My downstairs neighbor planted the garden last year, and she said she was jeolous, because she fertlized and weeded and watered, and got nothing, and I planted and did just about nothing, and my harvest look bountiful. I told her it was because I talk to the plants every day, but I am betting that it is just the weather!

As much as I love having this stuff grow, with my lazy black thumb, I actually have more yard than I really want. I'm better with pots. But I have the 5'x8'-ish back postage and the maybe 10'x10' sloping front of rocky evil clay and I just pretty much barely keep up with it. I rake it. And get around to my pots.

msbelle, it is validating to be see that other people struggle with the stuff that one deals with daily!

I didn't sleep last night so I took a 3 hour nap this afternoon. ooops.

P, the nurse, is sitting outside in the yard with Grace. So cute. The neighbor lady, who is ineffectually nosy, said to K, "Oh! So he does belong here! He's not just an intruder?" if you thought he was doing something wrong, why not DO something about it?

YAY sander sharing is awesome.

In other news, did anyone see the Ephron Parody of the Girl with the... series?

Yeah, I'm a big fan of herbs in pots. In fact, with the sun getting ready to make its reappearance in the sunroom (the overhangs keep it off during the summer) we're getting ready to devote some serious space to our winter gardening, which is always more successful than our summer. So I'm thinking lots of greens, will definitely try kale this year. And herbs for sure. I think I'm getting Gardener's Supply Tomato Success Kit for my birthday, so we'll do those. And we'll bring some of the peppers in, and definitely try the Thai chiles again, those were great. But that's the normal stuff, and I'd like to expand some. It's always interesting to see what will grow off season and what won't. I used to really worry about the temps for the tomatoes, but they don't really seem to care all that much.

Except the tumbleweeds because those are the devil's own plant.

So true. My parents live at the edge of undeveloped desert. So in windy season, you watch these car-sized thing blow down the street and collect in front of the garage of the house at the end of the cul-de-sac. Sucks to be them. Since their backyard is pretty wild, they get them too after the rainy season. Even with my mom going after them regularly. Heaven forbid they are out of town when those suckers mature. You pretty much have to burn them, dump will turn you away if you actually managed to smash them enough to haul in.

Make epically dangerous bonfires.

They are terrible. We are waging an everlasting battle against them. In NM we got them under control because the yard was fenced. So once we (every spring) killed the ones that grew, we were free from the ones that blew in. But we haven't fenced this yard yet, pennies, and tumbleweeds are the first thing that colonize raw dirt. So pre-construction this was a lovely grassy field. Post-contruction it is a deathtrap of tiny spikes. The boys weed-whack it, but I disapprove of this because it leaves tiny dead pieces of spikes like land mines waiting for an unsuspecting foot or paw. So this year we painstakingly hand pulled every damnable one of them. And then left, whereupon they cackled with glee and took the yard back over. It's better than it was, but pulling them now is awful because they're dry enough to hurt. It's fine when they're green, but it's getting too late now.

Next year should be better; most of this is where the SO misguidedly cleared lots of the land but didn't plant on it when we moved in. Now we've got some grass and wild groundcover in, so it should be more manageable next year. But we won't beat it until we fence.

Also nice NPR Blog post about the Beloit list: [link]

My guess about the actual mindset of the Class of 2014? They are nervous about college. They will miss home. Some of them have very specific plans about what they want to do with their lives; most of those plans will change. Some of them are trying to figure out whether to keep or drop a boyfriend or a girlfriend who's far away now. Some of their roommates will stay out too late, have people over too often, and leave too much stuff on the floor. Some high achievers will fail a class this year for the first time. Some will drink too much. Hearts will break, fights will be had, professors will be admired and despised, and the vegetarians will probably be really unhappy about the dry, pitiful veggie burgers in the dining hall, because unsatisfying on-campus vegetarian options, unlike Benny Hill, are eternal.

Love this part.

My parents still laugh at how they tried to compost them one of the first years they were in NM. Yeah, baaaad idea. They don't. And now, they laugh at any newbies who insist on trying it. You burn those badasses.

You can kinda get an idea of my parents' yard here: [link] Most of that furniture and junk are put away, this was while the porch was still under construction. (And the pool was for D.) Seeing the veggies in pots puzzles me a bit, mom usually does a raised bed behind the tree in the center of the picture, though she may not have this year, I can't remember.

One year, we made a xmas tree on the front porch from tumbleweeds.

So the jury convicted Blaggo on one count and were hung on the other 23 counts. The government says they'll retry him because of the hung jury . How does that work with the conviction on the one count? Does that stay? or do they "start over"?

Yeah, we definitely don't compost them. Our neighborhood is almost completely undeveloped, so frankly, most of it once pulled and pile blows away on its own, as it was made to do. But we have some left, and we've put a little in the dump, but yeah, mostly it goes in the burn pile.

(eta: I love your folks' place. I still think that porch is sheer perfection.)