Farming

Farming ladybugs and praying mantis. 
Any one have ideas?
Love,
Betty

8/30/2013

                       Go for it ! Ladybugs eat bugs and Preying Mantis are awesome...

                                                      Cheers...Joe..

Is this for real?

Dear Alice,
These bugs are in high demand by organic farmers.  I have looked into the ladybug farming and the preying mantids.  My decisions is with the preying mantids. Preying mantids make a nice large cocoon like egg case that can be havested and shipped before the babies hatch. 
When I was a small child, I found an egg case (unknown species  to me at the time) put it in a cigar box and one day, I looked inside and hundreds of baby mantids were filling the box.  I can order these egg cases , let them hatch, eat bugs, multiply and produce many more little egg cases.  It is the egg cases that I can ship to the organic farmers.  How cool is that?  One of these species grows to 6 inches long and can eat gobs and oodles of insects per day. 
Love,
Betty

Live and learn!

Safe and sustainable - what else can one ask for.

Annie

My research shows that the Praying Mantid casings will not be ready until after the first of the year.  That is good for me.  Meanwhile, I will make a safe place for them to hatch and feast. 

My fall garden as coming along.  The rain has been pouring for two days after I planted.  I went out and saw that the turnips, radish, mustard and some of the cucumbers have sprouted.  I love the part of gardening when you go out and see your faith in a seed the size of a speck has not been in vain.  I am always amazed at the size of plants that little speck can produce and the fruit that goes with it. 
My David brought home a package of Artichoke seeds.  In the pack was about 9 seeds the size of mustard seeds.  I know the plant will be as tall as me when it has grown.  What power is in such a small seed!  What potential! 
I imagine it is not much different than the sperm and the human egg.  What a miracle is the continuity of life from one generation of seeds to the next, on into infinity.
Love,
Betty

Betty, this entry is, in every way, the work of a true writer. I hope you are keeping a journal. If not, you should go back through your entries here and copy them. Maybe your next great work should be a memoir.

Does your Kindle let you add apps? I have started using a free journal app for Kindle Fire that is the best I've ever found. I will look up the info. And get back to you.

It's called My Binder: Tabbed Notes, and is free. I wish I knew how to get you some images. You can set up as many binders as you want, each with five colored tabs. A teeny little add runs in a lower corner, but is not intrusive. It is like having a library of ring bound binders with tabbed dividers in each one.

Seriously, these entries, especially the one just above are priceless. Consider keeping them, in whatever ever way works for you.

Oh, Annie,
I am speechless!  You flattery me so.

My Kindle is the old original one that only lets you flip pages back and forth. 

I could save things in Word.  The trouble is that all my ramblings are just ramblings to me.  Perhaps you could put a star by the ones worthy of saving.  hahaha.   

Love, Betty

Save them all!

Annie

Sounds like you have an exciting project, Betty.
Remember the program "Green Acres"? 
Lots of excitement watching those seeds develop and "shoot up into the sky"...

As for the bug eaters, I can add nothing.

The new scoop on spinach and beets and swiss chard.  It seems that these seeds are reluctant to be resurrected and awakened to their new life on this earth. 

I have wondered why many of my dreams involve water, oceans and lakes and puddles of water....

What I have discovered is that some of the seeds like our dear and loved spinach have been hiding behind the temperatures when the reality is that they are dehydrated and could not pay attention.  They need soaked for two days in water (not chlorinated) and they will smile and sprout like they should.  I took a lesson from the dear spinach seed and passed that treatment onto the beets and the swiss chard. 
I will report.

Love,
Betty

Water is a symbol for the collective unconscious of humanity.

Your soul is singing to you, Betty, when you dream of water.

How wonderful your discovery is! My mother taught me that I could revive a bunch or greens - in our day and place that was mustard, turnips, and collards - by soaking them in cold water, ice water even. We hadn't learned about beet greens and chard. Just yesterday I did the same with a bunch of chard that I had bought for a dinner that I didn't cook, so the chard was looking limp and wilty until I put them in a bowl of ice water for a bit, and they magically became as crisp as the day I had bought them. I guess I should have known that water would revive their seeds as well. My dad would take an avocado seed, stick toothpicks around its middle, and place it on a glass of water, so that the bottom half was wet. Before long, that seed had roots and leaves, and he would plant them in his garden where they would grow into lovely bushes - alas, he never got an edible avocado from any of them, but the potential was there.

Just like some of the potential in all of us never quite comes to fruition because the externals aren't quite right - the soil, the sunshine, the temperature all have their contributions to make, but without the water of our souls, the potential would never be there.

Farming is a divine calling, I think. One that you and my father shared, even if he could only work at his on weekends and summer evenings. I will have to see if I can find some pictures to show you of his beds and the plants they produced. I think you would see signs of a kindred soul.

Annie