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This and That


The yard:
I try to keep a daily bit of time for pulling weeds from the flower gardens.  When Mike mows  the lawn, I try to keep up with the sweeping.  Monday is my designated day of putting on the the grubby garden clothes and doing a thorough weeding.  Sometimes. I let that go.  Here is the result:

CrabgrassCrab grass
Do you think it is time to do some edging??   The dry weather and the opportunistic nature of crab grass are pretty evident here.

Even with the edging, things don’t look that great here.  It has been a dry and hot summer, 2012. (Linda Reeder, I am so embarrassed.)
Edged


The harvest has started, though.  This year I planted tomatoes and peppers only.  Late season blight has been noted in the area, but I have not been affected yet. Yet!
Bounty

I had a satisfying supper of roasted tomato and peppers on polenta tonight.
*******
Green clean:
I have a lot of mint in my herb garden this year.  I will try a combination of mint and rosemary as an  all-purpose cleaner made with either vinegar or hydrogen peroxide.  Rosemary does have a disinfectant property, and it goes well with mint.

This is a recipe for laundry detergent that I found on Pinterest:
  • 4lb.12oz. box of Borax
  • 3lb. 7oz. box of washing soda
  • 3lb. container of oxy cleaner
  • 2 bars of Zote soap, grated
  • 2lb. box of baking soda
There was a powdered fabric softener in the recipe, I do not use fabric softener so I left that out.  The two loads of laundry I have done using this concoction have been satisfyingly clean with a very mild scent.   I am thinking throwing in a box of Delft or maybe Ivory Snow would save the grating of 2 bars of soap.  It would add to the cost but up the convenience factor.  It really does take very little to do a full load of laundry—1 or 2 tablespoons.  The batch I mixed up will last a very long time at that rate.
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Comments

  1. RianAugust 8, 2012 at 9:28 AM

    Olga, its been a dry hot summer here also... so I refuse to be embarrassed. With water restrictions, what can you do?

    And one question (which may be obvious to some, but not to me)why don't you use 'fabric softener'?

    ReplyDelete
  2. MuffieAugust 8, 2012 at 11:51 AM

    Your 'crop' is looking great! My herbs did well, but I'm s-t-i-l-l waiting for tomatoes.
    Loving the 'green' cleaners!
    Peace,
    Muff

    ReplyDelete
  3. TaborAugust 8, 2012 at 12:13 PM

    Your yard looks very nice. At least it is green. Ours have horrible brown patches everywhere.

    ReplyDelete
  4. TomAugust 8, 2012 at 2:32 PM

    Your grass doesn't look bad to me -- the only thing making our yard green at this point is the crabgrass. We do have a few tomatoes though (as long as we grab 'em before the deer come by) .... Yum!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Muffy's MarksAugust 8, 2012 at 8:10 PM

    My daughter uses that soap recipe. She gave me some and it works well. Now that we're at the cottage, there are no curbs. No edging yahooo.

    ReplyDelete
  6. A Healing RealityAugust 8, 2012 at 11:10 PM

    your supper sounds great :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. MargaretAugust 9, 2012 at 9:23 PM

    I am so intrigued by all your cleaning remedies. Very neat.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Grandma KcAugust 12, 2012 at 7:02 PM

    Those peppers do look delicious! I will keep my fingers crossed for the rest of the crop.

    ReplyDelete

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