There have been some really useful things coming across my screen lately when it comes to planning your garden for spring — which I know will be just around the corner despite this wildly cold spell we are having here in Germany right now. Thinking of spring and seeing the tulips I planted indoors coming up while it’s about 0°F outside is really keeping me going…not to mention all the wonderful sunshine we’ve had with this cold.

I thought I would share some useful pins from the last few weeks that will hopefully get you inspired and thinking about what your garden will be like very soon. You can check out more of my gardening pins on Pinterest along with my other interests.

This one I actually shared on FB as well, but it’s just so fabulous that I wanted to make sure you didn’t miss it. I really great visual guide to companion planting, this is one of those charts you’ll want to reference often when planning your garden.

Thinking about putting together a compost bin but just aren’t sure how to get going? Here’s a tutorial for a great 3-bin compost system that will have you creating rich, perfect compost in no time. (We seriously need to see about doing this ourselves since our current system isn’t cutting it.)

Short on planting space or just have an old dresser you want to find a new purpose for…how about turning it into an herb or flower garden?

Or maybe you’d prefer to turn some old galloshes into planters? I think this idea is really fabulous and would look great near your entry to your home or garden.

These little garden markers caught our eye the other day and are too cute. They also wouldn’t be too complicated to make with a little bit of artistic ability.

What inspiration have you come across lately? Do you have your own collection of gardening ideas on Pinterest you’d be willing to share with us? Just scroll down to link up below. 

Want to join in the garden fun and link to your own blog or images online? You can share about anything related to gardening, old or new posts, from recipes to harvesting to grow reports to DIY projects or inspiration.

Here’s how this works:

PLEASE READ THESE GUIDELINES, especially if you have never linked up before!

That’s it! Share your garden with us by linking up below!

Have you ever awakened one morning to find your plants covered in strange little black bumps? Or sprayed the aphids from your plants for the 100th time but still don’t seem to ever successfully be rid of them? Would you like to know how to once and for all deal with insects and diseases of all shapes and sizes on your plants with natural and organic methods without searching online for hours? How about being able to check out detailed photos of what your plants might look like right now with solutions nearby of how to deal with the troubles?

Wow. That totally sounded like an infomercial. But that is exactly what I’ve found myself using this book for. The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Pest and Disease Control: A Complete Guide to Maintaining a Healthy Garden and Yard the Earth-Friendly Way is my go to book whenever something goes wrong with my plants. I not only used it to get rid of funky black scales on my houseplants, but also to save my rosemary bush that was becoming infested with furry mildew. If it’s not in there, I know I’m in trouble because we’re being attacked by aliens.

There are tons of websites out there with information about organic remedies for your garden, but in my experience, I’ve often run into a lot of conflicting advice as well as stuff that was just downright wrong. So it’s nice to have all the information I need in one 500+ page book that has (so far) never steered me wrong.

I actually have the 2006 version and I’m not really sure what the difference is between the two, aside from the fact that you can get the newer version new for a better price, the covers look different and they’ve made the tagline of the book more trendy. Don’t you just love the idiosyncrasies of books?

The Nitty Gritty

Basically, the book is broken down into four parts: Plants, Insects, Diseases and Organic Controls.

• In the plant-by-plant listing, you’ll be able to flip through alphabetically (by common name, not Latin) to get an overview of what issues you may be facing with your plants. Glean some tips on how to grow the plants, what conditions they like, how to get the best germination rates and then the meaty stuff about disease and pests.
• Then you can get a closer look at common insects that may be harming your plants — but will also find an overview about bugs that are fine or even good for your garden. This book is quite thorough, and explains things like the life cycle of pests plaguing you, what they look like exactly (including images), where they are generally found in the world (so you know if you really need to be worried about boxelder bugs or not), what sort of damage they do and how to control them. I’ve found this to be extremely helpful not only in getting rid of bugs I already have, but also in knowing what to watch out for and giving myself some room for prevention.
• The Diseases section nicely describes how diseases are spread, how to control them, and most important, how to prevent them from even taking hold. You’ll figure out how to quickly recognize common diseases, as well as be able to see a detailed list of diseases with images, symptoms, what types of plants it affects, and prevention and control guidance.
• Part 4 is all about Organic Controls, creating a plan for your garden to keep it healthy and how to go about implementing the plan. There are numerous tips in this section of actual remedies like how to get rid of slugs or make compost tea for getting rid of mildew. They also cover beneficial insects, common household items, companion planting, crop rotation and more.

