My Herb Garden / Mother's Day

 So last week, I went home for Mother's Day and decided it was a perfect time to look over my herbs. They seem to be getting along pretty well (I am sure that they love all the rain that we had). This is a picture of the chives that took over my herb garden last year. I regrettably had to pull some up... I guess my mom can use them in some tasty dishes.

Yep, they are still pretty wild looking.

 This next picture is of my cilantro (Yum!) Last year I didn't get a lot of cilantro. Hopefully that changes this year.

 This is the oregano! It has been looking bad in the past couple of years, but it looks good now!

.... And the peppermint. I got this from my aunt who got it from someone else. It keeps trying to  creep into the rest of the garden (thus the brick "wall").

Now, I am not sure about this, but I am hoping that it is sage. I love sage. Mainly because it tastes like rosemary and I can never get rosemary to stay alive for more than a season.

Look at all that wood, even after I told everyone in my compost post that wood should never be used in compost. So I had done this before I knew better and am still trying to take all of the wood out :(

Now, to get away from the herbs for a minute, I love lilacs and I just couldn't NOT take a picture of ours...

 Lovely, isn't is?

Here is our awesome apricot tree (I may tell you the story behind it later) with it's bounty of fruit

Well, not bountiful yet, but you just wait.

And to prove I didn't just laze about over Mother's Day weekend, here is the cake that I made for my mom.

And YES, I know that it has many faults, thanks for noticing. What's that? You didn't notice? ... uhm, there arrrrre no faults, I was just ... joking. That's it. I was joking


Update: some of the pictures seem to have been lost. I will try my best to re-upload them; if I can find them that is.

Update on My Reading

     Wow, I did not imagine that it would be this hard to get a copy of the Game of Thrones book at my libraries (yes I belong to 3 libraries. Is there a problem?). You all must be thinking that I should just buy it if I want to read it so badly, but I typically don't buy books from authors I haven't read yet. There is nothing I would hate more than to buy a book that I hate. (gives me shivers just thinking about it) 

     Sooo, I probably won't be reading it until the summer (what a bummer, right?), but on the bright side, I think now would be a good time to read The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing. This book was given to me by someone who was just going to throw it away. How terribly sad :'( Let's hope for an awesome read!! Happy Reading All!

Perhaps I shouldn't have title-cased that last sentence... oh well, I think it sends the message better. :)

Jane Eyre ... Completed

     Whew! I just finished reading Jane Eyre, I know that it took a long time, and I must say that it is an awesome book. I don't even know where to begin. I guess I will begin at the end (is that too corny?).

     I thought the ending was fantastic. I had my doubts as to what the ending was going to be, but luckily for my sanity that Jane Eyre ended as I ... more or less hoped (I will let you all find out for yourselves). Brontë should be applauded for her exceptional work, even more so because it came out in 1847. I have read books from the same era and have hated them. Heck! I have read books from this era and hated them. Charlotte Brontë wrote a captivating (I NEVER use this term lightly) novel that I hated putting down. Now this must be where you all are thinking, "Then why did it take you so long to read?" To which I reply that college life is busy. "Yeah, 'busy' [with air quotes]" you must think. Yes, I am busy with school, not partying like SOME people I know. (actually, I know no partyers. I am part of the nerds.)

      Now that Jane Eyre is read, I will now read  The Game of Thrones. Not because the show just came out, but because it was highly recommended by my supervisor.

If you were wondering, I would say that I was very much talking to myself. Is that a problem? "No it's not Brad. Don't worry about what they think." o.O

Making Your Very Own Compost

I am only on my second batch of compost in two and a half years, and when I watched countless gardening shows, they always said that the compost was supposed to only take a few weeks to complete. Well, mine obviously never did; in fact, the last batch I made took almost two years to finish! I decided I needed a little help from the library. I checked out the book Mike McGrath’s Book of Compost by, well, Mike McGrath and read the 112 pages in just a few days.

                I will start out by reviewing the book as a whole and then give you all the dirty details ;) The book was an amazing find in the midst of so many composting books that simply went over my head. I think what really made me like the book so much is that he included humor throughout the book that was actually funny. I love this type of informational nonfiction (don’t be hating on my made-up type on nonfiction)! As I kind of got at before, the book is really easy to follow and makes composting sounds really simple, as it should be. McGrath goes through the process of setting your system up, what to put in it, and even dedicates a chapter to vermiculture (using worms to make compost). Let’s get to the main attraction now shall we?

                As I mentioned before, my first attempt at composting didn’t go as smoothly as I would have liked. Let’s see if you can tell what I did wrong: my family was cleaning up a wood pile one fall and there were tons of leaves all over the ground. So everything was scooped into this bin we have (leaves, bark from the wood, grass clippings and the occasional rock). I decided it would be best if the compost was topped by a tarp so the water didn’t get out (or in when I forgot to take it off before it rained).  Then it was time to wait… two years.

