Most of our tomatoes and many of our beans were severely damaged from herbicide poisoning last year. I used horse manure from horses that had eaten from fields sprayed with aminopyralid, a broad leaf herbicide that passes right through the horse and can stay in their manure for up to 3 years. I learned my lesson last year and this year I tested my compost first. See how I tested it and the results of […]
This is the story about why I decided to start helping others grow their own food and how Election Day changed my life.
Our tomatoes have outgrown their containers that we started them in and now it’s time to transplant them into larger pots until they go out into the garden in a few weeks. I want to wait until night time temperatures are consistently in the 50s before I plant them outside. We’ve had unseasonably warm temperatures this year but you never know when a random freeze is around the corner in Oklahoma! You can go ahead […]
Birds stole many of our seeds and cats were walking through our gardens at night. We solved both problems with 3 easy solutions: Hardware Mesh, Motion Activated Sprinkler, and Burlap Motion activated sprinkler in action
I had an opportunity to speak at the OKC Open Hardware Meetup group today about our garden and how I’m planning to use Open Source Hardware to automate irrigation using moisture level sensors in the soil to control watering. I met a lot of brilliant people with exciting ideas about how to make it all happen. I feel like I have a firm grasp on what needs to be done and now it’s just a […]
We started our spring crops off by planting onions and peas! I also planted a rosemary bush I picked up from the nursery and I talk about how we use companion planting to help with cabbage moths.
6/1/2017 Update: We have a video for this now! Long gone are the days of buying laundry detergent for me. I got frustrated spending so much money on laundry detergents each month that I started to research how to go about saving money. I found some recipes for laundry detergents, but none seemed to be the best match for me. I have very sensitive skin and a lot of store-bought and homemade detergents caused […]
Update: One idea to combat some of the issue related to heat would be to insulate the bed with wood chips up to near the top of the cinder block. I’d think this would help with many of the issues related to overheating. I’ve spent some time researching whether or not it would be a good idea to use cinder blocks to build a longer-lasting raised bed and wanted to share the best information I […]
I passionately despise alarm clocks. The jolt from waking up to the sound of an alarm used to begin my day with an anxiety that normally took a morning run to wear off. Back then I didn’t have a choice. I worked in an office that required me to be there by a certain time and that meant waking up while it was still dark. It wasn’t until I started working with flexible hours that I […]
Dishwasher detergent was something I never even thought about being able to make. I always just thought it was one of those purchases I had to keep making every month or so. I found this really simple recipe from Happy Money Saver and have found it to be so beneficial! Not only is it simple to make, it works just as well as the store-bought detergent! Positives: Cheaper than store bought You aren’t using harsh […]
