*A shot of Sunday's incredible sunset from my balcony*
Good Afternoon! How was your weekend?
I meant to make this post yesterday, however I got carried away with some exciting news that pretty much distracted me for the rest of the day. Oh, did I say exciting news? Unfortunately it's all too premature to spill the beans on here. Hopefully soon I can let the cat outta the bag, until then I'll tell you about my weekend...
Saturday I went to my sister's Special Olympics bowling competition, it was a lot of fun AND, she won first place!!! We are very proud... plus now she gets to go on to the finals in Orlando come November! Road trip! Congratulations Danielle! After the competition my family and I went out for pizza at Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza.... delicious! Mmmmmm mmm! Suffice it to say, with a full belly and the overbearing Miami heat... I was ready to go home after that.
BUT, I did hit up two Goodwill's on the way home, finding only a little yellow California pottery dish for fifty cents... I gotta post up a picture of it later. Oh yes, and how can I forget that I also stopped at my grandmother and aunt's house to share the pizza love and as I was turning the corner by their house I spotted a huge cactus growing in front of the vacant house on the corner! You can already guess what I did... I grabbed my aunt and we walked over there and got some pieces, including babies that had sprung up around it... it's awesome! It's one of those massive 7 foot tall cacti full of red bulbs. Anyway, we made off like bandits! And since the house may be bulldozed in the future, we are contemplating chopping down the entire cactus and planting it in her yard.... Anybody have tips for success when it comes to that type of endeavor, is it a no-no or a hell-yes?
After all that sweaty cactus hunting, by the time I got home all I wanted to do was shower and space out in front of the tube with my man, we watched the premiere of Saturday Night Live's new season and it was okay. Nothing beats the Obama/Biden/McCain/Palin campaign days... that made for damn good material!
Saturday I went to my sister's Special Olympics bowling competition, it was a lot of fun AND, she won first place!!! We are very proud... plus now she gets to go on to the finals in Orlando come November! Road trip! Congratulations Danielle! After the competition my family and I went out for pizza at Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza.... delicious! Mmmmmm mmm! Suffice it to say, with a full belly and the overbearing Miami heat... I was ready to go home after that.
BUT, I did hit up two Goodwill's on the way home, finding only a little yellow California pottery dish for fifty cents... I gotta post up a picture of it later. Oh yes, and how can I forget that I also stopped at my grandmother and aunt's house to share the pizza love and as I was turning the corner by their house I spotted a huge cactus growing in front of the vacant house on the corner! You can already guess what I did... I grabbed my aunt and we walked over there and got some pieces, including babies that had sprung up around it... it's awesome! It's one of those massive 7 foot tall cacti full of red bulbs. Anyway, we made off like bandits! And since the house may be bulldozed in the future, we are contemplating chopping down the entire cactus and planting it in her yard.... Anybody have tips for success when it comes to that type of endeavor, is it a no-no or a hell-yes?
After all that sweaty cactus hunting, by the time I got home all I wanted to do was shower and space out in front of the tube with my man, we watched the premiere of Saturday Night Live's new season and it was okay. Nothing beats the Obama/Biden/McCain/Palin campaign days... that made for damn good material!
As for Sunday, I spent the early morning further freaking out about my spreading Mealy Bug problem, which I talked about in last Friday's Tribulations of Gardening post. Those little pests spread like wildfire, they are all over nearly every single one of my succulents and cacti, along with all other plants.... In a brief moment of exasperation, I cried when I went out onto my balcony and saw the rapidly deteriorating state of my big basil plant!
In last week's post I said I bought "Sevin" pest spray and was ready to spray massacre the Mealy Bugs over the weekend... I must amend that! When I got home on Friday my boyfriend practically bawled me out because (I had forgotten) he had told me to buy "Organocide" which is organic and much safer for my plants, herbs and for humans! He says Sevin is the devil... and since he used to work at Home Depot and often helped in the garden section, he knows better than me. I'll admit, I read the booklet taped to the Sevin bottle and did not like the environmental hazard warning OR the warning about calling a doctor if it got on your skin! It seemed like I would need to take annoying and painstaking precaution if I was going to use Sevin. So, after calming down my freak-out tears, my man convinced me to get presentable so we could go exchange the Sevin for some Organocide.....
In last week's post I said I bought "Sevin" pest spray and was ready to spray massacre the Mealy Bugs over the weekend... I must amend that! When I got home on Friday my boyfriend practically bawled me out because (I had forgotten) he had told me to buy "Organocide" which is organic and much safer for my plants, herbs and for humans! He says Sevin is the devil... and since he used to work at Home Depot and often helped in the garden section, he knows better than me. I'll admit, I read the booklet taped to the Sevin bottle and did not like the environmental hazard warning OR the warning about calling a doctor if it got on your skin! It seemed like I would need to take annoying and painstaking precaution if I was going to use Sevin. So, after calming down my freak-out tears, my man convinced me to get presentable so we could go exchange the Sevin for some Organocide.....
Ummmm beware folks, this stuff smells fishy! You don't want to spill it in your home by mistake! I know there must be some fish oil in there, especially because it smells just like fish oil pills and I guess the oil is a nice natural way of drowning those disgusting cotton, err mealy bugs! Anyway, as you can see in the image above there are several Organocide options to choose from, I chose the bottle of concentrated Organocide because it will go much further than the other already-diluted options. It cost me around $15.99, but I'd say it's worth it since it only takes 1.5 ounces to make a gallon of spray (diluted in water), and the bottle has 32 total ounces - not bad. As you can imagine I sprayed the living daylights out of all my plants (well, not really since the directions say not to over-apply), but you catch my drift.... I was like an evil fumigator, cackling as I doused the mealy bugs in fishy Organocide! HAHAHAHAHA... I must wait two weeks to see if it eliminates the mealy bug problem, if not I should spray again. After it takes my pests away I can spray monthly as a preventative method. I've got my fingers crossed!!
*UPDATE* It has now been two days since I sprayed the Organocide and my plants look fine, no signs of the the pest problem continuing to spread or getting worse. YAY! But I still can't breath a sigh of relief until it has been weeks and there is no more sign of those buggers!
Okay, enough of my excited rambling.... Hopefully I can focus enough to do some more posts today! Oh, and I couldn't resist photographing the incredible sunset from my balcony on Sunday night....
*UPDATE* It has now been two days since I sprayed the Organocide and my plants look fine, no signs of the the pest problem continuing to spread or getting worse. YAY! But I still can't breath a sigh of relief until it has been weeks and there is no more sign of those buggers!
Okay, enough of my excited rambling.... Hopefully I can focus enough to do some more posts today! Oh, and I couldn't resist photographing the incredible sunset from my balcony on Sunday night....
(All images in this post are my personal photos)
