Mulching the Garden Frugally

A local tree company delivered free mulch earlier this week, so we have been working on whittling down the huge pile. We got the front yard done and almost finished the backyard today. It's quite a bit of work, but the trade off is it doesn't cost us a dime.

If you can obtain free tree chips(mulch)from your municipality or a tree company, this is a very frugal way of keeping the garden beds moist during hot summers. It also keeps down the weeds, and makes the beds look "finished".

We don't water our garden, so mulching heavily is the only way we can keep a garden without paying large water bills. Our water bills since the drought last year as high enough without having to water the garden. We do water our little vegetable garden, but we use water from our rain barrel.

Free Children's Educational Resource: Kids.gov.com

See here: here.

Saving Money on Water: Homemade Rain Water Barrel

I finally decided to make my own rain water barrel for the garden. The ones I priced online were almost $100.00! Our local Ace Hardware has a huge one that is ready to install but it was $118.00, so we settled on a large garbage can from Wallyworld for $7.99. It was a bit more expensive than the ones at Dollar General, but this can was light weight and easy to cut. The can is eco-friendly, made with 75% recycled materials.

We bought a flexible drain extender from Home Depot, disconnected the top gutter, and then screwed the flexible extender into place. We cut a hole in the top of the lid and fit the plastic extender right through it. The lid was thin enough that I was able to cut into it with a knife, and then heavy duty scissors.

Last night it rained for about 30 minutes, and the can overflowed. We'll be adding a hole near the top as an overflow, and probably hook it up to another can. I'm thinking this could be done with some caulk and a large funnel or PVC pipe. Speaking of caulk, here are is a free sample.
We get a lot of water coming off our roof in this particular location. If we add another extender, I could probably reach it to the kiddie pool and fill it when it rains.
It was so nice to use free water today on my garden! I just dunked the watering can in and was able to water all my new plantings, vegetables, and indoor plants. I have plenty left. This was so easy!

See more at the Make It From ScratchCarnival

Homemade Tea Tree Oil Shampoo

Petites Indulgences Under $15.00

After dealing with the unpleasantness of the flu here at the house, I was inspired to post a few beautiful fragrances and small indulgences. These are some of my favorites. There is nothing like fragrance and other fun girly stuff when you need a little lift.

Papier Poudré Removes dust and shine from your face, leaving a light powder finish.



Rose Flavored Hard Candy 50g by L'Anis de Flavigny


Garden of Ireland Heather & Moss Solid Creme Cologne

L'Aromarine Fragrances Flowers Eau de Toilette

Brambleberry Rose Lip Balm

BAL A VERSAILLES For Women By JEAN DESPREZ cologne






On-The-Go Passport Soap Sheets

Rose by Taylor of London Ice Cologne Stick

Getting Rid of Slugs in the Vegetable Garden

My new vegetables are being decimated by slugs! I went out this evening and hand picked off a few small ones. I found some potential natural solutions for slug control at eartheasy.com

Eartheasy mentions two solutions which are very doable for me: seawood and coffee. We are near the ocean so I plan to take a trip to the beach to gather some seaweed. It will be really stinky, but the salt in the seawood is supposedly enough to repel them. Another natural solution is coffee. I just went off coffee due to stomach problems, so this is a great way to use up my remaining coffee stash.

I read here at gardenweb that spraying ammonia onto the area helps, and iron phosphate slug bait, AKA Sluggo which is non-toxic.

The ones we have are the long giant brown spotted ones. They are really creepy looking, and are best seen at night with a flashlight along our foundation. I'll try to get a picture of them - ours are so huge they look like alien slugs. Shivers!

