainable and I've been chatting to Patrick from Bifurcated Carrots about reusing potting mix. I'd been wondering whether crop rotation would be enough to replenish the soil...that is until I realised that potting mix isn't exactly the equivalent of soil and in some cases doesn't contain any.

So far the best answer I've found on how to recycle potting mix comes from a HGTV article. They recommend that you dig out 1/3 of the mix and then add an equal amount of new potting mix or compost. They also have some suggestions on sterilizing the mix or recycling it via the compost pile.

Now there was a posting a while back on the Gardening and Yardening blog explaining how they recyle their soil. Mainly they suggested making sure the pots are sterilised and the soil is fluffed up, removing the roots and plant debris, mixing in some soil and adding some slow release fertiliser.

Some Gardenweb solutions included adding it to new or existing garden beds and using soil additives.

Everyone seems to agree that reused soil isn't a good thing for seedlings and that it is safest for mature plants or annuals, although they do use amended soil for other plants.

So apparently people can and do recycle potting soil.

Soil-less potting mixes and part soil potting mixes have been around for a long time because they reduce the likelihood of disease. There's a kind of cheapness and frugality associated with reusing it and a longheld belief that recycling it just isn't beneficial. While it may be less risky and easier to simply throw it away and repot, it just isn't sustainable and I think it's more responsible to work out how to rejuvenate the mixture, after all if you can get small scale gardening right, it can only benefit your understanding of larger scale gardening from potting to gardening to food production sustainability.

Here is a list of some of the key problems with reusing potting mix:

soil disease (this increases exponentially with each recycling use) and compaction impacting the water's capillary action. (I think the lay term for that is when water puddles on top of the soil and isn't absorbed. This can cause damping off from fungal diseases or possible root rot). Not to mention salt build up, bacteria, insects thriving in various stages, buildup from fertilisers, accumulations of chemicals from water deposits and soil toxicity.

Some scientific research has shown that the overuse of nitrogen fertilisers is burning up our soil or in other words that the resulting super-charged microbes burn up more nutrients than they return. It's better to fertilise soil in the needed amount rather than than overloading it. This is one area that we are only just beginning to understand. I think what makes potting soil so unhealthy after a while is an isolated microbe population and a limited filtering system. The Mother Earth site has an interesting pointer on keeping soil in balance . The soil is made up of living (plant roots, microbes and organisms), the recently dead (decomposing organisms and green matter) and the very dead (humus and stuff that is good for disease supression and soil structure). When this gets out of balance according to the plants' needs the problems start.

So recycling the soil needs to be wholistic. It's not just about the soil foodweb 'aka compost tea fixes', but the soil cycle of restructuring itself as well. If you begin to think of it as a living organism: with all the circulatory system cycles operating in harmony: from waste disposal and respiration, to nutrient and water intake that's one rather complex thing to duplicate.

Alright, so let's factor in that you need to look at sterilising and amending

Here are my questions: when sterilising soil with boiling water wouldn't you kill a lot of good bugs in the soil? Heating in the oven is bound to be smelly and messy particularly for large amounts of soil and nuking it in a ziplock bag with a little water in the microwave might be a tad too experimental for me. You may never want to use either of your electrical appliances again.

I guess you could spread it thinly in the sun and allow it to dry, which is pretty similar to allowing the heat action in a compost pile to kill any bugs, bacteria and fungi. I came across a method for soil solarisation from the National Gardening Association: basically spreading out the soil between layers of plastic to heat it up to the correct temperature for killing off things in a safe and effective way. Um and killing of microbes that are critical in making beneficial nutrients available to plants which you then would need to put back.

For nutrient depletion and reintroducing soil elements, amending recipes vary between the very simple 'add another third of potting mix or compost' to 'a lengthy recipe of ingredients' tailored to the plant.

So what about the crop rotation idea...? Welll I think it is a good practice in terms of soil populations to vary things around as little as much as you can (nutrient useage, microbes, bugs and root crop tilling and all)...it's a little gesture towards trying to get things working as best they can, without going to the lengths of becoming a soil scientist.

Potting on or repotting : what do you think?

Green Thumb Sunday

2007-11-24T20:01:00.001-08:00

Masquerade rose bud

*~ Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit ' As the Garden Grows' for more information ~*

On Garden Blogging

2007-11-23T17:39:00.000-08:00

Someone said to me the other day: "If that's what their garden looks like, I'd hate to see the inside of their house." I was a bit amazed that someone could think so narrowly. People are much more diverse than that...narrow generalisations don't give a wholistic picture.

But it kinda made me realise how gardens reflect what we garden in our thoughts and how gardening blogs pollinate gardens.

I'm not altogether sure about what I think of a do-not-follow internet as google-shaping. It's rather like planting seeds that are not open-pollinated.