                Let’s take a breather… alright, ready to go! So the first thing that I did wrong was to trust my 15 year old sense of knowledge on the workings of compost. The second thing that I did wrong was add wood to my compost. And the most important thing that I did wrong was not to keep it continually moist and not have stirred it up. Like I said above, after two years, the compost came out okay, but compost shouldn’t take so long or at least the compost I want to make.

                McGrath shows us a direct and successful way of creating your very own compost, or black gold as he likes to call it. The first thing you have to do is find something and or somewhere to put you compost-to-be. It can be in a pile, but it would be best to use a bin made from small-holed caging with a wooden frame. Or it is even better to use the composters that have a handle to stir all of your ingredients together.

                The next step is to add all of your ingredients. The most important thing that McGrath stressed is to keep your brow-dry to green-wet ratio approximately 5:1. By brown-dry, he means primarily chopped leaves (except black maple leaves: they will kill your plant) but straw is a good substitute. The green-wet ingredients can be a whole slew of things. There are dried grass clippings (just be sure to add them slowly to the dry ingredients while stirring), kitchen scraps that have been cut up to good sized chunks (egg shells and tea bags are a very good addition), manure from herbivores only (not cat or dog poo!!) and plants that haven’t seeded yet. Then there are coffee grounds you can add. Actually, Starbucks has a “Grounds for Gardeners” program in which they will give you free grounds if you ask them about the program (I live in the middle of nowhere, so there are no Starbucks close to meL). You can also add seafood products that are chopped up (just make sure there is a lid over your bin or critters might have a feast). Just remember NOT to add meat, dairy, and the insides of the eggs to your pile. What will happen, you ask? Weeeellll, let’s say your bin will blow up and move on (that was an attempted joke by the way).

                Wow, are you still with me after that long paragraph?? If you are, you are true gardeners, or just have nothing better to do (no judgment). So the last step in the process is to mix it ever week until it has an earthy smell. Then spread it on your garden and be amazed at the awesomeness of composting.

Book Information:

Mike McGrath’s Book of Compost, Mike McGrath

Copyrighted 2006 by Mike McGrath

ISBN:1402733984

(again, this isn't MY compost... I really need to get my own pictures up here)

Jane Eyre Movie!?

     About a month ago, I was watching previews for upcoming movies at 1 am. Why was doing such a time-wasting activity so late at night? Well, the simple answer is that I am a college student. The... who am i kidding. The real reason is pretty durn simple too. I was bored and didn't want to go to sleep. Getting back to the subject at hand, I found to my amazement a preview for Jane Eyre. I was delighted, but not because I read the book. My interest is instantly piqued in any movie that originated as a book. Even more so when I have actually heard of the book before.

     That same night, I grabbed my iPod and got a copy of Jane Eyre to read. Now, if you haven't gotten a book before on your iPod / iPad or whatever else you have, then I would suggest trying it. There are so many free books to get that are really cool. Keep in mind that these free books are old, I think earlier than 1920 or something, but you can still get some really great books. My favorite site to get them from is amazon.com, though. Barnes and Noble has a good selection too, but I just prefer Amazon. In order to get the ebooks from Amazon, you need to download their free Kindle app at the app store. 
     I regrettably am not finished with the book yet, but I can tell you that so far, it is very, very good. It is hard to tell with an ebook, but I would say I am close to half finished with it already. And before any judging starts, this isn't my usual pace with books. I decided to read it during school, which can be just asking for bad grades. This, if anything, should tell you that Jane Eyre is an exceptional book. Enjoy reading!!

About Me

Hey Everyone!
     My name is Brad this is my blog! I, as I assume many of you do, have many interests. The two that I spend most of my free time doing is reading and gardening. I figured, if I am going to start a blog, why not combine both of the things that really get me excited. Although I can make no promises, the majority of the content of the blog will be on these two topics.

 

      I usually only read books for fun, but occasionally I will read books to get some information out of them (usually by beating them senseless). Honestly though, one thing you will find out shortly is how devoted I am to keeping my books in perfect condition. I may post a blog describing just how anal I really am. (WARNING: you may think that I am OCD, but who says I'm not? Well, there is that pesky voice in my head, but that is an entirely different story.) Oh yes, getting back to my initial topic, my favorite genres include thrillers and fantasies, but I will pretty much go for anything. Many of the non-fiction books I will discuss will be about gardening.

     So gardening. I am pretty much a beginner. Enough said. Mainly, I am an herb gardener, but I fiddle with fruits and vegetables here and there. 

     This is what my blog will be about. I hope you continue to read and comment on how I am doing. Any comment is a good comment in my book. Well, scratch that. There can be hurtful comments that can take one to the edge of insanity, but no one would do that would they?

Note: Neither of these pictures belong to me. Mainly I am too much of a nub at this to know if using them is technically illegal. :|