Order? Possibly it's time to stray......

Order.
In a sense, it's all I have. My life runs on it. My children thrive with it and my job depends on being meticulous with it.
Yet I look at my front yard, with the strategically planned August Beauty Gardenias and Tea Olive plants and I cringe upon pulling into the driveway. Its bland. And annoyingly symmetric.

I need something different. I need to let loose with a wild side (as if a gardener has that?)

I need plants that bloom once a year, only for the glory of it.
I need blooms that are rainbow colored.
I need plants that are misplaced and odd looking.

Thinking of my wild overgrown front yard with something in every inch, excites me.

I so long for the comments again that I used to get. "who does your yard" and "what landscape company do you use"

I need to pull up to my house after a ridiculous long day and be satisfied with what my mystical jungle looks like.

So next week, I have no plans... except for some excavation.


And I have butterflies..... and not just on my bushes.

The Zucchinis Just can't get it up??

That was my problem. My zucchini flowers just were perking. And they certainly weren't staying on.
Yup, the flowers were were falling off before they were able to even start to fruit.
Now to most people, good riddance to bad zucchini.
But not me. I was not about to give up on my $1.09 plant. I was figuring out a way.

So after days of research, I found out that zucchinis need calcium. And with milk at $4.00 a gallon, milk was not the answer.
So I went on a search. And after searching at the local home depot, and realizing that the orange vest, does not make one all knowing about Calcium in fertilizer, I found Osmocote.
It is the only fertilizer on the market that has calcium in it.

Leaves and roots may become stunted due to a lack of calcium. The stunted growth is because Calcium is poorly transported from older roots/leaves to younger shoots. Lack of Calcium causes the plant to succumb to a variety of diseases and infections. Lack of Calcium can also cause blossom end rot in tomatoes, cucumbers and squash as well.

Especially in Southern soils, nutrients are poor and usually lacking. Though we have tons of Clay and sand, nitrogen and calcium are rarely found in typical southern soil.
For about $6.00, you can take a soil sample to your nearby college extension and in about 7 days, they send your results back with specific issues for you soil.
For example, I have approximately 6500 sq feet in my backyard and I had to put down 350 lbs of Lime and approx 2 oz of iron. How you spread 2 oz over 6500sq feet is beyond me, but never the less....

Here's how the nutrients break down:

Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium (a.k.a. potash) - The three macronutrients and the three elements you find in most packaged fertilizers

Sulfur, calcium, and magnesium - Secondary nutrients

The Osmocote works well, because you can fertilizer anytime and it works quickly. I put it on the zucchini's last week and i woke up today to a beautiful yellow bud (and its still there !!)

So happy zucchini gardening. I hope that your flowers perk!

Me?? Are you sure I'm up for this?

Of all people that i know, I was supposed to be the least domesticated.

I was never marrying.

I certainly was never going to have children.

And I was NEVER going to have a hobby, such as gardening. Ew. Gardening?? Like what my mother in law does? LIke play in the dirt with bugs... on purpose?

Yet, here I am, daydreaming about how I can get my Elizabeth Magnolia to bloom this year, and worrying that I might have fertilized the sweet potatoes too early.

I find myself eyeing up landscape as I drive the kids to school and scribbling down where I want to plant my carrots and broccoli in my new garden (in between phone calls at works of course- and yes, I have it planned out to the very inch on where all of the seeds need to go.)

To some, I guess its a sad fate and I find myself apologizing for tormenting my friend with crazy emails about what vegetables she eats, so that I have more things to grow next year. (and we have settled on sweet potatoes and garlic, for midnight lawn decorating)

But all in all, I find that it gives me some peace in my all but insane asylum life. I find that I purposely walk by the Gardenias that bloom by the hundreds, just to smell that sweet scene that they put in the air. I find it relaxing to see the beautiful hydrangeas bloom. I laugh at my Hosta's that put out the "aliens". I get all jittery and excited to go outside when I get home to see how red my tomatoes got today. And I find that I want to pass it along to my children because I want them to find that peace too. I want them to look at their fingers on Monday, with just a little hidden dirt under their nails, knowing that they had a good weekend.

So when you feel like you need a break from rational life, come visit my irrational world... a world where its exciting to find 10000 carrots on sale.

And maybe you'll realize that it's all not as bad as you think... at least your not a gardener.