#backyard chemistry

[trammellesstangent]

Kinda funny that when I’m overtired I start doing stoichiometric equations and finding ways to do chemical reactions

[goingtiny]

A great garden book to read over the winter is GARDEN ALCHEMY, “80 recipes and concoctions for organic fertilizers, plant elixirs, potting mixes, pest deterrents and more.”  This book will get you making and mixing your own soils and amendments, using plants that commonly grown in many gardens.  Lots of plants that many of us are already growing for food, medicine or just good garden health can do even more for us as weed teas and specialized mulches.

I have a big yarrow patch in my backyard and while I’m familiar with it as a wound healer, and as the original sticks that the I Ching was crafted from, it turns out that fermented into a tea, that same yarrow will offer nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and copper to plants.  And it looks like I might want to toss a little borage in there too.

[trammellesstangent]

Good news! I’m pretty sure I overcooked my gold. Just as how no one likes their food to be burned, no one likes their gold to be oxidised. Fortunately, I can easily get it back with chemicals I already have. Next time I’ll have to figure out a way to make sure that doesn’t happen.

[trammellesstangent]

Double double toil and trouble

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

[trammellesstangent]

The people on this train may be slightly afraid of me now. I just ordered sulfuric acid and a cyanide salt over the phone.

[trammellesstangent]

I am a strange mix of meticulously precise and wildly chaotic.

I spent twenty minutes registering paper, but you should see the state of my locker.

I bought lab grade equipment to correctly measure the chemicals I was playing with in my backyard, but. I play with chemicals in my backyard.