Tools of the Gardening Trade

I love gardening! There’s just something therapeutic and satisfying about being outside, listening, smelling, breathing, living nature that revives my very being. Each season brings new experiences and I hope to learn more.

After a very inspiring email I received from my Mom, I decided to post some of the tools etc that have been very helpful in my gardening endeavors.

I do a lot of weeding on my knees so, this wonderful squishy knee board really helps a lot! I don't always use the gloves, but they seem to help grip the weeds better than my bare hands as they have a anti slip coating on them. Aren't those Million Bells lovely!

I've had these crocks for YEARS! They were given to me by an elderly friend as a thank you gift for helping her pack when she was moving. They are the most comfortable footwear I own! Sometimes, if my feet are hurting, I'll even wear them inside when I'm washing dishes or cooking. I wear them in the garden all the time. Some of the vegetables I grow I get as plants that have already been started at the greenhouse. The trowel is perfect for digging the right size hole to plant them in!

Of all the tools I have, the roto tiller has to be my favorite! I just can't imagine how I've ever gotten along without it. You may notice that it's called "Super Bronco"... They didn't name it that for no reason, but I have managed to tame the bucking machine. It's rather temperamental in that, if you don't maneuver it correctly, it will really take off! Fortunately for me, it has a safety mechanism so if you let go of it, it'll stop, Notice I said, 'IF you let go'. One day, I was tilling doing just fine when, all of a sudden I hit a patch that 'spooked' my tiller and it jumped and galloped away... with me holding on for dear life. I felt like my daughter when she was little walking our dog who was actually walking HER! All she could've done was let go of the leash and she would've been fine but, she held on for dear life and soon she was being drug across the yard until I hollered at her to let go. Now, said dear daughter was watching her mother do the same thing and laughing rather hard about it. 

Now that I have mastered the skill of tilling with it, it has really been a blessing! I till just before planting my row to make the grown freshly soft. I till between the planted rows periodically to keep the weeds down so my garden doesn't get out of hand.

Here's the ever faithful hoe for those narrow places that the tiller can't get into such as between the rows of corn. Eventually, the corn, which is planted just a little closer together, gets too big and it's not a good idea to till between them even if you fit through because it could damaged the spreading roots below the ground. 

This is another must-have! Diatomaceous Earth consists of fossilized remains of diatoms, a type of hard-shelled algae. This fine powder has many uses and can even be taken eternally. What do I do with it? I sprinkle it on the leaves of my plants and it helps stops unwanted pests from eating the leaves. I have been told that when the beetles etc eat the leaves, they eat the D.E. which slices their intestines causing them to die. Sounds barbaric, doesn't it! According to Wikipedia it dries the little culprits insides up and causes them to die. However it works, I only know that it DOES work. 

This is a picture of my bean plant. Notice that the older leaves on the bottom are full of holes while, the upper newer leaves look nice and healthy!

My dear hubby brought this compost tumbler home for me. It has a vented lid on both ends for easy access adding scraps such as egg shells, coffee grounds, fruit peelings, vegetable scraps. I've even plopped a few earth worms in there! Ever so often, I flip it the over putting the fresher scraps on the bottom. If you have a good compost, it should not have a foul odor but a nice earthy smell.

My childhood love for wagons overtook me this past spring. I was bound and determined to buy one and had it delivered to my door. My sweet boy assembled it for me and I wheeled my green buddy out the door and into the garden! It has been so convenient to have! Until I got a hose, I had to haul the water down to the garden and water each plant by hand (a rather time consuming chore) so I was able to haul 3 5-gallon buckets at once instead of just one. I pull it around as I'm weeding. The sides come down and I can sit in it while I harvest or weed, or prop my feet on it while I sit under the tree and shell peas.

When my little friends come over, they have a blast pulling each other around in it.

When you have a garden as large as mine, (104' x 68') rain is a real blessing? Living where it's humid and we usually see lots of rain, there are still times in between that I need to water if I want my pantry filled. Even though my wagon was a great blessing in hauling all that water to the garden, a hose was a quick addition to my "tool chest". But I was still spending HOURS watering with the hose and so a sprinkler was gifted by my dad who didn't want his daughter turning into a lobster standing in the blazing sun. It works GREAT! You see, ever since I got it, hooked it up, turned it on -  it rained! It's been raining pretty regularly ever since! Amazing, isn't it? Sorry, I don't have a picture of the sprinkler, but I guess everyone knows what a sprinkler looks like anyway!