Grow Your Own Mushrooms

9-10" Shiitake Mushroom Log

Product Description from Amazon:
"All-natural hardwood logs injected with shiitake spawn produce mushrooms every two months for years. Grow indoors with plants or outside in shade. To produce mushrooms, or "fruit" the log, soak it in non-chlorinated ice water for 24 hours. Harvest in 6-10 days. Logs require regular soaking in nonchlorinated room-temperature water every two weeks. Log-grown Shiitakes are high in protein, low in fat and have a meaty texture. They have a deep, rich flavor and absorb the flavors of spices, herbs and foods they're cooked with. Chefs prefer shiitakes grown on logs for the superior flavor, texture, and color. "

See Autumn Rose's Shiitake mushroom harvest; my inspiration for this post.



More mushroom kits:


Pietra Fungaia

Mushroom Kits - Button Mushroom Kit - 6 lbs

The Espresso Oyster Mushroom Patch. Recycle and grow mushrooms at the same time. Product Description: "Practice bioremediation at home! Recycle old newspapers, coffee and espresso grounds by inoculating them with Oyster Mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus). One of our favorite methods is the simplest: just mix the sawdust spawn directly into coffee grounds, espresso or perked. Our Pearl Oyster spawn fruits in a wide temperature range, making it suitable for inoculation across the country. A fascinating project for people of all ages. Kit comes complete with 1 gallon of Pearl Oyster Sawdust Spawn and detailed instructions."

The Beautiful World of Ferns

"The green and graceful fern.
How beautiful it is.
There's not a leaf in all the land.
So wonderful, I wis. "

Have ye e'er watched it budding,
With each stem and leaf wrapped small.
Coiled up within each other
Like a round and hairy ball ? "

Have ye watched that ball unfolding
Each closely nestling curl
Its fair and feathery leaflets
Their spreading forms unfurl? "

"Oh, then most gracefully they wave
In the forest, like a sea,
And dear as they are beautiful
Are these fern leaves to me." — Twamley


Our Ferns in Their Haunts: A Guide to All the Native Species, by Willard Nelson Clute, 1901

A Century of Ferns: Being Figures with Brief Descriptions, by Sir William Jackson Hooker, 1854.

The fern paradise: a plea for the culture of ferns by Francis George Heath, 1878

" The Spring is here—the delicate-footed May, With its slight fingers full of leaves and flowers ; And with it comes a thirst to be away, "Wasting in woodpaths its voluptuous hours. " ~Willis

How to Know the Ferns: A Guide to the Names, Haunts, and Habits of Our Common Ferns, by Frances T. Parsons, 1899.

A bit about the folklore surrounding the Bracken Fern and ferns in general from Folklore of Plants, By Thomas Firminger Thiselton Dyer, 1889:

"Among Celtic and Germanic nations the Fern was
formerly considered a sacred and auspicious plant. Its luck-bringing
power was not confined to one species..."

"...those who possessed the secret of wearing this seed
about them would become invisible. Thus, we find that, in
Shakspeare's ' Henry IV.,' Gadshill says : ' We steal as in a
castle, cock-sure : we have the receipt of Fern-seed, we walk invisible.' "

From A Floral Fantasy in an Old English Garden by Walter Crane, 1899:

Here's VENUS'-COMBE for MAIDENHAIR

For children: Nature Study Made Easy by Edward Byrne Shallow, Winifred T. Cullen,Ferns, ages 9-11, published in 1909.

All are in public domain, readable online or downloadable as an ebook.

Free Vintage Texts: Imagination and Play for Children

Everyday Play for Children by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey, 1916

When Mother Lets Us Play by Angela Mary Keyes, Ada Budell, 1911.

Printing instructions: IE - right click on image of page, print image of book page. Firefox - right click on image of page, view image and print.

Books also downloadable for reading as an e-book.

Frugal and Wholesome:Homemade Blender Recipes

If you are like me, you don't use your blender nearly enough. See article for homemade butter, peanut butter, barbecue sauce, and homemade fruit spread blender recipes.

And some simple blender cream soup base recipes. And good number of blender recipes from Recipezaar.

