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7 Ways to Use Eggshells (and tips you need to know)

07 Apr
Eggshells can be ground in a blender and used for many purposes, indoors and out.

Eggshells can be ground in a blender and used for many purposes, indoors and out.

If you eat eggs, make sure you make the best use of those shells! Most of an eggshell is calcium. In fact, about 95% of shells are calcium carbonate…the same stuff that sea shells, coral, and limestone are made from (the other 5% includes proteins, calcium phosphate, and magnesium carbonate). Here’s a list of what you can do with those shells so the calcium and its brittle shell don’t go to waste.

USE EGGSHELLS FOR THIS

1) Give your hens a calcium boost. Eggshells contain 95% calcium, and hens need calcium to lay eggs that have those strong shells. There is nothing unhealthy about feeding your hens eggshells, as long as those shells have been sterilized to kill bacteria (see below on how to do this) and offered in ground form. Pay special attention to shell sterilization if you get some of your eggs from another source where you can’t be sure of the laying hen’s health.

2) Give your pets a calcium boost: In the case of eggshells, what is good for chickens is good for your pet. Adding pulverized eggshells to their food provides extra calcium for bone health. And just like using shells for chickens, be sure to sterilize the shells first.

3) Give yourself a calcium boost: Consuming calcium from eggshells can help you, too. In a 2003 study published in the International Journal of Clinical Pharmacology Research, eggshell consumption helped stop bone loss in postmenopausal women. While you can consume pulverized eggshells for added calcium, remember that calcium amounts very greatly in shells, so there is no way to tell exactly how much calcium you are getting (but we know you are getting more than if you didn’t consume the shells at all). Be sure you bake the shells before consuming to prevent ingesting any bacteria if you haven’t washed the shell before eating the egg (see below).

The finer your grind your eggshells, the sooner the calcium will be available to garden plants.

The finer your grind your eggshells, the sooner the calcium will be available to garden plants.

4) Incorporate them into your soil: It’s a great practice to add ground eggshells into your garden soil (and your indoor pots, too). But realize that it takes awhile for those shells to break down enough for the calcium to be available to your plants. In fact, eggshells can take many years to decompose fully and it will take several years to see the benefits of those eggshell additions to soil. But don’t let this deter you as adding eggshells to soil is great for plants! Start now…in a year or two you’ll start to see benefits (the finer you grind the shells, the more quickly you’ll see benefits). And don’t forget to sterilize those shells before adding them to the soil to prevent adding bacteria to your garden.

5) Keep garden critters at bay: Slugs are slippery little devils, and they dislike the chalky sharpness of ground eggshells. Cutworms don’t like it, either. Sprinkle the eggshell around plants like tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, and cabbage to keep their stems safe and destructive critters away. Make sure you cover the surface of the soil around the entire stem.

6) Clean your pots and pans: Yes, you can grind your eggshells into a powder and use it as an abrasive. But, it being an abrasive and all, it will scratch! I’ve used this for especially stubborn spots on cast iron pans or stainless steel (on the insides). Don’t use this on any surface that you want to see a scratch on.

7) Make your coffee sweeter: Adding crushed eggshells to your coffee grounds helps to lessen the acidity of your coffee. Then you can toss the used grounds and eggshells in your compost bin. Better yet, toss them both into your garden soil! The eggshells have the calcium, but the coffee grounds provide the nitrogen.

You can use a blender to grind eggshells fine. (Bowl by the Little Pottery Venture.)

You can use a blender to grind eggshells fine. (Bowl by the Little Pottery Venture.)

PREPARE EGGSHELLS LIKE THIS

For most eggshell uses, it is better to make sure they are clean and free from bacteria. If you don’t wash the eggs thoroughly before using, bake the shells at 150 degrees Fahrenheit on a cookie sheet for about 10 minutes.

You can grind your eggshells either wet or dry. I personally find grinding  them dry to be easier, but decide which method works best for you in your kitchen:

To grind eggshells wet, simply take all of your eggshells, place them in a blender and fill the blender with water to about 1/2 way up the eggshells. Then whizzzzzzzzz, and drain. What to do next is where I find the difficulty. Small bits of wet shell are not necessarily cooperative, and most uses for eggshell are easier to implement when the shells are dry.

To grind eggshells dry, you can either leave them sit in a bowl until they are thoroughly dry (I keep the pretty bowl shown above next to my sink and simply stack eggshells as they accumulate), or you can bake them. Baking to dry and sterilize them can serve double duty here! If 10 minutes baking at 150F doesn’t dry all of the wet egg remnants inside the shell perfectly, just leave them bake in the oven until the insides of the egg are perfectly dry. (To see a video on how to use your blender and a mason jar to grind your eggshells and other foods, click here.)

