Can you freeze Green tomatoes?
Monday, August 10, 2009 | By katkatltata
I would love to be able to freeze my green tomatoes for frying at a later use...is that possible?
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Pantry Stocking
Thursday, June 04, 2009 | By Amma-Linda
Summer is here and I'm looking forward to shopping and stocking my pantry and freezer. As a teacher I don't always have time to cruise the shelves for sales and markdown meats. I try to really stock up during the summer. This year I also planted a small vegetable garden. I hope to have some veggies to blanche and freeze. I might also try some container gardening on the front porch. A friend of ours who lives out in a rural area has a fancy hydroponics set up with fish and vegetables. The fish poo fertilizes the water for the plants and the plants help keep the water clean. So they get to eat fish and veggies. I've never seen anything like it.
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The Most Marvelous Green Machine!
Sunday, May 17, 2009 | By RedWicket
Oh, I'm in LOVE!!!
With the Electric Mantis...
This week I tilled my front yard in preparation for that tasty garden. I brought home not only a 10 speed bike for additional transport and exercise, but also the greatest tiller in the world.
The Mantis Folded down small enough that my Mother put it into the trunk of her little car. It may be small but when it comes to power that little Mantis is Not lacking...But the best part was the lack of Noise, Smoke and Fumes.
It was Unbelievable, by far and away the Best experience I have ever had tilling. Heck my normally snoopy neighbors didn't even know what I was doing. It was pretty amusing afterwards when my tilled up front yard was the cause of abundant rubber-necking
It is so easy to use that a person could till a large garden by themselves...but it was nice to have someone to hold the electrical cord so that the person operating the tiller didn't have to watch for it.
Then when done tilling the Mantis is so easy to clean, being as light weight as it is we could lift it up to get the underside soil free.
What a difference the lack of a big gas powered motor is! We didn't even have to buy fuel...
Oh Yesss, I Love Green machines...
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Cheap gardening tips!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009 | By Witchymommacny
Got an old set of blinds you're about to dispose of? Window-blind slats make great plant i.d. markers! It's simple: remove the slats and cut them into 8" lengths (make sure one end is cut to a point). You can write on them with permanent marker to label what you've planted so you never forget "what is where"!
Starting seeds? Those paper egg cartons work great- Just cut the top off and place it under the egg compartments, fill them with seed starting mix and add seeds. Each section can be torn off and placed directly into the ground without disturbing the root system and the carton is biodegradable.
Place packing peanuts in the bottoms of pots to provide good drainage and reduce weight. Leave enough room for the plants' root systems to fully develop.
You can turn almost anything into a planter- like a vintage teapot, worn out boots, a hollowed log, an old tree stump, a leaky bird bath, an old instrument, or even a wooden chair without a seat can easily become a flowerpot holder, or turn an old washtub into a raised bed for herbs!
Get more green peppers from your plants by placing a few drops of honey on them when they begin to blossom. This attracts bees who will pollinate the plants.
Recycle an old mailbox by placing it in the garden in a handy spot and use it as a small tool shed. Keep an extra trowel, clippers and gloves in it so they are close by when you need them.
Design your own stepping stones by lining a foil pie pan with plastic wrap and filling with cement (I have used quickcrete- works great and comes in a wide variety of colors). Just before it sets, decorate it with handprints, marbles, shells, rocks or anything you want...maybe even a hot wheels car!
Milk jugs have many uses and can always be recycled afterwards~ One idea is for berry picking: cut the top off and put your belt through the handle. This leaves both hands free to pluck berries as well as somewhere to collect them! Another idea is a slow release watering method: poke a small hole in the bottom corner of a jug and fill it with water. Cap the jug and place it next to the plants so the water slowly leaks out giving the plant a better chance to soak up the water!
Try hanging old CD's or foil pie pans in the garden or in fruit trees to deter pests that want to feast on your goods. The noise and random light flashing should do the trick, and if you move them around a bit it keeps them guessing.
Save $$$$ by laying down some old newspaper or cardboard under your mulch instead of expensive landscape fabric. It does the trick at keeping weeds and grass at bay and it's biodegradable.
Line large flowerpots with newspaper and put recycled egg cartons in the bottom. This helps retain a little more moisture so the roots don't "cook" on hot days. Simply soak the cartons overnight and break them up into chunks before adding soil.
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How to Make Lawn Green
Thursday, March 19, 2009 | By Cleaning Guy
As we enter spring time, and we are starting to clean up our lawns, we find that maybe its time to put down some fertilizer. But you do not have the money, in the budget for this years lawn care. Well maybe I can help out, with a recipe that I found last year, that is a tonic for your lawn. This recipe is from a golf course groundskeepers. All you need are five common household ingredients and a hose-end sprayer. This works wonders, and is allot cheaper and more effective than store bought products.