Diatomaceous Earth works great for certain pests but, not for furry cute ones such as rabbits and squirrels! I watched one such long-eared cutie pie take his liberty on one of my biggest marigold blooms the other day! Dad said it was time for me to get a BB gun. I was a little worried about it as I don't want to actually KILL the critters, just scare them off. Dad assured me that it wouldn't harm them so, I was excited to try it out. Only problem is, just like the efficiency of my sprinkler, I haven't seen on single critter since I got the gun! Actually, I take that back.... My husband was out there pounding stakes in for my tomatoes to be strung up when I saw a CRITTER!
ME: "OOOH! A target!!!"
HUBBY: "Where?"
ME: "There!" pointing to a black cat on the far side of the garden
HUBBY: "that's not a target! That's the neighbor's CAT!"
ME: "I just want to see if I could actually hit it!"
HUBBY: "Are you crazy??
I didn't answer that as I realized I would have to be a good aim if I were to avoid shooting my husband. I don't think he would've appreciated it too well.

Well, this is the end of my list of tools for now. Do you have a favorite tool you like to use in the garden? I'd love to hear about it. 

Gracing the Hope and Joy of Waiting - Hope Chest Treasures

A friend of mine blogged this morning that she titled, “Dreaming & Planning for the Future – Items to Put in a HopeChest.”  I started to comment on her blog and pretty soon found that she had inspired me so much that I had quite written a whole blog post myself and so, decided to add it here on my Inspirations of My Heart blog.

I had a hope chest once. For my birthday one year when I was in high school, my mom bought me a large whicker chest. I didn’t have a real large variety of items in it when I got married, but what I did have was special.  What I had was a large set of dishes that I had fun getting piece by piece. They were a grocery store marketing set from A.J. Bayless. For every so much money a customer spent, they would get a stamp that you would affix to a card. When you filled up the card, you could get a dinner plate, a cup and saucer. I had collected a set of about 12.

It was so enjoyable to watch my collection grow over time. However, after I was married, my mother had given me her large Pfaltzgraff tea rose set and I had lost interest in the tulip design of the dishes I had collected. My mother-in-law seemed to really love the dishes, so, I took them to her on my first trip to Mexico with my new husband.

The other item I remember having in my hope chest was a letter written by my mom to my future husband. It was a very sweet letter and I still have it. She wrote it when I was in baking a lemon meringue pie for my Home Ec class when I was in Junior High. I guess this will give you an idea just how hopelessly sentimental I am!

After I was married, my mom gave me many things that she no longer used as did a few of the older sisters from our church. And, as time went on, the Lord has provided all the things that I needed and so much more!

Today, I am feeling somewhat melancholy – maybe even a bit weepy. You see, today my baby has turned 13 – no longer a child. I am now the mother of one adult and three teenagers. However, I am counting my blessings today because the Lord has blessed me tremendously with these awesome and wonderful young people who I still call… my children!!! They are so diverse from one another, yet so much fun and they bring me such joy!

Among these, the Lord has blessed me to be the mother of three lovely daughters. My oldest has a hope chest as well. She uses an old beat up green trunk that we have stored in the garage. My next daughter has been storing items in a drawer for the time being and my youngest doesn’t have one… yet.

I have thought about what items should be in a hope chest. I suppose certain factors such as how much room you have to store items would influence what you would collect. There is a family that is very dear to me that my family and I like to visit. They always go so completely out of their way to really made us feel so welcome and loved! One evening their children and mine all but kicked me and their mother out of the kitchen and so, she and I decided to go to town and have our OWN adventures shopping. When we came home, the house was filled with tantalizing, mouth watering smells, and the table! The table was set for all 14 of us and lovingly, beautifully placed with one of their daughter’s fine china that she has been collecting for her hope chest. Her china doesn’t fit in her hope chest which is an old steamer trunk that she and her dad lined. She keeps in in a big plastic bin. Her china wasn’t very fancy, but it was very elegant and I decided then, that if I can, I would like to see my daughters be able to have a china set for their hope chests… even if it doesn’t fit! I’m still working on that one.