A really nice feature of The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Pest and Disease Control are the What Goes Wrong and Why images throughout the book. The You can get a really nice visual representation of what is happening with your plants and what steps you need to do to save them. Naturally, these diagrams are just a jumping off point, because once you actually pinpoint what the problem is, you can flip to the following pages and read more about what exactly you can do to control the issue.

My final thoughts

This is one of those books that you reference over and over again but would not really read cover to cover. There are a lot of good things to learn in the introduction to plants, and of course in the Controls chapters as well, but I don’t know that anyone would want (or need) to go through and read about every bug or disease that could at some point assault your garden. Who needs to live in constant fear?

I highly recommend The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Pest and Disease Control for both newbie and seasoned gardeners. It’s a really well thought out book with everything you need to know about keeping your garden in great health, without dousing it in chemicals!

Just made your seed wish list? Starting seeds for winter hearty veggies already? Got a great recipe to share for garden goodness? I’d love to have you link up below! You can share about anything related to gardening, old or new posts, from recipes to harvesting to grow reports to DIY projects or inspiration.

Here’s how this works:

PLEASE READ THESE GUIDELINES, especially if you have never linked up before!

That’s it! Share your garden with us by linking up below!

As you may recall, I recently went into a long dissertation about why heirloom seeds are important to our future when I was mentioned the Seed Savers Exchange. But if you’re not really sure what an heirloom seed or plant actually is, let me break it down for you.

Heirloom seeds are those which have been passed down from generation to generation. They may be plants which have been growing in your garden for many years or they may be something you buy yourself to get your gardening going. Sometimes, heirlooms will actually be given an age of at least 50 years old.

Now why are heirlooms so special? Well, for starters, heirlooms allow gardeners to grow plants that are native to their area, which ensures a better success rate of growth and great produce. Using the Seed Savers Exchange, a member could actually zero in on specific gardeners in their own area based on the plants they want via the seed yearbook. Or just buy directly from their own organic fields.

But in general, heirlooms usually show a resistance and tolerance to climate changes, soil conditions, pests and overall changes in nature as they have naturally developed over time. There is no fear of GMO or adaptations by large seed producers who primarily want to make sure that you keep buying their seeds and other products year after year. Learning how to harvest seeds from your own heirloom varieties allows you the ability to completely control your own seed source and you’ll know just what your plants have been exposed to as well as how they do in your own growing environment.

If you have decided to go with heirloom seeds this year, there are tons of options. Your local farmers’ market may have vendors selling seeds or you may find them at local farm stores. And there are plenty of online sources as well. Here’s just a few popular ones in the US, as well as a couple in Germany.

• Seed Savers online store
• Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
• Landreth Seeds
• Victory Seeds
• Seeds of Change
• Amishland Heirloom Seeds
• El Dorado Seeds (they ship worldwide)
• For those in Germany: Bio-Saatgut
• Also in Germany: Sortenbuch des Samenarchivs (this on is kinda special with over 2800 kinds of tomatoes, 500 kinds of peppers and more — a bit like Seed Savers in Germany since you can actually trade your own seeds with the guy running this HUGE operation)

We’d love to know what is going on in your garden right now. You can share about anything related to gardening, old or new posts, from recipes to harvesting to grow reports to DIY projects or inspiration.

Here’s how this works:

PLEASE READ THESE GUIDELINES, especially if you have never linked up before!

That’s it! Share your garden with us by linking up below!

It’s been a few weeks since you were last able to peek into our garden…and there have actually been some noteworthy changes. We’ve had unusually warm weather here for the last few weeks, with only one brief freeze while we were gone (not that we’re sad about missing that).

