1. Knock most of the bottom out of 2 1/2 or 3 inch pot.
2. Fold up the leaves of the tall “leggy” plant after notching the stem (see arrow) where roots are desired.
3. Place pot at that point, fill it with sphagnum or peat moss and tie it in place – a stake will help support it.
4. When roots fill the pot, break and remove it, cut the new plant from the old stem and pot it in a new pot with more sphagnum or peat moss.
This technique and the old drawings above, came from an old book my Mama Bess used, The Wise Garden Encyclopedia, but I have added a more up-to-date version. I find it easier to use peat planting pots and also rub Root Tone on the notches as mentioned in step 2.
Sometimes, you can save money by gathering seeds from a good harvest, and then there are times you may want to try an actual layering of a favorite woody plant such as a favorite rose or gardenia to make multiple plants. Try this technique as mentioned above and in my next writing I will explain how to propagate a woody plant.
Mama Bess said “Everyone and their brother too,” often enough to make me wonder what it actually meant until I realized how crowded this old planet seems. The job market is slim pickings now a days. My state alone is over 10% unemployed and I happen to be one of them. I spend a good 16 hours a day doing whatever odd jobs I can to bring food into this house. My grandmother Mama Bess had to do the same thing during the Great Depression. After Daddy Tank sold the bus company, (see article below, Daddy Tank and his Busline, dated August 19), he found a job lasting a year, with one of his brothers in Winfield, Louisiana pumping gas at a filling station. It wasn’t much, but the job was more than what most people had during that time. He would send his earnings by Western Union back to his wife, Mama Bess. They had moved out of their home and rented a smaller house on 3 acres, two miles out of Monroe with a white picket fence around the front and a barn with pasture in the back. Rent was a good $5. a month back then. About the time of the worst part of the Depression, the landlord increased it to $10. which sounds like a drop in the bucket compared to now. But comparing now to back then, that was probably equal to $1000. a month.
Mama Bess, was best known for growing anything under the Sun. She could make a desert bloom and had so many flowers in her garden, that there were stepping stones placed as paths to get through it to the front gate. Word got around and she started making money by selling straight out of her garden to seven different florists; two in Monroe and five others in Charlotte. She even set up a small shop in the front parlor of her house and sold Gladiolus, Poppies (legal back then), Dahlias, Snapdragons, and others. Her yard also produced a massive amount of vegetables and I even had heard that if the vegetables or flowers were not in season, she still would have plenty of healthy plants producing what she needed. To this day, I feel she is helping me out, in spirit with my garden. Here it is, early September and 90 degrees out, I have tomatoes and squash completely out of season. I plant seeds and even though the package says it takes 10 days to germinate, my seeds are an inch tall in less than 2 days. I don’t have magic soil or fertilizer, just my Mama Bess’s hand from heaven.
Back in the Great Depression, there were a lot of hobos getting off the freight trains and passing through town. Mama Bess, raising 4 young children alone, would invite one or two in to shower, shave and stay for supper, if they would do some work for her around the house. Sometimes they would patch the roof, mend the fence or barn out back or paint the house, and repair the plumbing. After the repairs were done, and they ended their stays, they would move on. Word had gotten around about her generosity and one of the receivers of her goodwill, etched a triangle in the left post by her gate. This was a sign to other hobos passing through that a good Christian woman lived there offering shelter and food for a good, honest days work. The funny part about this story is that there was one man who arrived at her house and helped with the heaviest of chores, very polite and well educated. It wasn’t long after he had left, that she found out he was an escape convict from a prison from out of state. No one ever did her any harm, but nowadays, no one would think of inviting strangers into their homes.
With memories of that, I try to raise my kids to be helpful to others less fortunate then themselves. I never thought this would be so embedded into them as when my oldest son at the age of 17 bought an old Caravan with a bad transmission for $300. He purchased a transmission from an auto recycling place, fixed the van and then drove it over to a house of someone he met a few months earlier. The man he had met, was without a job and had an old two passenger car. His family of five consisting of his wife, who had a job, and three small children under the age of 8. My son drove the van over to their house, handed the title and keys to this man and walked away.
On the receiving side, my youngest son ran out of gas 20 miles from home and found out he had lost his wallet. A stranger drove up and asked if he was okay. When my son told him about being out of gas, no wallet or way to get home, the stranger handed him $10 for gas. Of course my son thanked him, but the man said no thanks needed, just pass the goodwill along to others who need it.
Will we ever get back to the days of helping each other through tough times as well as good times, or are we always going to be ‘every man for themselves’? I don’t know. I like to think so. In today’s economy, I hope we can all group together and offer help to those less fortunate than ourselves. If you have good news about sharing and receiving help from others, please add a comment below. Would love to hear from you.
Bartering is a great tool to have if you want to acquire something you need while ridding yourself of something that you don’t need, but someone else may want. There are three methods of bartering. One is bartering an object or service for another object or service. The second way is you barter, plus offer partial payment, for another object or service. The third, you list what you need and offer to buy it outright or directly sell what you have outright. I noticed by checking online that there are a few websites that you can do this directly. Most, you join with a fee, others are listed as join for free. Two sites I noticed that looked promising are www.u-exchange.com and www.trashbank.com. There are others out there. You will need to read through them carefully to see what they require and what they offer you, as far as how much traffic their site generates and what fees or percentage they require, if any. As of now, I am listing a barter deal on Craigslist which is totally free, of course. I need to have 5 acres bush hogged and will pay for it by designing door hangers or flyers for their business and also pay for gas. Graphic design has been my business for over 20 years.
In the past, around 20 years ago, I bartered with a farmer to bush hog 5 acres of hay, twice a year. He then baled it up in about 30 round bales of hay and removed it. Later he felt like he needed to pay us back for the hay. He graveled our driveway, over 2 acres in length and fertilized the 5 acres for us. This went on for 12 years. One year he was kind enough to pay us with a small hog, that when full grown, fed us well over 6 months with very tender pork and ribs. We never asked for this, but were pleased to have it mowed for free and have our driveway graveled. That would have been enough for us. I am offering basically the same deal, but throwing in the graphic design and payment for gas. I know times have changed. People nowadays are out of work and don’t consider this as extra money or deal, on the side. They are desperate for money to pay their bills. I’m there too. I’ve had offers to bush hog the property for $200.-$300. which I can not afford right now. So bartering is my way to go. Hopefully, I’ll run into another farmer who will need the hay.
I do recommend the barter system. Sometimes you can barter repair work for dental work or antique furniture for a good working car. And sometimes it can might actually lead to future employment. There is no limit. You should really check out bartering on the sites I mentioned or if you need more information about how to go about it, then check out www.howstuffworks.com or www.answers.com.
