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Zombie Mom Comics is on the brink of 500 fans! Yippee! To thank you for your support I am giving away a $10 Amazon.com gift card!!! Simply fill out the form below to enter. The giveaway will end when we reach 500 Facebook fans, so share this with your friends!
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As a crunchy mama I am interested in organics. The more I learn about natural growing and farming, the more I like! My newest interest: ladybugs.
Ladybugs are a known use for natural garden pest control. Ladybugs naturally feast on aphids which can wreak havoc on your garden. They will chew away at your plant leaves and edible leaves (like lettuce). Ladybugs also eat a variety of other insects and larvae including scales, mealy bugs, leaf hoppers, mites, and various types of soft-bodied insects. Releasing these beauties into your garden creates a natural predator to these pests.
Apparently, there is a knack to getting these ladybugs to hang around. You can’t just go buy 1,000 ladybugs, dump them into your garden and walk away. I recently saw a container in my local garden store and decided to give them a try.
I did a little research first and here is what I came up with:
· Water your garden first. The ladybugs will be thirsty from either traveling or being confined in a container for a while.
· Release them at night. They will settle in and be more likely to make your garden their home. This will also give them a fighting chance against THEIR predator: birds.
· Release them in stages. One bunch one night, another bunch the next night, etc.
I followed all these suggestions. Starting last Sunday I dumped the first batch into the garden. The next day we saw a whole colony of them!
It was so cute and fun and my kids were excited. Over the next three days we released the rest.
As I am writing this it’s been one week. Want to know how many ladybugs are in my garden? ZERO. That’s right! None. At all. Anywhere.
So apparently there is more than just a knack to getting these beauties to hang around. Perhaps I did it wrong? Maybe they just didn’t like my garden? Perhaps their house was on fire?
You win some, you lose some I guess. Perhaps I will do a little more research and try again later in the season or next year. Until then there won’t be any ladybugs in our garden. Now if I could only get rid of the squirrels that easily…?
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You will see many posts from me this spring, summer, and fall about my garden. I am a crunchy mama, and it is my aspiration to live off the land as much as humanly possible. Sadly that isn’t much on 7500 sqft in downstate New York. But I try. I am also in the process of learning so many of my garden plants FAIL. This causes me much sadness 
I do keep trying though, so take my posts with a grain of salt. Considering I am on a small lot (for my farming desires), I am experimenting with lots of containers – hanging planters, upside down planters, planter bags, traditional planter containers, etc. Today’s post is about the Potato Bag!
I purchased a potato bag like the one above. They are probably all the same. I would just make sure the one you buy has handles on the sides. Technically you can be REALLY frugal and use a regular ‘ol garbage bag but I decided to invest the $12 in this little guy because it’s reusable and will fold down to nothing for storage. Heck it can even be used AS storage!
I also purchased some seed potatoes. These were the red potato variety (my family’s favorite). 
Planting them was SO easy. I had read online that you are supposed to cut them into pieces with an eye on each piece and let them dry for 48 hours. I also read that this is really only necessary for large seed potatoes. I decided not to do it. We will see if that was a mistake when I update this post after harvest time!
I filled the bag about 4” deep with potting soil/compost.
Some of my potatoes started to sprout already so I just planted them with the sprouts facing up and made sure they were covered with dirt. I rolled the sides of the bag down and set it aside.
From what I read, as the stems and leaves start to emerge about 3” above the soil I should add more to cover them. Do this a few times until the bag is full. Then let the plant do its thing!
It will become a big bushy plant. Once the plant looks like it’s dying, stop watering for 2 weeks. After that it should be harvest time! Simply dump out the bag and gather those puppies up!
It’s not too late to give it a try yourself. It takes them a few months to grow (90-120 days), so I wont be able to update this post until about September/October. Hopefully the update will show lots of lovely potatoes, and some delicious recipes! Stay tuned!
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Tina Fey that is. I have always liked her. This excerpt just drives it home!
First, Lord: No tattoos. May neither Chinese symbol for truth nor Winnie-the-Pooh holding the FSU logo stain her tender haunches.
May she be Beautiful but not Damaged, for it’s the Damage that draws the creepy soccer coach’s eye, not the Beauty.
When the Crystal Meth is offered, May she remember the parents who cut her grapes in half And stick with Beer.
