Instructables and guides to do it yourself.
Those that sell us cleaners have us thinking we need a separate product for every use, but it is very possible to clean both your body and your house with just a basic olive oil soap bar and a few additions that you probably have around your kitchen. We do use some other homemade cleaners too, but, we wanted to share with you one of our…
You might remember our previous shout out for The Orchard Project. After joining one of their harvesting trips at the beginning of autumn, it seemed only fitting to return in winter to learn a little bit about the care involved in maintaining a healthy orchard. This time, we attended a workshop to learn the some of the basics of restorative pruning. Here's what we learned: The…
Our little nectarine tree had gorgeous blossoms this spring. Unfortunately, they were accompanied by some rather unsightly twisted and red blotched leaves. We did some research and concluded that it has fallen prey to peach leaf curl. Peach leaf curl is a fungal disease of peaches, almonds, nectarines and occasionally apricots, which causes distorted leaves, also making them fall prematurely. Being a fungus, spores grow on…
We recently discovered that Epson salt has a plethora of uses in the garden, so we thought we'd share some of them with you. Epsom salt is named after a bitter saline spring in Epsom (Surrey, England). It's not actually salt but a naturally occurring pure mineral compound of magnesium and sulfate. The crystals break down with water into magnesium and sulfur – components which are beneficial…
You may already know that vinegar makes a great all-purpose cleaner. But did you know that you can easily jazz up even that vinegar, with the result of an even more powerful, and nicer smelling, specialty cleaner? And, it’s so simple to do! Here are our step by step instructions for you: Ingredients Vinegar.Infusion ingredients of choice Directions 1. Start with a clean glass jar. Any glass…
A little while ago we went to a biochar workshop by Pete of Kernow Black. He did a small scale demonstration of the creation of biochar, as well as discussing the topic. So what is biochar, and why can putting in the ground help your garden and the environment? In order to answer this we need to know a little bit about the carbon cycle, here…
We thought the slugs were bad, little did we know how much damage that the tiny winged hoards of whitefly could do! It took a while for us to notice this infestation, and weren't as repetitive with the treatments as we probably should have been, so the tomato plants were a little stunted and didn't produce much this year, lesson learned! The whitefly (quite literally a tiny white fly)…
We're feeling very lucky right now. Our friends Cherrie and Silver have given us a full vermicomposting setup, worms and all. Thank you so much! So, we thought we'd take this opportunity to share with you everything we know about vermicomposting, worm bins, and worms. Exciting right? Or maybe you're thinking we've lost the plot a bit and have a few questions to assess our sanity?…
Aaargh, slug armies! We're sure most vegetable growers understand the pain – you’ve planted your seeds, cared for them, nurtured them, watched them sprout and grow – it’s a relationship that time, energy, and love have gone into. Then overnight that life you’ve helped bring into existence is gone, victim of the unrelenting slug, leaving nothing but a slime trail behind. We're currently fighting the slug hoards, we've…
We've come across a few ideas for DIY washing machines and have picked out an example that is both simple and compact. We've combined a couple ideas we've seen into a washer and wringer setup. While there are more efficient ways to wash your laundry if you have more space, this compact design keeps everything in one bucket stack, great for places where you don't have…
After encountering some damp in Freya's wardrobe, we found a small crack in a cable gland which we believe to be the point of entry for moisture. We have resolved this with some sealant, but to be extra safe we made a small dehumidifier to stand in the bottom of the cupboard. There are a couple of super simple ways to do this, so we thought…
As we've started using the camper at the onset of winter, we thought it would be a perfect chance to post our first instructable! What we'll be making is home-made version of one of these - a terracotta candle heater: The one pictured above is designed by Marco Zagaria as a finished product, but we (like many others) are making ours out of plant pots. It's very…