On Friday's show, Master Gardener Ricky Kemery gave instructions for making "compost tea bags." You don't drink the nutritive tea, your flowers, veggies and plants do.
The bags are simple to make.
1. Pour one cup of compost into the foot of a panty hose. Knee-highs are the most convenient option, but if you get a good deal on regular panty hose, go ahead buy them. You'll be making two compost tea bags per pair.
2. Tie a knot near the top of the "leg." Now you're ready to brew!
3. Fill a five-gallon bucket with water. Dip the compost tea bag several times into the water, then leave it in the water overnight. Repeat the next day and leave overnight. The tea is now ready for watering plants.
You can get two batches from each tea bag. Mix the used compost in your garden or stir it back into your compost pile.
Curious as to what a compost tea bag looks like? Here's my husband, Doug, holding one.
Ricky told me something after the show I think you'll want to know: a surefire, nontoxic way to get rid of ants, roaches, earwigs, silverfish and many other creepy crawlies. It's called Diatomaceous Earth (DE), a powder of finely crushed seashells. You can buy it at Lowes, online or from swimming pool supply stores. Pour some into a jar with a lid with holes in it. A spice jar works well. Sprinkle it where you have insect traffic. When a bug walk through it, the finely ground seashells act as razor blades, scratching a bug's shell through which it breathes. The bug is injured and suffocates.
Should I feel bad that the thought of using DE on this year's migration of ants in my kitchen has me smiling like Jack Nicholson in The Shining?
I think not.
If you're looking for flowers for your pots and planters, check out the Pinterest page for Friday's show, especially the instructions for making a faux stone planter that looks like belongs in the gardens of Versailles. Inexpensive and lightweight...you won't get a hernia trying to move it at the end of the summer.
I had a lengthy To-Do list to tackle during vacation, but the only thing I really wanted to accomplishment was painting our front door red. Do you know how many shades of red there are to choose from? Hundreds...literally. I narrowed my choices to nine, and then taped them to our pasty white door to see how their colors changed, depending on the time of day. I want a shade that looks beautiful from sunrise to sunset.
See, I wasn't exaggerating. Our door is pasty white.
Two weeks later I'm ready to make a decision. And the winner is...Eddie Bauer's "Crimson." It's the second paint square in the second row. Or is it the third paint square in the third row? Oh, nuts. Maybe I need to leave the squares up one more week in order to be certain.
It's been a 33-year journey to our getting a red front door. I'll tell you the story on this Friday's blog. This one's on my 1,000 Gifts List. Come back Friday and you'll understand why.
I'm still pinching myself!
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