I know the the warm spell won’t last forever because the weather in Germany has been anything but predictable while we’ve lived here. But this spring-like weather is definitely making me want to get my hands into the dirt again and grow things. Maybe I could actually get some more seeds in the ground for things that are winter hardy and see just how long this warm spell lasts.

At any rate, the growing is slow in our garden right now. But all the things I planted in hopes of them doing something, anything, in the calm of winter are still growing. The Brussels sprouts plant is actually big enough finally to look like something more than a weed in the garden…

The hardiness of parsley never ceases to amaze me…

The bulbs I planted recently are totally confused and popping up everywhere.

Our salad burnet plant has really been loving this warmer weather. It was looking a bit sickly after the summer heat.

And strangely enough, we are growing two lovely heads of lettuce!

Even the lamb’s lettuce is starting to perk up and show some progress in the aquaponics table.

Speaking of the aquaponics bed, I made an absolutely amazing discovery in our fish tank. We didn’t run our system at all last year and everything was dormant. We had some algae growing in the tank and just hadn’t bothered to drain it. We keep a piece of plexiglass over the top of the tank because we were having trouble with our fish literally disappearing (thanks birds.) So the plexiglass was laying loosely on top and sort of slipped into the tank. As I went to pull it out, I noticed that the tank had cleared and we have three fish inside. They are looking really healthy and happy so getting our system back on track for the spring will definitely be a priority.

I can’t wait to really get going with our garden in the courtyard, and hopefully figure out a plan for our big garden. At least this warm weather has my juices flowing…and my seed boxes are full. Guess I better start building up my stockpile of newspaper pots…

 What is your garden doing?

Want to join in the garden fun and link to your own blog or images online? You can share about anything related to gardening, old or new posts, from recipes to harvesting to grow reports to DIY projects or inspiration.

Here’s how this works:

PLEASE READ THESE GUIDELINES, especially if you have never linked up before!

My dearest fellow gardeners,

Welcome to a new year of gardening! Whether you’ve been gardening for a while or are just getting started or have never even planted one seed in your life, I have a feeling that 2012 is going to be an outstanding year.

Today I wanted to share a a quick email with you from an NOH reader who has given me some real inspiration for my gardens, both in our courtyard and behind the barn. So let me just get to it:

Hello….I stumbled on your website when I was looking for a quick and cheaters version of Stovetop stuffing.  After we had dinner (the stuffing recipe was really good) I came back to your site.  I browsed around a bit, and saw your garden setup.  It looks like you have raised boxes, are trying to be self-sufficient by growing as much as you can back there, and you don’t like weeding and all the extra work that goes along with a traditional garden.

I thought I would ask you if you have ever heard of square foot gardening?  I think it would be right up your alley.  I have been doing it for about 12 years now, and I will neve go back to the traditional garden because I hate weeding, and I hate doing all the extra work that you end up doing with one of those.  And, the yield is huge compared to a regular garden.  Maybe you have tried it and dont like it, maybe you have heard of it and havent tried it, or maybe you haven’t heard of it.  I just thought I would ask.  One good year of SFG and you will probably never go back to what you are doing now…..and, you spend a lot more time in the garden than you normally would….if you would like more information on it, let me know and I will point you in the right direction to learn about it….but I think you would really love it…..Jim

As it turns out, Jim writes a pretty cool blog about square foot gardening called The Wealthy Earth. He has a lot of information there about how to do square foot gardening and why it’s so great, plus reports about his own garden.

If you’ve never heard about square foot gardening, it’s a raised bed technique in which you actually section off the space inside each bed into 1×1-foot quadrants. Then you fill the bed with Mel’s special soil mix, and plant your seeds according to how large the plants will ultimately be. Because you are maximizing the number of plants you have in your growing space, you have less empty earth for weeds to grow in. Plus, you never walk on your soil, keeping it loose and aerated…but also making it easy for you to pull any weeds that might dare to take root in your garden.

Check out this quick overview video with Mel Bartholomew about the new and improved square foot gardening system:

This system has been around for many, many years now, but Mel has revised his system (and his book) based on what he has learned over the years. These tips and tricks make your garden easier to maintain and harvest from.

