Natural Home and Garden Remedys Part 2

I like your shelf too Smiley, looks very bright. Can't remember if I said that or not lol

Flowers i think Iput 2 coats on the door, I don't remember. (sheesh I should wear that on a shirt...)

Me too Lynnie. I want one of those shirts too!

The chalkboard paint I had was a brush/roller on type. The more layers you have, the better the board works.

The clothespins on my smileyshelf are hiding because they are decorated! I know, it wasn't an easy pic to look at.

Mmmm, that tea sounds wonderful, Juney, thanks for sharing the recipe. I guess if you can't get the Korean rock sugar, you would just use regular sugar, or honey?

what about rock sugar candy? Do you remember that stuff?

Rock candy was one of my absolute favorites growing up! My Mom even taught me how to make it since I loved it so much!
KyWoods, I think they like the red sugar in their teas because it is better for you than the super-refined stuff. I will just use whatever I have on hand... I made it for DH yesterday with white sugar and one of those big Asian Pears and no cinnamon, 'cause I didn't have any of it either. I pulled the ginger out later and mashed the pear & we ate that with our porkchops.

Mmmm, the pear would be yummy, too! I sweeten everything with locally grown raw honey, so I'll try that.

To kill grass in cracks and crevices, sprinkle Salt on the unwanted grass. Salt is a corrosive that kills plants.

The fastest rowing grass in the world is bamboo, growing up to three feet in a single day. Hummmmm never thought of bamboo as grass.

To prolong the life of lettuce,wrap in paper towels and store in ziploc storage bag in refrigerator.

To repel leafhoppers from lettuce heads,tack yellow plastic dixie cups upside down to short stakes in the lettuce patch and coat the cups with Vaseline Petroleum Jelly. The leafhoppers attracted to the color yellow, get stuck in the Vaseline on the cups.

To prevent blossom-end rot on melon plants (caused by drought or excessive rain), sprinkle a handful of NonFat Dry Milk around the base of the plant and gently mix into the soil. Repeat every few weeks. Milk adds calcium to the soil. Can also use crushed chalk.

For powdery mildew on plants, mix one teaspoon baking soda and one-quarter teaspoon Murphy oil Soap in one quart water. Fill a trigger spray bottle and spray on plants at the first sign of mildew. Spray once a week until the daytime temperature exceeds 70. The USDA has approved baking soda as a fungicide. It changes the ph of the leaves, inhibiting fungi growth.

Where did everyone go? I'm all alone......Whaaaaa, boo hoo, sniffle sniffle. Jim where are ya bud, need a goofy punch line here :-)

Just popping in to say I'm enjoying all these informative posts--thank you all for sharing your knowledge!

Thanks Folks, don't feel so all alone now lol

^_^

For that occasional cactus encounter....to remove cactus spines easily, use tape. Just take a strip of scotch tape, lay it gently over the spines, rub the tape lightly and remove....the spines come away with the tape.

Wow, that's good info, moonhowl. Thanks.

You are very welcome...and it actually works....grin take it from the "voice of experience" LOL

Thats the most anoying stick you can get and very hard to get rid of, That would sure beat rubbing and cussing Moon :-) I'll try the tape nextime.

Repel mosquitoes by rubbing Listerine original on your skin. The thyme in Listerine keeps mosquitoes away. Don't use the cool mint kind.

If you can't drain pools of still water from holes in large tree trunks, spray the water surface with a fine coat of Cooking Spray so the vegetable oil can smother any developing mosquito lar'vae. You can also use a few drops of Olive oil.

Mosquitoes spread some of the worst diseases known to man, including encephalitis, malaria, and yellow fever.

Does anyone have a sure fire remedy for streak free windows? I have tried everything and the dumb things still streak!

Have you tried white vinegar and newspaper? I have great success with that, even on the french doors that the dogs smudge up.

I have Moon, don't know what it is with me and windows. The best yet but not fool proof has been a little dish liquid in water, brushed on with soft brush and squegeed without touching window with paper towel but almost impossible as it runs down the corners.

Flowers try cleaning them with rubbing alcohol.

Been there and done that too Lynnie, even added it to the vinegar solution. Maybe I'm putting too much or not enough don't know. Windows hate me!!!LOL

Flowers, I think it's the paper towel messing you up. Try a clean rag, one that hasn't been in the dryer with a dryer sheet. Or a microfiber cloth.

Paper towels have residue in them that will streak the windows.

I think your right Smiley, something sure smears the heck out of em!

DH Looooved dryer sheets until one night last week, when he had filled the clean bathtub with crystal clear water and just before he got in, he tossed in a freshly washed washcloth. It clouded the water up all around it and finally convinced him that I actually was! right; those dryer sheets leave a horrid residue on things. I thought that he already understood that he was never to use a dryer sheet on the towels, bedding or my clothes, but he said that he "just loved the smell". Oh well, now even he knows ^_^

you're right JuneyBug, and they're bad for the environment

I don't like those artificial 'fresh smelling' things. They put too much stink in them for me, anyways. I have a friend who febreezes everything, too much scent. That's one of the things I love about summer ~ my clothesline!

yeah I'm a soap & water chick too *grin*

We have really soft water water here, so a tiny amount of soap gives a lot of lather. Because of that I rinse every load twice. I discovered if I use about 1/3 to 1/2 the amount suggested of liquid fabric softener in the first rinse, it helps to remove the excess soap. The second rinse leaves the clothes softer, and with just the faintest hint of fragrance...which usually dissipates on the line, but I do not use it for towels and wash cloths.

we have hard water. soft water messes up my hair lol

Thanks Moon, must have hard water here, takes half bottle of shampoo to make a good lather. Never knew how to tell.

Hey MS Flowers...surprise....your thread is so popular you need to start #3....grin

I just thought of a tip I discovered:

When your hand lotion bottle is just about empty, but not quite, and you don't want to throw away the last little bit, remove the pump, and screw on a cap from a plastic soft drink bottle.
Turn it upside down, and set it somewhere so it can't be knocked over. The leftover lotion will make its way down over a couple days or so, then you can remove the cap and tap it out. Then you can throw the bottle away, but I rinse and recycle them.

Amazingly, the bottle caps fit perfectly, whether from a 2-liter soda bottle or a one-serving size!

Good tip KyWoods! Ok Moon will try to make new thread if I can remember how lol brb

Ok lets hop to the new thread all , here it is

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1071816/