Spring in the garden is a dangerous time. The temptation is to go out on those warm, sunny days and plant 'til you drop. Not only is that strenuous on your body and mind, it can also lead to the proverbial glut of food in a few months. We've all experienced our plantings of lettuce and beans maturing all at once, leaving us with a tiresome "greens and beans" diet. Of course, we'll eat it. We couldn't waste all that produce since it took so much time and energy to grow it!

A better solution is to plan out your annual edible garden so crops mature in a more orderly fashion. It's not as hard as you think. Succession planting requires a little knowledge of the type of plants you're growing, a little planning to have room for them to grow, and the patience to plant each crop in turn. Also, other commonsense gardening techniques, such as crop rotation and interplanting, can help maximize growing space and help your plants avoid many soil-borne diseases and insects. Here are some tips to get you started in the right direction and remind you to keep planting right through the summer and fall.

Planting for Success

Succession planting is a simple concept: Plant small rows or beds of plants periodically during the growing season. As one planting's harvest begins to fade, the next planting's harvest will be ready. The key is knowing what vegetables can be planted in succession, and the best time of year to do it. It all starts with your growing season. Gardeners with long growing seasons can do many more succession plantings than those in areas with short growing seasons.

To succession plant, start in spring with cool-season crops that can be planted early, such as lettuce, spinach, peas, broccoli, greens, pak choi, carrots, radishes, and beets. For example, instead of planting one long row or bed of lettuce, consider planting a short, 2-foot-long row or bed. Two weeks later, sow another 2-foot-long row, and so on until the weather gets too warm for lettuce. Since the plants mature in one to two months you'll get a continuous harvest of lettuce.

Depending on the weather, later plantings can sometimes catch up to earlier plantings. But since many lettuce varieties can be picked at a young stage before heads form, you can harvest earlier than normal to keep the staggering on track.

Are you really bored? There is only so much that you can read and or do on the computer until it starts to get boring. So I started running my ca yahoo anti-spy thingy every other site/page I visited just to see what came up. (yeah I'm really really really bored)
Just on tblog, 8 tracking cookies come up every time I log on, check my tmails, and reply back to comments and even more depending on the blogs I have been to.

Here are the 8:

adbureau
realmedia
bravenet
apmebf
reusei
euroclick
adlegend
adyieldmanager

That is with my security settings set high. I'd hate to see what came up if they were low. Are our computers really safe??
Only 2 came up from my space and none from my other gaming sites.

Males: 6,958	(45.8%)
Females: 8,240	(54.2%)

Greene County

Median resident age:	41.0 years
Tennessee median age:	35.9 years

Zip codes: 37743, 37744, 37745.

Greeneville	$27,400
Tennessee:	$38,874

Greeneville	$90,200
Tennessee:	$114,000

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Some people claim that we are not heading for a recession, of course they live in big cities. The smaller towns are the first to feel it. What I mean by this is... Since the summer the crime rate has started to soar here in Greeneville. Small "mom and pop" businesses are shutting down and you can't find a job any where. Just this weekend my aunts neighbor was sitting on his toilet and in walked a man with a knife and robbed him. Two houses down from him another person got broken into. This was done in broad daylight and in the middle of town about a mile, if not less, from the police department.
Just this month 3 gas stations were robbed. People are doing anything for money. It's like they have lost their minds. Animal control has stopped picking up strays for free and the price of electricity has gone threw the roof. Even cable has gotten out of hand. About 4 years ago we were paying $14.95 for basic cable and 35 bucks for internet. Now for basic cable and low grade internet it's $107.95 a month. The signal quality of both have gone down the toilet as well.
You use to be able to fill your car up with $25.00 worth of gas and now it's $45.00 for a full tank which it doesn't seem to last as much. Now with law mowing season here you can't afford to cut your grass and be able to do your monthly errands.
What has happened to our once great nation? Are we to crumble and fall like the once great Romans did. Do people not pay attention to history. You know, learn from the past.
The recession is here and it's hitting those of us in the smaller areas first. Watch and see as our country crashes. By the year 2012 I figure it will be chaos here.

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Get Your Monster Name

Christians do not despair.

Despite the fact that some Christians and the majority of their leadership have for two thousand years persecuted Witches, as well as anyone else that stood between them and their political and religious ambitions, I still feel bad for them.