DON’T USE EGGSHELLS FOR THIS

I just can’t recommend that you use eggshells to start seedlings, even though this is a popular infographic on Facebook and all over the interwebs as an eggshell tip (I know…I’m the problem child sometimes). Seedlings are like icebergs…at best what you see above the soil is equal to what is going on below the soil. In fact, sometimes the root system is much larger than the seedling. Half an eggshell just doesn’t have the space necessary to support a growing and intricate root system unless you transplant it pretty quickly to the garden. In drier climates it is also difficult to keep such a small amount of soil moist enough to keep a healthy seedling happy.

Eggshells do not sharpen garbage disposal blades. I don’t think it harms the garbage disposal any more than anything else, but I have read that egg shell bits in the drain, because they are heavier than usual kitchen sink refuse, can contribute to drain clogs. The idea being they settle into a pipe at some point, and slowly start to trap debris. Even more reason to use eggshells for one of their many beneficial purposes!

Rural Spin

 
16 Comments

Posted by on April 7, 2013 in Animals, Gardening, Home Remedies & Apothecary, Homesteading, Kitchen Tips

 

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Pick a Proper Pair of Pruners

08 Mar

Bypass-style pruners (such as these from Felco) are the better choice for hand pruners when it comes to producing clean cuts and healthier plants.

Spring is here, and that means there’s a laundry list of stuff to do that’s a mile long to prepare for our gardens and clean up after winter. Here’s another thing to add to that list: buy yourself a decent pair of pruners this spring and it will make your vegetable harvesting, flower picking, and woody plant pruning life a lot easier for you and a lot healthier for your plants.

IMPORTANCE OF PRUNING

There are four main reasons why you’d want to prune your plants:

Restricting the growth of plants is sometimes necessary, especially in cases when trees or shrubs are planted in locations that are too small for their mature size. But some perennials and vegetable plants, like zucchini, also benefit from some size-motivated pruning. Hedges also require special attention to form and shape control.

Plant health is enhanced and ensured with proper pruning. It’s important to prune out any dead, diseased, or dying branches or foliage that might carry disease or otherwise steal nutrients away from healthy growth (be sure to sanitize your pruners after pruning diseased plants with a spritz of bleach water). This is true for woody plants (trees and shrubs), and herbaceous plants (flowers, herbs, vegetables, etc.) alike.

Plant quality is enhanced with proper pruning, too. More is not necessarily better, as is the case for perennial flowers like roses, and more. Pruning out smaller, weaker flowers allows that energy to go towards supporting larger, healthier flowers. This is better for the plant and better for enjoyment. The same holds true for fruits and vegetables; pruning out those suckers on tomato plants, for instance, allows for healthier and more robust fruit production.

Pruning plants when they are young encourages proper form as they mature. In other words, plants can benefit from being trained early on to grow where we want them to; doing so when the plants are young eliminates problems later. This is especially true for woody plants, and for special cases like espaliers, proper pruning is indispensable.

TYPES OF PRUNERS

But pruning needs to be done with the proper tools, or you risk injuring the plant and creating a situation that encourages disease. There are two basic kinds of pruners available: bypass pruners and anvil pruners. Bypass pruners should be the only kind of pruner you purchase, and here’s why:

These are anvil pruners. Don't buy them.

Anvil pruners act like an ax or a knife, where there is a single flat surface upon which a blade lands and cuts. The problem is this only works well if the blade is perfectly sharp, and in gardening situations it is very difficult to keep a blade sharp enough on an anvil-style pruner. The duller the blade gets (which doesn’t take long), the harsher the cut is to the plant. Cuts become more rough and stems can be smashed more than cut cleanly. Even if you don’t see it, it’s happening. Ragged, unclean cuts heal more slowly and leave the plant open to higher rates of disease.

In contrast, bypass pruners act more like a pair of scissors, where the curved blade slices by another curved blade or base. The blade stays sharp much longer than with anvil pruners, and even when the blade does begin to dull, the bypass action in itself ensures a cleaner cut for the plant. Bypass pruners produce consistently cleaner, closer, better cuts.

My favorite bypass pruners come from Felco. While they are expensive, running up to $50 for a pair of pruners, they will last a lifetime. I’ve had my Felco pruners for a few decades now, and beyond replacing a blade that just couldn’t be sharpened any more, my pair is indestructible.

 
4 Comments

Posted by on March 8, 2012 in Gardening, Homesteading

 

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No Space or Money for Starting Seeds? Think Again…

18 Feb

It doesn't take a lot of space or money to create a successful seed starting nursery. This set up cost $20, and most of that was for things that can be used season after season.

