“And the weeds of the garden shall be visited upon the gardener.”

I can certainly think of the 7+ weedy sins of the garden but knowing how to cleanse my garden of these weeds is even better. Especially if it can be done cheaply and with household items. Murdering weeds is a fun past time.

So, for your reading enjoyment, here are The 7 Deadly Homemade Weed Killers, guaranteed to help you eradicate the weeds you find in your garden.

1. Boiling Water – Yep, that’s right. Plain old H2O can be used as an extremely effective weed killer. As a matter of fact, boiling water is more effective than many of your store bought weed killers in wiping out unwanted vegetation. Easy-peasy to do. Put a kettle of tap water on the stove and heat till boiling, then pour on the weeds you wish to kill.You are effectively cooking the plant in the ground. Boiling water is a great way to clear out vegetation on a wholesale basis, like driveways and sidewalks. But be warned, boiling water is not selective. It will cook and instantly kill any plant that it comes in contact with and this includes underground roots of nearby plants.
2. Bleach – Not only is bleach a spot remover, it is a weed remover as well. Place some bleach in a spray bottle and spray on the weed you wish to remove. The bleach chemicals will evaporate or dissipate in about two days (or less but better safe than sorry), making the area safe for planting. Again, bleach will kill anything but if you do get some on a plant you want to keep, just wash the plant off.
3. Vinegar – Vinegar is a great organic homemade weed killer. Either white or cider vinegar will work. The acetic acid in the vinegar works to kill the leaves on the plant but not the root. Vinegar will kill back (kill the leaves but not the root) any plant but works best on young plants because they do not have enough energy stored in the roots to regrow their leaves. If vinegar is applied to more established weeds enough times, the plant will eventually deplete its stored energy reserves and die.
4. Salt – It was once a known war tactic to salt the fields of enemies. Salting the earth was also used as punishment for severe crimes in several countries throughout history. The reason is because salt will kill plants and will make the ground unsuitable for future plant growth. On a small scale, you can drop a small pinch of table salt at the base of the undesirable plants. It will kill the plant but will dilute down to harmless in the next few rainfalls. On a larger scale, you can cover your gravel driveway or your ex’s yard with a good amount of salt and nothing will grow there for months. (FYI, it is illegal to salt another person’s property. It’s called vandalism.)
5. Rubbing Alcohol – Rubbing alcohol is used around the house because it draws water out and helps to evaporate it quickly. Guess what? If you put it on a plant, it will do the same thing. You will be basically sucking the life blood out of the weed. Makes you want to run right out and try it, huh? But again, rubbing alcohol is non-selective. It will kill any vegetation it comes contact with.
6. Corn Meal – Corn meal doesn’t really kill weeds, it just stops the weed seeds from ever developing. Corn Gluten is a pre-emergent, which is a fancy way of saying that is it is a seed birth-control. Corn meal scattered around an area will keep any seed in that area from growing into a plant. This means a weed seed or a desirable seed. This method is a good option for areas that you plan on planting grown plants in.
7. Newspaper – If murdering your weeds with chemicals is not your style, you can always smother them. Laying down a layer of newspaper at least 4 sheets thick (the more the better) will go a long way towards killing the weeds underneath. The weeds that are already there will die from lack of sun and the weed seeds will not be able to sprout because they are not getting any sun to start with.

As an added bonus, many of these 7 homemade weed killers can be combined to produce super results. For example, the boiling water can be mixed with the salt or the vinegar (or both) for a super weed killer. Use common sense when combining chemicals and make sure that there are no adverse reactions.

You can also add a few drops of liquid dish soap to the liquid homemade weed killers for added effectiveness. The soap is not harmful to the weeds but the soap acts as a sort of bonding agent and will help the weed killers to stick to the weed more effectively.

Since most of these homemade weed killers are all-or-nothing weed killers, you may want to use a weed killer shield with them to prevent sprays and splashes on desirable plants.

So, go forth and cleanse thy garden of its weedy sins.

I have to admit, after typing that title, I feel like I should take a shower just to be decent. But mounting a staghorn fern is not anything sexual, it is how to plant and hang the lovely staghorn fern.

