Recent Articles
2-liter bottle upside down tomato planter
14.6 years ago cheap, peppers, tomato, upside down planter 70 Comments
Though my first attempt at an upside down tomato planter worked out great, I have a habit of forgetting to water the plants everyday. More commonly when we have decent rains when only the hanging tomato planters need to be watered. So this year I have modified my design a little to make this a little easier. As a bonus you can create this new version much quicker and minimal tools.
Materials required
- Empty 2-liter bottle
- Spray paint
- Drill or hot nail
- Chopstick or 1/4 in stick
Step 1 — Cut off bottom
There is a natural ridge at the bottom of the two liter bottle, simply cut at this ridge and remove the bottom.
Step 2 — Attach water reservoir
Take the removed bottom, flip it over, and insert it into the bottom of the bottle until flush with the top.
Step 3 — Drills Holes
First you need to drill a small hole in the bottom of the reservoir (the bottom you cut of) Use the smallest drill bit you have, this will reduce the water flow coming into the planter during rainfall and/or manual watering. With this reduced flow there should be much less soil loss during watering.
Second you need to drill two holes about 1/4 inch from the edge with a 1/4 inch drill bit. It is a little difficult to get enough pressure against the plastic to make this hole without causing the plastic to collapse. To take care of this place a small piece of wood on the floor and drill the holes from the inside.
Step 4 — Paint planter
You want to protect the roots from being exposed to direct sunlight so you need to cover the outside. This can be done with contact paper, duct tape (as I have done in the past) or for a fast cleaner look just quickly add a quick coat of spray paint to the outside. It is probably best to use paint that is made to adheres well to plastic, though in my case I had some nice multipurpose light green paint leftover from another project that with a few hard rains appears to be holding up well.
Step 5 — Secure with stick (chopstick) and fill with soil
Now add your plant (tomatoes and peppers are my favorites) to the bottom (previously the top) of the planter by carefully pushing the roots through the hole or alternatively you can the plant out from the inside. If your plant is too large to do this safely you may also cut a larger opening in the bottom, but I would recommend wrapping a sponge or coffee filter around the plant to assist in keeping the dirt in the planter.
Fill your planter with a mixture of 1 part perlite to 2 parts (potting mix, peat moss, coconut coir) with the top 1/2 inch being only (potting mix, peat moss, coconut coir) After a couple of waterings, this 1/2 inch layer will compact and restrict the water flow for a slower and more distributed watering.
Use the thinner end of your chopsticks to thread it through both holes and both sets of plastic, attach a piece of twine attached to bother ends, and hang wherever the plants can get some good full sunshine and you should have plenty of early tomatoes this summer.
More Fun with Food Dehydrator
14.6 years ago dehydrator, herbs, strawberries 10 Comments
I decided to be adventurous with the food dehydrator and grabbed some stuff from the refrigerator to make some nice nutritional snacks.
I started with some strawberries, the process is very simple, take some strawberries slice about 1/4 inch thick and place on the tray.
Next I moved on to apples which I soaked in a solution of lemon juice (about 1/4 cup) with 1 cup of water. To add a little extra sweetness I also dumped in a packet of artificial sweetener to reduce the sourness from lemon. After letting the apples soak in this solution for about 3 minutes I added them to the tray.
After slicing bananas about 1/4 inch thick I also soaked these in the same lemonade bath I did for the apples for 3 minutes as well.
Finally I spliced some watermelon at the same approximately 1/4 inch thickness while removing as many seeds as possible and then placing the slices on the trays and moving them into the dehydrator preheated at 100 degrees F.
After about 24 hours the apples were ready and very delicious, these did not last wrong. Next came the strawberries which tasted ok, but were very difficult and basically not worth the time to attempt to wedge from tray and eventually gave up a through most of these away. This was followed by the watermelon which wasn’t quite as messy and tasted like semisweet candy with a light watermelon flavor which seems about right since watermelon does not have nearly as strong a flavor naturally as you would get in artificially sweetened gum or candy. Lastly were the banana chips which were good and were all eaten though for the long time required to dry I probably will opt to buy the non-fried version of these at the store.
Overall it was fun to make these but apples will probably be the only ones in a future rotation but looking forward to drying some garlic, onions, and herbs later this year.
