happy valentines day, video, trim day

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

i want to wish everyone a happy valentines day
but
i especially want to wish my wife she one
for putting up with me picking on her at times in this blog
and
for being such a good wife friend and mother

VIDEO
thanks to all who have taken the time to vote for our video
former physician takes action in the face of alzheimers

its is in third place in the overall voting for fan favorite 
however
its way ahead of all the other videos in the number of 
people who have actually viewed the videos
at 2500+ viewings since the contest started
no other of the videos is close to ours in total viewings 
over the last week

today is the last day to vote at
http://patients.aan.com/go/about/neurofilmfestival

TRIM DAY
when its valentines day then i know its time for
trim day is what i call it
i go through my landscape and trim those things that need to be trimmed
eg

my salvia greggii or autumn sage has gotten leggy and overgrown 
so i will shear then down to about 4 inches so that all my 
plants will get new growth on them 
all 15 of them 
these are one of the best plants for our landscapes
they are tough and produce flowers from spring to fall
butterflies and hummingbirds love them
mine are never watered 

i also trim my peach trees so that a lot of the new growth 
that doesnt point upwards is trimmed off as well as some 
of the small branches so the tree wont me overloaded with fruit

i trim any of my oaks or native fruits trees and crepe myrtles that 
look like they may have damaged branches or if the branches keep 
catching me when i walk by


(please dont butcher your crepe myrtles by cutting off all the 
branches
just trim those lower limbs that are growing wrong)


this year ill trim my turks caps as they are getting too large for
the area they are in
i trim them down to about 4 inches 
the plant will easily grow back and produce lots of flowers for 
the butterflies and hummingbirds
this is another tough plant 
it likes shade and doesnt get any supplemental watering

i trim my lantana xesmenia shrimp plants but not my creeping
lantana

any plant with dead branches or dead flowers are trimmed
of course as much as possible of this goes in my compost
pile or brush pile (i maintain 3 large brush piles on my property 
as a source of cover for animals and birds)

some of my plants are just cleaned up so the dead stuff is removed
they just look better
i am careful to not remove anything that has seeds in it as the
birds use these as a source of food during the winter months


i also have several tall native grasses that have gone to seed
but i dont trim those until the new growth has replaced the old 
in the late spring 
again as the birds use these as their food sources

all this trimming allows me to get an up close look at all my 
plants looking for damage dead or unhealthy plants
i also use this as a time to pull any winter weeds(which i compost)
and to clean up the beds as i move about my yard

yep trim days a big day at the country n

the organicgreen doctor

happy valentines day, bagels, keyhole garden

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

hope every one has a happy guess thats what you say valentines day
today especially my wife she
she is always a good sport about me writing about her on this blog
sometimes i do pay a price for doing it

here is an article on the history of valentines day from a posting today
on komando.com
history of valentines day

BAGELS

every morning i eat a bagel with a fresh organic free range egg that has
been microwaved
i even have a special microwavable dish just for microwaving eggs
i like the yellow part soft almost runny
it seems to have more flavor that way but
those holes are a problem in the bagels
they let the yellow runnnnnny part come through

so why do they have those holes in bagels anyway
so i googled it as they always have the answers
well some i cant post here but

the holes were originally removed because the middle part of the
bagel did not get cooked well so it was removed
and later the hole was used to place several bagels on a stick so they
can easily be presented for sale
so google says

guess ill just have to overcook that egg or plug the hole in the bagel
with something

KEYHOLE GARDEN

here is the photo of my keyhole garden i made out of an old
watering trough
i was computer challenged to get this picture off my phone so
my rain water tank nephew who really didnt fall into my rain water
tank helped me transfer this to my computer then got it posted

when i did it google didnt like it and wouldnt keep it posted
now maybe itll stay on my blog

in the center is a 1 foot circle of chicken wire that will be 3 ft high
its buried down to the bottom of the trough (about 2 ft)
inside this compost bin i placed shredded newspaper, my compost,
chicken poop, the natural gardeners farm style compost then a layer
of leaves and repeated this layering until its full
i will keep the center part watered well and all these goodies will
diffuse out into my garden

on the far side barely visible is a wedge like a piece of pie cut
from a pie that has rock stones and crushed granite that i can
step on to easily access the compost tower and the plants in the
middle of this garden

the metal bucket is a 10 gallon bucket that is attached to a drip line
that encircles the bed of the garden with about 1 ft distance between
the circles
this i fill with water and let gravity drip the water on the plants

i am thinking about adding the compost tower to the center part
of any 4 ft square foot garden i do for novice gardeners so they
will have a ready made compost pile thats simple to use and
easy to add more compost materials

kiss method at its best (keep it simply simple)

the organicgreen doctor