FLIES IN YOUR EYES, AIN’T NO BIG SURPRISE By: Mick Blankenship It feels like Ethiopia outside, and my friends and I can’t stop the heat. Mosquito, gnat, ant, and fleas have reunited this black summer with unlimited love for you as the Red Hot Chilin Pests. By the way, the bugs around here will eat you up so terribly, there’ll be nothing left of you but your soul to squeeze. Twisting and turning, your bug bites are burning, they’re biting your girl. Forget about relaxing on your front porch swing, these bugs will make you want to give it away. The mosquitoes will wait for you under the bridge downtown. They’ll have you drawing blood, and it seems they just can’t get enough. The dark necessities of the ant will leave you so bitten up that you are left with scar tissue. The flea will have you sucking his kiss from the other side of your sock, no matter where you wear it. The gnats will make you want to get in your airplane and head west for some Californication, o
Don’t mess up your bed before you make it. No, I’m not talking about the bed you sleep in. I’m talking about the bed you grow in, your gardening bed. Spring will be here soon and all the weekend warriors of gardening will be dusting of their gloves and shovels to get out and play in the warmer climate. In a previous article, I tried to convince Midtown’s urban farmers to grow year round. However, I realize it’s cold in the winter and harder to get out in the garden. Or maybe you meant to but didn’t get around to it this year. Your beds probably look depleted and the soil line has dropped a few inches. Maybe they are full of leaves or covered in weeds. Logic would tell us to start tilling, taking a shovel and digging up and turning over all the weeds and leaves. This will kill the weeds, aerate the soil, and mix the leaves in nicely for decomposition while you cover the bed in some quality store bought garden soil. While this seems to make perfect sense, I am going to try and convince