The rain is continuing today and I will not complain. We really needed it. But it does mean that I am stuck in the house. Lucky for me, I am a project procrastinator and there are just dozens of little projects that I have been meaning to do for months. I thought that this would be a good one as I had bought my baby staghorn fern nearly 2 months ago after reading about staghorn ferns in Martha Stewart. The little staghorn fern has been sitting lonely on my kitchen window sill waiting either to be mounted or die. I thought perhaps I should mount it before it chose to choose the latter.

What you will need for this project is a staghorn fern (I bought mine on eBay at PlantRanch) , some sphagnum moss (long cut), a plaque or board to mount the staghorn fern on, a picture hook and pantyhose or fishing line to attach the staghorn fern to the board.

Stain or paint your board as you would like. Allow the board to dry at least a few days to allow the fumes to dissipate. You can also skip this step and just use natural board, if you would like.

Once the stain or paint is dry, add the picture hook to the back that will allow you to hang the board on the wall after the staghorn fern is mounted. One thing to keep in mind is that your staghorn fern will grow horizontally, so you will want to hang the board with the widest side being horizontal.

Soak some sphagnum moss in water. The moss will need at least a few hours, ideally, overnight in order to fully absorb the water.

Measure and mark your board where you would like the holes to go. You will be drilling 2 holes. I put mine about an inch off from the center on each side. You will need to judge based on the size of the staghorn fern you are mounting. The larger the fern you are mounting, the farther apart the holes will need to be.

Drill your holes with a power drill (remember your safety glasses).

You will be drilling a double hole, this is a single hole made with two drill pushes one on top of the other so that the hole is slot shaped.

Once your holes are drilled, place a small mound out sphagnum moss in between the two holes.

Place the staghorn fern on top of the mound.

Add more sphagnum moss around the fern.

You can use either pantyhose or fishing line to attach the staghorn fern to the board. I chose pantyhose because I thought it would do a better job of keeping the sphagnum moss around the fern. Cut a length of pantyhose and use a chopstick or pencil to help you push the pantyhose through the hole. Loop the pantyhose over the top of the staghorn fern, push the pantyhose through the other hole.

Loop the pantyhose back behind the board and push the pantyhose back up through the first hole. Loop the pantyhose back across the fern, with the pantyhose under the fern this time.

You should end up with both of the ends of the pantyhose sticking out on the backside of the board. Tie the two ends of the pantyhose in a knot and trim off any excess pantyhose.

Tuck as much of the sphagnum moss as you can into the pantyhose. The pantyhose it there to hold the sphagnum moss on until the sterile shield frond grows on the staghorn fern. The sterile frond will be a brown growth that will cover the pantyhose. The pantyhose will not hurt the sterile frond, so allow the sterile frond to grow.

The pantyhose also serves to hold the staghorn fern to the board until the attaches itself to the board.

Now you are ready to hang the fern on the wall. The staghorn fern will need to hung where it will get only filtered indirect light (I imagine that this would be a good office or bathroom plant). Soak the whole board to completely rewet the sphagnum moss and try to keep humidity high around the plant without actually misting the plant itself. Let the sphagnum moss dry out completely between waterings. It is recommend by several sources that you should actually wait until you see some wilting before watering.

This is what my current compost pile looks like. It’s an overgrown mess. It started out 5 years ago as a little tiny pile but because there wasn’t much in the way of a boundary around it, the pile just grew until it was an unwieldy mess. I can’t even really get at the compost at the bottom of the pile because of the size and spread of the pile. Not to mention that the compost pile attracts critters because the food we add to it is out in the open.

It is time for a change. I need a good size bin to keep my compost in. The compost bin needs to be able to dissuade animals from getting at the food in the compost. The compost bin also has to have ventilation so the compost can get the air and water it needs to break down. And last, and most importantly, it needs to be cheap. That way I can spend more money on plants and flowers in the yard.

The solution is a shipping pallet compost bin. And that is what I am going to build today.

What you will need for this project is 4 shipping pallets that are roughly the same size, 4 L brackets, 2 strap hinges, a latch and the screws to attach the hardware. You can get the shipping pallets for free from almost any warehouse that ships and receives product. They will be happy to give you some as most places throw the pallets out after they are done with them. The rest of the hardware will cost between $10 – $15.

