Is there any advantage to adding fertilizer, like steer manure or ???, not the commercial pellet stuff, when I pull out all the dead/dying flowers & veggies etc & turn the soil this fall or is it best to wait until spring?
Unless you're in the Frozen North(tm) like Alaska. Our soils are so cold that cover crops won't rot when tilled in.
I pile compost onto the beds, when putting the garden up for the winter, then till it in the next spring.
Jan
Sell your oil wells to Exxon and move south
Ph*ck Exxon. Didn't you see what they did to our beaches and waters back in '89? The fisheries *still* haven't recovered and we're still finding oil on the beaches. (And Orca -- Killer Whale-- pod AB was killed by the oil in Prince William Sound. It took a few years for all of them to die, but the pod (herd) is dead now. One of my neighbors is the Orca biologist in the Sound. If you've never seen Orcas in person, you've really missed something. They are awesome animals.)
We have no desire to visit or move to the small states. One of us was born here; the other came to her senses at age 6 and moved here as soon as she got a drivers' license. But thank you for the thought. I'd rather deal with gardening in Zone 4+/- than live in the land of the strip mall. I can see mountains and three glaciers from my window here. What can you see?
Jan
And did you ever consider the deep dark secret ignored during the whole furor? The state of Alaska could have prevented that disaster by requiring pilotage in that port. Your stupid government has to bear a share of the blame but i bet you never heard of that aspect which has been well covered up. And I bet you still don't require pilotage in your ports because to do so would highlight the states role in the Valdez disaster--so you are ripe for another disaster.
I haven't bought an ounce of Exxon since. I have seen Orcas and they are amazing animals. They are the largest predator in the waters. Just magnificent. If I didn't love warm winters, I'd consider Alaska as a destination home. Maybe next year we are going to take the cruise up the coast.
It tears my heart out the damage Exxon caused. Drunk captains are no excuse.
I was saddened by this "accident" but the main reason I no longer buy gas from x-on is their immediate efforts to avoid taking responsibility for/cleaning up their mess.
Keith
For more info about the International Society of Arboriculture, please visit
Let me add a comment about "Your stupid government has to bear a share..."
That is true, and one should not think it has been "covered up" or that Alaskans are unaware of it. That is not the problem, as such. The problem is that we have the best state government that oil money can buy. And make no mistake, they *do* buy it!
The more important the election here, the more oil money is involved. In recent weeks US Senator (by Daddy's appointment) Lisa Murkowski has been engaging in fund raisers accompanied by no less that the Vice President of the United States. They may even visit Alaska someday, but right now Texas is where the campaign financing money is coming from.
And rest assured that the Governor's huge campaign chest came from Texas, as do many of the legislators as well as our Congress Critter, Don Young. (Uncle Ted, US Senator Stevens doesn't need it to be honest.)
Any time you hear an Alaska political hack say that ANWR is a wasteland and that it can be drilled without harm just remember the Exxon Valdez. Remember these folks in the early 60's said the same thing about Project Chariot (to use an H bomb to make a harbor at Cape Thompson), in the early 70's they did explode an H bomb under Amchitka Island (which now is understood to be about the worst possible place in the whole world to do something like that). In the mid-70's they said the Exxon Valdez could never happen. In the mid 80's they wanted to base Star Wars technology in Alaska. In the late 80's the Exxon Valdez did happen. And since the mod-90's they've been saying ANWR wouldn't hurt anything.
"Your stupid government" *is* the oil industry. Those are the same folks that are going to find WMD in Iraq real soon now too.
Scares the shit outta me...
If you till it in this fall, it will have degraded by spring, and you'll have ideal planting conditions. BTW, if you want, you can just till under the other stuff, too.
Chris Owens
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