Drying peppermint leaves
14.6 years ago dehydrator, herbs, peppermint 7 Comments
Excited to try out my new to me food dehydrator, I collected some peppermint leaves from my 2 year old peppermint plants which is fighting the confirms of the 1 gallon pot I have used to keep it from consuming my entire flowerbed, lawn, house, etc.
For the best potency, it is best to collect mint right before they start to flower and first thing in the morning when their oils are at their peak. Given it is a couple months before they will be flowering I picked them in the early afternoon.
If they were dirty you should wash them off and pat them dry with a paper towel and add directly to your dehydrator. In my case we had a rain the night before and they were very clean so I skipped the washing step.
Next I simply put them into the dehydrator at 100F degree and in a few hours later they were all crumbly and looked like what you see below.
To store the leaves I went with the poor man’s vacuum packing technique…Ziploc bag and sucking the air out with a straw which should keep the herbs fresh for a few months.
Lastly I tried out the product by taking a pinch of the leaves and quickly breaking them up with my fingers and added them to a tea strainer.
After a few minutes of steeping I had some good looking and tasting peppermint tea.
I would say my testing of my new dehydrator was a success…now off to see what else in the fridge I can dry out.
Sometimes it is cheaper to not make something yourself
14.6 years ago dehydrator 16 Comments
Though I will be the first to agree it is much more fun to make something homemade, but in my case this weekend I was better off just making a purchase.
I am growing plenty of herbs this season and want to dry some for convenient use during the cold season. I got the idea to make my own herb dryer. The basic design was to make several one foot squares out of cheap 1” by 2” lumber and attach some window screen stapled to each. Then simply stack as many as needed on a base which consisted of a couple CPU fans and heat source (actual heater coil or light bulb)
In the end my projects was going to cost about $15, which was a great improvement over the $200 price tag on a non Ronco infomercial food dehydrator which requires rotation of trays due to uneven heating.
In an attempt to kill a little time with my two daughters while I know my wife was taking a nap at home I was drawn in by a Garage Sale sign in the distance and found this beauty for the low price of $10.
For those in the food dehydrator circuits this is an original Equi-Flow 7010 and after plugging it in appears to still work great given dark wood construction, I am guessing it just a few years younger than I am.
Time to play with my new toy…
Earth Day in the garden
14.6 years ago cilantro, cold season crops, garlic bulbs, onions, peppers, tomato 3 Comments
I decided to take the day off to catch up on some things at home and as I ended up outside of course I went right to the garden.
We have seen a few warm days here in the Northwest and in my area we haven’t dipped under 40 degrees at night so seemed like a good time to plant a few of my tomatoes spending their time this winter in the grow box.
Above are a New Yorker and Persey both of which are new for me this year. They have been growing great even with my neglect during their youth. I also have some Green Zebras, Husky Cherry, Sweetie Cherry, and Yellow Cherry. I did attempt Red Brandywine but the seeds I got appear to be duds.
Given it is always good to have a Plan B so I have twins of these tomato plants still in puts which I can bring if a cold snap comes and kills off the plants I ambitiously planted in the ground.
Elsewhere in the garden I have some herbs: Parsley and Oregano, with Basil being an unfortunately casualty which I will plan on buying from the store and try again next year.
Next I checked out my larger garden bed to see my peas, cilantro, onions, carrots, lettuce, strawberries and garlic
Lastly I checked out the peppers in the grow box which they will stay until we have some warmer nights (at least 50 degrees) otherwise can cause significant stunting of growth. So until then they will remain happy in the grow box and given they are still pretty small, still plenty of room to grow…
Life in the growbox
14.7 years ago indoor growbox, peppers, tomato 6 Comments
Right about now the temperatures outside should be increasing and I should be thinking about start hardening off my summer plants over the next few weeks.
Unfortunately we seeing hail the past few days along with some pretty cold nights. Looks like even though I was fairly pessimistic about my last frost date I may have another battle of tomatoes/peppers over taking the growbox or bring them out into the elements a little too early…
To make a little room I did move my herbs (oregano/parsley) out to the cold frame with the basil struggling to survive in the growbox I will give it a little time to bounce back.