What I really like about this idea is that you not only maximize your growing space, but you also are able to rotate your crops often and I think a system like this might actually make it easier to keep a garden journal because you’ll have new things going in and coming out of your garden all the time.

So one of our plans for the spring will be cutting up some of the scrap trim that the previous owner left behind for the beds in the courtyard and giving this a go. I’m tempted to try it out in the big garden as well already but we’ll just have to see how we progress there first. My goal in that garden behind the barn is to eventually rid it of all grass so it’s easier to maintain…which means there will be a lot of bags of mulch in our future.

Because we have rectangular beds instead of square ones, it may be a challenge to get just the right number of 1×1-foot mini-beds. But I’m sure we will figure something out since I don’t necessarily look forward to rebuilding all of our growing beds this year. We already have the greenhouse to recover and an aquaponics bed to build as it is.

Have you ever tried square foot gardening? Or is there another gardening method that you’ve discovered which works great for your space? 

Want to join in the garden fun and link to your own blog or images online? You can share about anything related to gardening, old or new posts, from recipes to harvesting to grow reports to DIY projects or inspiration.

Here’s how this works:

PLEASE READ THESE GUIDELINES, especially if you have never linked up before!

That’s it! Share your garden with us by linking up below!

I just can’t enough of books. And one day, perhaps I’ll buy myself one of those fancy e-readers or an iPad so I can read ebooks more quickly and easily — and eliminate one huge area of clutter in my house which is storing all the books I want to read!

The following list are books coming up next on my “To Read” list as 2012 draws near. I don’t know if I will find much time to read while we’re on vacation (cause I kinda hope to not be sitting in front of a computer most of the days) but the books are meant to help my mind, body, soul and businesses!

• Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity – I actually started reading this book by David Allen already — and I have to say that even in the first 20 pages, I’ve learned new things and begun implementing new practices in my life that I love. Like finally learning a good way to integrate my Outlook Tasks to do list with my Evernote stuff — and not having a million things overlapping. And I seriously haven’t even gotten to the meat of the book yet!
  
• Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Getting Things Done – This is sort of a continuation of GTD, but the one thing I am always striving for in my life is to work more effectively so that I can prioritize what is important and fit everything into my days that I need to. I like that this book is broken down into 52 tips — which is one for each week of the new year!
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life – I first heard about this book several months ago and knew then that I had to read it. It’s the story of one family who left the norms of their life and moved out into the country to try a more sustainable life. They vowed that for one year, they’d only buy food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. As you can imagine, the experience was more educational than they ever would have thought.
• All New Square Foot Gardening – A NOH reader, Jim, happened to remind me about square foot gardening and recommended I take a deeper look into it since it would work quite well in our raised beds in both the yard and the courtyard. So I am really looking forward to reading the updated version of the original manual on square foot gardening…and potentially finally having something to do with all those little strips of wood we’ve had laying around in our barn the last 5 years!
  
• Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule — I’m actually going to be talking about this ebook a lot more in January, but in case you are looking for a great way to get 2012 off to a clean start, you want to check out this ebook. It’s only $5.99 and written by the same cleaning savvy woman who writes I Dream of Clean.
• Everyday Paleo — As you may recall, we started eating a slow-carb diet about 6 months ago and trying to get in shape. When that kinda didn’t work according to plan, I started to think about ways to further increase our effectiveness with diet changes and/or our workouts. In the low-carb world, Paleo comes up A LOT. So I thought it would be prudent to explore the concept more and see what it has to offer. This book not only has a lot of info about Paleo itself, but also a bunch of recipes to get you going…which I think is always one of the hardest parts of a change in eating habits.
• Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us – Reading this book is actually homework for a business course I am taking so it will be interesting to see how Seth Godin goes into this concept of the Internet creating smaller social spheres of people.
  
