my gardening secret

So I noticed that Jen is posting over on the edge about needing a deer-proof fence. And I feel so guilty about not coming forward earlier with this info, that I'm staying up late to post it finally now.

Yes, I seem to have th

e secret to keeping deer from eating everything in my yard. And it's relatively non-toxic (at least I assume so). And cheap. And only mildly labor-intensive.

And here's the proof: the first fall I lived in this house, I planted a bazillion bulbs

, because I love spring flowers, and I loved knowing that the ground was mine to plant however many flowers I had the energy to plant.

Fast-forward to the spring, and I was so excited to see things start to pop up out of the ground. I even started taking pictures of all the lovely bits of greenery coming up. One morn

ing, on my way out to the car, I noticed some bits of green on the ground, and as I was trying to figure out what kind of plant that was exactly, I realized it was my lovely tulips which were a couple of inches high the day before, now eaten all the way to the ground. Hmmmph. One very not-happy camper. Similar things kept happening. All the tulips disappeared. One after the other.

The daffodils survived, I learned later, because they are toxic to animals.

The next spring, I got desperate to have some tulips. I tried sprinkling the leaves with chili powder. That may have worked for a bit, but chili powder washes off with the slightest rain. Eventually, the deer feasted. And yes, we definitely have deer. I have surprised a deer in our yard one evening as I was dump

ing the compost in the bin, coming within maybe five feet of a deer before I heard it and we startled each other.

Later that summer, a neighbor suggested her trick, which I completely pooh-poohed. Something so simple couldn't possibly work, could it? If I could remember it long enough, I decided I would try it.

The secret: Irish Spring soap. Evidently, deer don't like the smell. It is pretty strong. But you can see from the photos above, that my tulips didn't get eaten to the ground. And yes, they actually bloomed last year. However, if anyone has advice about keeping little boys from pulling the blooms off, all the while saying "No, no, no!" I'd love to hear it.

Jen, I'm sorry it took me so long to post this... but I hope you find it helpful. I buy the stuff in bulk now.

Spent yesterday in urgent care, then with the ophthamologist. Really severe eye pain, like someone was stabbing me in the eyeball. So I spent the rest of the day hanging out in the dark feeling miserable.

This morning I wake to find my computer doesn't work. Well, maybe it works fine, but the screen is black. Nada. Lovely.

What a weekend. No idea what I'm going to do at work tomorrow.

life has kept me away

So, not a single post all summer, all fall, and here we are heading into winter. Work is keeping me exhausted, and really, that's all I want to say about that for now. I'm barely able to keep up with reading my favorite blogs, along with a couple of comments a month or so, even though I keep flagging the posts I want to respond to in my email (love RSS feeds, in case I haven't already said that a dozen times or so).

I'm embarrassed that I never posted my "big experiment" pictures, but I'm sure they're on my computer somewhere. I'll just say for now, that they have to do with gardening and deer, and the results will be worth the wait if you have deer munching away on your tulips!

I finally got sucked into Facebook, and my feelings are mixed. In some ways, I love it, and in others... not so much.

Getting ready for a big family party this afternoon and, quite honestly, I'm really not in the mood. I really want to have a day to sit in my pajamas all day long, on the sofa with a good book, and just take it easy. Alas.

Before the party, I had been wanting to:

• bake some cookies... that's not going to happen


• get my hair cut... yeah, right!


• make up some really fantastic gift bags for family members (well, I'm working on it, but as the time goes on, maybe the "really fantastic" part might end up being an exaggeration)


• get about 10 or 500 loads of laundry done (well, I'm down 2 or 3)

Why does this party have to come so early this year??? Ugh! My guess is that some members of the family will be travelling, so this was the best weekend for them. I need another week's reprieve! This was a particularly difficult week at work, with me working into the wee hours several nights. I am a lump right now.

Maybe I'll take a few minutes of my wee one's nap time to post some comments. For anyone who's still reading... thanks for hanging in there all these long, warm months!

thanks to dee, here's a quick update

No, no, don't worry, I haven't given up the ghost. Just fighting off the constant weariness that comes with the end of the school year. So much to do and so little time... you know the deal. I've been fighting on several fronts: technology that has been kicking my bum, being a bit under the weather (but not the flu, thank you very much), family issues, and trying to bite off more than I can chew at work, thus working late and coming home ready to sleep.

Oh no, I sound like I'm complaining.

Really, things could be much worse, so I don't mean to complain. I'm just tired to the bone, and I have commitments until basically the Fourth. Ah, sweet Independence Day, I am looking forward to it. OK, the Third, I shall be free on the Third of July.

So. Tired.

And I don't mean to keep you all dee in suspense for so long... I do fully plan to write the post about what was up in the garden. Just as soon as I get my pics off my husband's computer. (Oooh, a post with pictures! Really, it will be worth the wait.)

I'm reading those of you who are posting, but there's no time for commenting. I'm very appreciative, however, of the short stolen moments I get to enjoy reading!!

an experiment

I promise I'll post about it later, when I have the time to upload the pics to go with, but I've been working on an experiment for the past month? six weeks? I'm not sure, but the results are in!!

And if I do say so myself, I am impressed!

I will say it happened in the garden, and it has to do with deer and survival of the greens!

sweet

The video I originally put up here was taken down, so here it is from the source. Enjoy.

being green pays off

I have always wondered how this whole recycling thing works. This is a very cool animation that explains the whole RecycleBank process (one of the processes, which allows mixing recyclables). Brought to my attention by Sustainable Dave (he's cool, check him out!).

Plus, evidently, you can rack up points by recycling. Which I'm probably not going to do (rack up points, that is, not recycle), as I don't think this program exists in my area. :-( And even if it did, it sounds like you have to sign up for trash pickup in order to do this. We go to the dump. Which is fine. And getting points wouldn't make me recycle more, although who knows... maybe I'd be more assiduous about finding out how many more of those things that we have are actually recyclable.

Anyway, if you live in parts of: VA, MA, MN, PA, NE, CT you may have access to this program. (Sorry, I really have no idea if something similar is available in Canada. But if any Canadians want to suggest something, I'd love to hear it.)

One of the things that I thought was really super-cool was that they developed a program for universities to encourage students to recycle, where they have kiosks on campus, you have a little passcard (like those FastPass?? things at the Mobil station) to get credit for your recycling efforts. You rack up points and redeem them. Evidently, they also have kiosks in some cities for people who live in apartments. Hmm.

One thing that I thought was a little annoying about this video is that they show Ikea as one of their rewards partners, but I couldn't find anything about Ikea on their website. Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm obsessed with all-things-Ikea, but still, I expected to find them on their list. Maybe they just left the program, but then that makes me wonder why....

P.S. I don't think this is an April Fool's thing. But I have been told that gullible isn't in the dictionary before. Does anyone have any experience with this company?