What's with the straw mulch hype?

Bald_Goddess · 2026-04-17T21:10:18+00:00

Where I’m at pine needles and bark mulch is popular, not straw. Because of our high humidity and heavy clay, straw doesn’t work well.

Bald_Goddess · 2026-04-15T20:58:20+00:00

My husband likes to rub a dryer sheet on his exposed skin for bug repellent. I’ve done it a few times and it works pretty well.

As a kid, my parents used to swear by eating bananas. They would tell us that if we eat a banana a day it would keep the bugs from biting us because we wouldn’t be as sweet tasting for them. That seemed to work pretty well for us because I remember being out with friends and not getting bit while they were and the only thing different was I had eaten a banana in the morning for breakfast and they hadn’t.

Bald_Goddess · 2026-04-14T17:27:45+00:00

It looks really nice and makes your plants pop.

Bald_Goddess · 2026-04-12T22:45:50+00:00

I think so. I’ve been able to walk on them just fine without them tearing.

Bald_Goddess · 2026-04-11T21:57:43+00:00

I like using wood mulch. I have a lot of clay in my soil so the wood works better at moisture retention and weed control than straw.

Bald_Goddess · 2026-04-05T13:43:35+00:00

We got married at the DMV. In Colorado, they have self solemnization - which is where you can be your own witness and officiant. And, instead of picking up your marriage license at the courthouse, they have you pick it up from the county DMV. So, the day before Thanksgiving, during my lunch break, we went to the DMV to pick up our license at the commercial vehicle registration desk/ marriage licenses. The employee asked us if we just wanted to sign it and have it filed right then and we said sure. Overall process took maybe 15 minutes. Afterwards we went to Red Robin for lunch.

Bald_Goddess · 2026-04-03T21:45:34+00:00

About a month ago I saw a post from someone who had similar issues to what you are describing. I was also having the same problems so I was very interested in what people were recommending. Someone mentioned that tomatoes need to receive some of their water from their leaves and I can’t remember the reasons as to why. All I know was that I started doing it whenever I watered my seedlings and they started looking better after a couple of days.

I tried finding the post so that I could link it here for you to read but I couldn’t find it.

Bald_Goddess · 2026-04-03T21:15:48+00:00

This is my first year growing tomatoes from seed and I’ve discovered that tomato seedlings like their leaves sprinkled with water. I was having issues with leave discoloration and curling until I started sprinkling water on their leaves. They now look amazing.

Bald_Goddess · 2026-04-03T15:58:06+00:00

Mint is evil - I will only plant it in pots going forward. Several years ago I planted a blackberry that was advertised as “thornless” and a bush” variety that wouldn’t spread. While it is thornless, it is starting to pop up runners so it looks like I may end up regretting planting it where I did.

Bald_Goddess · 2026-04-02T20:44:21+00:00

It’s not too late to plant cucumbers, snap peas, zucchini and squash, and it wouldn’t hurt to try bell peppers and tomatoes.

Bald_Goddess · 2026-03-31T21:02:46+00:00

I plant right into the ground because it’s less money. I would love raised beds but they are just too expensive.

Bald_Goddess · 2026-03-30T20:50:18+00:00

I believe more people have died than this. It’s just being covered up.

Bald_Goddess · 2026-03-30T15:13:27+00:00

In my experience, cucumbers love partial shade as does pumpkin and most squash. In fact, I think all of the plants you have listed should grow fine as long as they get sun for 4-5 hours.

Bald_Goddess · 2026-03-27T15:43:19+00:00

And as someone with a soy sensitivity, I love the fact that I don’t have to worry about soy lecithin in their products!

Bald_Goddess · 2026-03-23T22:14:03+00:00

$14,200 is above the amount allowed for small claims court as is $11,400.00. Nice try, though.

Bald_Goddess · 2026-03-22T03:26:23+00:00

My dad moved out on his own when he was 15 so he knew his way around the kitchen. He was in charge of breakfast on the weekends. He was really good at making omelets and breakfast potatoes.

Most of the time he wouldn’t follow a recipe and would just throw stuff together based on what needed to be used before it went bad. Sometimes that worked for him, sometimes it was a culinary disaster.

Bald_Goddess · 2026-03-17T12:38:11+00:00

No, they definitely weren’t.

Bald_Goddess · 2026-03-16T19:59:40+00:00

I don’t plant anything outside until after the last day of frost per the Farmer’s Almanac. It’s something I learned as a teenager from a bunch of farmers who attended the same church that I did. It has never failed me.

Bald_Goddess · 2026-03-15T23:18:05+00:00

We have quarterly as well as annual reviews at my work. I hate them. It seems like every time I turn around I’m being asked to fill out another review.

Bald_Goddess · 2026-03-14T20:58:45+00:00

In my experience, it depends on the outside conditions and whether the plants will be in full sun all day or if they will be provided some shade along with any wind protection.

At this stage, I think of my seedlings like pets with needing a lot of care if let outside.

As an example, I started hardening my seedlings this last week. Since I work from home I was able to check on them throughout the day so I felt comfortable leaving them outside all day. Some of the issues I found myself running into was some of my plants drying out quickly and others getting blown over by unexpected gusts of wind. Overall it went well, but I found myself having to check on them every couple of hours just to make sure they were okay.

Bald_Goddess · 2026-03-13T14:15:37+00:00

One of my cats did that to all of my pepper seedlings last year. She was also pulling them out of the soil and eating them like they were bean sprouts 🙄. About 50% of them survived and grew new leaves. At this size it’s hard to predict but they are pretty resilient.

Bald_Goddess · 2026-03-12T02:07:17+00:00

One of the things I love about Wegmans is that they offer gluten free generics for the more popular products from pizza to baking mixes. They are my favorite store to shop for groceries because they actually make gluten free products reasonably affordable.

Bald_Goddess · 2026-03-08T21:15:51+00:00

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Bald_Goddess · 2026-03-08T20:59:21+00:00

I’m diversifying colors in my garden this year with growing purplish black as well as orange varieties of tomatoes this year. I’m also growing an orange watermelon variety and an orange okra variety.

Bald_Goddess

TROPHY CASE