• Lifehacker: The Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, and Better — As you probably, Lifehacker.com is a great blog about finding tips and tricks to make your life better, easier and sometimes just downright cooler. But what you might not know is that they put together a pretty cool book with 59 tips to make you more efficient at work — whether you work from home, jet-set around the world or hang in a cubicle.
• 31 Days to a Better Blog — Darren Rowse is a bit of a blogging God, and he was kind enough to put together a 31-day course which guides you through the process of analyzing and improving your blog. It’s great for those getting started, or those who have been blogging for a while and just want to get back in touch with their blogging self. He’s just released a new version for 2012 and it’s fabulous!
• The last 3 Sookie Stackhouse novels — When I was laid up in the hospital after our car accident last year, Stefan brought me one of the books since I’d had them at home for months but never gotten around to read them. Let me warn you that they are awesome — far better than the show (which has many, many deviations from the books) and you will not want to put them down until you finish every last one of them. So at that point, Stefan said that I could not leave the couch until I had finished the first 8 books…and to be honest, I really needed those first few weeks of not really moving at all because 9 broken ribs in a row are less than comfortable!

What’s on your reading list for the end of 2011 and into 2012?

The links contained within this post are Amazon.com and affiliate links. You are in no way obligated to buy via these links, but if you do use them, you’ll be supporting NOH without ever feeling the pain of having money taken from your pocket. 

Seeds. They are the life-force of your garden. Without seeds, most of the plants in our garden would cease to exist — whether you are planting seeds yourself or using store-bought seedlings — and in turn, life would become far more complicated since qe depend on plants for far more than just food.

Now you might not realize it, but more and more GMO products are creeping into the food supply every year. And that is part of the reason that obtaining heirloom seeds to start your plants is so important. Hybrid seeds have often been treated so that the seeds will not produce true fruits and vegetables, meaning that you end up with sub-par produce, or seeds that will not sprout or produce anything at all. Which means you become dependent on the seed companies every year to provide you will new seeds or upon the garden store where you get your seedlings. There’s not even a remote opportunity to save seeds and become self-sufficient in your garden.

As you likely know, there are quite a few companies nowadays that sell organic and heirloom seeds, which help preserve the older generations of plants that our ancestors grew. But did you know that there is a non-profit organization which was developed to help amateur gardeners reach out to other like-minded gardeners who want to share their own heirloom seeds with others in their country or the world (where postal restrictions allow )?

I first heard about the Seed Savers Exchange a few years ago and just thought the concept was incredible. At that stage, SSE was still becoming more developed in countries outside the US and they didn’t even have their seed yearbook online yet. But now, all that has changed. There are over 13,000 varieties of seeds from members who have collected them from their own garden, and your paid membership allows you access to all of these fruit, vegetable, herb and flower seeds. Or, if that seems like too much, you can also just purchase a subscription to the herb and flower seeds collections.

Now before you get too excited, the membership doesn’t actually include all the seeds you can get your hands on. It gives you the ability to network with other gardeners and find all sorts of heirloom varieties, possibly even growing in the same state or city where you live. But you do still have to pay a nominal fee for the seeds you want and of course for shipping too. BUT, if you list your own seeds from your plants, you can get the seed packets for half-price. And if that’s not a good enough reason to encourage you to learn how to save your own seeds, I don’t know what is!

What’s great about this program is not only that they are trying to make sure that the lifeline of humanity is preserved by ensuring that the plants we obtain so many resources from are kept natural and healthy…but also that you can save all the seeds you want and not have to worry that you’ll never use them all up because you can share them with others. Sure, you might end up with some extras each year, but it will also help you to learn about saving new seeds and encourage your growth as a gardener.

And honestly if you are a garden lover, with over 13,000 plant varieties available, your heart is going to skip a beat when the SSE Yearbook arrives in your mailbox! Even being over here in Germany, I was astounded by the sheer mass of the Yearbook — and the fact that there were actually quite a few German seed savers around. There is a bit of a code you need to decipher in the printed version, but I’m pretty sure that with the online system, this has all gotten quite a bit easier. I’m not currently a member since I have already bought and saved more seeds than I need to open my own gardening store (and yes, I have tossed around the idea of selling seedlings from time to time) but once I’ve tried out all the seeds I have now, I plan on signing up again because the opportunity great and you’re doing something awesome for our heritage as well.

