In my last blog I stated my purpose in writing this thing. Number one being that I am a near empty- nester and feel my past life slipping from my weak and useless hands. Number two, It is something that is deeply ingrained in my by my Nanny who lived during the depression. Number three, I am pretty sure that we are headed for major inflation, global civil unrest, and basic overall catastrophe. Cats and Dogs living together!!!! Ok that may be a bit of overkill.,but what I am telling you is that I am looking for some type of purpose in my newly found boredom. I am also looking for an outlet for this squirrel type mentality that I have had almost my entire life. I don't stuff my mouth with acorns or try to live in your attic, by squirrel mentality I mean a save and store state of mind. My favorite hobby is canning. My favorite thing about vacation is coming home with money left over. My idea of a perfect date is going to the grocery store. I love to store up for ............ what? I have no idea. I just have this little thing inside me saying don't throw it away, your gonna need that, and, don't buy just one buy six. You might be wondering if I am a hoarder. I am not. I don't believe that I have crossed that line into the darkness where there is not logic involved. Everything I save or store has a purpose or will be consumed. I still have empty shelves in my house and you can see the floor. One good stomach virus could wipe out my toilet paper stores, and things are pretty well organized. I realize that some people have a real problem with this and I don't want to become one of those. I want to use logic and reason to simply save and recycle as much as possible.
Now that I have that off my chest, here is my tip for the day. I live in the country. It is easy for me to take my fruit and veggie scraps and just throw them out my back door into my garden plot instead of running them down the garbage disposal. I have not always lived here. I lived in the city for 40 years before I moved here. I am not a good gardener. I don't have the patience for it. I did however always have the nicest flower beds on our block. I have actually had people pull into my driveway, knock on my door and compliment me on my yard. You know what the secret was? Scraps and worms. Both of my Grandmothers were scrap gardeners. They threw their kitchen scraps directly into the flower beds, smashed it into the soil, and let the worms do the rest. It takes about 2 years to really see the good it does but it is well worth it. A lot of people think you gotta have an expensive composter to do it right but that is poppycock. Just throw the crap in the yard and cover it up every once in a while. Good things for scrapping are egg shells for calcium, coffee grinds for the worms, filters and all, any fruit or vegetable peelings. Try not to put fruit or veggie seeds in it or you will have stuff growing like crazy. I threw a squash seed out in the flower bed once. This humongous plant grew. I chopped it down three times and couldn't kill it. I had to dig a foot and a half to get to the base of it. A nice bonus of this is when you get ready to go fishing, you won't have to buy worms. If you do this for a couple of years, you will have worms as big a snakes. Also, don't throw cooked scraps in the flower bed. They don't decompose well and they draw flies, dogs, and cats. If you want a real jump start, Starbucks will give you giant bags of coffee grinds for free. They are happy to get rid of them and it really attracts the worms. A little known fact is that worms are coffee snobs. They prefer Starbuck's grinds.
Consider planting only perennials if you want a truly carefree flower bed. They cost more up front but they will save you money in the long run.
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