Wednesday

The middle of the week has arrived, right on time. And I’m a little bit sore from the exercise I’ve been doing as I practice for the coming race season. That season will start with a small, local race on the 18th of this month; the Almond Blossom 5k walk in Durham. I have my registration all filled out and will mail it today; right after I drag my aching legs out to the park and do another 8 miles. Ouch! But I can’t let weather like this go to waste. It was fantastic feeling to be outside yesterday as the temperature climbed near to 80 degrees. I love my summers!

It’s time for another cup of coffee before I tackle anymore of the news this morning. Let’s see; the cartoon war opens on a new and dangerous front as “the satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo printed all 12 of the controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed as well as a new front-page caricature of its own.” And then this; “Islamic hackers are defacing huge numbers of Danish websites as they protest about controversial cartoons.” That one really bothers me. How can you have the intelligence needed to crack a website and still not be able to recognize that a cartoon is… just a cartoon? Hello? Another example of how Tribalism perverts humanity.

Enough of that; back to the safer topic of the weather. It was so nice yesterday that I decided that I had better prune the roses before they erupted into bloom again. I tried to remember all of the lessons that my daughter gave me on pruning and I might have succeeded in getting it 75% right. Anyway, the roses are definitely shorter. I need to continue on now and move my pruning show out into the orchard. And while I am there, I will add the Tanglefoot bands to the trees to stop the insects from making their homes in the fruit.

And speaking of roses as I was, here’s a rose tonic recipe and commentary that my daughter gave us last year.

8 parts alfalfa meal
2 parts cottonseed meal (arsenic free)
2 parts ground rock phosphate (or colloidal phosphate; but not super phosphate)
2 parts bone meal
1 part blood meal
1 part Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate)


Thoroughly combine ingredients and apply 1 cup mixture for each foot of shrub height. Lightly scratch mixture into the soil using caution not to harm the roots. Water in thoroughly.
This mixture is good in the spring and fall and can be applied as a “tonic” to all blooming perennials, roses, azaleas, and fruit producing vegetables.

P.S. I buy most of this at Northern Star Mills. The alfalfa and cottonseed come in 50# bags but the rest can be purchased by the pound. I think the blood meal and bone meal also come in 50# but you don’t really need that much. I end up with cottonseed meal left over but the rest works out alright. I use a Rubbermaid container and use a Ziploc container for my measuring scoop. I like to put this on at or around the time I prune (I prune close to early February). Spray roses around Valentine’s day. Dormant oil spray Then in early March I add a systemic to the soil for insect control (comes in a blue container at Costco) it feeds also…so space it at least 6+ weeks from the tonic application. Then you really should be good to go for the season…another application midway of the systemic and then just enjoy. You will be amazed at how rich the leaves look when they start coming out. Really deep colored, and the plants do really well.