Color me optimistic, but I’m calling “spring on its way.” If someone tells me it’s still winter, I’ll call them a stinkin’ liar. It’s spring and this means it’s time to start seeds in preparation for the growing season. It comes quicker than you think!

But along with being optimistic, I am also not rich enough to buy those pre-packaged seed starting kits I’ve seen in the store. I’d rather spend my money on other things like a really nice microbrew once in awhile. I also have a small house (about 800 sf total) and not much room to construct the seed-starting nursery to rival the Colosseum that I’ve seen other people manage. So my seed starting set up has to be cheap, productive, and take up little space.

Luckily, I met all of my criteria for a total cost of about $20 (not counting the cost of seeds). And over half of that cost was for a clamp lamp and a grow bulb, which I can use again. That $20 went towards constructing a heat bed, which is a way to supply warmth to the roots of developing seeds and enhance germination, and the starter medium in which I planted my seeds. The rest of the material was either recycled or used. Here’s how I did it:

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HEAT BED HOW-TO

What you need:

  • A sturdy container for the project (I repurposed an unused plastic bin)
  • Non-clumping kitty litter or sand
  • Indoor-outdoor rope or string lights
  • Egg cartons (or your seed-starting container of choice)
  • Seed starting medium (potting soil will work)
  • Clear cover (plastic or glass) for the container

These lights, covered with a layer of kitty litter or sand, provide gentle heat for germinating seeds.

I already had an unused, under-the-bed plastic storage bin, measuring about 17″ by 36″, which was going to serve my purposes well. The plastic bin served as the base for my heat bed.

I took the bin and placed it on a bench in my closed-in porch. Then I poured half of a large bag of kitty litter into the bin and smoothed out the surface. Next, I laid one string of lights (with a 33′ string length and 100 bulbs) on top of the kitty litter, making sure the lights were mostly evenly spaced in the bin. Lastly, I covered the lights with the rest of the kitty litter and plugged the lights in to allow them to  start heating the litter (again, you can also use sand…whichever is cheaper in your area).

You can use a wide variety of containers for your heat bed, including used flats from nursery centers, sturdy cardboard boxes, or even wooden boxes. The box just needs to be deep enough to hold a layer of kitty litter/sand and lights, and sturdy enough to withstand watering your seedlings for several weeks. Aim for about a 2- to 3-inch layer of litter or sand, with the lights layered in about half way. That will hold the soil temperature at about 92F, if your ambient air temperature is in the upper 60s or low 70s. For most seeds, a 92F soil temperature is about right to enhance germination. Just make sure that the lights you use (be they rope or bulb-style) are for outdoor use; you’ll be watering your plants and your lights need to withstand that.

With my heat bed warming, it was time to plant some seeds! I had saved egg cartons for several months and used them as my seed-starting pots, separating the lid with a knife. The lids are great for starting seeds that need to be thinned after germination, like lettuce, and the carton portion is great for your other seeds. When the plants in the cartons are large enough to be planted into larger containers or transplanted outdoors, I take scissors and cut the whole egg carton apart into its individual pots and just plant the thing, carton and all (it will degrade in the soil).

Yes, you can use Styrofoam egg cartons for this, and they will retain moisture better for germinating seedlings. However, if you cover your heat bed (as you should) with a layer of clear plastic or glass to retain the all-important humidity for your seeds, this won’t be as much of a problem. Also, you can’t plant the Styrofoam directly into the garden, which means disturbing the roots of your young plants when you remove them. Lastly, there is some serious question about the Styrofoam starting to degrade and leaching the chemicals into the seedling soil, which will ultimately make its way into your garden. To me, the benefits of Styrofoam cartons (better moisture retention) are alleviated by covering the heat bed, which you have to do anyway.

Lastly, your heat bed will need a supplemental light source, unless you’re lucky enough to have a true greenhouse. Seedlings started indoors without proper lighting will just end up spindly and less healthy; it’s worth the cost to buy a supplemental light set-up to give your seedlings the best start possible. And such lighting doesn’t need to be expensive. I bought a clamp lamp and a high quality grow bulb for about $14, and I can use this season after season (depending upon how long the bulb lasts, of course).

PLANTING SEEDS

I used an organic seed starter mix for my seeds, filling each egg cup to full. It’s a good idea to invest in a seed starter mix, which is formulated for the special needs of germinating seeds but I’ve known people who use regular potting soil and that works, too. I only needed 1/2 a bag of mix for six dozen egg cartons, and it cost $3.50 a bag for organic. I have plenty of mix left for other seeds I’ll start in a few weeks or so.

A basic rule of thumb is to plant seeds (like this tomato) three times as deep as the seed's thickness. But beware, this isn't always the case.