Check the slats on the pallets and hammer in any loose ones. Decide now which pallets will be the sides, back and front gate. My pallets were all the same size, but one had a plywood solid top, I decided to make that pallet the back of my bin. You will want to consider these sort of things when deciding which pallets will go where.

Match up the back and one side of the bin. Decide the best place to put the top and bottom L bracket so that the two pallets will be securely attached. Try to choose a spot that goes into the frame of both pallets, rather than the slats. Mark the rough location that the L brackets will go.

Lay the pallets back down. Attach the L brackets to the side pallet first. The L bracket will attach to the inside side of the side pallet. Attach both the top and bottom L bracket to the side pallet.

Stand the pallets back up. The L brackets will go on the back on the back pallet (see picture).

Attach the L brackets to the back pallet.

Repeat the last 3 steps on the other side with the other side pallet.

The front gate will need to be raised up a few inches so that it swings open easily. Place some bricks at the front to keep front gate off the ground while you attach it.

Attach the strap hinges to the side of the compost bin, one at the top and one at the bottom. Try to put in as many screws as you can into the pallet’s frame.

Set the front pallet on the bricks and attach the strap pallet to the front pallet.

Once the strap hinges are attached, attach the latch on the other side. I put mine way up high because I have kids and this looks like a really fun place to play jail. But I want to keep the kids out of the compost bin, so the latch it up out of their reach. You can set yours where ever you feel comfortable.

And this is the finished product. We broke out one of the slats on the front so that we have a nice opening to dump in our food and yard scraps without having to open and close the gate.

Now you can move it to the location of your choice. If you want to hide your compost bin, you can plant some climbing vines on the outside. They will grow up nicely over the pallet slats and camouflage the compost bin. And, as an added bonus, you are being environmentally friendly as you are saving these pallets from the trash.

Happy composting!

I have to kill the Canada thistle that is growing where I want to put my new vegetable beds. I have mentioned before that I do not garden 100% organic. One of the big reasons why is Canada thistle. I can’t get rid of the damn stuff. Pulling them out of the ground is the worst thing you can do as the root breaks and 2 thistles grow where one was before. They seem to be impervious to boiling water and bleach. I have even tried regular Roundup to no avail.

Today I bought super-strength Roundup for hard to kill weeds. Those suckers are gonna die.

But super-strength Roundup will kill the plants I want just as fast as it will (hopefully) kill the thistle and there is a slight wind today. So I will be using a soda bottle shield to make sure that the Roundup goes on the thistle and no place else.

Making a soda bottle shield is easy. You will need a regular plastic soda bottle and scissors.

Remove the cap from the soda bottle.

Cut off the bottom of the soda bottle.

Place the soda bottle over the desired target weed.

Spray the lethal Roundup plant toxin into the bottle through the top opening.

The soda bottle will keep the Roundup contained to just the weed and you won’t have to worry about the drift of the Roundup mist landing on the plants you want to keep.

I spent yesterday making some new vegetable beds. Because Cleveland has some pretty erratic weather, I discovered very early on that growing vegetables in a slightly raised bed helps to keep my veggie plants alive, even if we get torrential rains or an extended drought.

Added bonuses are that raised beds heat the soil up a little faster so that you can plant sooner and the soil in a raised bed stays softer over the winter and you will be able to plant your cool weather crops with little or no tilling.

These beds are only a few inches high and are meant for raising the plants up out of the ground a bit. If you are looking for directions on how to make a waist high raised bed, stop back in a few weeks. I’ll be heading over to my grandfather’s house to see his waist high raised beds, which are ideal for seniors, anyone with back problems and wheelchair bound people.

So here we go.

Wander on over to your local hardware store. For one bed, you will need to get four landscape timers, one 2″X6″X8′ boards, eight 4″ lag bots and (optional) eight washers.

The 2″X6″X8′ board will need to be cut in half. This will be the only measurement you need to make. Measure 4 feet and mark that point.

Then cut the board in half.

Remember to check yourself anytime you are using any kind of power tool and wear your safety glasses. These are my husband’s. He likes to look cool when working with his toys.