Since 2008, Seed Savers Exchange has been donating seeds to the Svalbard Global Seed Bank in Norway (a place I should never, ever go for fear of having a meltdown with so many different types of seeds around!) To date, SSE has shared 1,660 open-pollinated heirloom seed varieties with the seed bank so that they can be preserved for generations to come.

A yearly subscription to the Seed Savers Exchange is a great gift for the gardener in your life — and at the same time you’ll be doing something great for future generations of gardeners too.

Want to join in the garden fun and link to your own blog or images online? You can share about anything related to gardening, old or new posts, from recipes to harvesting to grow reports to DIY projects or inspiration.

Here’s how this works:

PLEASE READ THESE GUIDELINES, especially if you have never linked up before!

That’s it! Share your garden with us by linking up below!

Over the last few years, I have mentioned my love of canning several times and shown everyone my oh-so-European glass-lid canning jars. Once I decided I was going to start canning in Germany, it really did take me quite a few months to adjust to the idea of canning in these things. I grew up canning with my mom in Ball and Mason jars — and I was pretty sure that I’d read somewhere that these funky glass lid jars just weren’t up to par.

But after using them now for several years, I can safely say that they are totally fabulous. And although I have the super old fashioned version of these ultra hip jars, those who completely fall in love with them can actually get them in the US — if you’re willing to pay the price. Whether that be buying them new, or deciding to have them shipped over from Germany somehow.

A few weeks ago, I received the following email — and although I’ve talked a bit about my canning jars in the past, I figured this was a good time to really tell you all about them. And perhaps dispel a few fears for those living over here who really want to try canning, but just can’t get a handle on what these strange jars are all about.

Tiffany,
While viewing your posts on the construction of your new harvest/canning kitchen I became interested in the canning jars you used.  Can you tell me where they are available, who the manufacturer is, etc?
Thanks!

The glass jars you see in the photo above (and in some of my other canning posts) are actually the standard over here in Germany. Well actually, they are now the standard for old timers and die hard canners — because newer, prettier, more expensive versions of these jars have been released in recent years.

I was extremely intimidated by the glass-lid jars at first because I was used to hearing the jars pop and being able to push on the lids to make sure they were sealed. And I was pretty sure I read from the US FDA that if you used these types of jars, you would likely die from botulism. But a lot of things cause you to die according to the FDA. Trust me; it’s very clear when one of these jars hasn’t sealed…because when you go to pick it up by the lid, it just opens right up. The clamps which hold the lid on during the canning process are removed after the jars cool down (or 24 hours if you can wait that long) and if the lid stays on, you’re good. I also recently read that if the little rubber tag sticking out on the rings is pointing down, you’ve got a good seal but I have yet to test that theory myself since I just found out about it.

Although I had my apprehensions about these European canning jars, it was really just a matter of getting to know them better…and I absolutely love them now. Not only are they practical, but they look gorgeous — and sometimes you can pick up these older style of jars for next to nothing.

Where do I get some?

I have been lucky enough to obtain a bunch room full of the old canning jars on eBay and Freecycle for pennies. Sometimes you will find people over here that will sell a few boxes of them at once, and you can manage to get them for the price of gas to go pick them up, plus a few euros on top. Or you can put an ad on Freecycle for “einmachgläser” and see if you get any nibbles. I did that a few years ago and literally ended up with about 70 jars for free while a woman was cleaning out her dad’s basement. I think she found me quite strange to be so thrilled about these jars. But I’m used to people finding me a bit unusual. I also lucked into another 100 or so large jars (1.5 – 2 liter size which are harder to find) at my local farmers’ market because they had a sign up that they were giving a bunch of them away. Seriously, here in Germany, these things can be found all over the place if you look around a bit.

Now if you have fallen in love with these jars in the US, and just must have some of them, here are a few places that sell them (ebay is a fairly poor source for them in the US). But trust me — the jars I have are dinosaurs compared to all the new variations they have for these jars now…and they have a fancy price tag to match.

