Yesterday we had Thunderstorms!

Dear Readers,

Yesterday we had this tremendous storm blow in, high winds and some thunder crackling over the mountain tops. Overnight we got nearly two inches of rain, right in my front yard!

I could hear that storm brewing in the mountains and had heard its reports on the radio. So in the morning I went out and mixed up some soil for some containers. The day before when I was in town I scored a bag of coffee grounds from Starbucks. I don’t like Starbuck’s politics – but it is cool that they give away their grounds. More businesses ought to do so.

Sometime back we were discussing slugs and coffee grounds on one of the groups I belong to. That was when I first got interested in coffee grounds. Seems some research points to slugs being poisoned by fairly low concentrations of caffeine. Seemed worth a try – since I all ready knew worms love coffee grounds.

Well, what I found was that I had just about the same slug damage on plants mulched with the coffee grounds as the same type of plants without the mulch. But the mulched plants got twice as big as the plants without the coffee grounds, in just a few weeks!

Then I ran across a blog or a web site or something that talked about using coffee grounds in seed starting mix. I gave it a try and yeppers – the plants love it. So, I mixed an ample helping of coffee grounds into my mix of potting soil, garden soil, sand, and compost.

I had a bunch of cuttings and some “tater vine” bulbs to plant. And I wanted to get them all tucked into pots before the storm hit. I am trying to grow some apples, grapes, and roses from cuttings. My Son kind of raised his eyebrows, and I told him, “I don’t know if they will grow or not, but then I don’t know if the apple tree I bought will grow either.” These cuttings are compliments an Internet friend, and I need to try to get her trade out to her soon . . .

Whew, and I got done just as the rain started falling in earnest. I picked some kale and mustard and got myself inside. As I was heading in the door I heard the thunder crackling up in the high country. So I unplugged the computer and had a no Internet day.

For dinner last night I made a stir fry with those veggies plus onions, garlic, carrots and albacore. Which I served myself over organic long grain brown rice. Pretty dang yummy . . . Even if no one else even wanted to taste it.

Today it has mostly been raining. The breaks in the rain have all happened at times I was involved with something or other. So I haven’t gotten outside yet. Have you ever tried to separate chive seeds from chaff? Dang . . .

Dinner is in the oven – and not a single component is from the garden. That is pretty rare around here. Today I am working on my seed bank again. Once and for all I hope to get it organized. (LOL –fat chance . . .) While I am at it I am organizing my contributions to the two round robins I participate in and also donations to a couple of seed banks.

I have started a new category of seeds – Needs Germination Test. This is helping me think through the rest of the organization. I have a number of seeds I have collected that I really don’t even know if they will grow or not . . . time will tell.

I need to start working on my next article for the Newspaper. So I might be making myself scarce for the next few days. Thanks for stopping by, and be good now, ya hear? I know the weather is very conducive to being bad. But since I don’t feel good enough to be bad, you ought to show a little respect and be good too . . .

Either that, or have fun without me . . .

Harvest

P.S. Oh yea, I forgot to mention, Lightning fixes nitrogen which falls in the rain to nourish our gardens!!! Go lightning!!