Dry your own herbs.

There is nothing like fresh herbs. If you've ever grown your own herbs, you know that the plants produce more than you can use in your kitchen. Drying herbs is a great way to preserve them for the cold months when you don't have such fresh ones available. I've documented how I dry Basil, but you can use it for other herbs as well.

Here we go!

(Snip... snip, snip, snip... snip... snip, snip...)

(1)  Using kitchen or garden shears, harvest some good sized sprigs from your plant.

(Eeeeeewww...)

(2)  Remove any icky leaves.












(3)  Rinse the leaves and stems you intend to dry also making sure there are no caterpillars or insects.


















(4)  Tie a loop in a ribbon, lay the stems on that loop and then use the free ends of the ribbon to tie all the stems together. The leaves should hang upside down.  Use the loop to hang the herbs on a hook or nail in a cool, dark place for a few days.  You may need to tighten the knot occasionally as the stems shrink due to loss of water.

(After I get the stems secured together, I tie the ends into a bow. Because it's cute.)

(5) When it's crispy, it's ready. You can break off the leaves and store in an airtight jar.






These also make lovely gifts. People like being presented with a bunch of useful herbs that you took the time to plant, nurture, harvest and preserve.

Natural (and organic) Pest Control -- Pepper Spray For Your Garden.

This year, my husband and I rented a plot in our community garden. It was a seal of a deal at $15/year so we went for it. This garden is particularly strict about it's organic-ness and so we had to get creative about dealing with bugs and rodents. One thing we tried was a basic pepper spray and it worked wonderfully.
Here's how you do it:
 

(Left: habañero chile.  Right: "worlds hottest" or so it claims.)

(1) Get some hot peppers of your choice--and when I say hot, I mean HOT. You can find these at the grocery store.
**Using gloves to handle these is recommended. You do not want to learn that the hard way, trust me.

(Whuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

(2) Blend the living daylights out of them. I put about a cup of water in the blender along with both of these peppers. I've had people tell me they add garlic to make it that much more offensive to the little buggars.
WARNING: This is VERY potent. I coughed like crazy just from opening the blender after I pureed these. You might want to try doing it outdoors.














(3) Strain it to remove any solid pieces and pour into the spray bottle.














(4) Coat all surfaces of the plant with the spray during a time when the sun is not out--the sun shining on the droplets of water can burn spots on the leaves. I usually spray the garden around sunset.













My plants never reacted badly to the spray. I was able to spray them down every 3 days and it didn't phase them. I doubt it would need to be done that often, but I always try to do it the day after a rainstorm.