How to start a vegetable garden Spring has sprung, and even if you have a black thumb, you may be feeling inspired to dig in the dirt. How about starting a vegetable garden? Though the process involves more than picking a random spot, making holes and planting seeds, taking these simple steps can help ensure a successful growing season. Plan your plot. Test the soil. Purchase the right tools. Prep the soil. Choose the right seeds. Plant your seeds. Keep it up. Have other ideas on how to start a vegetable garden? See also: MNN homepage photo: tboard/Flickr
Tutorial: How to Make a Mason Jar Lantern So, here's a little tutorial for you, courtesy of the dapper Mr. Beeper. Last summer I handed him a crate of mason jars and asked him to make some lanterns out of them that we could hang in the back yard--and this was the result. Today, it is about my favorite feature in our yard--instant ambiance in a jar (um, pun intended). Get your own ambiance-making instructions right here:DOWNLOAD TUTORIAL And step by step photos above for your reference. And this is what I recommend you do by the light of your mason jar lanterns: pour yourself a glass of white wine, set your bare feet in the grass, listen to the crickets, and think about nothing (or Jude Law, if you really want to).
Garden Article: Growing Ginger Do you love Asian foods, ginger ale and pumpkin pie? It’s the taste of ginger that’s won you over. Zingiber officinale is easy to grow and makes for a great project with kids. And with its attractive foliage, this plant will add beauty to your home and garden, as well. Just pick up a root from your grocery store’s produce section and get growing! Because ginger root tubers grow right near the soil surface, don’t bury them when you transplant them to your garden. Photo Credit: John Buettner Simply lay the ginger root on the top of the potting soil to “plant” it. Pull the roots from the ground and allow them to dry in the open air before removing the stalks and harvesting. Ginger root is sold in a clump that’s often called a “hand.” Planting is easy as pie: Simply pick a pot that’s at least twice the diameter as the length of your root section. Studies say ginger’s peak flavor arrives at 265 days. With proper care, your ginger can reach 2-4 feet tall. Candied Ginger
Ducks in a Row - All Things Parties + DIY: DIY Pillows Made from Daddy's Shirts Want a little insight into what my husband signed up for when he said "I do"? I've had a box squirreled away in the bottom of the closet for the past three years. Every time my husband has announced that he's going to sort through his clothes and get rid of old items, I'd hover over him like a ravenous vulture circling a horse carcass. I would wait on baited breath for an old button-down shirt to hit the "give away" pile, swoop in, nab the shirt with my sharpened craft talons, and hastily slink off to the box in the bottom of my closet. So what, pray tell, could possibly evoke such strange behavior? With no change in sight, I decided to curb my hoarding habits and do something with my secret stash of shirts before a family of squirrels decided to make a home in my closet. Supplies for Shirts The links above and in the supplies list for the felt accessories link to our Amazon page where you can purchase the craft supplies we use in this and other projects. Instructions for Shirts 1. 2.
Growing a Healing Garden | Mama Knows Rating: 7.9/10 (9 votes cast) When you visit your local market or garden centre, check out their herb selection. You may be surprised at the varieties of herbs that are available. Not only do quite a few of them provide beautiful flowers, but there is an added benefit – you can use them for medicinal purposes without a worry. Here are a few ideas for your own herb garden – easy to grow plants with medicinal properties. Here are 12 the most popular herbs that are easy to grow: Peppermint: Peppermint Peppermint tea is a traditional remedy for an upset stomach or gas,because it supposedly relaxes gut muscles. Echinacea or Coneflower: Echinacea or Coneflower Herbalists use an extract of this common cold preventive to boost the immune system and the production of white blood cells. Sage: Sage In medieval herbals, sage is a cure-all, supposed to heal grief,fever and the nerves. Rosemary: Rosemary Dog Rose: Dog Rose Lavender: Lavender Lemon Balm: Lemon Balm Borage: Borage Sweet Woodruff: Sweet Woodruff Thyme:
Hang up a Mason jar planter | Growing, Making | The Simple Things Is there no end to things you can do with a Mason jar? We’ve already expressed our love for Mason jar chandeliers, now we’re thinking of going green and upcycling them into a wall planter, à la Not Just a Housewife. Blogger Stacy had a brainwave in the midst of a peach-canning spree, and knocked up this quirky Mason jar wall planter using leftover jars, some wood and clamps. If you’re worried about drainage (admittedly, it might be a bit of an issue), fill your jars with water, add some pretty flowers and you’ll have your very own floral wall display!
Blog » 5 Secrets to a ‘No-work’ Garden It took over 20 years of gardening to realize that I didn’t have to work so hard to achieve a fruitful harvest. As the limitless energy of my youth gradually gave way to the physical realities of mid-life, the slow accretion of experience eventually led to an awareness that less work can result in greater crop yields. Inspired in part by Masanobu Fukuoka’s book, One Straw Revolution, my family experimented with gardening methods which could increase yields with less effort. Here are the strategies we used which enabled us to greatly increase our garden yield, while requiring less time and less work. 1. ‘No-till’ gardening is a series of methods in which the soil is never disturbed, thereby protecting the complex subsoil environment for the benefit of growing plants. With ‘no-till’ gardening, weeding is largely eliminated. By switching to ‘no-till’ methods, you won’t have to do the heavy tilling or shovel work which so many gardeners suffer through each spring. 2. 3. Displaces weeds. 4.
