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Volume 2, Number 40, October 11, 2007 (Read It Online) Kind of a short newsletter today, we could use your fall gardening tips and photos! Please submit them on one of the contest pages below. Thanks for reading, Susan
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Photos: Tips and Articles:
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If you are an avid crafter, capable writer and own a digital camera, you are eligible to participate. Submit your craft projects to ThriftyFun and we will pay $15 for any crafts that we publish. More Information:
Decoupaged Pop Bottle Bird Feeders These bird feeders are made from pop bottles with adapters from http://www.mcnaughtoninc.com/ These can be painted or decoupaged and sprayed with clear spray paint. There is a hummingbird feeder, a hanging general feeder and a suction cup to window feeder. Lots of fun and great sellers at craft shows.By Maggie from Bloomington, MN
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Cleaning Up After Trimming Bushes
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Rate It: Tips for Organizing Seeds and Tools Need help organizing your seeds? When planting seeds at any time, you don't need to buy expensive planting labels. You can use popsicle sticks, tongue depressors, or window blinds cut into smaller pieces. Use a permanent marker to write what seeds or bulbs you are planting and always know where everything is. Post Feedback: http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf28376644.tip.html
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Rate It: Starting A Garden Journal
If you don't already keep one, fall is a great time to consider starting a garden journal. Now that things are winding down for most gardeners, you may be able to find a little more time to organize your thoughts and reflect on the successes and disappointments of the past season. A garden journal doesn't need to be complicated, but you'll find that keeping a few records from year to year can be rewarding as well as saving you a lot of time and frustration. The Best Kind of Garden Journal (In My Humble Opinion) There are probably as many types and styles of garden journals to choose from as there are gardeners . I think the most important aspect to remember when selecting or creating your journal is practicality. I'm not suggesting that style isn't important. It's wonderful if you find a journal that's aesthetically pleasing to you, but if it's not functional, it isn't really practical. It's my humble opinion that a simple three-ring binder makes the best garden journal. It's cheap and easy to create, and it allows for flexible record-keeping (you can add lined paper, graph paper, pockets, dividers and photo pages). If you're worried about aesthetics, there are binders available with clear pockets on the front and back covers allowing you to personalize it according to your style. Another plus is durability-you can take it with you outside-a big advantage for those of us who seem to forget our thoughts on the walk from the garden to the back door. Free Journal Templates If you like the idea of using pre-printed forms for record keeping, most software for the home office (like MS Office or MS Works) comes with some type of feature that will let you create journal pages or spreadsheets from pre-designed templates. There are also several free sources available on the web. Here are two links to get you started: More Ideas For Journals
The Nuts and Bolts of Record Keeping The first rule of keeping a garden journal is that there are no rules! It can be as easy or as complicated as you want to make it. Besides, if you're like most gardeners, you would probably rather be spending time out in the garden than taking copious notes in a journal. Even so, recording a few key bits of information can save you a whole lot of time and frustration in the long run and help you maximize the enjoyment you get from all of your hard work each year. Because conditions can vary so much even within each growing region, your own records will always be your best source of information. Key data to record:
Not-So-Key Data (but still fun!):
Photojournalism Photos are a wonderful way to streamline your record keeping, document your observations and tell your garden's story. Set aside some pages in your journal (or in a photo album or on your computer) to keep pictures of your garden's progress. Ideas for photos:
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Rate It: Preparing Your Pond For Winter
As the air temperature cools, so does the temperature of the water in your pond. When average daily temperatures drop below 60-70º F, significant biological changes start to take place in aquatic plants and fish. Here are some tips for preparing your pond for winter. Protecting Plants From Cold In the fall, trim back or prune plant foliage as it turns brown. Cut water lilies down to the base and trim all bog and marsh plants like cattails and taro. Leave any division and repotting for spring or the plants may become weakened over winter. Once the average daily air temperature starts to dip below 60º F and plants start to brown, bring tender plants indoors for the winter. Submerge the pots of hardier plants in a part of the pond that is deep enough so that ice will not form around the plant's base when it freezes. Immerse tender plants in a tub or container filled with water so that they are 1-2 inches below the surface. Store them in a cold room like an unheated basement. An alternative method is to bury the rhizomes. Wash them thoroughly, removing any old stems and roots, and bury them in a bucket filled with clean, damp sand or damp sphagnum moss. Check the plants frequently to make sure the roots don't dry out. Small Ponds Many aquatic gardeners are unsure whether or not to drain their pond for winter. If you live in a milder climate, there's really no right or wrong answer, it's whatever is most convenient for you. If you live in a harsher climate, however, the answer depends largely on the size of your pond. If you have a small pond, it may be easiest just to set up winter housing for your plants and fish and take your pond completely apart-storing all of the components over winter. This is probably a necessity in harsher climates where shallow pond may freeze solid. Start by setting up winter housing for your fish and aquatic plants. This means bringing tender plants indoors and getting an indoor tank set up and running several weeks in advance of transferring your fish. When your indoor tank is ready, drain your pond to a level where the fish can continue to swim, but it's easy for you to see and catch them. Try to catch them