If you do not feel comfortable using power tools to cut your board, most of the big box hardware stores can do this for you before you leave the store. Just ask and they will be happy to take care of it for you.

I will be building two vegetable beds today so I have the materials for two beds here.

I will be using my driveway to build my beds in. It’s an ideal place as it is outside, rather large, uncluttered and flat. I recommend using the driveway for building but any area you have that fits that general description will work.

You will need a power drill with a bit long enough that it will go through the 2X6 with at least another inch to spare. You will also need a ratchet with a ratchet head that fits snugly over the head of your lug bolts.

Stack two landscape timbers on top of each other and stack the other two about 4 feet away parallel to the first stack.

Use the cut boards to make sure that the distance between the two stacks is the correct distance and that the stacks are parallel.

Holding the 2X6 against the stacked timbers, use the power drill to drill through the 2X6 into approximately the middle of each of the timbers.

You will end up with two holes in the 2X6 and one in each of the timbers. The two holes do not need to be in a straight line so you don’t need to worry about making them square.

Next use the ratchet to insert the lag bolts (with optional washers) into the holes on the 2X6.

Insert both the lag bolts until you see their tips just appear on the other side. Use the tips to line up the holes in the board with the holes in the timbers.

Once the tips are in the holes on the timbers, continue ratcheting the lag bolts until they are fully screwed into the wood.

If you have the luxury of a ratchet adaptor for your drill, this process goes very fast. If not, I suggest you find a nearby 4-6 year old and ask them if they would like to pretend to be Bob the Builder or Wendy (depending on the sex of the child). You have a 90% chance of them saying yes. Set them up with the ratchet and yell “Can we fix it? Yes, we can!” Then sit back and enjoy a frosty beverage while the child ratchets the lag bolts in for you.

Once the lag bolts are in, repeat this process on the other three corners. The last corner, you can skip the lining up of the holes as by this time the timbers will be pretty firmly in place and won’t move after you drill the holes.

This is what the finished product looks like.

And then you are done. The bed can be carried to the location of your choice and filled with dirt.

A few notes. Landscape timbers are pressure treated wood. By this time, all pressure treated wood sold in the US no longer contains the arsenic preservatives that caused concern a few years ago. But, if using pressure treated wood for vegetable beds still concerns you, you have two options if you still would like to use these plans.

One option is to pick up a plastic tarp in the paint department and use it to line the landscape timbers so that they do not come in contact with the soil in and around the bed (do not line the bottom of the bed with the plastic though).

The other option is to use three 2X4s instead of two landscape timbers. You will need to adjust the number of lag bolts and holes accordingly.

It’s cold again today, so I decided to do some prep work for the garden. I made some seed tape with some lettuce seeds. I have not made seed tape before but I know the theory.

Last year I planted lettuce for the first time and it did really well. I think we ate lettuce every day till it bolted. But one of the proplems that I had was that lettuce seed is really small and I am not a patient person. After attempting to plant them spaced out, I finaly got so frustrated that I just tossed the seeds into the bed and raked it lightly. I figured that I could thin it out when the seeds started to grow. Nah… That didn’t happen. Being the over-loving gardener I am, I could not bring myself to abort the baby plants, even though I knew it would be for the greater good of the bed.

I ended up with way more lettuce than I needed and plants that were stunted.

So this year, I thought I would try making seed tape. So I started with a small paper bag, a packet of seeds and a little flour paste. Flour paste is easy to make. Little bit of water, little bit of flour, mix into a thin paste.

I used Mesclun Spicy Mix from Burpee. Last year I used a gourmet lettuce mix, which was good, but I like to mix it up a bit from year to year.

As you can see in the pic, the lettuce seeds are pretty tiny.

I cut the paper bag into strips

I put drops of flour paste on the strips at the prescribed planting distance and placed a seed on each drop. Then I let the strips dry. The seeds are then stuck to the paper strips.

The next warm day we get, I will plant them in the ground. Just lay them out and cover with a little dirt. I may make some more of these with carrots and radishes later. I want to see how it works first.

UPDATE 4/9/06: The lettuce was sprouting so this works. I will be doing the radish this week.