DIY Garden tips and recipes

We all have resources available to us: online, from experience, from friends or in books, but getting them all together in one place and actually using some of them is another story.

I wanted to share with you some of the resources I've been using in my garden, and home, and some ideas I still want to try.

Fresh Basil waiting to dry in the dehydrator

Now mind you, I'm not good at following directions very well, so when I see a picture that inspires me, sometimes I don't even bother with the how to, I just keep that picture in my mind and go from there.

Habanero Peppers from the garden drying in the dehydrator

But some recipes or directions are fairly important if you want them to work.  So here are some "Do It Yourself" ideas to help inspire you in the garden and on your dinner plate!

I finally ran out of Bug Spray that I bought from Beeyoutiful.  I had bought two bottles of Bug be Gone and a variety of essential oils so that someday I could make my own.  I used the two now empty bottles and added my selection of oils to the Witch Hazel and water.  The Oils I have include Eucalyptus, Lemon Grass, Citronella, Tea Tree, Peppermint, and Lavender.  There are several recipes out there but today I used this one.  Bug Spray  Oh and I didn't measure I just poured some of this oil and some of that oil.

My citronella was by the front door, since I have been using it straight for long walks with the dogs at night.

For anyone who wants to buy some Essential Oils of their own, they are available at many health food stores and even some grocery stores but I bought mine from here.  Essential Oils  I have a friend who is actually a distributor so if you're local, I can share her information with you.

I never realized how hard it was to take a self portrait of you back.  I must have taken a dozen photos!

I read recently about how to make use of my (forest of) Aloe Vera plants, (I now have six pots - they grow so well here).  Well today I got burned, AGAIN, and bad!  So bad that I cut several leaves off the bottom of my largest Aloe Vera and followed this recipe sort of.  (I forgot to add any extras) and whipped them till super foamy so I could just pour this special liquid gold into my cute little jelly jars.  I ended up with five jars, so if you're local, let me know if you could use either your own plant or a home made jar of gel!  Aloe Vera Gel 

By the way, I can't reach my back very easily and my family is not home during the day, so I used a silicon pastry brush to apply it.  I was still a bit difficult, but it was nice to keep my hands clean.  I think this trick is a keeper.

My mother uses Epsom Salt for many homemade remedies, but using it in the garden is new to me.  The directions are written on the bag, plain and simple.  Instead of rewriting the directions though, I just copied this link for you.  Epsom Salt

Comparison so you can see how large my cucumber (fed with Epsom Salt) is!

My mother also makes a wonderful cucumber salad.  She would slice the cucumbers paper thin. Soak them overnight in Salt Water, and for lunch or dinner the next day she's mix them with sour cream and fresh dill.  So yummy!!  Here's a similar recipe so you can get the right measurements.  Cucumber salad

I had a surplus of fruit, so I made some fruit leather from bananas and strawberries and I am drying blueberries, as well as basil and habanero peppers from my garden.  I'm going to try making leather out of my Canary melon as well.  Fruit Leather

Strawberry - Banana Fruit Leather

At the Thrift Store last week, I found a glass hummingbird feeder for $2.  I have had them before and knew you could make your own nectar, but had to look it up since my memory was failing me.  I liked this page, because they had the same bird feeder as me.  Humming Bird Food

While I'm thinking of birds, this idea has been on my mind.  I bought a few plates, but haven't found any cups I like yet.  Some day though.  Tea Cup Bird Feeder 

Right now, I need a bird feeder for larger birds that keeps the water off the seed.

I've had my two pallet gardens up for a while, but when looking for the picture that inspired me, I found this interesting page, with SURPRISE, directions!

When I made them, I just winged it.  I took off a few boards, and then nailed them to the bottom of the ones I wanted to keep to make a "box" to hold in the dirt.  Since there was still a gap, I lined the "boxes" with newspaper and added soil after they were hung.  Since my house is mostly cement and not my own, I couldn't just drill into the exterior walls, so for one, I used the decorative cement cut outs to hang the pallet with first bungee type rubber cords, and then wire (the cords just kept stretching.)  For the second one, I bought some heavy string from the NEX Home Center (Garden Store) and used the growing tree on the other side of the partial wall to support the weight of the pallet.  I haven't added any soil or plants to that one yet, I wanted to make sure the tree would hold it well first.  So far so good!  Pallet Inspiration

I recently added more flowers, so they look wilted, but will be better in a few more days!

I got my pallets free from the NEX Home Center as well.  I have others being used as my compost box.

I now have two compartments for compost, but haven't taken a recent photo.

On pinterest I found a photo of a beautiful flower garden that used recycled tires painted in bright colors of the rainbow.  I already knew of 2 tires that were left by a neighbor who had moved out.  So I confiscated them and left them in my back yard for a while.  Then another neighbor was cleaning out her garage and had a pair that she was leaving by the trash for someone to take.  I asked, and she let me have them for free as well.  I found one on the side of the road so now I have five tires.  I bought spray paint which I would not recommend.  It was not too cheap, ($4-$5 per can) and after moving the tires in and out of position till I figured out how I wanted them a lot of the paint came right off the tops or sides where they had touched each other.  My flower seeds were just planted a few days ago, so I still have time to figure out exactly how I want them.  Tire Flower Garden

I had these stacked more like the link above,
but my daugther thought it looked like trash so I moved them away from the street.

For more inspiration check out my pinterest board "Garden Goodness".  Pinterest