You will need:
- One 12oz can of regular beer (no light or low cal beer)
- One 12oz can of pop ( any kind no diet pop)
- 1/2 cup of liquid dish washing soap ( don't use anti-bacterial dish washing soap)
- 1/2 cup of household ammonia
- 1/2 cup of mouthwash ( any brand)
- Put mixture into 1 gal plastic milk jug, mix well ( please mark poison for child safety)
- Pour into a hose-end sprayer
- In high heat, apply every three weeks
That's it! Very simple easy to mix, cheap and very very effective. I know what your asking yourself right now. How does this work? And how is this going to make my lawn green?
Well, the liquid soap is a wetting agent, helping the formula penetrate the roots, also it will kill off kills off important microbes in the lawn and soil that help "digest thatch"
The ammonia promotes growth and turns your lawn green.
The mouthwash does something you would never suspect mouthwash would do. It kills off bugs and grubs!
So there you have it the most inexpensive way, of taking care of you lawn and you do not need a bailout from the federal government, to buy these household products.
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Almost Free Trees
Friday, March 13, 2009 | By jess
Hey, I was looking into replacing a dogwood tree that we planted a couple of years ago. I think the frost killed it off last year and there are no shoots coming from the bottom. So there was $70.00 down the drain.
I was looking for cheaper alternatives to nursery or garden center prices when I found the site for the Arbor Day Foundation.
http://www.arborday.org/
If you become a member, they will GIVE you 10 trees, including dogwoods. And the individual prices on trees, even if you aren't a member are very reasonable. I was looking at a dogwood for about $16.
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setting up this year's garden
Sunday, February 15, 2009 | By abboortz
I love gardening, but I usually just plant butterly plants etc. Last year I bought some trees from Zone10 Nursery in Miami and they are doing well. I have a mango, mulberry, pomegranate, star fruit and honey bell. I got one honey bell from the tree this year, a miniature star fruit, NO MANGOES at all because of the drought, and lots and lots of mulberries that I have to share with the birds. They did cost a lot to purchase and have delivered, but I thought it was the best idea to make sure the plants were accustomed to this area. I had to recently buy yet another banana plant because the last 3 I got refused to bear fruit and I am just not giving up.
In the past we have used my compost heap to amend the soil here to make the garden plots. Last year we finally made some raised beds from discarded pallets, but did a poor job of it and they fell apart.
This year i had some bed slats that no one on FreeCycle wanted so i bought some Liquid Nails and some bracket like things and put them together. For $10 I got three 3'X3'X6" raised beds that are holding together nicely.
I have prided myself on having xyroscaped the entire yard for the past 10 years, but this year with the drought I was losing so many plants. the truth of the matter is that the city is putting sewers in my development (built in 1964 and still on septic, thank you very much) so my entire butterfly garden has been watered from the drain field all this time. I took the grass out shortly after we purchased the house in 1999 because there were bugs killing off the grass and I didn't want to put chemicals down.
Year after year I have added plants and checked to see what would grow in my yard. Mostly Plumbago, porter's weed. some tall plant with yellow flower and mexican petunias, but then I put in dune sunflower and it is all being taken over. there has been a drought since our wonderful wet season ended and all my plants were "mysteriously" dying. I just figured out last week that it might just be the lack of water. Now that there aren't 5 of us at the house any more, and my oldest showers at her boyfriend, and we don't do more than one load of laundry each week and we have low flow shower heads and low flush toilets (if it's yellow let it mellow......) there just isn't much water getting to the plants. The Swale is totally torn up and I am losing well established plants to the construction and they think they are going to replace all that with grass.
With that in mind I started releveling the back yard which had been torn up pretty badly by three rowdy dogs that are no longer with us. But when I pulled out all the ferns that had grown up to the screened in enclosure and raked out most of the junk and cut back the dead traveler's palms in preparation for moving the new grass to the back yard, I discovered that I was again energized and felt like planting.
So i went to Home Depot late at night and began helping them by recovering dead and dying plants (til my daughter told me that was illegal) and I had several flats of flowers by then. I cleaned up another spot of the side yard and planted them there since we spend so much time on our back patio.
But then I decided that since my septic would be gone soon and my front yard would clearly need to be watered again, I checked my irrigation system. The gardener that my husband had hired while my son and I were living in South America (Uruguay) had run over about one sprinkler in each zone, and I had just given away most of my pvc and sprinkler stuff in a freecycle frenzy. but miraculously the one spot that I had been clearing and watering by hand had complete system.
I planted the flowers and a sweet potato plant that I had rescued from the front yard. But then I built the garden beds and this year I actually bought the $1.35 top soil from Home Depot, 6 bags of seeds and three tomato plants.
