Winning the War in the Garden with My Homemade Arsenal

I am not known for my green thumb. In fact the hubby makes sounds like munchkins dying any time we pass a garden center. (Wait for it. There ya go.)

But I did feel obligated to keep other people's green investments alive if I somehow got to be the caretaker of a live, green backyard. In college we had a grapevine in a '40s era house some college friends and I rented. The gorgeous, sprawling vine began to wither soon after we moved in. I snipped off a few leaves and took it to the poor garden go-to guy at the local nursery who didn't run when I came walking in every few weeks with a new problem (or victim, as the hubby likes to call them).

We had bugs on the grapevine, lots of skeletal caterpillars, called such because they left just a skeleton of the leaves, killing the healthy plant.

I was really granola in college, so I found this easy organic bug spray recipe and tweaked it a bit. Sure enough, within days those little buggers had retreated.

Forward 20 years. We have some sort of invisible bug decimating our porch garden, as far as I can tell in the moments I spend going in and out of the front door with the twins in tow. So I whipped up this recipe for organic bug spray that wouldn't get on the kids as they brushed by our tomatoes, Meyer lemon tree and various vines and scented geraniums I have somehow kept alive in the six months since we've moved back to our little house.

Here you go! Use in good faith. It smells horrible, but only hurts tiny white flies and other vegetarians of the insect kind.

Kim's Knock Out Organic Insectisider

1 part chopped garlic to 4 parts mineral oil (I use tablespoons, but you can make a giant batch if you wish).

Let sit overnight in the fridge.

Strain the following morning. Fill a 16-ounce water bottle with tap water and a teaspoon of dish soap. Add the garlic mixture and shake to blend. Keep on the counter for up to one week.

Tip: Mark the bottle well. It will stink to high heaven and you will never be able to use it for anything else again.

After three days of spraying in the morning before watering (let sit for at least 30 minutes), the little vines are doing very well!

The Weight of Minutes Within Our 24 Hours

There are not enough hours in the day to get done what you need to get done on your adult to-do list. And there just aren't enough hours in the day to do all that there is to really do when you're a kid. I had to stop on a particularly patience-trying day and listen: My son told me that I'm his best friend when I took the time to puzzle the United States with him. My daughter chanted 'mom, mom, mom' when I stopped working to help them with a tea party that included Otter pops. That was a good day. There were a few other good scenes that stuck out as the days of moving, closing, taxing, graduating, working and shopping for more carrots than you'd think a boy of 45 pounds could eat, blurred by. 

Scene: Luncheon with the twins 
Jack:Mommy, I ate all, everything healthy.
Me: You only ate the pizza.
Jack: But it was healthy!
Me: Eat your vegetables and you can have a popsicle.
Jack: But I have to build.
Me: You need vegetables to build.
Jack:I just want to be back later.
Me: Why?
Jack: Because I will build something that eats my vegetables.

Do they make a Lego set for that?

Scene: Morgan attempts to share

Morgan: I want a popsicles. It's for Jack.
Me: You just had a popsicle.
Morgan: So did Jack.
Me: Then you don't need a popsicle.
Morgan: But my tummy says it wants popsicles, it's not for me. (Big dramatic sigh.)


Four-year-old show of respect

Jack put on loafers and underwear to greet his father returning from the work world. I encouraged him to put on a shirt, which he begrudgingly agreed to. Jack, not Scott, if that wasn't clear. My nudist son realizes that clothes = some sort of respect in our adult world. You're welcome, so says he.