After you have your mix ready, just follow the directions on the seed packets about how deep to sow each plant, but a general rule of thumb is to plant a seed three times as deep as the thickness of the seed. However, this isn’t always true; for instance, salvia seeds need light to germinate and therefore shouldn’t be buried in the soil at all. So if you’re a seed saver (and you should be) or just don’t have the original seed instructions handy, it’s always a good idea to have in your gardening notes the correct seed planting method for all the seeds in your arsenal. You can also look this information up online.

After my seeds were planted, I simply moved the cartons to the heat bed, watered them all well, and covered them with two pieces of acrylic a neighbor had left over from a project of his own. I’ve tried saran wrap for this in the past and it just doesn’t work. I’ve also saved the clear plastic flat covers you can sometimes get from nursery centers and these work well, too (as was their intended purpose).

This is all fine and dandy, but can all seeds be planted indoors to get a head start on planting? And when, exactly, are you supposed to start the seeds indoors? These are indeed things the wise seed starter looks into before introducing their precious seeds to soil.

INDOOR SOW OR NO?

First, I recommend going through your seeds and determine which ones really need to be direct-sown into your garden after the danger of frost has passed, versus starting seed indoors and transplanting outside. Plants recommended for direct-sow usually do not transplant well, and there can be high mortality rate if you try that route. And the older these plants are, the worse the transplant shock — and subsequent plant death — can be.

But there is some disagreement about which plants are best left for a direct-sow approach, (It couldn’t be easy, right?). For instance, some sources recommend direct seeding melons, but since I live in a chillier clime I’m planting them indoors to get a head start. After the seedlings germinate I’ll transplant them into large biodegradable pots that I can simply place into the soil with minimal root disturbance. There’s nothing wrong with experimenting on your own; horticulture is part art and some people just have a knack for doing what others say isn’t possible.

Plants that are recommended for direct-sow include lettuce, spinach, radishes, cucumbers, most squashes, peas, beans, corn, and carrots. Some flowers prefer direct-sow, too, including sunflowers, nasturtium, zinnia, bachelors button, plus a few others. But again, I’m going to start the zinnias and sunflowers indoors and transplant them. If garden centers can do it, so can I, right??!!

Covering your seeds with plastic or glass allows for moisture to be retained, which is necessary for germination and good plant health.

The timing of all this depends upon where you live and what your “last frost date” is. There are different recommendations about when you should sow plants indoors, and they are all roughly related to this date. You can visit the website of your local Cooperative Extension Service for this date. Then, you’re supposed to look at the seed packet and, if you’re lucky, it will say something like, “Sow indoors two weeks before the last frost date.”

But because I am lazy, I just go to this handy dandy resource kindly supplied by the Farmers Almanac (find it here). Just type your zip code into the Location field provided and it will spit you out a nice table that includes lists of vegetables and the recommended date to either start seed indoors or direct sow outdoors in your area. It even includes a “moon favorable date,” if you prefer to use the moon as a guide for planting. It’s a great resource and takes the hassle out of figuring out when you need to time your seed planting.


 
32 Comments

Posted by on February 18, 2012 in Garden Construction, Gardening, Great for Kids, Saving Money

 

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Creating a Personal Seedbank

12 Feb

Heirloom, open-pollinated plant varieties are your only bet for a successful personal seedbank.

You have probably heard of seed saving, where you save a plant’s seeds or tubers at the end of a growing season to serve as the seed source for the following year. This is great because choosing the proper plants and practicing proper seed-saving methods gives you to a free, self-perpetuating garden year after year. Saving seed also means you can share seeds with friends and neighbors, so everyone can start growing their own.

Many people, however, are not as familiar with the concept of a personal seedbank. A personal seedbank is like seed saving on steroids. You save seed for the coming season’s planting, but you also bank seed for longer storage, just in case.

What that “just in case” might be varies. Some people have created a personal seedbank as insurance against crop failures. Others believe a personal seedbank is necessary in the event of a partial (or total) societal collapse. Many people just like the idea of being sustainable and self sufficient. And, of course, seed saving can be a fun hobby.

PLANNING YOUR SEEDBANK

The most important thing to remember when planning your personal seedbank is that you can only save and store open-pollinated, non-hybridized, non-GMO seeds. Why? Because genetically modified and hybridized seeds have been dinked with by large corporations such as Monsanto, which doesn’t want you to be able to save your own seeds. Why? Because they want you to have to buy seeds from them year after year. Hybridized or GMO seeds frequently have sterile first generation offspring (F1 is a designation you might have seen). This means that while you’ll get viable plants from the seeds you buy, the seeds you save from those plants will likely be sterile. If they’re not sterile, they’ll produce offspring that are so unlike the parents with such a wide variety of characteristics that they will be a disappointment and not useful. Only buy heirloom, open-pollinated seeds from trusted sources.

