Weather: beautiful

Reading: I am between books right now, though reading bits of Finding Flowand Sugar Busters and Gardenign for Dummies

Listening to in the car: Hometown Honeys, a pair of short story romances. Also listened to "Birding by Ear" a little bit. It's very cool, but best in small does.

If you want a garden, start compost. It is cheaper than buying it and helps the earth. The boxed garden will definitely work. I want to make our boxes with plastic lumber, you know, recyled milk jugs. I think white is best so it goes with the trim on the house. I want to put one in the front where the sogggiest place is as I can't use it for anything but water lilies anyway. I got a letter from Mel, the inventer and promulgator of the square foot garddeing system and he is already planting seeds in my head about teaching the system in Oregon as there is no one doing it. I can see me giving classes. They want people to give 45 minute introductory talks and then 3 hour classes in schools and churches and libraries and such. They are working on gettng demo materials. He makes no money offa this but all the profits (on the books and materials, tho the materials are very cheap) go to humanitarian projects, like teaching the method in Peru and other places that need food. I think there are a lotta Mormons into this, and they have a lot of good ideas even though their religion is a sick joke.

I have a garden journal. I haven't written anything in it to speak of but I have one. I got some seeds in the mail today. I have crimson clover to plant all over the sides and back to start it making soil and to keep the mud down.

Hey, you know what grew in the back yard before they scraped it all raw? Blackberries! The proof is poking up all over. I sense a battle to come. Someone at work told me to hit them with roundup. There is a special kind for blackberries. I don't like herbicades, but there is nothing growing out there now but thema nd so maybe it is ok. I don't think it's dangerous to birds and such but I will talk with Gregg about it. He Knows Things.

SPeaking of food for pople in places where they need it -- not that people everywhere don't need food -- there is a movement in Mexico teaching people about intesive growing methods, instead of the single row stuff that is traditional and takes up so much space. They are learingin how tomake compost and grow things in urban spaces. ONe of the tricks for making compost is to use urine in it. It adds nitrogen so helps to improve the soil it ensds up on, and helsp make the compost "go" too. If we do that I am not gonna tell the neighbors.