Monthly Archives: March 2014

Visiting Our Compost Pile

Garden, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , ,

DSC02160 Mr. Possum came to eat from our

compost pile.

DSC02162 Sometimes he did not look  friendly, and I thought about what he could be carrying in the way of noxious microbes and parasites, so I decided to discourage him.

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I remembered a safe formula for discouraging cats and dogs from entering a garden in this book, and thought it would work for possums, so I looked it up.

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Here it is!  DSC02171  I made a quart of this by blending up a whole head of garlic instead of using the garlic powder.  I added the 1/4 cup of Tabasco sauce, a 1/2 teaspoon of vegetable oil, and  shook it up in the one quart spray bottle.  The spray mechanism did not get plugged with the garlic at any time.  A very small residue on my hands did not hurt my eyes when I rubbed them.

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I squirted a couple of squirts of this into the compost, and lifted the sides off of the compost.  Mr. Possum went scampering down the alley.  I hope he will not return.  I sprayed by far the most of it around and into the garden to discourage cats and dogs from entering our garden.  We’ll see how long the spray effects will last.

Garden, March 29, 2014

Garden, , , ,

DSC02147 Garden from the south side.

DSC02159 Garden from the north side.

Some things have glowered, bolted, started going to seed.  The two cabbages that had been going to head, are flowering.  The head never got very big.

DSC02148 The cabbage flower clusters almost look like brussels sprouts.

DSC02151 Our beautiful yellow broccoli flowers (back), and white flowering greens(front).  The red cabbage (middle) is beginning to form heads.  We’ll see how that goes!  Dr. Johnson said in his Galveston Daily News column that the cold snap which we had in the late winter can make broccoli flower.  (I  image that can go for some other things, too, like the cabbage. )  Not shown here are cilantro and tall lettuce which are also in the process of going to seed.

Saving Energy at Home

Climate, Energy, ,

energysaver_energyuse This graph from Energy.gov shows where the average home energy use goes.    The largest combined item is heating and cooling the home.

tips_airsealing  This image from Energy.gov shows where air leaks can be stopped to reduce the home’s heating and cooling costs.  We are working on these  to noticeably reduce our yearly energy budget, and to reduce our carbon footprint.   Here in the south we spend the reverse proportions on cooling and heating.