The second thing to decide when planning a seedbank is what kinds of seed you want to save. The best seeds to save are from fruits and vegetables you enjoy eating the most, but experience comes into play, too. If you’re a beginning seed saver, to start it’s best to bank seeds that require the lowest skill set. This way you can focus your first growing season on learning seed saving techniques and still have viable, usable seed banked in preparation for the following growing season, at which time you’ll expand your skill. The easiest seeds to save and bank are self-pollinated seeds (see below for more info on this).

The third thing to decide when planning a seedbank is what seeds would be best to save. This can vary greatly depending upon the reason why you are choosing to create a personal seedbank. If you’re banking seed as insurance against a crop failure in your garden or to be more self sufficient, then banking what you like is the best option. If you’re banking seed as insurance against a societal collapse, then you’ll need to bank a wider variety of seeds and include many types that you may not have ever grown before, including grains like wheat or barley. Be advised, though, that in these cases it is a good idea to get some experience growing these seeds before a collapse occurs; your seedbank will be useless if you don’t know how to grow the seeds you have.

Ready-to-order seedbanks are great options until you have a chance to store your own varieties.

SEED SOURCES

If you’ve never saved seed before, you’ll have to buy your first seeds from a commercial grower or be lucky enough to have seed-saving friends who are willing to help you with your first crop. Excellent commercial sources for heirloom, open-pollinated seeds include Seed Savers Exchange, Native Seed Search, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Sustainable Seed Company, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, and Abundant Life Seeds, among others.

Another alternative is to buy a pre-made seedbank that is already packaged and set for storage. This is a great idea for those who want a head start on their seedbank and have some insurance on-hand until a self-made seedbank has been created (which can take several years). A good source for a seedbank such as this is sold by Camping Survival. They sell a 6-can set that is organized by use type. For instance, the “Culinary Herb” can includes a variety of common herbs from basil to thyme, and the “Ancient Grains” can includes barley, flax, amaranth, and others. The ‘Medicinal Herbs” can is especially beneficial to have and is often overlooked in seedbanks.

SELF-POLLINATED SEEDS

The best and easiest seeds to save (and therefore bank) are self-pollinated seeds, which include tomatoes, beans, lettuce, peas, chicory, and endive. These plants have reliable seed set the same year they are planted, and they are self-pollinating. Self-pollinated seeds fertilize themselves, meaning the pollen from a plant’s flower fertilizes the stigma on that same flower. No muss, no fuss. There are few worries about cross-pollination or accidental hybridization. You get the same variety of tomato or bean year after year, though it is recommended to separate varieties by a row, just in case.

Self pollination is one way seeds of concern to home growers reproduce; the other two modes of reproduction are insects and wind pollination. This is where things can get tricky, because in these cases pollen from a plant up to a mile away can fertilize a plant in your garden. This increases the chance of hybridized plants, whose seeds will not breed true when planted. Because of this, insect- and wind-pollinated plants such as corn or onions have to be manipulated by the grower to ensure that pollination is limited to same varieties.

WIND- AND INSECT-POLLINATED SEEDS

More experienced seed savers can take on plants that require more intervention to insure that saved seed breeds true.  Crops such as corn, cucumber, radish, spinach, and squashes (among others) produce seed the same year they are planted, but require the grower to intervene to prevent unwanted hybridization. This intervention can come in the form of hand-pollinating the plants to prevent cross-pollination, or making sure there is considerable distance between the variety you are growing and other varieties (this distance can vary between 100 feet and a mile, depending upon the plant).

Biennial vegetable seeds set seed the year after they are planted, and as a result expert seed savers can take on the two-year commitment needed to save these seeds. Biennial vegetables include onions, carrots, cabbages, beets, swiss chard, turnips, celery, leeks, and others. Instead of harvesting at the end of the first growing season, the plants need to be successfully overwintered the same year they are planted (this can vary depending upon if you live in the north or south). The second growing season is when the plants will flower and set seed. These plants also need to be separated from other varieties to avoid cross-pollination.

Seeds like beans, peas, and cucumber can be dried and frozen and remain viable for storage.

ORTHODOX SEEDS

No, this has nothing to do with religion. What it does have to do with is how well a seed withstands the freezing and drying conditions that are necessary to maintain a seedbank. Orthodox seeds can be dried and frozen for storage and remain viable for a period of time, but some seeds take to this better than others. Some seeds can be stored up to 10 years or more, others begin to lose viability after one year. For most common vegetable plants, three to five years is about as long as they can be stored, though some plants (like parsnips) really need to be used within a year or two.

