Garden Rows

Tricks

Random Tips 
For the Garden and Home
Have a suggestion?  E-mail me at jimele.klein@gmail.com


Bugs

  • To get rid of ants mix about one to 1 1/2 teaspoons Borax in a tablespoon of jelly.  (Specific ratio is not important) Place this mixture where you see the little buggers.  In a cabinet is good especially if you have pets or kids.  Make sure the pets and kids do not get into it!  Three days after I did this I did not see any more ants.  My house has now been ant free for over a year.
  • Slugs-be-gone!  Slugs like to visit gardens in the night making them hard to get.  Leave a bit of beer in a shallow dish on the ground near plants that they seem to like so that the slimy guys can slide into it. 
Drink
  • Flavored iced tea.  Want to mix up your summer iced tea experience?  Forget putting frozen water in your tea, make your afternoon tea special with watermelon ice cubes.  Remember that watermelon you just bought at the farmers market?  or maybe you have one almost ripe in your own garden.  Use a melon baller and plop the watermelon balls into an ice cube tray.  WAIT! don't dump the juice! pour it into the ice cube trays, too.  Using a melon baller seems to create more juice than just chopping up the fruit, plus if you cut the melon in half once, you have a handy-dandy automatic bowl, no need for extra dishes to wash!
  • Is your wine too warm?  (Wine-snobs be ware of the following content.)  I have heard of some people putting ice in their red wine.  They may be on to something.  Red wine seems to be served room temperature (even in many restaurants) and that is just not right! it should be served at 50-something degrees, not the 70-something of most homes.  The biggest problem with putting ice in a glass of wine is that it melts leaving you with a watery-not-so-red wine.  So if you do not have time to put the bottle of red wine in the fridge for 15 minutes before pouring, then Try this instead: drop a few frozen grapes in the glass.  You will have the same chilling feature that you want with out the watered down side effect of ice.  This works with white wines as well.
Yard
  • Lots-o-Leaves Run the lawn mower over leaves as they fall.  Gather up the chopped leaves and add to your compost pile.  Leaves are a great compost ingredient, and chopping them with the lawn mower helps to avoid large wet masses of leaves that would mold.  

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