Lalamtx24869 WROTE: >> I am looking for other alternative of miracle grow plant food. Is there anything else out there that is natural as a plant food? If I don't have to buy and pay for it that would be better. Thanks. Here is the deep dark secret and the mystery of compost and compost tea revealed. This might not be common knowledge because no one has figured out how to make a buck out of it yet. Please, for goodness sakes, tell as many people as possible. Its simple, its straightforward, its proven and it actually works on ANY plants, whether they are vegetables or shrubs. If you or someone in your family cuts the grass on your lawn, you can make your own COMPOST and COMPOST TEA to use both as plant food. Apply the compost and "tea" straight out of a watering can every seven to ten days. Obviously, don't try drinking the stuff. To make COMPOST, pile old grass cuttings (clippings) into a pile and as you build up the pile every six or so inches, VERY LIGHTLY sprinkle some water over the top. You want slightly moist, NOT wet. Use some chicken wire to make a cylinder about two feet across to pile the grass cuttings in. Use a garden fork or a pitch fork to turn the entire pile every 7 to 10 days and re-pile it into to chicken wire cylinder. Don't forget to LIGHTLY sprinkle water on every five or six inches over the top of the pile as you re-build it up. The idea is to work the OUTSIDE brown edges into the center of the pile. If you have some egg shells, crush them up into a powder and throw them on top of the pile also. CALCIUM. Its good composting stuff. You will probably notice after a few days the pile may likely give off steam from the heat inside. That is a GOOD THING. If you follow the above instructions, the pile will not smell. After 35 to 40 or so days, at the very bottom of the pile, you'll find rich dark COMPOST. Remove it and using the garden fork, turn the remaining part of the pile and add some new cuttings to it if you want, then re-pile it and also re-sprinkle the rest of the grass cuttings pile. From the compost you have collected, spoon about a fist-full or two of it into an old knee high NON-DYED nylon sock. Tie a string to the sock and suspend it above the bottom in a small two or three gallon pail that is full of ordinary room temperature tap water. Use a small aquarium pump (from Walmart) and a five inch air-stone (from Walmart) to bubble the mixture in the suspended sock for about 12 hours and then remove the sock and toss the mixture in it on the garden soil around your plants. In the brownish liquid that remains in the pail, leave the bubbler air-stone running for another 24 hours. Use clean coffee filters to pour the resultant COMPOST TEA through to filter and apply a couple of ounces of this "tea" directly to the soil around each plant. Its plant food ! Thoroughly clean the bucket, air-stone(s), socks and clear plastic air-hoses in hydrogen peroxide and rinse them in tap water to ready them for the next time around. That is all there is too it. Please don't mystify this simple process. Just tell as many people as possible. Compost tea works.

Why does this put "a knot" in your tummy? With the advent of stores like Costco, BJs, with families not wanting to run out to the grocery store so often, and with the high price of gas making it expensive to go running out for some basics, a lot of people stock up on basics. I don't think anybody opening a closet and finding plastic containers of cereal, beans, whatever, and cans of vegetables, soup, etc., will be turned off, necessarily. Unless that closet is in a spare bedroom! Then, as Allison says, it might very well signal that there's not a convenient backup pantry closet close to the kitchen. If there's a close-to-the-kitchen closet available, I think any potential buyer would love to see it fitted with shelving like the Elfa or Closetmaid systems for a backup pantry. I turned the coat closet across from the kitchen into a part pantry and part coat storage with the Elfa shelving system. A do-it-all closet, and I really am happy that I made that investment. The plain-old "before" closet -- with just a high shelf and a closet rod -- was not efficient, and now this one is. Any buyer down the line will be more impressed with that than with the "before." I don't have a garage, but I do have a basement that's part finished and part regular cement flooring where the water heater is, and there's a lot of space for storage, so I put up some wood bookcases from Ikea and I have a few shelves for extra paper towels, TP, cleaning supplies. I like AWM's idea of a separate, standalone closet that could go in a garage (or even in a basement).

When I was small my great great aunt was the same way. She was my dad's great aunt. I can remember going to her house and her forcing yucky chocolate cake and Sunny D on us. Not only did we eat it there, but she insisted on sending some home with us. I also remember cheeseburgers every time too. She was no cook. SHe ate her cheeseburgers with a spoon too. I'll never understand that one. The thing was we were not hurt. She thought it was what we liked. What grandmother is not going to give her grandkids cookies and stuff. The budget thing is probably a factor in it too. A lot of older people are used to buying after holidays thinking that a little stale food is not bad. RosieL is right. The chocolate cake and Sunny D made memories that will stay with me and one day I will share with my kids the stories of their weird Aunt Berthie and how she was so loving.

Aren't you glad we don't live in St. Johns, capital of province of Newfoundland-Labrador (Newfoundland is island northeast of mouth of St. Lawrence River, Labrador a large tract on the mainland just northwest of Newfoundland)?? Well over a yard of snow ... in a couple of days ... with 100 m.p.h. winds. People ordered to stay off roads, so snowploughs could work and first responders could navigate. Stores ordered closed for four days, they and pharmacies allowed open today (Tues. 21 Jan), groceries were swamped, they allowed about 100 in at a time, many standing shivering waiting for their turn. Army called in a couple of days ago, they along with regular snow clearers are trucking the snow out of town, not allowed to drop it in the harbour. A couple of feet of snow had fallen since just before Christmas, prior to this latest mess. ole joyful