Ideally, seeds need to be dried to less than 7% moisture and, for maximum storage length, frozen to no warmer than zero degrees Farenheit (a home freezer may reach this temperature). The lower the temperature, however, the longer seeds will remain viable. Most vegetables known to the home gardener are orthodox seeds, such as peas, corn, and tomatoes. In fact, about 80% of plant species are orthodox seeds.

Recalcitrant seeds can’t be dried for storage and must be planted immediately. Tropical plants such as mangoes, coconuts, and tea are recalcitrant. Intermediate seeds can take some drying for short-term storage, but they are not viable options for a personal seed bank. Examples of intermediate seeds include coffee, papaya, and others.

SEED SAVING SPECIFICS

The best free online resource for learning how to save specific vegetable seeds can be found at the International Seed Saving Institute. They have a complete seed-saving guide that you can find here, which includes how to address the pollination needs of individual plants and harvest the seeds to best advantage. I’ll be writing plant-specific seed-saving Spins this growing season, but for now ISSI is a great resource.

If you have a personal seedbank story that you’d like to share, please do so in the comments!

 
6 Comments

Posted by on February 12, 2012 in Fun Experiments, Gardening, Outdoor and Survival, Saving Money

 

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Simple Compost Bins

19 Jan

I love this simple compost bin of stacked wood.

Where I used to live in Kansas, there was a house a few blocks from me that had the most beautiful sculpted concrete compost bins ever. The bin system was perfect: Three bins side-by-side for rotating the baking compost, high walls, gorgeous curved tops with decorative elements formed into the concrete. I figured the cost to build these beautiful bins was equal to what I was investing in new windows for a drafty back room in my 1880-era home.

I didn’t have the money to invest in the glorious compost mecca that my neighbor had, but I did invest in a black plastic job that my City offered for about $10 at the time. I never really could make good use of this bin, though: it was easy to put compost in the top, but I couldn’t mix the compost and it was hard to get the formed compost out of the bottom of the thing. I have similar complaints about some of the black plastic bins I see that can cost $150. They seem more complicated to use than compost requires, and they are not expandable. What happens when you fill that rotating bin up, which I’d do in a few weeks? Do I really want to buy an additional, hundred plus dollar rotating bin? No thanks!

My ideal compost bin is both cheap and functional, but I want it to be nice to look at, too. I don’t think compost needs to be hidden from view at all; in fact, I think a good compost bin is a beautiful thing worthy of a decent amount of showing off! Flaunt your compost, I say!

Cage wire makes an inexpensive compost bin.

My favorite bin of all time was built by a friend on a homestead in central Massachusetts. It was simply a series of small tree trunks stacked in a square, log-home style. It’s a beautiful bin, and you can easily add branches as the pile increases, or remove branches for easy turning. But I don’t have access to such wood so I went with an alternative: cage wire.

Cage wire comes in 10-foot rolls that is easily formed into a circle, and costs about $25. Use pliers to take the loose wires at one end of the roll and connect them to the other side to form a circle. This makes a bin that’s just about the perfect size for compost (the recommended size for a compost bin is between 3 feet to 5 feet in diameter). Simply place the cage on the ground and start adding your raw material! When you need to mix your compost, all you need to do is pick up the cage and move it over, then shovel the compost back in. That’s my solution for a cheap, functional, and nice looking compost bin!

 
3 Comments

Posted by on January 19, 2012 in Garden Construction

 

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Grow Your Own Tobacco

16 Jan

Yes, you can grow your own tobacco! But be ready to experiment with what you have on hand, and be patient!

When pondering the Zombie Apocalypse, Mayan Meltdown, Government Collapse, or whatever disaster awaits us, a tobacco shortage is on every smoker’s mind. We don’t smoke at The Spin, but we also recognize that sometimes the things that bring joy to life are not the healthiest habits in the world. We are all free choose our own vices, and there’s no reason why we can’t make it a little healthier. Growing your own tobacco is one way to go!

Is growing tobacco legal? Yep! What is not legal is growing it and distributing it for sale; you need a government license for that. But you’re more than welcome to grow your own tobacco for personal use, and here are the basics:

GENERAL GROWING CONDITIONS

Tobacco grows best in a sunny location. While you can grow tobacco in shadier locales, the plants will be thin and spindly and will not likely make you happy with the results.

The soil needs to be well-drained to avoid rot, and the ideal pH is about 5.8. Once pH gets to about 6.5 and above growth disorders start to occur. Whether this would be detrimental to the home grower probably depends upon a few factors, but it’s not a bad idea to have your soil checked if you are serious about growing your own supply of tobacco.