I became aware of the problem they were facing by watching television.  As you may know, there is a plethora of shows dealing with scary stuff from Ghost hunting, demon trackers to Paranormal Groups hunting "phenomena".   These hard working folks are uncovering falling objects, sudden drops in temperature, nightmares, apparitions, spooky sounds and in some cases people falling into trances and finger painting on walls, yet these things do not seem to be happening to Buddhists, Witches, followers of Islam, Hindus or any other religious group (except for the finger painting on walls part which most children seem fond of).  

The Irony has not escaped me that a few hundred years ago any person exhibiting these symptoms would not have been visited by a television producer, but instead would have been "cured" by drowning, hanging, or simply being burned.

Historically Christians have had a tendency to blame others for their own problems and projecting their own fears on others as well. The Inquisition, Crusades, Witch Trials and even the recent manifestation in Spain in support of "Normal family values"  are clear examples of this.  

Witches have been a frequent and most favored and ongoing target of Christians, even though we do not believe in demons, much less worship them. We do believe that you create your own realities and it seems that the demons Christians created are upset with them. The Christian community has caught what might be called a ’Demon flu’ to which non Christians are immune.   .  Mind you these demons do not seem to be too smart, if they can play softball with fire and brimstone, exist in legions and have fashionable horns and tails (and neat names), why do they bother manifesting in bad real estate, make terrifying squeaking noises, scare college interns by rattling windows and upsetting an unemployed mother of two, when they could do to New York what Godzilla does to Tokyo.   Perhaps because other demons have taken care of New York already and that act would be hard to top, even for an infernal majesty.

I feel badly for those that seem genuinely hurt by these symptoms, it is not their fault that they were born into a system that creates such energies and gives them life and I really do hope that their priests can  help them if only as a placebo. But to all Christians I offer you a permanent cure or "vaccine", it is not simple, requires some effort and concentration and may sting a bit.   This cure works on so many other ailments too, that it should be required for all. It is called "education".

Plastic waste in the oceans poses a potentially devastating long-term toxic threat to the food chain, according to marine scientists.

Studies suggest billions of microscopic plastic fragments drifting underwater are concentrating pollutants like DDT.

Most attention has focused on dangers that visible items of plastic waste pose to seabirds and other wildlife.

But researchers are warning that the risk of hidden contamination could be more serious.

The thing that's most worrisome about the plastic is its tenaciousness, its durability Matt Brown, US Fish and Wildlife Service Albatross chicks

Dr Richard Thompson of the University of Plymouth has investigated how plastic degrades in the water and how tiny marine organisms, such as barnacles and sand-hoppers, respond.

He told the BBC: "We know that plastics in the marine environment will accumulate and concentrate toxic chemicals from the surrounding seawater and you can get concentrations several thousand times greater than in the surrounding water on the surface of the plastic.

"Now there's the potential for those chemicals to be released to those marine organisms if they then eat the plastic."

Shoreline mess

Once inside an organism, the risk is that the toxins may then be transferred into the creature itself.

At the microscopic level, plastic pollution is far worse than feared

"There are different conditions in the gut environment compared to surrounding sea water and so the conditions that cause those chemicals to accumulate on the surface of the plastic may well be reversed - leading to a release of those chemicals when the plastic is eaten."

It is as if the plastic particles act as magnets for poisons in the ocean.

In an experiment involving plastic carrier bags immersed off a jetty in Plymouth harbour, he is assessing the time taken for them to fragment.

In related projects, he and colleagues have also added plastic powder to aquarium sediment to establish how much is ingested by marine life. Research on stretches of shoreline has shown that, at the microscopic level, plastic pollution is far worse than feared.

Dr Thompson worries toxins may be released to marine organisms

In a typical sample of the sandy material gathered at the high tide mark on shorelines, one-quarter of the total weight may be composed of plastic particles.

Studies have found that plastic traces have been identified on all seven continents.

Here on Midway, Matt Brown of the US Fish and Wildlife Service echoes the warnings of a long-term threat from plastic waste.

"The thing that's most worrisome about the plastic is its tenaciousness, its durability. It's not going to go away in my lifetime or my children's lifetimes.

"The plastic washing up on the beach today - if people don't take it away it'll still be here when my grandchildren walk these beaches."