In the remaining raised bed from last year that I had been using as my compost heap I planted a strip of beets and I already had potatoes growing there. I purchased some containers that were on sale and planted okra in them because okra seems picky. in the raised beds in the back yard I planted the corn, green beans and squash in square foot gardening style and mixed a bag of top soil with the sandy soil in my back yard for the cumbers. The peas went the same place they were last year, against an old fence panel that we will attach string to for trellising, and some went in pots my daughter had found on the side of the road against an old picket fence panel we have placed against the screened in porch to keep the remaining dog in the actual back yard.
I over spent and have since looked at other people's frugal sites for gardening and am mostly ashamed.
I think that all together I spent $15 on soil, $10 on the glue and brackets, $10 on the seeds. I was extravagant on the pots and spent a total of $25 for them, but they are so pretty. Since then, however I saw this one guy use the mayonaise tubs from restaurants (I know how to get those) for his tomatoes. I bet those are going to grow incredibly well because of the depth. Mine are in reclaimed landscaping plastics that can be found all over the side of the road on trash day.
The pretty pots are where the neighbors can see them, and the pretty ones my daughter found are by the picket fence. If all the food grows and I have had the experience that it will, I will have more than $60 worth of vegetables that will produce for the next 6 months. All the peas and the cucumbers have sprouted already (4 days) but I don't see any of the corn or squash. all of the beets have sprouted. I almost think I should move the potatoes to give them more room, but I don't think they transplant well.
I purchased an organic pest control that will attach to my hose since all of my spray pumps died. ($10) and I did spend $29 on the banana plant, but it is supposed to produce over a period of 5 months as well, and I don't buy bananas right now cause they are too expensive in my book.
so perhaps I spent a total of $100, but I think I will get it all back plus some. The excess food I will freeze and then donate what I can't use to the food banks in town.
I won't need any mulch for any of the gardens cause I am doing the 3 sisters thing. the tomatoes and okra are in pots and the peas are near an oak and ficus tree that lose leaves all year round. when they are done sprouting and are up on the trellis I surround them with piles of leaves that I have to take off the screened in porch to clean the gutters.
Speaking of which , the stuff that comes out of the gutters has lots and lots of nutrients, so I usually scoop that all in to a bucket and put it on top of the garden beds as the plants grow. Over the fall when I didn't plant anything, clover was growing in the beds. so all is well and set for tremendous growth.
Dandelions and other greens are the only things that have been growing this winter through the drought. I just take my scissors out and cut enough for whatever I am cooking. I add them to my beans and my scrambled eggs. I just call them greens.
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SLUGS
Monday, September 29, 2008 | By harrisr4
I've never heard of anything so ridiculous! Who on earth would go tothe lengths of having old metal window frames lying around waiting to be cut up into little rectangles with circular holes all for a few slugs.GET A LIFE.
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Composting is dirt simple!
Sunday, September 14, 2008 | By Ysteb
About a year ago Chris & I decided to start composting. We had just bought the house & NOW we could plant a small garden. You have to add soil to Central Florida's sand to have a fighting chance of a harvest. Compost was the way to go. He brought home chicken wire. We shaped it into a 3 foot tall rectangle, bending the edges of a separate piece to become the top. It's located in the far corner of the back yard, Then began adding any veggie matter, cooked or uncooked from our meals. Also all coffee grounds, tea bags, paper towels or napkins, eggshells. We enjoy three large live oaks so have lots of leafy matter to alternate with layers of fruit rinds & corn husks. At first, I regularly stripped newsprint into the mix, also. No bones or meat/fish, though. A small hoe & trowel hang on the hook to make raking over the bin easy.
A year later, we have a colony of earthworms & grubs happily eating. Our frogs, geckos & anoles keep any fly or other insects under control. We've composted two garden beds & added soil around tree bases. The soil is rich & dark. No smell other than healthy earth. Oddly, no matter how much we add to the heap, it rarely gains in height. Seems to have reached a happy two-thirds equilibrium.
We recycle our newspapers, magazines, cans, bottles, boxes, etc. But we were surprised to notice that the amount of trash going to the curb reduced by at least a third after we began composting. Most of the fodder for our compost went in the disposal before this. Maybe the process has just made us more aware of waste & excessive buying habits. Have you had this or a similar experience?
Bye for now,
Betsy
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tomatoes & peppers
Wednesday, September 10, 2008 | By Ysteb
Our 2 tomatoes grew rapidly in early summer but gave small Romas. Bursting with flavor. Squirrel stole a few, too. Suddenly all the leaves were missing! None on the ground, just GONE. Overnight, it seemed. Would a squirrel do that? The yard & the plants are fenced. Set new plants & the storms blew off the blossoms. It's Central FLorida - we might get a few for fall. The peppers were less prolific but something is trying to eat the leaves. Have washed with soapy water, set out coffee grounds & eggshells. No reversal yet. Great peppers but no seeds. DRAT - should have read the labelling more closely...
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