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How to Propagate a Hydrangea From a Cutting
A hydrangea in full bloom is absolutely amazing! I’ve seen them with clusters of flowers bigger than a basketball. I love the beautiful blue ones I see in the north west with their acid soil. But I live in a place with alkaline soil so instead of blue ones we...
Can I prune grapevines in the summer?
For good production grapes should be pruned every year during the dormant season. For the major yearly pruning you will want to plan on doing it in the spring before your vines have much growth on them. I do mine in March. That being said, in the summer their...
How to Plant and Care For Bearded Iris
Bearded Iris are gorgeous! To me they have a nostalgic grandma feeling that I love. I got my iris from my mother who got them from my grandmother, and as soon as they have a bit of ground, I give starts to my children. Memorial Day wouldn’t be complete without...
Chrysanthemums – How to get beautiful fall blooms!
Nothing says autumn like chrysanthemums! Their huge mounds of brilliant color can take your breath away, and the good news is they are really easy to grow. You can start with a little tiny piece and in a couple of years have huge mounds that you can spread around...
How to Transplant and Divide Beautiful Hostas and Ferns
I love the beautiful luscious plants that you can grow in the shade, and hostas are some of my favorite. You can find some that grow to be huge, and others that always remain very small. They come in many lovely shades of green with variations in their leaf patterns....
How to Prune, Divide and Care For Ornamental Grass
I love ornamental grasses. They come in so many sizes and textures and are a beautiful addition to my garden. Most of them grow in thick clumps that slowly get bigger through the years. Each year they need to be cut down to make room for the new growth. And...
How to Train Your Roses for an Amazing Arbor
What can be more beautiful than an arbor smothered in roses! Years ago the house that I grew up in was torn down to make way for a housing development. I saved a couple of old doors that were just too cool to throw out. I stored them in my shed for a number of years...
How to Clean up your Garden for Spring!
The snow has melted and the sun is beckoning me outside. Everywhere I look I see little green things poking up out of the dirt or sprouting from branches. It’s time to clear off all the old dead stalks and make way for the beautiful new growth. Sometimes...
How to Train Your Grapevines to Create a Lovely Arbor
In my yard things have to play double duty. They need to be productive, but they also need to look pretty and add to the landscape. I wanted to grow grapes on an overhead arbor so that when you walk under it there would be bunches of grapes hanging down inviting you...
My Crazy Ameraucana Chickens are Escape Artists! Help!
I will never forget the first time I bought baby chicks. The local feed store had some big tubs with all different varieties, black, brown, yellow, spotted, and all of them were adorable and fluffy. I felt like I was in a candy store! I want one of those, and one...
How to make flagstones pavers
I wanted to make a little flagstone patio under my trees, but flagstones are very expensive so I thought I would make my own. I wanted them to look natural, not uniform like they would be if I used a mold. So I came up with this method and I think...
How to control weeds
Everyone hates to pull weeds. I love to work in my garden, but I hate pulling weeds. I thought I’d share some things that work for me to control weeds so that I have the time and the energy to do the fun things. If you start weed control in the early spring you...
How to transplant perenials
Perennials are plants that come back year after year. They are great to have in your garden because they grow and multiply giving you more and more. When I buy a perennial I buy only one because if I plant it and wait a season it will generally give me plenty...
How to Make Delicious Homemade Corn Tortillas
Whenever we have meals with south of the border food like beans and rice we need to include homemade corn tortillas. They’re great! In my husband’s home country of El Salvador they make them thick and soft. I learned how from my mother-in-law and they...
How I Make Quick and Easy Chili
This chili is so easy that it almost seems silly to do a post about it, but easy is good so here it is. There’s a couple of things that I do ahead of time and keep in the freezer for whenever I might need them. First I cook beans and freeze them. (check my post...
Homemade Sauerkraut is Easy!
Sauerkraut always sounded a little weird to me. Fermented cabbage, Yuk! I have since learned that not only is it good for you it is really yummy. Fermented foods are rich in probiotics (healthy bacteria) so they promote a healthy gut and digestion, which in turn will...
No-Soak, Easy, Crockpot Beans
My husband grew up in El Salvador. One morning after we were first married we woke up and he said he felt like a great big breakfast with eggs and b…. I expected him to finish off the word with bacon. But no, he said beans! Beans for breakfast- how weird is...
Delicious Refried Beans, El Salvadoran Style
Have you ever gone to a south of the border restaurant and eaten their great refried beans then gone home and opened a can of refried beans and wondered how they could even be called by the same name? Beans out of a can and homemade refried beans are worlds apart. ...
