Gardening

it works fabulously in the house. I also used it in place of garden lime for my tomatoes this year. It turns out I can only seem to get it in 50# bags, but at $29 a bag, it's certainly cheap enough. A little dab'll do ya for any application. You should see my tomatoes this year -- they're gorgeous, blight-free, strong monsters! I'm sold on DE as a readily absorbable, natural source of calcium. I know quite a few people who use it as a source of calcium. I'm not quite ready to go that far with it; I figure there will be plenty of calcium in the tomatoes I'm bringing in.

Now, on to how to apply to the yard. DE is remarkably fine, like cornstarch. Walking about with a sock to shake out dust like you can do inside just isn't practical in a 2-1/2 acre space. Typical spreaders like for lawn chemistry (shudder) is built for bigazz granulated stuff. Suspending with something like volck and attempting to spray with a typical hose sprayer isn't much better. Hose sprayers aren't made for dispensing that kind of suspension (the innards tend to clog) and it's a real beeyotch trying to drag enough hose to reach every corner of the yard. Even if I do, getting "enough" of anything down to do an effective job is still a challenge.

Yeah, I've kinda stepped in deep here haven't I, heh

I have a notion to contact my Deere dealer tomorrow to see if they have something that might work to keep DE suspended and spread it. There is a tow-behind sprayer my ZTR can tow for about $250. The challenge would be to figure out a rate and how to keep the DE suspended long enough to get it on the ground. The $250 would hurt like hell on the budget I'm on (my partner is disabled, so our money is tight) but that would be a one-time expense. At $30/50# of DE, that comes pretty darn cheap thereafter for effective relief.

That's only one option, I'm sure. I want to think this all through very carefully. With my tight budget and limited time (my job requires a 60-mile trip each way through the week), I kinda have to get this as right as can be done, all with as little harm to the environment or my furkids as possible.