Guide her, protect her
When crossing the street, stepping onto boats, swimming in the ocean, swimming in pools, walking near pools, standing on the subway platform, crossing 86th Street, stepping off of boats, using mall restrooms, getting on and off escalators, driving on country roads while arguing, leaning on large windows, walking in parking lots, riding Ferris wheels, roller-coasters, log flumes, or anything called “Hell Drop,” “Tower of Torture,” or “The Death Spiral Rock ‘N Zero G Roll featuring Aerosmith,” and standing on any kind of balcony ever, anywhere, at any age.
Lead her away from Acting but not all the way to Finance. Something where she can make her own hours but still feel intellectually fulfilled and get outside sometimes And not have to wear high heels.
What would that be, Lord? Architecture? Midwifery? Golf course design? I’m asking You, because if I knew, I’d be doing it, Youdammit.
May she play the Drums to the fiery rhythm of her Own Heart with the sinewy strength of her Own Arms, so she need Not Lie With Drummers.
Grant her a Rough Patch from twelve to seventeen. Let her draw horses and be interested in Barbies for much too long, For childhood is short – a Tiger Flower blooming Magenta for one day – And adulthood is long and dry-humping in cars will wait.
O Lord, break the Internet forever, That she may be spared the misspelled invective of her peers And the online marketing campaign for Rape Hostel V: Girls Just Wanna Get Stabbed.
And when she one day turns on me and calls me a Bitch in front of Hollister, Give me the strength, Lord, to yank her directly into a cab in front of her friends, For I will not have that Shit. I will not have it.
And should she choose to be a Mother one day, be my eyes, Lord, that I may see her, lying on a blanket on the floor at 4:50 A.M., all-at-once exhausted, bored, and in love with the little creature whose poop is leaking up its back.
“My mother did this for me once,” she will realize as she cleans feces off her baby’s neck. “My mother did this for me.” And the delayed gratitude will wash over her as it does each generation and she will make a Mental Note to call me. And she will forget. But I’ll know, because I peeped it with Your God eyes.
Amen.
This little chunk of awesomeness is an excerpt from Tina Fey’s new book -Bossypants. Buy it now on Amazon.com! To any husbands reading….it would make a great Mother’s Day gift!!! 
Don’t walk, run! Now! Do it! Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.
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I recently had a cardiac arrest-inducing moment. On this one fateful day, I took 2 steps out the front door to the mailbox and all in one second my life was altered. My 4yo (Thing 1) was sitting at the dining room table doing her homework (good little nerd). My 2yo (Thing 2) was standing at the door as I stepped out. Now, picture this all in slow motion: I step out the door, reach for the mailbox, grab the pack of mail, and graciously turn around to walk back inside as the door is closing in my face! I can see an evil grin on Thing 2’s face through the window as she swings the door shut. And then it’s done. Just like that. Door closed, locked. Mommy outside. Kids inside. No one else home. No cell phones, keys, or portable defibrillator for mommy.
Thing 1 is only 4 and while a 4 year-old seems like a small adult they are not quite capable of doing everything. I have never seen her open the front door and quite frankly, I don’t think she can. So now I panic. It took a while for all this to sink in. At first I thought it was funny – “haha you closed the door on mommy, very funny.” Then the reality set in that it was locked, I was outside, they were inside and weren’t capable of opening it. Enter heart palpitations, shortness of breath and lightheadedness.
So now I start yelling for Thing 1 to come to the door. It takes a WHILE and I am starting to panic more and more. Now, she is the type of kid that falls to pieces at the very thought of not being able to accomplish a task, so I know I need to tread lightly here. If I yell in a panicky voice to open the door and she can’t, it’s over. She’ll burst into tears, run into her room, need thousands of dollars worth of therapy, and I’ll be standing outside in the cold until dinner while they raid the cookie jar and trash the house. So I very calmly tell her to try to open the door, explaining it’s locked and mommy can’t get in. She can’t do it. Ok, now I am really panicking. Still trying to remain calm, I look around at the windows and neighbors trying to think of a plan. Then it occurs to me that she could probably handle simply unlocking the door but it will take a lot of explaining. I start to talk her through it but she turns the deadbolt. No good. Then I clarify that she needs to turn the little lock on the door handle. She did it! But now the deadbolt is locked! [insert a Homer Simpson "D’oh!"] I direct her to unlock the deadbolt and she gets it! I’m in! I have never been happier to walk through that front door and I have never been more proud of Thing 1. She got some serious ice cream that evening.
As for lessons learned, there are lots. #1 Don’t discount what could happen in one second. A simple step outside could have resulted in some seriously bad stuff. #2 Never step outside with your kids in the house without leaving yourself a way to get back in. Either unlock the door or have a spare key hidden away somewhere. #3 Never trust a 2 year-old.
What parenting lessons have you learned the hard way?
