DIY: Ease the Burn of a Sunburn

Ever spending several hours out gardening and realize (too late, alas) that you've overdone it? Have you come inside from a pleasant outdoor afternoon only to realize that you're as red as a lobster? And twice as cranky? Well, that happened to me over the weekend.

As I came in from a pleasant afternoon, I noticed the deep dusky red of my shoulders, upper arms and chest. Ouch! But before I completely resigned myself to a week of discomfort and sleepless nights, my eyes alit on my aloe. Now, I have a big pot of aloe and normally it just stands around looking good.

However yesterday I decided to see if aloe works as well on sunburns as it does regular burns.

I quickly sliced off a couple of stalks, butterflied them and coated my upper body with aloe juice. I was able to coat most of the burns, missing only a few spots on the back of my neck.

The verdict? It worked! Although I'm still red, I have very little or no discomfort on the skin that was coated in aloe. In fact, the only area that's tender are those spots on the back of my neck that I missed in the first place.

The moral of the story? Aloe is a wonderful plant. It thrives in benign neglect and it repays the favor of occasional watering with wondrous relief!

Video: Homemade Pesticide

DIY: Homemade Insecticide

Have occasional troubles with bugs but don't trust harsh chemical pesticides that are a hazard to friendly insects, or yourself? Try these recipes!

Recipe#1
Ingredients:

• 1 gal. of warm water,
  
• 1 cup of instant coffee crystals,
  
• a squirt of dish soap(not detergent),
  
• several dashes of tobasco sauce.

Spray both sides of leaves, the stems and soil surrounding plants. You can cut this recipe just as you would reduce any recipe. Refresh it the next year with a little tobasco sauce.

If you make kess than a gallon you could just throw it awy and start new in the Spring.

Do Not Use Instant Powder Coffee; it won't disolve well.

The soap is a surfacant which helps insecticide stick to the leaves. I think the key may be the tobasco sauce. Good Luck.

Recipe#2

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/3 cup rubbing alcohol
• 1/4 tsp liquid dish soap

Add all to a 16 oz spray bottle, fill the rest with water and shake well before each use.
You will be amazed at how fast this knocks out unwanted pests.....before your eyes!
I would suggest you do this very early in the morning as to not burn your plants in the heat of the day.
You have to repeat this as you see the return of the unwanted pest, but it is safe, easy and works great ... I have not found any insect that it will not kill, with direct contact. I also see that it keeps them away for a period, depending on water and rain fall.This is safe and can be applied same day as harvest, just rinse well.

Recipe#3

Ingredients:

• Garlic Concentrate (this can be bought at gardening supply stores)
• Water

Boil a pot of water on the stove and mix in garlic.

Another option is to use certain kinds of plants strategically to drive unwanted bugs from your more delicate varieties. Called 'companion planting', this approach aims to leverage plants' natural properties for use in your garden. Popular companion plants are marigolds, 4 o'clocks, nasturtiums, garlic, borage and tansies.

DIY: Build Your Own Spice Rack

Like the clean minimalist look of the spice rack above? Check out the original post at Apartment Therapy.

Here are the instructions:

How To Build a Spice Rack Out of Vinyl Molding

• The molding came from Home Depot. It's plastic - almost like a Styrofoam - and square. It's easy to cut in a miter box. (I'm always on the lookout for stuff like that.)

• Molding specs: "Blind Stop White Vinyl Never Rot" cellular vinyl moulding. 5/8" by 5/8". $5.15 per 8'. SKU 246871.

• I made ten 2-foot pieces and three 22-inch pieces.

• With little white brads, I nailed 5 of the cross pieces at equal intervals on the uprights (just far enough apart for the jars). I then nailed 5 more cross pieces onto the existing cross pieces to make the shelf wide enough for the spice jars. I'd originally intended just one piece but the resulting shelf was too narrow for the jars. Then I nailed it to the wall, again with brads (it's very light).

• The jars are from Cost Plus originally but I've also found them at Bed Bath and Beyond. I alphabetize them roughly (they're out of order all the time) and also label the tops with Avery removable round stickers. Mainly I just pick 'em by sight when I'm cooking.

