If you’re a crafty-type person and don’t want to spend a lot of money on Halloween decorations, these black duct tape roses may be right up your alley!
Get your decorations ready!!
Egg Shells Help Gardens
My green thumb is often helped significantly by little tips about gardening that I find online! For example, reading information about how healthy eggshells are for plants and gardens is astounding!
Then all you have to do is sprinkle them around your veggie plants especially your tomatoes or in your house plants. If you happen to be just planting put the shells in first.
Another tip, when you hard boil eggs do not toss out the water. The water has calcium from the eggs so let it cool and use it to water your house plants.
The coffee grounds are even easier. All you have to do is set them aside and let them dry out. Gee that was strenuous…whew! 🙂 Sprinkle the grounds along with the shells for nitrogen. They are also good for deterring bugs. Doubly Nice!
Maybe I need to sprinkle egg shells by my door to keep out black beetles!
Homemade Plant Food
There are tons of ways to make homemade plant food rather than buying products of the shelves of stores. Save yourself some money by picking items off your own shelf. From Creative Homemaking,
- According to another reader, Knox unflavored gelatin is really good for houseplants. They agreed that mixing finely crushed rinsed eggshells into your potting soil would give your houseplants a good boost. The eggshells are a good substitute for bonemeal.
- If you have a fish tank, when you change the water in the tank, use the water you take out to water your plants. Your plants will love fish fertilizer!
- One reader once a month pours a can of room temperature beer into each of her plants. She has had one plant for over 15 years.
I really like the fish idea, especially since we have a Beta fish here at home. Adding this to my to-do list!
On Painting Furniture
We once bought matching beds for our daughters and decided to slap a coat of white paint on them. Within two days, the paint was peeling off because we had neglected to sand before prime and paint. My husband thought that putting primer on would be enough. We were wrong, wrong, wrong.
I think the tips provided on how to paint furniture by Centsational Girl are fabulous, but for that particular piece of furniture sanding was very necessary!
Necessary to Sand? If your piece is in pretty good condition, you can skip the sanding step or the use of a power sander and go straight to priming. Bonding primers don’t require sanding, even if your piece is heavily varnished, but I do find giving the furniture a good scuffing with a medium (80 grit) sanding wedge not only helps clean off any debris, but gives your primer a great surface to cling too. No need to sand away all the varnish and get down to the raw wood, just give it a good 5 to 10 minute scuffing with a sanding wedge, then wipe away any debris with a soft cloth.
Click through to read all her tips!
Hanging Picture Frames Straight
My picture wall down the hallway is just a hot mess. The picture frames are uneven and just not pretty at all. However for future picture hanging, I have discovered a solution thanks to I {Heart} Nap Time,
Thank you thank you!
The Mosquitos Are No Fun
We have the most fantastic fire pit at my house. My husband built it earlier this year and we’ve immensely enjoyed it – except when it was 110 degrees outside! However, we do have one complaint and that’s the mosquitoes!
I believe – if this works – we may have found a great solution. From Intuition Physician,
One more tip I have for summer firepits/bonfires is to throw a stick of sage into the fire. The sage scented smoke that the fire will emit keeps mosquitos and other annoying bugs at bay for the entire area. We love it. Usually the sage stick that we throw into our fire is enough, no need for bug sprays.
Am ready to test this great idea!
Rustic Bird Feeder
We have several bird feeders hanging around my trees, but they are regular feeders filled with seeds and hummingbird liquid. I love this idea for building a natural feeder and using old fruit as sustenance for the birds. After building the frame, there were just a few more steps. From Under the Table and Dreaming,
The square frame was put together using Gorilla Wood Glue and tacked into place with finishing nails. Two smaller pieces of wood were then cut on a 45º angle along with a straight connector piece to assemble the perch, {which is optional}. A metal kitchen skewer was then threaded through one of the drilled holes, punched through the center of the apples, and threaded through the hole on the other side of the hanger.
Cute idea! Pretty yard piece. Great for birds!
Christmas Lights as Seedling Heat Mat
Sometimes adding warmth to seeds as they germinate will help the process along. And this is task is fairly easy thanks to some creativity and Christmas rope lights! From Vegetable Gardener,
In building the mat, the rope light weaves around long thin strips of wood, and both are attached to a ‘plank’ of plywood. The gaps between the wood strips serve to help with airflow. The rope light will only emit a certain amount of heat – not enough to burn the wood. Since it’s thinner than the wood strips, the rope light doesn’t come in contact with the seed trays. Since the rope light is insulated for outdoor use, it’s protected from water.
Great idea!
Harvest Sunflower Seeds Easily
I lived in North Dakota many many years ago and there were miles and miles of sunflower fields. It was amazing to see the beautiful flowers as they turned their faces toward the sun as it moved across the sky.
Sunflowers are great for feeding birds and they are just a beautiful addition to any yard or garden. They will typically reseed themselves from seeds that have fallen throughout the summer, but you can also harvest your own sunflower seeds easily. From Hometalk.com,
(1). Once your Sunflower has faded, don’t cut it right away, wait a touch more than usual than any other faded flowers… than not to much longer
after, dead head the sunflower head.
(2) Quickly with your hand Brush off the Orange/Yellow baby petals & your seeds will be reveiled & then place the sunflower head in a dry spot for a couple days to allow the flower seeds time to fully dry. Don’t wait to long, I’ve found they become too moldy and brittle after a longer period of time.
(3) Once fully Dried & Ready, Slightly Bend Flower Head and/or you can even split flower head with your hands & with just your fingers, simply push the sunflower seeds right out. They come out very easily. You will be surpised how many seeds you will get from one Sunflower head.
(4) Once done removing all your seeds, place on dish or flat surface of any sort and allow them time to completely dry out, leaving no moisture whats-so-ever.
This will also work on other blooming plants, so transfer the know-how to your other favorite flowers!
Great Gardening Tips for All Kinds of Projects
The ingenuity of the people never ceases to amaze and inspire! From using coffee filters to keep dirt from oozing out the bottom of planter pots to diapers to hold moisture in, the ideas presented on Tipnut really *are* clever!
Newspaper Barrier: Lay down sheets of newspaper before topping with mulch, this will help prevent grass and weed growth.
Water Bucket Warmers: Unexpected cool nights? Warm your garden naturally with buckets filled with water.
Click through and see 23 more great tricks for around the yard and garden!