Extra Refrigerator Space – Freezer to Fridge Conversion- Storing Apples
If you raise a garden you know how much you need extra refrigerator space in the summer. As produce starts ripening it seems like it comes in a torrent. There may be so much all at once that you can barely keep up with it. Or sometimes it comes on slowly and you...
Making Apple Cider Vinegar
Raw unfiltered Apple cider vinegar is one of those things that seems to have so many health benefits that taking a little every day just seems like a smart thing to do. I have found that making raw unfiltered vinegar is a super easy process and the results are a...
Making Applesauce
I love applesauce! My family loves applesauce! We eat lots of applesauce that we make ourselves. It is super yummy and it’s nice to know that there is nothing in it but apples. Using a Food Strainer We have one piece of equipment that is...
Making dried apples
I love apple season! There isn’t much better in life than going outside and picking a juicy ripe apple off the tree. And there are so many fun things you can do if you have a lot of apples. In the next few posts, I will show you some of the ways I use and...
How to make baked tortilla bowls
I love having taco salad in those cool tortilla bowls they serve at restaurants and I figured there’s got to be an easy way to make them without frying them in a lot of oil. This is what I did: I warmed the tortilla in the microwave for about 15 to 30 seconds,...
Is Home Canning Safe?
Is Home Canning Safe? I grew up in a family where we raised a very big garden and all summer we harvested healthy, homegrown food and bottled it for the winter. It was very common. Many families lived that way, and no one worried about it. As time has passed it...
Pretty amazing carrot cake
Last summer my daughter got married and I made the desserts that we served at her reception. One of them was this carrot cake. I received compliments on it for at least a month, and in all modesty, I have to admit that it was pretty good. This is...
Making Raisins
Making raisins is super fun and easy! It’s an excellent project for children! Of course, they might eat as many grapes as they prepare, but where’s the harm in that? I imagine you can make raisins with any seedless variety, but I have had better success...
How to make and bottle grape juice
Growing grapes is one of my favorites! You can grow them up on arbors and trellises so they don’t have to claim a lot of space in your garden. There’s not much that is more delightful than walking under a grape vine with bunches of grapes hanging down in...
How to Heal your Tennis Elbow Quickly
About 12 years ago we built a new home. My husband and I did much of the actual work on it. I spent months doing some pretty heavy work especially with my right hand. I needed to use heavy drills, nail guns, saws, paint sprayers, staplers, trowels, caulking guns...
Why Should You Do It Yourself?
Once a friend asked me what it was that I liked about doing projects. I didn’t have much of an answer except that’s the way I was raised. Since then I have thought about it, and realized that not only does it save me money, it is energizing to me....
Things You Need to Know Before You Build Your Own Home
Our lives are full of projects, big ones, little ones, long ones, short ones, and some that will take a life time and beyond. I learned from my Dad that what ever life gives us we can handle it best if we just treat it like a project. A project is something we can...
DIY Back Baby Wrap
Babies are a joy! They love to be held and cuddled, which is delightful, but sometimes things need to get done that you can’t do while holding a baby. I know that women from different regions around the world tie their babies onto their backs. This lets them...
Lyrics to Puff the Magic Dragon – Happy Ending
I think everyone loves a magic dragon, but the story of Puff has such a sad ending. I needed things to turn out better for Puff so I wrote another chapter. I call it “the rest of the story.” I’m including the original lyrics and mine are at the...
Christmas Star
I wanted a new star for my Christmas tree but I didn’t find anything I liked in the stores then I learned how to make these stars out of paper and I really like them. They are a great project for Christmas time. You can make one for your tree topper or just...
Pinecone Garland
I love picking up pinecones. They feel like Christmas to me. I tuck them between my Christmas tree branches and set baskets of them on shelves with bits of ivy. I’m always looking for ways to use my pine cones and I think this pine cone garland is one of the...
3D Paper Snowflake
Making snowflakes every year is a “must do” at Christmas time. My Mom grew up in the 1920’s and 30’s. She showed us how to make these pretty 3D snowflakes that they used to hang in the window or even on the Christmas tree. I like to use tracing paper. It is easier...
Origami Paper Balls
Years ago my daughter learned how to make these paper balls in school and I thought they were really fun so I made some out of wrapping paper and use them on my Christmas tree. This is a great project for older children. You can show them how to do it and they...
How I refinished my dining set
I found the perfect dining set in the classifieds. It was beat up and trashed out and very ugly! Unfortunately, I don’t have a”before” shot of it. It was the middle of winter and the garage was freezing, but I couldn’t wait. I just...
Help for dry, cracked feet
Help For Dry Cracked Feet THIS IS THE BEST! In the summer I spend lots of my time outside working wearing flip-flops. My feet hate it, but I feel like I will suffocate if I wear shoes and socks in the summer. I used to get deep cracks on my heels that were very...