it happened again

IT HAPPENED AGAIN
my goals in the days that i have left when im cognitively normal
is to encourage people to donate and get involved in raising
awareness for alzheimers disease and the need for a cure

this last week ive done a radio spot on kut austin 90.5 along with
the executive director of the alzheimers association and another
adovcate for alzheimers-hg who won the square foot garden at
our auction

also attended committee meetings on the upcoming austin
walk to end alzheimers
spoke briefly to the family practice meeting of the clinic where i worked
before i retired-im afraid though they are like teachers they dont listen well
but luckily for us the patients the nurses and employees do

today will attend a lunch queso for a cause at the clinic where i worked
to get people to sign up and by buying their lunch the money goes to the
team for the austin walk

another goal is to volunteer and have others to volunteer
today i talk to a high school group  about the habitat for humanity
hoping they as a group will come work on one of the houses and
if im lucky they will do the landscaping with me

since i want people to learn to xeriscape their yards and learn to
conserve water
you start with the kids

then i go to two habitat sites today to start planning the landscaping
for these new houses keeping the above goals in mind

later this week i do my meals on wheels run which i enjoy each week
two hours of my time each week well spent i must say

then this last tuesday  i went and let it happen again
another goal of mine
i helped someone put in an organic garden
this time it was my cowgirl sister in laws elementary school where
she is the principal

so we started with these five metal water troughs
that she had multiple holes drilled into the bottom to let water
go through so the beds wouldnt get water logged
the far one thats the highest will be saved for potatoes in february
the taters should do well in this tall bed

each container was then filled with a good garden soil from a local
nursery then a 3 inch of a manure compost was added then
lady bug brand 8-2-4 fertilizer was added along with cottonseed meal
the fertilizer is a slower release of nitrogen and the meal gets the
nitrogen released quicker for the plants immediate use

then all we needed to add was plants and lots of kids

i went ahead and chose the plants for them based on my knowledge
of what can grow well here in the fall and winter and even if it gets
abused or even neglected it will probably make it

some the kids didnt know what they were
the most favorite was broccoli and strawberries
a chef had been by recently at the school and had talked about veggies
and had served up broccoli for the kids

here is what we planted
all can be used in salads and most in soups and pasta and stir fries
strawberries kale dinosaur the kids like this one dinosaur broccoli
like i said a popular one swiss chard no one knew what that one was
asian greens spinach lettuce beets cilantro carrots they all liked carrots
and then sugar peas
which when these peas grow up and start producing will be the most popular

these will all last all winter long

dill was added to the largest bed in the middle
in the spring it will get covered with a large caterpillar the kids can
watch eat the plant then turn into this beautiful butterfly




also the broccoli lettuce asian greens and others will go to flowering
next spring and will bring it a lot of bees butterflies and hummingbirds
and the kids dont know it yet
but they will all reseed themselves for next years garden

every kid all 70+ of them were excited to have this garden and to
plant in it
many have never dug in the dirt but they all have now

i think after today there will be a lot of converts to gardening
and those kids will probably eat whatever is produced out of
their own school garden

mission accomplished this week

the organicgreen gardener