POSTED BY KIM — I’ve been hearing about some new products that you spray on outdoor plants to provide several degrees or more protection against the cold.  It’s like putting a little sweater on your plants. 

This is helpful to gardeners in the spring when we’re anxious to get fresh annuals in or vegetables planted, and maybe we’re a *little* early and there’s danger of frost.  Two new products — AntiStress 2000 and FreezePruf — are sprayed on plants before cold weather hits.  The idea is they create a protective membrane that prevents frost damage.  Both products are safe for edibles.

I’m interested in these products because of my hydrangeas.  I have several that haven’t bloomed well, despite being wrapped in burlap over winter.  Of course, these are varieties that are probably already borderline in this area, so I’ve sprayed them down — and will have to repeat the spray at least once more this winter to give the flower buds a little more protection.  So hopefully I’ll see more flowers next summer!

AntiStress’s website says you may get an additional 10 degrees protection with their product, and FreezePruf says it’s like moving your plants 200 miles south.  I’ll take either one.

POSTED BY KIM — My husband sent me this link some time ago, and I return to it occasionly when I consider how I would spend any money I win in the lottery (note: I don’t buy lottery tickets, so I assume I will find the winning ticket on the ground or something — I haven’t worked that part out yet).  This is a time-lapse video camera developed by Hammacher Schlemmer.

It can be yours for only $159.95! (An additional $6.95 gift wrapped.)

Mounted on a post, you put it in a fixed place in your garden, and it snaps pictures throughout the season so you can see flowers open and close, rabbits eating your roses, kids tromping through your vegetable garden, etc.

Here’s a video clip to whet your appetite.

It can take and store up to 18,000 images!  Withstand temperatures between 122 degrees F and 14 degrees F!  A light sensor that turns the camera off at dusk, and back on at dawn!

I’ll let you know as soon as the lottery committee contacts me…

Welcome to my garden.

POSTED BY KIM — One of the perks of working at Sugar Creek is that occasionally a pot or birdbath will get broken, and an industrious employee might have the opportunity to bring it home and cobble it back together. 

The first year I worked there, a small angel statue got knocked over and a wing broke off, and one of the managers asked me if I felt like taking it home and gluing it back together, which I did.  (The next day, as the glue was drying on the little statue in the garage, my son ran over it with his bike and knocked the angel’s  head off.  Which I glued back on.  That Frankenstein angel is still in my garden today!)

Last fall, Peggy was clearing out some items in the parking lot — including a large pile of organic fertilizer (i.e., chicken poop) that had started to ferment in its bags.  So I said I would take it home.  All of it.  Think of the money I would save!  Think of what a great start my garden beds would have in the spring!

It was a very interesting drive home in my minivan that night — even with all the windows down.  And let’s not get into what my kids said when I picked them up from school.  Although in my defense, I kept the bags out of everyone’s immediate car seats.  But it didn’t matter — my car smelled like chicken poop for a week.

Now that spring is here, I just need to get the courage to start opening those bags…

You really have to see it in person for the full olfactory experience.

What about that name? Apparently, Pachamama is “Mother Earth” for the Incans and she presides over planting and harvesting. And apparently over worm poop, too.

POSTED BY KIM — Well, it’s not really good for YOU, but it is good for your garden.  We just got in this new product, “Lady Bug’s Pachamama Earthworm Castings.” What exactly is an earthworm casting?  It’s worm poop and so much more.

Apparently worm castings are nature’s ultimate compost.  They are rich in nitrogen (1-0-0) and do several things:

O  Improve soil structure, especially if you have heavy clay soil
O  Improve moisture retention
O  Increase the availability of nutrients to plants
O  Substantially increase plant growth
O  Improve seed germination
O  Contain an unusually high population of beneficial microorganisms crucial to healthy root systems

All this without any odor — and it can be used on houseplants as well.

You might say, “But Kim, why are castings better than good compost?”

Here’s what I learned on the Internet: As an earthworm digests its food (compost), it infuses its excrement with beneficial organisms, further transforming the nutrients into an odorless form more readily useable by plants. Castings can even be mixed with mulch to give plants nutrients.  In nature, animal waste and decaying plant material are worm food, not plant food. Worms are the most natural producers of plant food!

Interesting…Stay tuned for further developments.  This is a new product for us, so I’m sure as we all give it a try we’ll have feedback about its affectiveness.

FYI, a 6 lb. bag costs $14.99.

Application rates:

For seeds: Use 1 inch in seed furrows at planting time.

For vegetable, flower, and herb transplants: For small transplants (up to 1 qt. container), blend 1/2 cup into the planting hole. For large transplants (1 gal. +), blend 1 cup into the planting hole. To fertilize plants, sidedress twice during the growing season with 1/2 cup.

For roses, vines, shrubs, trees, fruit trees and berries: Mix 1 part earthworm castings with 3 parts soil. Use as backfill at planting time. A small amount at the bottom of the hole is also beneficial.  To fertilize, sidedress 4 times a year with 1 to 2 cups. Lightly work into the soil surface.

For container plants: Mix 1 part earthworm castings with 3 parts potting soil at time of planting. To fertilize, sidedress established plants with 1/2 to 1 inch four times a year.

Compost tea fertilizer: Soak 1 part earthworm castings with 3 parts water for 12 hours or more. Stir well and water plants with tea. Great for houseplants, fruit and flowering plants.