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Little House in the Suburbs
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We are two friends who garden, soap, raise chickens, craft, knit, preserve and keep house in their respective homes in the suburbs. Here we keep up with each other's latest goings-on and share it with you.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'Green Living'
Succession Planting Planner
SUCCESSION PLANTING is the term gardeners use to refer to planting something else in place when a previous crop is all finished.To pull this off effectively, you need a few things:1. A diagram of your garden with zones marked off and numbered/letter...
Easy Organic Garden Plant Food
picture from Tomatocasual.comSometimes our plants go yellow. Or brown on the leaf edges. Or just generally unhappy in a well-watered, pest-free, yet-some-how-still-unhappy way.The plant is probably hungry.You can go CRAZY trying to figure out if it...
Easy Organic Garden Bug Repellant
See those aphids? They killed that plant. But I mixed up some voodoo and I haven't seen one since.Allium Tea 6 cloves garlic1 onion1qt warm water3T liquid soap* (not detergent)Buzz first three in blender. Add soap. Steep overnight and strain. Spray...
Clothesline Time
It's time for me to start using the clothesline again.Some stalwarts dry clothes sans dryer year round regardless of the temperature but I'm a fair weather clothesliner.I'm opening up this post to your best tips and advice for air-drying laundry, ind...
Companion Planting Made Easy-ish: Part 3 of 3
As we've said before, companion planting is like seating your guests at the wedding reception.1. Members of the same family shouldn't be seated together.2. Hatfields and McCoys must be kept across the room from each other.Today, we cover Rule 3: So...
Companion Planting Made Easy-ish: Part 2 of 3
We've already covered Rule One: Separate Family Members. If you missed that one, you'll have no idea what I'm talking about when I mention a particular plant family. So go back now. Learning this stuff for each and every species will make your ears...
Homemade Vegetable and Fruit Wash
I live and die by this salad spinner. She's no spring chicken, though. She has a pull string. She has those little hairline cracks from being dropped too many times. She's been with me a long, long time.I use the strainer part to carry vegetables...
Elusive Edible Landscaping
Edible Landscaping, when you have a homeowners association, is all about distraction. When you look at the above picture, do you see my crops? Would you notice them if I hadn't told you?That's what I'm talking about.Behind my pansies, behind the fenc...
Cinder Block Compost Bins
What can you do with:a gillion cinderblocksan ever-growing piles of organic trashan ugly hidden part of the yard begging for a purposeSomething so ugly and at the same time so beautiful....Here are the pdf instructions for constructing this bad boy, ...
Quick, Natural, Head-to-Toe Clean
Shampoo and body wash, like all synthetic detergents, work equally well in hard and soft water. The problem is that it's expensive and rips the oils out of your hair. Hence the need for conditioner--to cover up the oil-stripping-damage done by the s...
No-Sew Rag Wrist Purse
WOW, that's a bad picture. I swear the purse doesn't glow like that. Anyhoo, if you have only one of those giant-necked, perfect-fit Old Navy tees and you wanna recycle it. Here's your project.1. Refer to this post and this post for detailed desc...
Out With the Inedibles
Blueberries v. RosesI know you can eat rose petals but as I have yet to find a way to make them a significant part of my family's diet they are being supplanted by four eminently edible blueberry bushes. Three rose bushes will be moved from their pri...
Pickles and Printable: Stretching Your Seed Stash
Some folks collect and store their own seeds. Some folks buy and store their seeds. But, what you do not want to do is buy new seed every year if you don't have to, right? And most of the seed you buy this season can be kept for 3-5 years!Material...
Homegrown First Aid
Newspaper Seedling Packs
Cast Iron Care
This is me seasoning my brand spanking new bacon press. But before this glorious moment occurred, my hubby ran it through the dishwasher. Have you ever seen that? RUST!!!The way to remove rust from cast iron is the combination of oil and salt. (Y...
Seed Packet Bookmarks
At this time of the year, I have all kinds of shredded paper sticking out of my favorite gardening books and a bunch of full size seed packets with a millimeter of seed inside. Messy!How to Get a Free Bookmark with Seed Purchase1. Bang chosen packe...