• Weck Jars has a pretty good website and they are one of the original manufacturers of the jars here in Germany.
• Heath Ceramics
• Kaufmann Mercantile
• Mighty Nest
• Crate & Barrel

In addition to the jars, you need the rubber seals and the clips. If you are getting the new jars, they are tiny little things that just slide over the edges of the jars to hold the lid on. Or on the old school jars, the clamp stretches across the top and hooks under opposite sides of the lip of the jar. Mine have the latter as you can see below since they are all quite old. There’s actually quite a bit of tension put on that metal piece in the middle, which I think also helps hold the lid down and improves your chances of the jars sealing (but I may be wrong).

I’ve grown to like them quite a bit but as far as canning goes in general, I think it’s really a matter of what you can get your hands on for a decent price. I know a lot of people find Ball jars for a buck each or even a buck a case from time to time…and you can’t beat that price.

I find that both Ball and Weck canning jars have issues from time to time with sealing — that’s always a bit hit or miss with canning. But these usually won’t leak or fill up with water when you don’t get the seal right in the water bath because of the clamp.

Will I be taking these jars with me wherever we move to next? Most definitely! I’ve grown quite attached to the liter sizing and the 1.5- and 2-liter canning jars are fantastic for using as wind lights with candles in them.

To learn more about using the new Weck canning jars, check out Food in Jars, an awesome website about all things canning related.

Have you been bitten by the canning bug? Or are you still waiting for a reason to get your feet wet?

Want to join in the garden fun and link to your own blog or images online? You can share about anything related to gardening, old or new posts, from recipes to harvesting to grow reports to DIY projects or inspiration.

Here’s how this works:

PLEASE READ THESE GUIDELINES, especially if you have never linked up before!

That’s it! Share your garden with us by linking up below!

Garden Life is a day early this week for several reasons. One is that it’s Thanksgiving and two is that Mackenzie is turning 3 tomorrow. So my Friday is going to be SUPER busy as I prepare for our turkey dinner on Saturday and celebrate a bit with our little girl. Hence the change. Next week, it will be back to the regularly scheduled programming. 

Earlier today, I shared how to make your very own pumpkin puree. It’s a very easy process and you are left with the very tasty and healthy (especially for men) by-product of pumpkin seeds. I have to admit that I’d never really eaten too many pumpkin seeds until we started on our low-carb diet. I was looking for something which I could snack on that would give me protein without a ton of carbs, and a bag of mixed nuts became my friend during afternoon hunger pangs.

Roasting pumpkin seeds is a very easy process, and although you don’t necessarily end up with a huge yield from small pie pumpkins, it’s totally worth it. And a lot of fun to do with kids. You can roast seeds from just about any sort of pumpkin as well as many larger squash versions like turban squash (which have firmer seeds).

To me, roasted pumpkin seeds (sometimes also called pepitas) using this recipe taste a lot like popcorn. So if you’ve never had them and are wondering what the big deal is, that’s what’s up. Pumpkin seeds without their lighter colored hull are usually green, but with this method, you can usually eat the whole seed pod without shelling (which is wonderfully convenient). Some larger pumpkin seeds will need a longer cooking time or you’ll end up with very chewy, rather inedible seeds with seed coats that are impossible to remove.

There are a few ways of roasting pumpkin seeds, but the method I’m going to describe leaves the seeds with a lightly salted taste and a wonderfully crunchy, puffy texture. You really need to be careful when roasting them, though, because if you leave them in a few minutes too long, you’ll end up with seeds that taste (and smell) like burnt popcorn. And I don’t know about you, but that’s certainly not one of my favorite things to eat.

The basic process is very simple and looks a bit like this…

First, you want to scoop out all of the seeds and put them into a bowl. I have these in a strainer, but you really don’t need to wash them or anything.

Then you’ll need to go about separating the pulp from the developed seeds. I say developed because you’ll also probably have a lot of soft, small seeds in the pulp which can be roasted, but turn into something more like puffed rice. In the picture below you can see the really large seed in the middle, and the small seed to the left of it which is lighter in color. When you have them in your hands, you’ll notice that the undeveloped seeds are basically just seed coats with no green seed inside.