Making meals from scratch can be a big cost saver, and is healthier in the long run. Using all natural ingredients is preferable to using prepackaged meals with ingredients you can't readily identify such as preservatives, food coloring and high fructose corn syrup. I've saved quite a bit cooking from scratch over the years. My all time favorite frugal cookbook is on my sidebar, More-with-Less, a Mennonite cooking from scratch on a budget cookbook.

Share a tip or comment on BecentsAble's Tipster Tuesday's post, Labels and Ingredients.

Free Children's Printable Cut-Out Train Stations for Train Sets

Click on title.

Frugal Homemade Bean Recipes

We cook beans quite a bit, and they are both inexpensive and a healthy protein substitute. Here is one my simplest bean recipes which is wonderful over rice:

Easy Beans and Rice

-Any bag of dried bean, although navy bean or black beans are especially good.
- 1 TB onion powder
- 1 chicken or beef bouillon cube
- 1 tb pepper
- 1 tb salt
- 1 tb Italian herbs
- 1 TB garlic
- 1/2 tumeric
- a few stocks of chopped celery
Optional: Chopped ham or other bits of leftover meat

Beans tend to take a long time to cook, so leave some time to let these simmer on the stove early in the day. Follow the recipe for the dry beans off the package. I usually soak mine over night. Serve over rice.

The seasonings are made to taste, so experiment with them. I found that the key to flavor was adding quite a bit of onion powder. Even adding chopped onions doesn't enhance the taste like the onion powder. Adding lots of pepper gives it a nice kick. I'd recommend adding chopped ham or sausage; the meat is really delicious with lots of pepper.

More frugal bean recipes I've made from scratch. Most of these recipes are from my More-With-Less Recipe Book(see sidebar):

Caribbean Rice and Beans and Brazilian Rice and Beans

Rice and Beans Casserole

Pinto Bean Bread

Three Bean Casserole

Potato-Topped Chili Loaf

Mother's Day Short Story Printables for Children

Stories for Every Holiday: Mother's Day

The Broken Flower Pot

The Lark and Her Young Ones

Mother's Day Short Stories for Children

Henna: All Natural Hair Dye Review

Henna is an excellent natural dye which also conditions the hair. Henna is a crushed and sifted plant which penetrates the hair shaft and lasts longer than commercial temporary hair dyes. I used it successfully several years ago when I decided to go red. I'm thinking about trying it again, only this time I 'd like to cover all the gray which has appeared in great quantities around my hairline near my face.

Last time I used a henna hair dye, I ordered from Everyday Mehndi which had an excellent long lasting pure product and fast shipping. Click through here to see the color chart for hair. They have additive-free henna dyes for black and shades of brown, red and blond.

Questions and answers about Everyday Mehndi henna.

Here's a picture from another site of how well henna dyes gray hair.

Is henna safe? Some warnings about premixed store bought and false henna.

The downside to henna is that you do need to leave it on for several hours, it stains everything, it smells like hay, and you have to prepare the henna mix yourself. In the past, I've mixed the henna in a large glass mixing bowl and used a wooden spatula to glop it on. I wore plastic gloves to squish it throughout my hair. Then I piled my hair up, and wrapped it with plastic wrap and then a warm towel. I learned to put Vaseline on my neck to avoid stains on my skin. So it is a bit time consuming and messy, but the chemical-free results are great.

Note: After about three months of henna applications, I did have some problems with hair loss/dry hair using 100% pure organic henna(body art quality). Store bought henna often has mineral salts added which can dry the hair, but mine was pure. I've since learned that I did not rinse the stuff out properly. It should be rinsed and shampooed thoroughly, followed by a conditioner. There should not be stains on your towels after you are done.

