I stink!

[JerseyWendy]

Yep, just as the title states, I reek to high heavens right now, despite washing my hands and scrubbing my nails.

Are there any gardeners out there? Is anyone familiar with the Alfalfa brew?

I grow two dozen or so roses, and once a month I drench them with homemade Alfalfa brew, which is an all natural fertilizer. Your neighbors may curse you for a day, but your flowers will love you for it.

If anyone's interested, here's the recipe:
12 cups of Alfalfa pellets
2 cups of Epsom Salts
1 pint of Fish emulsion
and, if available, a dash of Vitamin B complex

Dump all ingredients into a trashcan (with TIGHT lid), fill with water, close, and let it sit (FERMENT) at least one week in the furthest corner of your yard, preferrably a spot that gets some sun, too.
That's it - it's that easy. But remember, when you open that container a week or so later, the stench will throw you for a loop. Just fill a water kettle with the brew and drench your favorite flowers/plants, no more than 1 gallon per plant, making sure not to splatter any on you - or you'll end up smelling like me right now. :

It's cheap, easy, all natural, and like I said before, you'll see a huge difference in your plants. Happy gardening everyone.

Now Wendy needs to shower.

---
Wendy

 

[pnoyreefer]

Very nice.. ill trade you those roses for zoas .. great job and nice pics

 

[JerseyWendy]

Very nice.. ill trade you those roses for zoas .. great job and nice pics

LOL.
Unfortunately I don't know how to propagate the roses yet, but I'd be happy to cut you some flowers for some zoos. ;D

---
Wendy

 

[Phyl]

Seek and ye shall find...

http://www.rkdn.org/roses/propagate.asp

 

[momof6kids]

Beautiful!! How do you keep the deer away. Or does the Alfalfa brew do that too. Might be worth smelling to keep them at bay.

I am very unhappy right now with my gardens. The deer came through the other night and ate EVERYTHING!!! Things they are not supposed to eat, things that were under deer netting, they just pawed it right off, even had deer repellent on. I was ready to sit out there with my son's shot gun and have a blast or two, maybe more. :'( :'( :'(

 

[JerseyWendy]

Thanks for the link, Phyl. I currently have 5 cuttings of different roses that I'm trying to root in the method described in your link. Fingers are crossed.

I'm so sorry to hear about your deer trouble, momof6kids. We are lucky that deer don't make it into our fenced yard (yet...knock on wood), and even though we have a herd of them in our development, they haven't nibbled on anything out front either. But I feel your pain. They are SO destructive. Have you tried hair clippings for them? Or dog droppings? I know that sounds disgusting, but I've heard people have mixed results with those. The other thing that might work is a motion detector sprinkler. But since you have one, my choice of control would be the shot gun.

We've been battling with rabbits, however, and even though they're not as evil as deer, they do quite some damage, too. I've even put rabbit fencing all along our wooden fence, only for them to chew right through it. The only thing they're after are my roses. We're controlling them now with a slingshot. Seriously. Quite effective. ;D

---
Wendy

 

[Jf2381]

8)Beautiful roses.

 

[momof6kids]

We have tried just about everything. The first year we moved here from North Plainfield, I was soooo excited. I was finally going to grow a garden. We turned over some of the back yard, cultivated it, and planted it. Our neighbors laughed. So.. We put a 7 ft. high fence around it. Our neighbors laughed. Time went on and everything was growing beautifully. And I laughed at our neighbors. Just about when things were almost ripe, just a day or two more to go, we went out to look over our garden and everything was gone. How could it happen? The fence was still up. We walked around the fence and there were deer prints outside the fence, right against it and inside the fence. The deer just hopped right over that 7 ft. high fence. And... Our neighbors laughed. Never tried the vegetable garden again.

We have tried hair clippings, dropping dog droppings, malorgonite, soap (someone had told us that Irish Spring has a strong smell and keeps them away), deer off, and some other brands that I don't remember the name of.

Rabbits are a pest too. Our daughter saved a litter of bunnies from our golden retriever earlier this spring and I have been kicking myself ever since for calling Roxie into the house. Should have let her take care of them all. They now hop right onto the patio to get my house plants. Slingshots do work great. I have a Wrist rocket, lot of fun target practicing.

 

[JerseyWendy]

Thank you, Jf2381.

OH MY, momof6kids. That is so sad. :-[ I'd be heart-broken, devestated and mad as hell. What about an electric fence? (I think I'm pulling at straws here.) How close are your neighbors? Would you be allowed to "manipulate" the deer investation in your area? I can imagine your list of things you can grow is quite limited, and even some things that are supposed to be ignored by deer are probably devoured. WOW. Ok, this will sound gross, too. It worked on my roses against the bunnies: I had my kids collect their urine an entire day and went and dumped it around my roses in the evening. I admit, I nearly vomited, but that seemed to have worked, too. I'll never do again though just because it made me very nauseous. :-[

Bless your daughter for saving a litter of plant-munchers! I would have most definitely sicked my dogs on them. Yes, rabbits are very cute, very soft, look cuddly and friendly, but unless it's a domesticated bunny that is cared for by someone, I try my hardest to get rid of them because they are a pest IMHO. They benefit nobody, unless it's "Hasenpfeffer". (I hope I'm not offending anyone.)

Here are a few more pictures of my roses, and other flowering things:

And some baby birds that were raised in my yard:
Red-breasted Robins:

Chickadees

---
Wendy

 

[RichT]

Beautiful Wendy...thanks for sharing.

 

[JerseyWendy]

Thank you so much, Rich.

I do admit that gardening is another hobby (obsession) of mine. I only wish I knew when enough was enough. :-[

---
Wendy

 

[Hawkeye]

Did you do the trick I learned on HGTV - where before you put your hands in dirt, take a bar of soap and dig your nails thru them? That way later you're washing soap from under your nails and not dirt...

btw - I have seen 3 rabbits in my yard and two of them were doing the naughty. Lately though it's just one - and he's usually sharing with the ground hog. Needless to say whatever the prior owner had planted in the back has long since been eaten. Still my girls enjoy watching the critters in the morning. Deer and turkeys have yet to get into our yard - though we can see them on the other side of the fence.

 

[otisbrown]

JerseyWendy

Beautiful roses. Does your alfalfa brew also help fend off black spot? I have been fighting for a couple years. I seem to get rid of it for a bit, but then it comes back.
Do you uses this brew on all your flowers or just your roses?

 

[JerseyWendy]

Phil, I had never heard of the soap trip underneath my fingernails. Usually I keep my nails really short because of all the digging and playing with my animals and stuff, but thank you so much for that hint.

otisbrown, thank you very much. No, the Alfalfa doesn't treat black spot, it's a fertilizer and growth stimulator. I do use it on all my roses, annuals, perennials, hostas, azaleas, peonies, and hydrangeas.

What type of roses do you have that are persistent with the black spot? Have you tried any soil drenches? With black spot it's very important to discard all leaves in the winter, as the spores will overwinter in the leaves and soil.

---
Wendy

 

[otisbrown]

I am not sure of the type. I only have two and they are both the same (pink). I have treated it with an anti fungal solution. I forget the brand, but it is the mix and water type. It does get rid of it for a while, but within two months I start to see it again.