DIY: Wild Greens

Nature Bulletin No. 269-A May 13, 1967
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
Richard B. Ogilvie, President
Roland F. Eisenbeis, Supt. of Conservation

****:WILD GREENS

In springtime the human body seems to crave green food. Although, with our modern systems of transportation, it is available all year round, many of us have enough of the spirit of adventure to seek and use some of the wild plants eaten by the Indians and frontiersmen. Perhaps there is the gratification of "getting something for nothing". More likely, some primitive instinct is satisfied by experimenting with such foods, and the feeling that we would manage to survive if cut off from ordinary sources of supply. Wild greens are used much more in Europe than in America but they can furnish an interesting and important part of ourdiet, once we learn to know them. Half the pleasure is in the gathering. Further, that time spent in the out-of-doors makes any food taste better. 

Of these wild greens, the dandelion is most commonly known, gathered and eaten. It has been used since ancient times and, in recent years, it is cultivated for the markets in New York and other cities. The "crowns" or rosettes should be gathered when the leaves are very young and tender. The plants growing up through matted grass or fallen leaves are best. Like many wild greens, they have a slightly bitter tang but are equally good in a salad or when cooked -- alone or with other kinds. Being rich in vitamins A and C, the water in which they are cooked can be saved and sipped as a spring tonic. Winter salads of dandelions can be had if strong thrifty crowns, with two or three inches of root, are stored in a cellar, in autumn, and covered with litter or coal ashes.

Some of us plant vegetable gardens and raise spinach, beet tops, mustard and Swiss chard for greens. As often as not, there is a weedwhich we keep hoed out, and which also grows in shady places around outbuildings -- Lamb's Quarters, or Pigweed, or Goosefoot. It is a fast-growing plant with pale bluish-green leaves shaped like a goose's foot; a relative of spinach and the beet, and equally edible.

Wild mustard is another famous potherb, preferred by many people for cooking with fat salt pork. Sour dock or curly dock, purslane, sorrel, wild chicory and even the plantain which plagues our lawns, are others.

Once you know them, the trick lies in picking only young tender plants and in cooking them properly. However, even older plants become fairly tender and lose much of their bitter taste if boiled in two or three waters and drained after each boiling. The common burdock, although a pest, can furnish good eating if its young sprouts are peeled, scraped and boiled. Wild onions and leek can be as good as domestic onions in salads, soups and stews if used in moderation. The young succulent shoots of milkweed and pokeweed, cut off just above the ground, can be cooked and eaten like asparagus tips; and asparagus, in many localities where its seeds have been spread by birds, has also become a wild plant.

The delicious Creole gumbo, a celebrated American dish, originated from an Indian soup to which dried powdered leaves of the sassafras tree -- native relative of the cinnamon -- were added to give it that spicy "slippery" taste. Later, okra was used as a substitute. Our native water cress and the domesticated water cress, which thrive best in cool clear spring water, have become the favorites of gourmets for salads and as a garnish for meats.

Relatively few wild plants are very poisonous. In some, only certain parts are poisonous -- for instance, the roots of pokeweed, and the raw shoots and roots of the milkweed. One of the best publications telling which to pick and how to use them is the book: Edible Wild Plants of Eastern North America, by Fernald and Kinsey, published by Idlewild Press.  [ed. another book is The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants]

Video: Building Your Trellis

For specific project plans, check out this post on building your very own backyard trellis!

DIY: Build a Backyard Trellis

This week's DIY project is to build a trellis. A trellis can function as a unique sunscreen or can be the framework for an outdoor hanging garden. It's a great surface for upside-down tomato plants. You can also create your own grape arbor, or you can plant annuals like morning glories for a sweetly scented getaway!

Here is a link to free project plans from the Southern Pine Council.

DIY: Set Up A Conservation Easement!

Setting up a conservation easement isn't a typical DIY project but if you own property that you would like to protect in perpetuity, such as a woodlot, farm or marshland, it may be a worthwhile endeavor.

First - what is a conservation easement?  Well, according to the Fox Valley Land Foundation, an easement is

"a way you can protect the environmental value of your land while continuing to own it. It is a legal agreement between a landowner and a nonprofit conservation group or public agency that limits use of the land to ensure that the owner’s conservation goals for the property are upheld."

In other words, an easement is a contract that allows you to retain ownership of your land while restricting certain types of development for as long as the US government and legal system remains intact.

Why set up an easement?  Well, there are two main reasons.  A conservation easement allows you the owner to permanently protect your property from certain types of unwanted development.  It can also confer some significant income tax and estate tax reductions as well because the easement affects the value of the property.

To summarize, an easement:

• Allows you to protect your land permanently, yet retain ownership for you and your descendants,
• Maintains flexibility - you can set up easements that protect your right to farm, cut wood, etc,
• Can signficantly reduce your taxes.