Printable Scandinavian Children's Literature(Folklore & Fairy Tales) and Lessons

Sweden:

Selma Lagerlof, a Swedish writer wrote many wonderful Swedish fairy tales for children around the turn of the century. One of her books, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils Holgersson, published in 1909 was likened to Hans Christian Anderson. A very popular book of "Scandinavian culture of which reflects many of the traditional values of Scandinavian culture, such us love for nature, tolerance and playful learning. As a geography reader for elementary schools, Nils Holgersson's adventures transmit information to the children through interest, imagination and humour. As Nils travels over Sweden, children became familiar with the nature, climate, geography and culture, learning at the same time the importance of friendship, tolerance, and the belief in a good world." ~ Scandinavica.com.

The Wonderful Adventures of Nils Holgersson with illustrations and without(downloadable version).

Lesson plan for The Wonderful Adventures of Nils Holgersson.

Further Adventures of Nils

Shorter adapted selections from The Adventures of Nils from Children's Readers with discussion questions:

Jarro the Wild Duck, seventh grade.

The Story of Jarro, sixth grade.

Quotation lesson from The Essentials of English: Jarro the Duck

Hatto the Hermit, seventh grade.

The Elf from Evenings with Grandpa(not a reader), there is a bit of a discussion and built up before grandpa begins the story.

The Captive, fifth grade. We read this yesterday - very cute story about a squirrel.

The Winston Readers, four stories, third grade.

More from Selma Lagerlof:

Christ Legends (elementary - middle school)

The Outlaws(high school)

The Rat Charmer, followed by a Portrait of Selma Lagerlof. Fifth grade reader.

Glory Goldie's Fishing, fifth grade reader.

The City at the Bottom of the Sea, fifth grade reader.

Other Swedish stories:

For the Story Teller: Story Telling and Stories to Tell: The Cap that Mother Made. Elementary school.

Norway:

By author Peter Asbjornsen:

The Queen at the Bottom of the Sea, Little Fred and His Fiddle and, The Cock and the Fox(elementary school)

Tales from the Fjeld

Winston Third Grade Reader: The Little Ram and the Pig and East of the Sun West of the Moon, pages 112 - 123.

The Elson Third Grade Readers: The Princess Who Never Laughed

Third grade reader: The Princess Whom Nobody Could Silence.Lesson plan.

The Easy Road to Reading(second grade): GoodBrand

Fourth Grade Reader: The Ram and His Friends

Finland:

Snowdrops, Finland idyls for children

Whisperings in the wood, Finland idyls for children

Finnish Legends for English Children by R. Eivind

Denmark:

Hans Andersen's Stories

Danish Fairy & Folk Tales

Iceland:

The Yellow Fairy Book: PRINCE RING, WITCH IN STONE BOAT, and HERMOD AND HADVOR More under Andrew Lang's Fairy Tale Index(below).

Icelandic Legends

The Children of Odin

Collections of Scandinavian tales:

A Selection from the Norse Tales for the Use of Children

Round the yule log, Norwegian folk and fairy tales

Riverside Third Grade reader: The Farmer and the Hill-Man

Andrew Lang's Fairy Tales Index: Europe

Folk-Lore and Legends; Scandinavian

Popular Tales from the Norse

Viking Tales(elementary school)

All are free and in public domain. Printing Google Books: Follow the link, right click on the image of the page and print picture. It will print as a full sized page. Entire books are also downloadable.

What we(fourth grade) do with our printable stories:

- Underline all unfamiliar words
- Use dictionary to write definitions
- Write summary of story
- Proofread, correct and discuss
Easy and fun!

Free British Botanical Prints by William Curtis, 1790

Volume I

Volume II

Volume III

Volume IV

Volume V

Star of Bethlehem from Volume VII

Walter Crane's floral fantasy rendering of the Star of Bethlehem from book mentioned here. We have these in our graden, so pretty and very short lived.

Volume VI

Volume VII

Volume VIII

Periodicals include a description of each plant.

Free Art Nouveau Floral Fantasy Prints

These Art Nouveau English garden drawings from A Floral Fantasy in an Old English Garden by Walter Crane, 1899 are so gorgeous. Best of all they are in public domain. Take a peak in the HTML format at the link. I downloaded the entire book.