Tobacco plants can only be grown on a piece of land once every four or five years to avoid disease. And, tobacco is related to tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes, so this means that during the “off” years, these vegetables can’t be grown on that plot, either. Good plants for crop rotation include grasses or other vegetables that are not related to tobacco such as beans or squashes.

STARTING SEEDS AND TRANSPLANTING

Tobacco seeds can be purchased from different suppliers such as The New Hope Seed Company, The Tobacco Seed Company, Victory Seeds, and the Sustainable Seed Company. The sites have an overview of the many kinds of tobacco you can buy, so you can select the variety that will best meet your needs, whether you intend to smoke it or chew it. You can even choose heirloom varieties!

Tobacco seeds are about the tiniest seeds you can plant! Think grains of sand are small? Ha! Because of this seeds need to be planted indoors first so you can keep an eye on things. Mixing the seed with a bit of sand first is a safe way to make sure you don’t plant them too closely.

Start the seeds in a well-drained growing medium indoors about 50 to 60 days before you plan on transplanting outside; you can use plastic flats or even something like an egg carton. Sprinkle the seeds on the surface of the soil  as evenly as possible, and pat them down to get some good seed-to-soil contact.

Water the seeds with a gentle spray and apply a gentle fertilizer. You want the soil to remain moist during germination, but not water-logged. Application of a weak fertilizer that is appropriate for related veggies like tomatoes or potatoes will help produce healthy transplants.

Make sure your transplants get adequate light and heat. The newly planted seeds need to be in a southern-facing window, or you can supply sufficient light using a grow lamp. Keep the seedlings covered with plastic to retain moisture, and make sure they are warm for the best germination. A heat mat is one way to go.

When your plants are 6 to 8 inches tall and all danger of frost is past, it’s time to plant them outside. Plant them in your well-drained soil about 24-inches apart and water immediately.

Fertilize enough to keep the leaves a healthy green color. This will depend upon the fertility of your soil, but what you do NOT want is to fertilize so much that you get huge plants…this will negatively affect tobacco quality.

HARVESTING 

Topping tobacco (photo source at end of article)

Remove the terminal bud of the plant (called “topping”) as soon as the flower buds form, but before they open. This will help the plant produce larger leaves, which is the thing you’re producing the plant for (though the flowers are quite pretty, and there are some species of tobacco plans that are grown for ornamental purposes).

Remove the suckers that will occur after you top the plant, similar to removing suckers from tomato plants. This will increase your yield at harvest. You can just pinch them off or cut them off.

Harvest the leaves at one-week intervals, from the bottom of the plant to the top. You can start doing this soon after you top the plant, when the leaves start to yellow slightly. You can get four to five harvests this way.

CURING AND AGING

Your harvested leaves need to be hung upside down and properly air-cured before they are fit for use as a tobacco product, though some pluck the leaves right off the plant and call it good. (mass-produced curing occurs with supplemental heat, but the home grower is not likely to have this sort of set-up). Tobacco can be cured at temperatures between 60F and 95F, and at humidity levels between 65 and 70 percent. Make sure air circulation between leaves is good to avoid rot and mold. It takes a few weeks to cure tobacco.

Age your tobacco for at least year (or even up to five years), for improved flavor (but, again, this depends upon your taste). Aging requires environmental conditions that do not allow the tobacco to rot/mold nor get too dry and crumbly. You don’t want to dry tobacco like you do herbs…it needs to stay somewhat supple without getting moldy. Unfortunately, each grower needs to experiment with their own home options to determine the best location for aging. Is it a basement or a barn? It all depends upon where you live and what you have available. But have fun experimenting!

For more information on growing tobacco visit: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/aa260

Visit tobacco topping photo source here.

 
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Posted by on January 16, 2012 in Edible Plants, Fun Experiments, Gardening, Hobbies and Arts, Homesteading

 

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Raising the Bed

15 Jan

This raised planter is sturdy and easy to make.

My soil stinks. They don’t call them The Rocky Mountains for nothing. And along with the rock sits clay…lots and lots of clay. When I first moved to the Colorado front range this past summer, I had to sharpen my spade to a knife-like edge just to get through the stuff, and having relocated from the Midwest where the soil is every gardeners dream, it was a rude awakening. Eventually I succumbed to the advice of neighbors and real estate agents and did what I never thought I’d do: I built raised beds.

I wanted beds that measured 4-foot by 8-foot, and I wanted them to be sturdy and deep. While veggies and flowers have their roots in the top 6 to 8 inches of soil, I knew I wanted my beds to be 12 inches deep to happily support root crops like carrots and potatoes. And since crop rotation is a must for healthy plants, I needed all of the beds to be nice and deep.