Interested?  Here are a couple of resources to get you started:

Fox Valley Land Foundation

The Conservation Foundation

Video: More Uses for Strawberry Pots!

Including strawberries!

DIY: An Easy Herb Garden In a Strawberry Pot!

This week's tip is a fun and creative way of organizing your herbs so they're in one convenient and gloriously fragrant place.  A 'strawberry pot' is one of those big pots that are studded with ledges around the side of the surface.

Before you get started, however, sit down and put together a list of what you'll need.  Start with the strawberry pot, of course, (and the bigger the better).  You'll also need a high-quality potting soil (not dirt - potting soil has better drainage, which is important in container gardening).  You'll also need enough gravel to place at the bottom of the container, also for drainage.  You may want to pick up a piece of lawn fabric as well, to place over the gravel so it doesn't mix into the soil.

Next, you'll have to decide what herbs to use.  You can plant whatever combination you want, although be careful of mint:  it's invasive and could take over the entire container.  

Popular choices include: 

• thyme, 
• chives, 
• dill, 
• basil, 
• oregano, 
• parsley, 
• cilantro. 

There are many different varieties of the plants listed above - have fun experimenting!  Plant your favorite herb in the top hole where it has more room to grow.

As a final DIY hack:  You can install your own inexpensive drip irrigation system in a strawberry pot with a simple 20oz. plastic bottle.  Poke some small holes in the bottom of the bottle so that water just drips out when filled.  Situate the bottle so that merely the cap is above the surface of the soil - remove the cap and fill in the morning to add water throughout the day!

DIY: Build a Custom Planter!

A custom planter is an excellent way to spruce up the side of your home, add some character or provide an excellent window showcase for some lovely plants!

You can select different options as well - planters can be painted or stained and the height and width is easily customizable for any configuration. Often made from cedar or pressure-treated wood (because it resists rotting), planters can be built to hold dirt directly, or they can be a decorative housing for a more utilitarian pot.

Free plans for planters abound on the internet, (try typing 'free garden planter plans' into your favorite search engine) but here is one of my favorites.

Video: Make Your Own Upside Down Tomato Planter

DIY: Making An Upside Down Tomato Planter

Why plant tomatoes (or anything else for that matter) upside down? Because it makes sense that's why!

For example, an upside down tomato plant eliminates:

• Ground fungus
• Harmful bacteria
• Cutworm damage
• Use of pesticides
• Digging and weeding
• Backbreaking work

Now, you could buy a hanging tomato planter, but what fun would that be? It's just as easy to do it yourself. See this step-by-step guide for building your own upside down tomato planter.

I did this last year for my tomatoes and it worked very well. As in the picture below, you can even engage in a little companion planting, with basil on top and your tomato plant underneath.

Video: Build Your Own Self-Watering Container!

DIY: Portable Gravity Irrigator

Collecting rainwater runoff is great for your area's water quality, but what do you do with the water after 'barrelling' it?  Here is a simple set of instructions for building a simple irrigator to get the water from your barrel to your garden.  

Better yet, this idea can be generalized for any situation where so-called 'gray water' is being collected, meaning that you can use the same concepts to minimize water waste in, say, your shower while the water is heating up!

Portable Gravity Irrigator - More DIY How To Projects

DIY: Starting Seeds From Scratch

Here is a wonderful, almost poetic, article written in the NYT on raising your own plants.

For more practical tips:

Step 1: Buy your seeds

You can purchase seeds from almost any nursery, garden center, or hardware store. Wherever you get them, be sure to check the packing date. Don't use seeds that are more than a year old.

Step 2: Plan your timetable

The planting dates for vegetable and flower plants very significantly,making it impossible to plant all seeds simultaneously. Be sure to check your seed packet for the appropriate timing, which is usually stated in the number of weeks before the last frost. If you're unsure when this is, contact your county extension agent.

Step 3: Choose your planting soil

Youcan buy seed-starting mix or potting soil from your garden center, oryou can make your own mixture. Whatever you use, it's important to start your seeds in a soil that is free from weeds, pests, and soil disease; is able to absord/hold water; and is loosely packed.

Before filling your seed trays, make sure the soil is moist. You should be able to make a ball with it. To ensure this, put the soil in a bucket and gradually add water.

Step 4: Fill your seed trays

If you don't have any plastic seed trays or flats, you can use egg cartons, plastic jugs, yogurt containers, or foil pans. You can also purchase peat pots at your local nursery. Before you begin, make sureyour container has drainage holes - just use a needle to poke holes inthe bottom. Fill planting soil to about 1/2 inch from the top of the container. Gently pat the soil to eliminate air pockets.

