Search results

I started out with Dr. Bronner's plain unscented and that's what convinced me and got me hooked. I go with unscented because I use it everywhere for everything, including the kitchen sink. I now buy organic Castile soap by the gallon and really think diluting 4:1 and using a foaming pump...

About a year ago I switched to organic liquid Castile soap for everything - kitchen, shower, bath. It's wonderful - no more cracked dry skin in winter. After a hard day in the garden, it cleans the grime beautifully. I find it cleans kitchen items just as well or even better than any of the...

Marshall, thank you very much for this info! I might try early indoor bean starts this year to compare with direct sown. Maybe it will boost yield. I usually wait until late May/early June here to plant beans to be sure the soil is warm enough and that means a pretty short season. It all depends...

Marshall, I never thought of starting beans inside. I always thought they didn't like transplanting, much like cucumbers. But of course, I do transplant cucumbers just to get a jump start on them. Does this work for any bean type like, for instance, flat Italian? Do you figure starting about 1...

Some of those insect condos are quite attractive...works of art, really. Interesting! Thanks for posting.

Wait...What? I don't understand. It's RAIN. Please help me understand. Where on earth are you and how could that law be enforced? You have rain police? Who benefits from a law like that? Yikes! (Sputter, mumble, grumble)

Hi LeoCharlie - Welcome to growing and gardening. I'm guessing that the problem is a combination of too much water and not enough light. This plant likes full sun and it's hard to not love a plant to death by over watering. Happens to me after decades of learning and knowing better. Good luck...

I grew some lettuce, spinach, mache and chervil in flats over the winter in my cold frames with mixed results. We had so much snow this year (almost 10 feet) that I had trouble getting out to the cold frames to vent the heat on sunny days and water/harvest. I could have used my snow shoes, but I...

How cool is that? Worth the wait. I'd love to have a seat like that.

Thanks for the reminder. Hardening off is such a drag, but you are right - it really can't be avoided. I've been putting my onion seedlings out in a protected spot for a few days, but only in the middle of the day and only for a couple hours. And good point about the mid day sun. One of my cold...

I'm in zone 6/5 and I'm coming up to the same question, same variety of plants, same cold frame situation. What would everyone recommend the minimum low temp should be for cole/brassica crops? Also for onion seedlings. My daytime temps are creeping up to 70s/80s and now I'm venting my cold...

Thanks for this info Marshall. The one and only jeans-clad pant leg method of seed saving! Love it. I've never tried to save seeds before and I always thought the ferment/rot process was needed to prepare the seed for sprouting the next year. I didn't have any idea it was to destroy disease or...

Okey Dokey...lettuce, apples, tomatoes, sunflower leaves, cantaloupe, peaches, shotgun...check, check, check, check, check, check, check. And building a funnel to the trap is brilliant! If none of those ideas work, then I might as well save up to send the pest off to college, because he's way...

I forced a bag of mixed hyacinths this winter - what a happy bunch of fragrant flowers that was! I've read that once you force them, especially in water, the bulbs are spent and won't do well if potted on and kept for planting outside in the fall. I'd like to know if this is true or not and what...

HA! I'd love to get a chance to whack one with my garden hoe, or better yet a sledge hammer...well, no, not really. But I would like to figure out how to trap one. Can't tempt it into our have-a-heart no matter how we bait it. Any tips there?

And here I thought I'd find some handy tips to rid my garden of a voracious groundhog that mowed down too many veggies last year. But noooooo. You all have to taunt me with images of that infamous groundhog that got it all wrong. Again. It snowed again here this morning and my cold frames...

HA! Very funny! I LOL at that. I've been following this thread because I'm thinking about going to all manual. We've used a dishwasher for decades, but think maybe it doesn't make sense now. We clean and wash everything as we cook and since there are only two of us now there isn't much to get...

I seem to remember a picture of a chicken coop of that design on BYC and the builder wrote directions and formulas for constructing the sway back. It looked absolutely fabulous and lucky the person who has the construction know how (and patience) to build it. I'm just happy to have square and plumb!

OMG! Shiver!I am such an arachnophobic. Flame thrower please. And yes, next time please leave the bowl where you found it.

Though I wouldn't use ACV in a metal chicken waterer because it might leach out metals or corrode/destroy the waterer over time. Plastic or glass - yes. I don't use ACV, but I hear it's good for chickens and sure won't hurt them.