Once you’ve got your seeds collected, you want to quickly measure them before simmering them for about 10 minutes. You measure them to determine how much water and salt to cook them in (which I’ll detail in the recipe below).

After boiling, you’ll roast the seeds in the oven for 10 – 20 minutes (small pumpkin seeds are on the 10 minute side) and then they’re ready to eat!

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Over the last 6 or 7 years, we have collected quite a collection of houseplants. Some of them have fared really well, and others I killed pretty quickly (like every beautiful orchid ever brought into our home).It’s not that I intended for the plants to die; I just wasn’t very good at paying attention to them, giving them water regularly or diagnosing any problems they might develop. Thankfully, I’ve gotten a lot better about all those things!

When we moved into our last rental house in 2004, our friends who were moving back to the states had quite a few houseplants. And needless to say, they couldn’t take them with them. So we inherited a ficus tree (which sadly died a few years later) and an anthurium.

In case you’re not sure what an anthurium is (also sometimes called a Flamingo Flower or Boy Flower because of the way their wax-like flowers look). Here’s one of mine:

Now as luck would have it, we got a second one of these a couple of years ago as a gift. I think they’re pretty cool and was thrilled that we were getting a new one because our old one was looking pretty sickly. You see, our olive tree (which I usually keep indoors and don’t even get me started on how much that thing annoys me) developed scales several years ago. I asked a friend of ours who went to floral school what these wretched little brown bumps on my plants were and how to get rid of them. So she explained the story of “scales” to me.

You see, scales literally suck the life out of your plants. These brown bumps are actually insects which attach themselves to your plants and are completely immobile. More often then not, there will be sticky residue on the leaves around these critters. In the case of our olive oil tree which was rather badly affected, the residue was on the nearby window and all over the floor too. You’ll also notice that your plant just doesn’t seem to be making any progress. It probably won’t die, but it just doesn’t get any bigger, a lot of the leaves will be pale or discolored and a lot of the blossoms will also die off quickly. So what you’re left with is a plant that looks like the one below (which is my older plant — at least 7 years old) instead of the one above.

As you might notice, one leaf on the (mostly) healthy plant is the size of the whole sick plant. And the old one used to be much larger…but when the stems look like this, it really doesn’t stand much chance. These lighter scales are the newer bugs that are just latching on.

At any rate, the important question now is, “How the heck do you get rid of these little suckers?” The following directions will work on just about any sort of houseplant.

One of the smartest things to do is to isolate the sick plant from the rest of your plants. Otherwise it will spread to everything else. Believe me, I know.

Then what you need to do is scrape those little scales off the plant. They are oddly moist which is a bit unpleasant when you do this. But have a paper towel handy and just try not to be too squeamish about it. You can also use the paper towel to scrape them, but you may miss a few.  Try to get all of the scales off that you can find. Be sure to check the underside of the leaves and new growth as well to make sure they aren’t staking their claim early. If leaves are dead, go ahead and remove them.

Now what you want to do is keep the scales from coming back. One suggestion I’ve seen (and tried with awesome results) is applying a bit of rubbing alcohol to a cotton pad and rubbing it all over the stems and on the underside of the leaves. You’ve got to be a bit careful about doing this and probably want to try out a stem or leaf first before you do the whole plant because it could hurt/kill the plant.

You can also spray your plants with insecticidal soap (but never use that on ferns) — something I’ve never bought in my life otherwise I may have tried this first. After a week, rinse it off. The easiest way to do that is in the bathtub, which will also help clean your leaves.

If you’ve still got a scale problem after that, wipe the leaf undersides with a solution of 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in 3/4 cup warm water.

Hopefully after that, the scales will go plague someone else — or just die! But honestly, they will hang around forever if you don’t do something about them, continuing to come back time and time again. And your plants will just get more and more sad looking in the process.

Have you ever had scales on your plants? Or is there another pest which plagues your plants instead? 

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