After looking around at raised bed plans on the magical Interwebs, I came up with a plan for what I thought would be a sturdy, long-lasting, and relatively inexpensive (compared to other options) plan. I used cedar for aesthetic and longevity reasons, and the basic idea was to have four 4-by-4s anchoring a wall of 2-by-6s stacked two high. Here is the material list:

  • Four, 16-inch lengths of 4-by-4
  • Six,  8-foot-long, 2-by-6s
  • 32 3½-inch #14 wood/deck screws

Attach the short ends of the planter walls to the post anchors first.

I had a local home supplier cut the 4-by-4 into four equalish sections, and cut two of the 2-by-6s in half. The cuts weren’t as exact as I wanted, but it was easy and free compared to buying my own saw. Assembly was a breeze and only involved me using my handy electric drill to attach the boards to the 4-by-4s using wood screws (I used three screws for each attachment).

Assembling the short ends of the planter first allowed me to make things as straight as possible. After the two ends were assembled, I attached the long side boards. Throughout assembly I made sure the 4-by-4 anchors were flush with the tops of the 2-by-6s on what would ultimately be the top of the planter, after flipping it over.

Since I just moved to this house last summer, my backyard is virgin territory when it comes to developing a productive garden! I built two of these raised beds late last summer and will build two more in a few weeks. I love the style of them and I’m excited to fill them with a growing medium as soon as I can, and get planting when spring hits.

But before I do so, I’ll add a hoop-house style framework to hold plastic for cold-weather protection or netting for critter control. But I’ll show you that process in a later post!

 
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Posted by on January 15, 2012 in Garden Construction

 

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Go Away, Deer!

11 Jan

Awww...pretty deer! Now go away.

Deer are beautiful animals. But a deer devastating your landscape or garden moves from the “beautiful” category into one that may involve four letters. In many areas of the country deer can cause serious problems for the home garden, and this include highly populated areas like suburbs where deer have no where else to forage except your back yard.

How can we keep deer away? Here is an overview of common deer deterrent methods that I learned during my days as a professional gardener in Northern Illinois (one of the many professions I’ve had). Deterrents fall into three categories (which can be used in combination as needed): Fencing, repellents, and attractants:

FENCING

Structural Fence: This is a very effective method to keep deer away. But deer can jump…high…so some things need to be taken into consideration. A standard, 6′ solid privacy fence prevents deer from seeing your garden, and this will likely work in most circumstances. However, if you have an area to fence that is less than, say, 8′ wide in any direction, even a 4′ tall fence will work; the deer won’t have enough room for a running start to get back out.

Deer Fence: Yep…there’s a reason why this special fence is called that. The fence itself is black plastic, and to the eye of the deer it looks nearly invisible. Because of this the deer can’t figure out the true height of the fence and don’t risk making a jump.

Electric Fence: Deer seem to be attracted to electric fencing and the resulting shock that results when they decide to stick their noses on it is a good deterrent. )To make sure the deer “meet” the fence, smear parts of the fence with a bit of peanut better.) Electric fencing is inexpensive compared to a structural fence, and it can be moved easily as desired.

REPELLENTS

Dogs: A roaming dog is the best repellent, hands down.Of course that dog must be outside at night, and must actually put forth some effort to deter the deer. If the dog just lays there pondering the deer while the deer go to work on your lettuce, it obviously is not much of a deterrent.

Stinky Stuff: This includes all manner of hand-made and store-bought items that stink to deer but humans can’t really detect. Examples include coyote urine (or your own urine if you are ultra dedicated to reduce, reuse, recycle!), dryer sheets strung about your yard, or strong-smelling soap grated and sprinkled on the ground. But these repellents are most effective when they are applied both a good distance away from your garden as well as around the areas you want to protect (you want to encourage the deer to turn away long before they spy your new shrubs). And many of these repellents need to be reapplied after a rain.

ATTRACTANTS

Salt Licks: A salt lick placed well away from your yard and garden is a sure-fire way to make the deer bypass whatever you’re offering and head for the salt! But make sure you’re not leading the deer to a neighbor’s garden. Utilizing a salt lick is a great method when neighbors can come together, though, and plan the best location for a salt lick so everyone benefits.

Sacrificial Offerings: Sometimes it’s a good idea to just plan sacrificial plantings that are free and open to the deer. These can include all manner of succulent shrubs, veggies, and flowers. These plants are not protected in any way, and the deer focus their attention on the easy forage instead of trying to break into whatever walls of defense you’ve installed around plantings you want to save.

If you have any deer deterrents you find work really well, please leave a comment!

 
8 Comments

Posted by on January 11, 2012 in Wildlife

 

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