A Bath Pouf. That, Um, Looks Like a Rose.... Have you ever had an idea, and you thought "That's awesome! It'll be so fantastic!!" and then you make it, and you realize that it's really kind of kooky? I was trying to think of something to do with these old towels I had. It's a bath pouf. But, I thought I would post it anyway, on the odd chance that someone might want to make one. And if not, please enjoy a laugh at my expense :o) What you do, is cut about 1.5 inches off one side of towel (to get that finished edge), and two circles out of the middle. Gently pull the bottom thread to gather your strip, pretty tightly.Sew it onto one of the circles in a spiral shape, starting on the outside. Cut a 1.5"x6" strip, and finish the edges with a tight zig-zag stitch. Then pin the two circles together, with your 7" strip laid across the bottom.Sew a tight zig-zag around the two circles, sewing right over each side of the strip on the bottom. Trim the edges of your handle to match the circle edges! There. Maybe it would be cute in a gift basket?
How to Grow 100 Pounds of Potatoes in 4 Square Feet | Apartment Therapy Re-Nest On many occasions, we've been tempted to grow our own potatoes. They're fairly low maintenance, can be grown in a pot or in the ground, last a fairly long time if stored properly, and can be very nutritious (high in potassium and vitamin C). Here's more incentive: according to this article, you can grow 100 pounds of potatoes in 4 sq. feet. According to this article from the Seattle Times, potatoes planted inside a box with this method can grow up to 100 pounds of potatoes in just 4 square feet. Lumber Seed potatoes Soil Careful attention to watering The Times' guide for building a potato growing box yields up to a 100 lbs. of potatoes in a mere 4 square feet is shown below: Plant as early as April or as late as August 1, with an approximated 3 month till harvest turnaround time. Here are some pointers from the article: Cut apart larger seed potatoes, making sure there are at least two eyes in each piece you plant. Seattle Times via LifeHacker.
Kitchen Garden Planner | Preplanned Vegetable Gardens by Gardeners Supply - StumbleUpon With our free online planner, you can design a super-productive vegetable garden, based on square-foot gardening techniques instead of traditional rows. Just drag and drop crops to the planting grid and the planner fills in the number of plants. Or choose from 16 pre-planned gardens. Print out your planting map and you're ready to go. Get Started or Expert Advice and Resources DIY Succulent Pallet Table | Far Out Flora Max with the new Succulent Table. Can you believe that our latest DIY project was once just a couple of junky pallets and some scrappy table legs? Crazy…if I didn’t have photos, I wouldn’t believe it myself. Not too long ago, we whipped out a coffee table sized succulent table out of an old shipping crate. Now we scaled it up. The pallets. First bit of advice, deconstructing pallets are a big pain unless you have the right tools…and our hammer and wall scrapper wasn’t quite doing the trick. Couple good planks. Love the scares of time left on these chunks of pallet wood. Attaching the legs. After pulling apart two pallets, we used the 2 x 4 sized boards to make a rectangular frame to attached the appropriated table legs. Dry run for fittings. Like TV magic (and 2 days later), the table was more or less put together. Megan with some semps. After a weekend of slivers and sweat, we finally got to plant this baby. Getting messy. Packing them in. Yeah, we didn’t hold back on jamming them.
My Favorite Blogs 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. Fukuoka spent over three decades perfecting his so-called “do-nothing” technique: commonsense, sustainable practices that all but eliminate the use of pesticides, fertilizer, tillage, and perhaps most significantly, wasteful effort. Here are the strategies we used which enabled us to greatly increase our garden yield, while requiring less time and less work. 1. With ‘no-till’ gardening, weeding is largely eliminated. 2. Gardeners are always on the lookout for free sources of clean organic mulch to add to their garden.
Small Footprint, Big Yield: Create an Easy Micro Organic Urban Garden Today... April 28, 2009 by Robin Plaskoff Horton There are two things urban gardeners are short on: space and time. The Urban Garden, brainchild of Bill Arquitt, resolves both of these issues, making it efficient and simple to plant a vegetable garden with up to 55 plants in a 3-foot deep by 4-foot wide footprint. The contained six level tiered system is nearly maintenance-free, eliminating heavy weeding, and its northwestern cedar construction renders it naturally bug repellent.
Apartment Gardening: Turn a Filing Cabinet Into a Planter - DIY Life - StumbleUpon Yes you can have a garden, even in an urban home. No yard is no excuse. "Apartment Gardening: Plants, Projects, and Recipes for Growing Food in Your Urban Home" is what every city-dweller with a green thumb needs. Author Amy Pennington explains how to make recycled planters from everything -- wine boxes to milk crates. And she even provides recipes so we know what to do with our edible blossoms. Minted arugula salad, anyone? Even if you're not living in an urban environment, you'll love the recipes and can easily use the project ideas for deck and indoor planting. Luckily, Pennington and the crew behind "Apartment Gardening" was kind enough to share a sneak peak of one of our favorite projects from the book. My friend Matthew Parker is one of those people who has vision. They don't cost much-in the neighborhood of fifty bucks-and while they are ugly to look at, if you remove the drawers and turn them onto their backs, they make an awesome planter. Directions 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
Wire & Paper How to Grow Vegetables | Guide to Growing Vegetables Some general considerations for growing vegetables: Sowing Tips When sowing seeds, a good general rule of thumb is to sow to a depth of approximately twice the thickness of the seed. Some smaller seeds require light to germinate and should not be sown too deep; otherwise they may never germinate or break through the surface of the soil. Keep seeds well-moistened while awaiting germination and check regularly. Select a light-weight, well-drained medium for sowing to ensure good seed to soil contact. Growing Tips Most vegetables will produce better results if sown and grown in a soil-medium that is well-drained, rich in organic matter (fertile), and fairly lightweight. Most vegetables will prefer good quantities of natural, direct sunlight daily. If direct sowing your vegetables (planting seeds straight into the ground), thin plants to recommended spacing and enjoy culled vegetables in salads, sandwiches or elsewhere vibrant, young greens can be appreciated. Harvesting and Seed Saving
Blog ? The Top 10 Plants for Removing Indoor Toxins Common indoor plants may provide a valuable weapon in the fight against rising levels of indoor air pollution. NASA scientists are finding them to be surprisingly useful in absorbing potentially harmful gases and cleaning the air inside homes, indoor public spaces and office buildings. The indoor pollutants that affect health are formaldehyde, Volatile Organic Compounds (benzene and trichloroethylene or TCE), airborne biological pollutants, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides, pesticides and disinfectants (phenols), and radon. These pollutants contribute to ‘sick building syndrome’, which causes symptoms ranging from allergies, headaches and fatigue through to nervous-system disorders, cancer and death. Through studies conducted by NASA, scientists have identified 50 houseplants that remove many of the pollutants and gases mentioned above. More information on this study as well as references and details on specific chemicals can be found on Dr. Dr. 1. Also called the “Butterfly Palm”.
DIY Vertical Herb Garden with a Shoe Organizer | greenUPGRADER - StumbleUpon by LiveOAK Staff on July 20, 2009 Confounded by vegetable digging cats and toiling in the vegetable patch, Instructables member pippa5 came up with this cool DIY vertical garden solution. In case you don't recognize it, she used an old closet shoe organizer. It is similar to the reclaimed gutter vertical garden DIY we featured in April, but this one is even easier. Check out the DIY at Instructables About the Author: