Master Gardener Re-Certification

Tonight I went to the Phipps Master Gardener Re-Certification Ceremony. It's hard to believe that I was certified back in 2005 and this will be my fifth year doing so!

Our guest speaker was Doug Oster from the Post Gazette. His book was what made going organic so easy for me! He has a new book out called Tomatoes Garlic Basil, which he brought a few copies tonight and signed them for those that bought one, which I did! Those are the three things that I must grow every year! He remembered that I had gone organic a few years back and asked how it was going. I told him that my grass looks great! There are far less bare spots from the dog! Who woulda thunk? He said that the lawn was the hardest for people to do so, but it didn't seem that way for me. It was all or nothing! I chose to go for it all and chose nothing!

I do put down corn gluten meal as a pre-emergent as well as fertilizer, but really nothing else besides that! If I see a weed I don't like I pull it. I have been working on a patch of clover for two years now. Clovers are good actually....they put nitrogen back into the soil, but they sure don't look nice! I did find out a bit of calcium slows their growth!

Anyway...I am awaiting my time to put down some of that corn gluten. I think I'm out...going to have to pick up some! I also just realized the down side to an online gardening journal....I can't really sketch on here. Oh well...

Today was sunny and above freezing so a lot of snow melted! Check out the icicles on the back of my house!

Organic Valley Coupons

http://www.organicvalley.coop/coupons/

Pomegranates

Just read an article about growing pomegranates. I never thought about what they grew on. Sure sounded like a weed! Anyhow...it sounds easy to grow, but maybe not here in zone 6a. It would probably have to be potted up for me, but how do you keep a tree small while still bearing fruit of edible size?! Well if you live somewhere where you can grow them it's worth it, I think, since they cost about $2.50 each at the cheapest! Check it out:

http://ag.arizona.edu/yavapai/anr/hort/byg/archive/pomegranates.html

Also, google for "pomegrante+plant" and you'll see what it looks like!

Fall Activity

In a recent post in my organic gardening group someone mentioned an easy way to turn my clay soil into good soil. Only thing you have to do is plant Daikon radishes! They grow deep and break up the clay. Then when you leave them in the ground over the winter here in zone 6a they freeze and die. Thus, decomposing and enriching the soil. Sounded like a great idea! The only problem is that I have part sun or shade, but I'm going to try it anyway even though they require full sun! I ordered my seeds from Seeds of Change.

I dug up my Dahlia 'Seattle'. I hope I did things right. The clumps have definitely gotten bigger, but whether they will become bigger plants next year remains to be seen! I also dug up some of the "potatoes" from my ornamental sweet potato vines. Going to let the rest of them rot in the soil just like the Daikon radish plan. They don't grow as deep, but something is better than nothing!

Last night for Halloween I got a total of 10 kids only. Two girls, my neighbor's kids, took two full sized bars each! That irked me a bit...greedy kids! I figured there would be more kids this year since Halloween was on a Saturday, but we only got about 1/3 of the kids we normally get. Good thing I didn't buy much candy! All my Halloween decorations are down and the fall door decoration is back up. I did forget to take off that fake spider web stuff though. Will do that later.

It was time change again and we gained an extra hour today. Sure was nice! I'm feeling a bit lazy.... However, I did manage to get myself to vacuum the first floor and clean the bathroom at the very least! More orchids are about to bloom too...!

GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms)

Everything You HAVE TO KNOW about Dangerous Genetically Modified Foods from Jeffrey Smith on Vimeo.

That video was found on this page: http://www.organicconsumers.org/