Step 5: Plant the seeds

For small seeds, simply scatter them lightly over the soil about 1/8 inchapart. Larger seeds need to be placed exactly and spaced about 1/2 to1 inch apart. Next, cover the seeds with soil. Planting depth may vary. A general rule, however, is to plant the seed three times its diameter deep. Finally, label the containers with the plant's name and date.

Step 6: Wait for germination

Cover the containers to maintain even moisture. Place them in a warm location and spray lightly with water if the soil appears to be drying out.

Step 7: Provide light and water

Once the plant sprouts, remove the cover and place a flourescent light about 2 inches about the container for 12 to 16 hours a day. Continue to spray with water. After two weeks, you can start to fertilize the seeds, if desired.

Step 8: Thin out the plants

When the plants reach an inch in length, use tweezers to eliminate the smaller, weaker sprouts. By thinning out the plants, you can avoid entangled roots.

Step 9: Start hardening off

After about 6 weeks, your plants are ready to be moved outside. Introducethem to outdoor life, know as "hardening off", by placing the containers in a semiprotected location for a few hours a day, gradually increasing the length of time. Eventually, the plants will be outdoors for a full day. This process could take up to two weeks. If the temperature drops below 50 degrees, bring the plants inside.

Step 10: Transplant to the garden

DIY: Calculate Your Carbon Footprint!

First of all - what is a carbon footprint? 

According to wikipedia, it's “the total set of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization, event or product” (UK Carbon Trust 2008).

In other words, a carbon footprint is like a head - we've all got one.  Our carbon footprints are determined by our choices - what kind of car we drive (or do you have a car?), how long we leave the lights on, and what type of food we eat.  The farther your food travels, the greater the carbon footprint.  Ever heard of the 12,000 mile salad?

Local agriculture has many benefits - supporting local farmers, reduced risk of food contamination, better flavor & nutritional value - but a key one is a smaller impact to the environment, especially if the farmer follows sustainable agriculture practices.

Is this a big deal?  Well, according to some estimates 1 hamburger results in 8 - 13 pounds of carbon being released into the atmosphere, much of which due to petroleum products - packaging and shipping.

What to do?  If you're interested in learning more, check out www.terrapass.com.  You can: 

• calculate your own carbon footprint
• learn strategies to reduce your environmental impact
• purchase "carbon offsets"

A carbon offset is a fancy way of saying that somebody will take your money and plant a tree or help build a wind farm to reduce the environmental impact of our collective lifestyle.

Get informed!

Bonus! Check back later this week for a video on how to reduce your own carbon footprint!

Video: How To Attract Birds To Your Garden

DIY: Attract Migratory Birds to Your Garden

If you enjoy birdwatching, or even just enjoy watching wildlife in general, then there's nothing more satisfying that creating your own little bird sanctuary and watching periodic visitors drop by. All right - fly by.

To make the most of your backyard, start with a water source. Whether it's an ornamental pond or a classic bird bath, nothing will draw your feathered friends faster than a visible and inviting stretch of water.

Next, plant trees and shrubs that are native to your area or region. Remember - the birds that summer (or winter) in your area have adapted to living in, on and around native plants. Moreover, native flowers and shrubs will attract typical insects that migratory birds love to feast upon.

And speaking of ground cover, a brush pile or large shrubs will attract birds by giving them a secure place to nest in, or even just spend time in. Remember: most migratory birds nest in shrubs and spend time on tree branches, so birdhouses will not lure many traveling species.

Migratory birds are delightful summertime companions and bring excitement and a dash of color to even the smallest backyard or patio. These simple tips can help you create a small sanctuary for these lovely little creatures.

Bonus! Come back later in the week for a video with more tips and ideas to encourage birds to stop by.

DIY: Build a Cold Frame

In the northern half of the United States, it's hard to grow vegetables and flowers from seed because the growing season simply isn't long enough.  When I've tried it, it seems like my plants are just behind the curve all summer long.  A cold frame is a great way to get a head start on the growing season. 

Here are some plans for an easy and adaptable plant nursery.  Simply find an old storm window, available at most second hand stores (or you may have an old one hanging out in your garage), and adapt the frame to its size. In fact, the instructions are written so that the frame can be built to match any size window.

The frame is also multi-level. The top section has the proper angled top, but the sections below, just add on to grow with your plants.

Note: plans cost $3.95.