Backyard

DIY Plastic Bottle Weed Killer Spray Shield

Plastic Bottle Weed Killer Spray Shield

A quick solution to reducing over-spray when applying weed killer it to create your own spray shield using a 2 liter plastic soda bottle.  You can then target specific weeds, even on a windy day, and reduce the risk of the weed killer reaching your non-target plants. This simple design makes it easy to attach … Continue Reading

DIY Plastic Bottle Garden Cloche

Diy Plastic Bottle Garden Cloche

Garden cloches are an attractive way to protect tender plants until they get established.  You can make your own lightweight protective plant cloches using a standard two liter bottle. If you also want to maintain humidity, just add a wine bottle cork to the top.  Of course you could just use the cap that came … Continue Reading

DIY Plastic Bottle Projects And Crafts For Yard And Garden

25 Diy Plastic Bottle Projects Crafts For Yard And Garden

Re-purposing 2 liter soda bottles not only helps the environment, but it can also save you money when you are able make things you might normally buy. Here are several practical uses for 2 liter plastic bottles around your garden and yard. Plastic Bottle Garden Cloche DIY Plastic Bottle Garden Cloche Vegetable Water Wicking Bottle … Continue Reading

Random Mushroom Growing Experiments

Third Mushroom Kit Harvest Fruiting

Mushroom Culture Experiments Our first experiment in which we used rice water and gelatin as our culture solution (here’s the link) worked really well.  We have since also tried growing cultures in traditional agar.  But for some reason, the rice water and gelatin always produces the most mycelium from mushroom cultures. So then we moved … Continue Reading

DIY Recycled Plastic Bottle Vertical Container Garden With Printable Template

Recycled Soda Bottles Garden Assembled Bling

Vertical gardens combine so many great elements together.   These container gardens incorporate recycling, water conservation, weed reduction, and creativity while taking up a small fraction of space.  You can hang a vertical garden indoors near a sunny window, on a small balcony or terrace, or as decorative features in the backyard.  Hang these vertical gardens … Continue Reading

12 Really Unusual Things Used To Grow Mushrooms

Mushrooms Growing On Barbie

  Toilet Paper This photo was submitted to the North American Mycological Association by Ron Spinosa showing oyster mushrooms growing inside a milk carton using kitty litter as a substrate. Milk Carton This photo was submitted to the North American Mycological Association by Milton Tam showing oyster mushrooms growing inside a milk carton using kitty … Continue Reading

10 DIY Outdoor Self Watering Irrigation Systems For Potted Plants And Planters

We use several different methods to keep our outdoor potted plants watered depending on where the plant is located and the size of the planter.  Making self-watering systems really cuts back on the frequency of manual waterings, and improves the amount of water delivered to each plant. No offense intended to some of the other … Continue Reading

Alternative Methods For Watering Houseplants Comparison

Alternative Plant Watering Methods

If you are looking for ways to water your houseplants while you are away on vacation, or just looking for a way to streamline watering all your container plants, there are a lot of options to choose from.  There are plenty of products you can purchase, and many DIY methods of watering plants as well.  … Continue Reading

Mushroom Growing Kit Results And Review

Oyster Mushroom Kit

Given how much we enjoy gardening, it seemed worth it to give a mushroom growing kit a try.  We love cooking with mushrooms and if we can manage to grow them in a kit, maybe there’s a chance we could start growing them regularly as a hobby for our own consumption.  The kit seemed like … Continue Reading