using buckets rather than nets to avoid removing any of their slimy coating. Afterwards, you can either empty the pond completely and cover it, or just remove the mechanicals and cover the remaining water, letting it freeze solid. Large Ponds If you have a larger pond, it may be best to leave it full of water over winter providing you have been happy with its performance all summer. If not, consider draining it and starting over next spring. Leaving it full can be an advantage if you keep fish, because it will reduce the stress of having to adapt to conditions indoors. You may still need to move your tropical plants indoors, but with the proper planning, your hardy plants and fish can stay in the pond over winter. Perform Maintenance & Testing: The first step to preparing your large pond for winter is to clean out the bottom and test the water. Remove as much plant debris from the bottom of the pond as possible by skimming, vacuuming and netting and make sure the skimmers, filters and pump are clean and in good working order. Lastly, test the bio-load and oxygen levels of the water. Change & Reduce Fish Food: As the temperatures drop below 70º F, reduce the amount of food you feed your fish as well as gradually switching them to a lower protein feed so that by the time temperatures drop below 60ºF, they are being fed a wheat-germ based food exclusively. At temperatures below 50ºF, the bacteria in their digestive tract can no longer effectively process food. At this point, some experts state that feeding should be stopped entirely until temperatures climb back above 50º F. Other aquatic animals experts suggest feeding them as long as they keep eating. Consult your fish supplier for advice specific to your fish before discontinuing food altogether. If you live in a climate where winter temperatures stay below 50º F for longer than 10-12 weeks, it may be best to house your fish indoors over winter. Provide Fish Cover: Fish feel safe from predators under the cover of aquatic plants. Removing your plants for the winter may leave fish feeling vulnerable and place them under additional stress. Use PVC or plastic trash cans to provide them with places to take cover during the winter. Remove Mechanicals: If you keep fish, once the temperature drops below 40º F, remove and clean the pump and filters and store them for winter. In a correctly designed pond, warm water settles to the bottom. Because pumps pull water from the bottom and move it toward the surface, its better to leave the warm water on the bottom undisturbed in the winter rather than circulating it to the top with a pump and exposing it to freezing temperatures. A pump left running over winter can actually lower the water temperature too much for your fish to survive. Preventing An Ice Over: Use a floating pond heater or de-icing unit to keep your pond from completely freezing over. It's important to keep at least a small portion of the pond open in order to facilitate the release of toxic gases and allow oxygen into the pond. To sustain water temperatures artificially over winter (e.g. 50-65º F) can be a breeding ground for bacteria and can do your fish more harm than good. Heaters should not heat the pond, but merely keep it from icing over. NEVER use a hammer to crack or break the ice. You may injure your fish. Apply Protective Netting: Falling leaves and winter winds can fill your pond with debris. Not only does this build up on the bottom of your pond, but the decaying vegetation increases the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water which stresses out the fish and plants who are already dealing with cooler temperatures. Help prevent this by covering you pond with a mesh net and anchoring it to the sides. As debris falls, simply take up one side of the net, shake off the debris and reattach the netting. This will keep the majority of the leaves and debris out of your pond and save your time cleaning up in the spring.
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Rate It: Tips for removing pine sap or pitch from your hands as posted by the ThriftyFun community. Post your own ideas here. Toothpaste While arranging some pine boughs in a vase as a centerpiece, I ended up with pine sap all over my hands. I tried soap, Dawn, scrubbed, and scrubbed, nothing worked - still sticky. I went upstairs and got some toothpaste (not the gel kind) and put a quarter size dollop in my hand, then added a bit of water. Washed my hands like you normally do and the pine sap was gone - no sticky! By Jenny in KY Pam Cooking Spray My son in law told me to use Pam, or something similar, to remove tree sap from my hands and he was right. It came right off. By Granfran Pam Works In 10 Seconds PAM works fast and it does not hurt from scrubbing. I could not remember where I read butter, but after looking at PAM, and having tried many of the above solvents: Dawn, Toothpaste, Joy, Grease Monkey, Tar Soap, Baking Soda, Finger Nail Polish in the past. I decided to try the internet first this time. PAM non stick food spray! 10 seconds, and soft clean, smooth hands! By Katylin Nail Polish Remover My mom always used fingernail polish remover. I've heard you can use petroleum jelly as well. By Sachi Lestoil Cleaner We have always sworn by lestoil. By japhysimon. WD-40 While working at a florist shop, we used WD-40 By JODI Cooking Oil To get "Pine Sap" off your hands, put a small amount of cooking oil on your hands just enough to coat your hands. Then rub your hands together for about 1 whole minute or so. The pitch will loosen up and once it does you can then wash it off with soap and water. Repeat if necessary. WORKS GREAT! By Luckyluke Peanut Butter I've found That peanut butter works best at removing pine tar from your hands . Put a little dollop in your hands, wash and rinse as usual with a little warm water and your good to go. By C.M . Mang Oil Is The Key The peanut butter worked great for me! I think any oil based product such as butter, Pam or any kind of cooking oil will do the trick, too. By Michelle Feel free to post your ideas below.
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I have a strawberry plot and I have been covering it with straw for the winter but do I have to? Post Feedback: http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf62848393.tip.html
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Rate It: Looking for a frugal solution to an everyday problem? Submit your request here: Click Here
If you are an avid crafter, capable writer and own a digital camera, you are eligible to participate. Submit your craft projects to ThriftyFun and we will pay $15 for any crafts that we publish. More Information:
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