Lots of random thoughts on this rainy grey morning, after a bit of a chat with the local nursery guy about gardening plan and design. It was a very hyperlinky conversation as he tried to work out where I was at with my gardening and what advice to give based on key words (while plugging a few plant sales at the same time). When I showed up at the counter with a selection of cottage-type flowers he frowned and warned me that they wouldn't grow in the shade: I gather I'd been summed up by my click-on responses to patio plants. Search engine thinking at it's finest. I'm more stumble-apon.

My Seeds Arrived

2007-11-22T21:41:00.000-08:00

The Eden seed order came through *Yay*.Only I think I may have gone a tad overboard. Who me?
I have:
*Celery golden self-blanching
*Cauliflower snowball
*Broccoli Albert
*Round Zuchinni
*Golden Nugget Pumpkin
*Climbing Bean Blue Lake
*Rhubarb Gaskins Perpetual
*Tomato Raspberry
*Lettuce Purple Oak Leaf
*Snake Bean Dwarf
*Onion Gladalan
*Radish plum purple
*Tomato Tropic
*Cucumber Richmond River Green Apple
*Sugarsnap Pea Bush
AND
!!!!SILVERBEET RAINBOW CHARD!!!!!!

Er, that should be plenty of seed don'tcha think?

Now to work out how many of them I can plant, when and where LOL.

I've decided to sort through the seeds and box them: spring summer, autumn winter, spring or autumn and all year round. That way all I have to do is to the spring summer box and pick out what will resist the coming summer heat for the first lot of seed-raising.

Flower bed Plantings amidst the roses: Euphorbia Diamond Frost, Cosmos sensation, Gaura lindbeimeri (white), Scarbiosa Passion pink, Penstemon Hidcote and a pot of New Guinea Impatiens on the patio.

Prioritising or Procrastinating?

2007-11-19T22:07:00.000-08:00

I'm either doing one of the other.
Sometimes it helps to consider what will be important:

today

a week from now

a month from now

a year from now

five years from now

The things that make it all the way down the list are the things that count the most, but are often the things we spend the least amount of time on.

8 Things You Don't Know about Me And You Have to Promise Not to Tell

2007-11-19T18:42:00.000-08:00

Carolyn Gail of Sweet Home and Garden Chicago has tagged me for the 8 things you didn't know about me meme. When tagged, you must list the person who tagged you and post the rules. At the end of the post you must tag and link to eight other people.

1. I once took guitar lessons from a singing nun. No really, I can still play a few three fingered chords especially modified for little hands. I practised over and over until I had to wear bandaids on all my fingers, on a guitar that defied any attempt to tune it properly. Not everyone can say they were a member of a guitar band...of 30.

2. I hyperventilate about getting needles. When I had my wisdom teeth out they gave me one of those numbing creams before injecting the anasthetic (I had the operation in day surgery as four impacted wisdom teeth is no moment for bravery). The last thing I remember was a crowd of med students gazing in through the theatre window in the hope that I would provide some entertainment.

3. I have a broken tooth shard floating around in my brain cavity. Yes, apparently, a little bit of tooth from the above operation broke off during the dental surgery and migrated up my sinuses. I have no idea what to make of that either.

4. I got my semaphore badge in brownies. I was also a girl guide. One of the many things I learnt how to do included knotting together a kitchen sink from a ball of string, a few sticks and a plastic tub. Now that's a lifeskill that will come in handy!

5. I used to be able to throw up on cue if I was anywhere in the viscinity of garlic. It took me years of slowly exposing myself to small amounts of garlic before I overcame it.

6. I'm a published author LOL. No, not just in the virtual world of weblogging. I had a poem printed in the newspaper at the age of ten and I even won a trivial pursuit board game. I still have the game, but can't remember the poem. For that much, I am truly grateful.

7. I spent the last day of highschool on detention. Nothing to brag about. I was caught studying for a history test during english class. How geeky is that?

8. My tennis coach refused to give me any more lessons as 'there was nothing more he could teach me.' LOL, what he meant was...after all this time, you still can't hit the ball.

I tag: Lifecruiser from Lifecruiser, Katie from Gardenpunks, Crafty Gardener from Crafty Gardener, Aiyana from Water When Dry,

Ummm Maiylah from Picture Clusters, Connie from Notes From A Cottage Garden, Ann from Under The Sea and Sarah from A Gardener's Gazette

And You'rrrrrrrrre In!

Seed orders

2007-11-19T04:05:00.000-08:00

Green Harvest Seed:
Cape gooseberry
Kail
Good garden bug plants:
Cosmos picotee
Dianthus Volcano
Marigold Himalayan

Eden Seed:
Heaps, but still waiting to be acknowledged. Green Harvest is in the mail.