COMPOST TEA

Two weeks ago I bought some compost tea at the natural garden store. This is exactly what it sounds like... crap juice. Or whatever is in compost. You add water 50/50 and spray on your sick fevered plants and grass. You will undoubtedly 'overspray' your weeds. Your weeds will shoot up 10 feet high. Your grass and periwinkles will cough and then grow a sixteenth of an inch.

But that's just step one, so what can you expect? Step two, two weeks later, is using Super Thrive (plant hormone voodoo at a drop a gallon) and some other concoction - I forget the name, and the garage is too hot to go look. But it's a soil supplement with MICROBIAL action. It brings little things to the soil. They take a dump, and the soil then likes to grow things more than it did when it was hard as a rock and mineral free. Except for snake belly sweat.

So now I have weeded, weeded, weeded, sprayed once, sprayed twice, showered a lot, and am waiting for something to signal the start of green. I'll keep you posted.

NEWSFLASH >>> There's a Mulch and Soil Council. I saw it listed in an ad in Sunday's paper as a certifying agency of mulch. I feel good about that. Bad mulch is just plain bad.

I wonder if they have a slogan...?

Wear a Mulch Moustache!

Much More Mulch!

There's never too much mulch!

Mulch this!

There's always room for Mulch!

Mulch - the better dirt!

Mulch! 10,000 chippers can't be wrong!

From their web site: (over 10,000 visitors!) "For several years, The Mulch & Soil Council (MSC) has been working with the industry, government agencies and major retailers to create product certification standards for both mulch and soil. One of the conditions of certification is that no treated wood from construction and demolition (C&D) can be ground for use as mulch. Thus, mixed wood from the hurricane cleanup would not be allowed in any MSC Certified mulch. Only those products that meet this and other standards can use the official MSC Certification Seal (see below) on their bags. Information on the MSC Certification Program and a list of over 200 certified products is available on the MSC Web site at www.mulchandsoilcouncil.org."

Wonder what they think of the movie Fargo? That mulch just wouldn't be approved, do you think?