Winning the Battle of the Spurge - Keeping a Lawn Beautiful

Every summer like clockwork I start the battle of the spurge. I'm highly against poisoning weeds but I do ask the hubby to poison once in spring, long after the first application of preemergence. This is because we also get spurweed in late spring which is extremely painful to pull by hand and there is so much of it. Your local privately owned lawn and garden center should be able to direct you to the correct weed killer for your area. Be sure you tell them specifically what you are battling. You can also bag samples to take with you as showing is better than describing. Make sure whatever they suggest is not going to kill your grass!

It seems though even after the preemergence and weed killer, we still get spurge and carpetweed.  I find it everywhere. I don't want to harm the butterflies, bees and birds so I've decided to hand pull the spurge. If you don't wear gloves, spurge will stain the sides of your fingers. It is also poisonous so be sure to wash your hands carefully if you opt out of wearing gloves.

Here is a photo I took of spurge. It seems to have one large root and expands from there and grows outward in a circle.

I'm sure God created spurge for a reason. I just don't want it in my lawn!

How to Make Homemade Cleaning Disinfecting Wipes - Green Cleaning

These are very easy to make and cost effective. As noted below, I used grapefruit essential oil. This EO scent was able to cancel out the smell of the alcohol and the vinegar.

Some posts state to use paper towels. You can do this but I highly recommend a better, tougher brand of paper towel like Bounty or Brawny. I used the cheap kind I had on hand and found that when cutting the paper towel roll at the halfway mark, the paper shredded badly. The rolls were also just a little too large so I had to shove them into the recycled plastic Lysol wipe container. You could remove some of the paper towels first so that they fit better into the container. Just don't wantcha to be disappointed if the paper shreds! 

I think probably the better thing to do and I'll try this next time, is to cut many old rags into decent sized pieces and just pour the solution below over them.

Mix all this together, put your rags or towels into the recycled plactic container and pour the mixture over the top.

This is all-natural with no toxic chemicals. The vinegar and alcohol along with essential oils have disinfecting properties.

• 1/2 cup vinegar
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup rubbing alcohol
• 2 teaspoon liquid dish soap
• 10 drops essential oil - I used Grapefruit EO
• Recycled plastic Lysol or generic brand container

Musings about Pumpkins and How to Grow Them

Last year I started my pumpkin plants waaaaaay too late, August to be exact in Oklahoma. I'm not sure why I did that, I guess I just wanted to see what would happen. Well. I saw the seeds at Lowe's in August and thought it would be cool to try. They ended up getting powdery mildew and produced one small pumpkin which I promptly picked and put in my sitting area.

This year I made sure to get the seeds out in early June. I piled four mounds of garden soil and organic compost, each with 5 pumpkin seeds. I covered with cedar mulch to try to help keep the soil from washing away. This is what they look like today:

Notice the bloom on this one, top right?

This one mentioned above with the bloom has a little boy bloom.
 How do I know this is a boy? I Googled it, of course. 
Boys will have a long shoot with a bloom at the end, like this. 
Little girl blooms are much closer to the vine.
 I don't have a girl yet, but I'll be sure and provide a photo when I do

How to Spread the Love of Your Echinacea Purple Coneflower Plants

This planting area started out as 6 small clusters of plants grew from Burpee seeds. After the plants went through the blooming season in 2015, I let the blooms die off while still attached to the plant. Once the cone tops have dropped all their blooms and turned completely brown / black, snip (deadhead) the cone tops. Simply dig a small hole and drop the cone tops in spots where you want to fill in your area. I only partially cover the cone top with dirt. Next season you will have new Echinacea Purple Coneflower plants. Dig up as needed and share with others.

Deadhead this and partially cover with soil

Baby Echinacea Purple Coneflower

A bloom that self-deadheaded! I'm leaving it.

Friendly but Scary (to me) Visitor

Lots of Blue Jay squawking in Dogwood Forest. Found the reason. What kind of snake is this?? Rat snake, chicken snake?