Design an Easy Kitchen Garden

The kitchen garden might be the focal point of an all-season landscape or simply a basic vegetable patch. It’s a place to grow herbs, vegetables, and fruits, but it can also be a structured garden space, often with a design centered on repetitive geometric patterns.

Kitchen Garden

A kitchen garden is a private, often small-scale garden whose purpose is to provide the owner with produce for cooking. Kitchen gardens can be anything from highly organized and ornamental plots in suburban yards to casual plantings around a shaded home-base in an inner city apartment building.

To design a kitchen garden, it is helpful to consider the size and location of the garden in relationship to where you will be cooking. A kitchen garden can save time, money, and provide nutritious homegrown produce. There are many possibilities in designing a kitchen garden; it does not have to look like everyone else’s kitchen garden.

Easy Watering For Container Plants

A great way to make sure your hanging, or container, plants get a deep watering. It will also cut down on the frequency of having to water the plants.

Easy Plant Watering

Cut the bottom off a 1 or 2 liter bottle. Poke holes as shown in the picture. Leave an inch or so of the bottle above the soil line and fill with water. The plant roots will draw the water as needed!

 

Homemade Weed Killer

Homemade Weed Killer

Weed Killer Ingredients

  • 1 gallon of white vinegar
  • 1/2 cup salt
  • Liquid dish soap (any brand)
  • Empty spray bottle.

Homemade Weed Killer

Put salt in the empty spray bottle and fill it the rest of the way up with white vinegar. Add a squirt of liquid dish soap (makes it stick to the leaves). 

Mix well, spray on weeds in the morning, rejoice in their death that evening.

This solution works best if you use it on a hot day. Spray it on the weeds in the morning, and as it heats up it will do its work.

Natural Weed Killer

Got weeds? Use vinegar!  Vinegar is a staple in many homes, but did you know that this seemingly benign liquid can be used to kill weeds? The acetic acid in vinegar takes out the water of the weeds, causing them to dry up and die.

Vinegar to Kill Weeds

Vinegar alone is sufficient to eliminate weeds; however, it works best when used in conjunction with soap and salt. Combine some Dawn dish soap, either plain salt or Epsom salts, and vinegar in a large container with a wooden spoon. You’ll need to reapply the solution for stubborn, older weeds, just like you would with chemical weed killers.

Be careful what you put this mixture on, it won’t discriminate between weeds and the things you want to grow!

Backyard Ideas

Today I wanted to spend a relaxing afternoon in the garden. It is a warm and sunny day full of peace and stillness. The birds are singing, a gentle breeze is ruffling through my hair while I am reading an interesting book or listening to some music. This arbor swing is the perfect place to spend my afternoon.

 

Backyard Swing

I will not move too much because this might disturb the total harmony surrounding me. Thus, after having put down my keys, wallet, phone and food on the patio table, I may sit down comfortably in the swing. Maybe I will take off my shoes and feel how the grass tickles under my soles when walking around barefoot.

DIY Wine Box Vegetable Garden

If you’re going to be doing some gardening this year where space is at a premium, then try planting your vegetables in old wine cases!

Vegetables Growing in Wine Crates

Planting a vegetable garden in wine crates made out of chipboard may also suit those people who are wanting to reduce their green-house gases.

Where to Get Wine Crates

Well this is the best place to start, go on Freecycle.org and see what you can get:  There are also a number of places locally where people could be getting rid of them for free, like liquor stores, clubs or bars in your area – just make sure that they are clean and not moldy.

If your neighborhood or city has a Facebook page, you can ask there. Someone might have some, or know of someone or some place, that does and would be willing to give them away.

In my experience, I have found that most people are happy to let you have them for free just to get rid of the cases and if not, then they will usually let you have them for a few dollars.

Benefits of Wine Crate Gardening

Growing plants in wine crates can help you save a great deal of space when compared with traditional gardening. Typically, people plant in rows in traditional gardening, so half of their garden space is devoted to the paths between rows!

A lot of space is being wasted there. With wine crates, you can plant a greater number of plants per square foot than if you planted in rows. Therefore, you will be able to harvest a lot more produce per square foot.

It is also possible to cultivate good soil more easily than with a traditional garden. Traditionally, compost is mixed with soil that has been tilled. 

Wine crate gardening also provides the benefit of not having to deal with as many weeds. You should not find as many weed seeds in the soil you place on top as there would be if it had been tilled. Fresh compost or soil mix usually doesn’t have as many weed seeds as tilled soil does. It is easy to spot and remove any weeds that do find their way into your crate garden.

Easier and More Productive

It is often much easier to maintain a vegetable garden grown in wine crates. Gardening becomes more enjoyable and more efficient when there are fewer weeds and plants are closer together. There is no better way to get more produce out of your available space, and it is generally much easier, too.

A Greener Lawn With Epsom Salt

Remember for Spring ~ Add 2 tablespoons of Epsom salt to a gallon of water and spray your lawn for a lusher, greener lawn. Epsom salt is loaded with magnesium!

Epsom Salts for the lawn

Epsom salt can be used to improve the green color of grass, making your lawn more attractive. How Epsom salt helps your lawn become greener:

  • Magnesium deficiency is a common symptom in grass that fails to thrive or turns yellow.
  • The epsom salts provide magnesium to help the blades turn green.

Green Lawn

Epsom salts are easily dissolved to make a brine solution which can be sprayed on your lawn. I’d recommend you test the spray on a small portion of your lawn to make sure it has no negative effects before treating the whole lawn.

DIY Rotating Composter

DIY rotating composter. A good idea, turn handle instead of pitch fork turning!

This would be so much easier than pitching the composter to turn it. Plus, you can compost large items like small tree limbs and sticks easier than with a pitch fork too!

DIY Rotating Composter

It would be nice to find something like this for sale – but I don’t know of anything like that. But I think it would be easy enough to build it yourself.

For Gorgeous Containers Use The Thriller Spiller Filler Method

For gorgeous containers, try the Thriller/Spiller/Filler method.

Thriller Spiller Filler Method

An ideal container plant plan includes a “thriller,” – a tall plant with a strong form and colorful foliage. Place it at the back of the pot. Next are the “fillers,” – plants which will help hide the soil line, and finally the “spillers,” – plants which will spill out over the pot’s edge, adding more movement and color. In the end, there is a three-dimensional composition that looks beautiful.