Among other necessary basic items that would be needed to start a home, I have listed some ideas to grace the hope and joy of waiting for that very special day:

v    A china set J

v    Very special family heirlooms

v    Handmade items such as

o      a crocheted doily

o      needlework

o      a quilt

o      pillowcases

o      aprons

v    Pictures for my daughters to start their own scrapbook albums

v    An organized recipe book with recipes handed down from family members or simply the tried and true recipes we use often in our family

v    Even special items for their future children.

o      I have a rubber maid box for each of my children containing a few clothes that they wore when they were babies, their blankies, etc. My mom had saved some of the clothes that I had wore and I thought it was so special to put them on my own babies. I still have my clothes, and, someday, I may part them out to each of my children for their children.

o      I have been finding particular books that have been extra special to me when I was young to give to them so that they may teach their children diligently the way in which they should go. 

THE BROKEN CANNING JAR

Now this is a broken jar,

A very sad sight I would say,

It busted in the boiling water,

While I was canning tomatoes the other day.

It just couldn’t stand the pressure,

And simply couldn’t take the heat,

Although it was used for a noble cause,

It has sunk to the bottom in defeat.

Now the tomatoes are all wasted,

The fruit of my labor all lost,

The mess it made needs to be cleaned,

And the jar will have to be tossed.

But may I learn a valuable lesson,

From the jar that gave up the ghost,

When the pressure’s crushing and the heat’s hottest,

It’s in my weakest hour, that I need His strength the most.

~ jw

February 7, 2014

House Painting Tip

Last evening, my family and I started painting the trim of our house. We painted all the trim except for around the windows in the back. So, this morning, I painted the back. The weather is so beautiful especially in the morning! There was a cool breeze gently blowing, the grass smelled so sweet and the birds kept me serenaded while I worked.

Painting a house takes time, patience and a steady hand if you want your house to look nice. I am, by no means, professional and so I like to use whatever helpful tool I can find to help me especially when doing the details. Well, I didn't have the right tool, so i made one! J

If you are painting small detail areas like this...

...but don't want it to turn out like this...

...then, unless you have the skill and steady hand, you need some kind of tool to help out. They do sell different things that would probably work better, but all I had were brushes and rollers. So, I got to thinking and this is what I came up with:

All it is, is one piece of cardstock folded over twice lengthwise. Then, I put a strip of duct tape at the edge, folding the tape over to the other side. This way, they paint won't soak through the paper and you can wipe it clean (especially helpful because you'll need to wipe the back side to keep it clean. 

Just line the tape side of the tool up against the surface you are painting covering the area you don't want painted like this:

Here I used my homemade edger tool. Much better! Except, I see that I missed a couple spots. But, don't you just love that clean edge?

I had used a piece of cardboard wrapped in plastic wrap. Although the cardboard was sturdy, it was too thick preventing the brush from getting all the way to the very edge. 

Here's a final before and after picture:

Homemade Laundry Detergent

After several attempts at trying different recipes for homemade laundry soap, I finally found an awesome recipe that is much cheaper than commercial laundry detergents, easy to put together, easy to store and doesn't leave a white residue on my darks. I got this recipe from  How Does She? only I've slightly changed the recipe by using 4 Fels Naptha bars instead of 2 Zote bars (I like the smell of the Fels Naptha better) and I haven't tried putting the soap in the microwave - I just grate the bars and add them to the mix. I also gave this recipe a more appealing name J (in my humble opinion).

Although I have a top loader washing machine, this recipe works great for HE washers too because there are no suds. I know, because I've passed this on to a friend of mine who has been using it for a while now in her HE washer. 

Besides the satisfaction of that homesteading feeling that I made my own laundry detergent, the other and more beneficial reason I started making it was in effort to find a more cost efficient detergent as laundry soap was one of my biggest expenses.  I am still in the process of calculating exactly how much this all costs per load, but I do know that I spent less than $40 and it has lasted me months!

HOMESTEADER’S DRY LAUNDRY DETERGENT

  

1 box (4lb 12 oz) Borax

1 box Arm & Hammer Super WASHING Soda

1 box (4lb) Arm & Hammer BAKING Soda

1 Container (3lb) Oxy Clean

2 bars (14.1 oz) Fels Naptha or Zote or any other bar soap you wish finely grated

1 – 2 bottles (55oz) Purex Crystals Fabric Softener (depending on how strongly perfumed you want your clothes)

Using tall kitchen gloves, mix all ingredients thoroughly in a WELL VENTILATED area – like outside. Store detergent in a dry container – You can use the Purex Crystals and Oxy Clean containers as well.

TO USE: add 2 Tablespoons to your laundry water (DON’T be tempted to add more – that’s all you need!)

TIP FOR WHITER WHITES (for top loader washers only): Wash Whites hot water and add 2 Tablespoons of Dawn Original liquid dish soap in addition to the 2 Tablespoons of detergent.