What I made What I made days ago 1) I wonder if he knows he’s made from two toilet rolls… 2) …and an old plastic deodorant bottle! 3) Wow… he’s light on his feet (or should I say foot)! This Steampunk inspired toilet roll robot is so agile it can balance on the edge of a ruler, so strong its heart is made of steel, so clever its brain is made of cogs… and so cheap he’s made from trash! A couple of cool additional features are the see-through head, made from the lid of a can of shaving gel and the arms that rotate up and down, revealing the robot’s steel heart. How to make your own self-balancing toilet roll robot with moving arms I have provided full instructions below, but feel free to improvise, you can create your Steampunk inspired robot from almost anything. Download project files› Includes: 1) Collectable instructions – print them out & put them in a folder! [display_adsense ad_type="300x250"] How to make your own beautiful recycled chopstick and soda can bird feeder Download project files›
Tree Tape Measures the Climate Benefits of Your Backyard Trees - Environment Want to know how much that big oak in your front yard is helping in the climate fight? Designer Nitipak Samsen created this very cool—and educational—tool that helps put the carbon sequestering ability of trees into context. The Tree Tape can be customized for specific types of trees—rainforest, native hardwood, or softwood—and will tell you the amount of carbon dioxide that is absorbed in terms of a more common activities like air travel, electricity consumed, and even cheeseburgers eaten. You can download Tree Tape here. Samsen writes: Ever wondered how much CO2 absorbed in a tree? I think this could be really useful for kids and adults alike.
Design for Life: Recycled Wine Bottle Tiki Torch 08.09.09 | by Erik Anderson Whether it’s product branding, package design or projects for ourselves, we’re pleased when we find a solution that’s very effective and creative, while keeping resources to a minimum. This idea is very inexpensive idea and it’s a great way to recycle a wine bottle. See how this simple idea inspired this brand and wine bottle design. It’s been a record year for mosquitoes here in Indianapolis, Indiana and I’d been wanting to add some Tiki-esque torches to the patio to combat the little buggers, and add a little ambiance. Here’s what you’ll need. Empty Wine Bottle (Use any bottle as long as it’s glass and the neck is 1” in diameter. Helpful Tools: Channellocks, adjustable wrench, hacksaw, power screwdriver, and a funnel. Safety Note: This is for outdoor use only. Building Instructions The Hanger Decide where you want to mount your Recycled Bottle Torch. The Bottle Carefully and tightly wrap the 1/2-inch end of the Coupling with your Teflon Tape. Good Luck! -Erik
Backyard Farming W e e k - veggies & herbs Hello, friends! We're home from Colorado, rested and centered. I can't wait to share some of the pictures we took along the way- camping, hiking, and spending time on the open road. Before we left, I started Backyard Farming Week. I believe the Veggies & Herbs are where I left off. This year, I planted radishes, carrots, jalapenos, beans, sweet banana peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, strawberries, and a handful of herbs: basil, rosemary, patchouli, mint, dill, parsley, cilantro, and cat nip. My cucumbers I planted from seeds that I got from Grandma. In no time you'll be making salads, or filling jars to make pickles. My jalepenos are out of control. Most types of peppers grow under the same conditions. My beans were incredibly short lived: In fact, that one bean is the only bean I got from the entire batch. My tomato plants took off, like always. Give them a couple feet of space, a cage to grow on, and let them get busy on their own. Guilt. Sure enough, my fears were confirmed.
In the Garden Online - Colleen's Picks - Ten Vegetables You Can Grow in Shade It's a common misconception that the only site to grow vegetables in s one that's in full sun. For some vegetables, such as tomatoes, peppers, and squash, this is entirely true. But those of us who have shade are not doomed to a life without homegrown produce. Basically, a good rule to remember is that if you grow a plant for the fruit or the root, it needs full sun. Keep in mind, no vegetable will grow in full shade. Salad Greens, such as leaf lettuce, arugula, endive, cress, and radicchioBroccoliCauliflowerPeasBeetsBrussels SproutsRadishesSwiss ChardLeafy Greens, such as collards, mustard greens, spinach, and kaleBeans The best thing about knowing that these crops will successfully grow in some shade is that you'll be able to get more produce from your garden.
Plants for Pathways These are the most forgiving Woolly thyme likes to stretch its flat branches out over sidewalks and stairs. It is useful in softening the lines described by hardscaping materials like brick and concrete. Ornamental thymes (Thymus spp. and cvs.) are probably one of the most forgiving groups of plants when it comes to foot traffic. Like other thymes, woolly thyme is fairly easy to care for. Building a Rain Barrel » Nashveggie Vegan and Vegetarian in Nashville & Middle Tennessee If you have a garden or alot of plants then you know that you can use quite a bit of water keeping everything green, especially when there are days or weeks between rain showers. I have noticed rain barrels being sold at Whole Foods for $99 and thought the construction looked simple enough to do on my own and possibly at far less a price. So I undertook the task of doing just that. (1) 3/4″ Male Hose Bibb (I used a no kink bibb)(2) 3/4″ PVC Female Adapter(1) 3/4″ tapped Male Hose to Male adapter(2) 1″ Galvanized or Brass Washers(4) #18 O-rings (1″)Teflon Tape1″ Hole Drill Bit(1) Brass Hose Cap18″x18″ Square Metal Screen(8) Aluminum Self-starting Screws 3/4″ Male No-Kink Hose Bibb 3/4″ Tapped Male Hose to Male Adapter #18 O-Ring (1″) Teflon Tape 3/4″ PVC Female Adapter 1″ Hole Drill Bit First, clean the barrel inside and out. Bottom bibb assembly attached Bottom bibb assembly showing o-ring behind washer Female PVC adapter attached to bottom bibb assembly inside barrel Downspout Tubing