Category: Planning

Meaningful Gifts

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms who are celebrating today with their children, the moms who are missing their children, the moms who have lost their babies far too early, those who shared an all too brief moment with their babies, the mothers who are in the middle of a season of making the dream of motherhood a reality, and those who love on the children from other mothers who lean on you to be the loving assurance in this season of their life. No matter what motherhood looks like to you, Happy Mother’s Day!

Photo by Secret Garden on Pexels.com

Depending on who you talk to, some people feel that holidays are too commercialized. Others find it difficult to find the perfect gift. And others find it difficult to gift a loved one while feeling the financial pressures of this season of world history. No matter where you personally find yourself on this spectrum, I want to help you find inspiration on how you can find a meaningful gift for someone. Whether it’s a belated mother’s day present, a birthday, anniversary, father’s day, grandparents’ day, teacher appreciation, graduation, or any other occasion, know that you can gift in a meaningful way.

I’m going to use the example of the mother’s day gift that I gave one of the mothers in my life. While this may not apply to the person in your life, the same principle can be applied in finding what you can gift that special person in your life.

This mom loves talking about her memories. For many years she’s shared her precious memories of when she operated a daycare. And one of those fond memories is when she grew gardens with the children under her care.

Growing salads in a container box.

One thing about moms, it seems pretty universal that sharing memories usually isn’t about the memory. It’s about reliving a moment in life that brought pleasure to them.

From this understanding, I knew that building a garden for this mom was a gift that would fill her love tank. Not only is it an opportunity for her to relive precious memories in the here and now, it also opened the opportunity to add more memories in association with these older memories. By building a garden and scheduling time to upkeep and tend to the garden, it was also guaranteeing visits and making time for her to spend time together.

Container growing for small spaces.

For this mom, she has two love languages. Her primary love language is gift giving. Her receiving love language is quality time.

Making a deposit of part of this season’s garden was not just a simple arrive, dig holes, put in start, say good bye, and move on with the day.

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For this Mother’s Day gift, it took in the appearance of leaving all the gardening supplies in the car and starting off with a sit down chat and getting caught up with all the news, even if it was only a day since we last saw each other. Then, I was able to go prepare the garden beds for this first plant installment.

Even before I could bring out the plants, this mom was already so filled with love that she wanted to spend some more talking. As much as I wanted to stay task driven (my personality is to knuckle down and get a project done quickly so I can move on to the next task), this day was all about showing love to this mom.

Pallet boxes for narrow spaces and hanging baskets on cyclone fence

So we had another chat session.

When I could find a polite moment to get back to the task of putting the starts back into the ground, I made that move. And with the final post plant watering, I went back and gave this mom one last extension to the gift I was giving her.

Remember, I said that this mom shows love to others by giving to them. So while I was building this garden for this mom, I know that the one thing that would bring her even more pleasure is by telling her upfront that the goal of this garden is primarily to meet her primary produce needs, I’m planting more than she will personally need so that she can give from the garden to others.

I wish I could share with you the look on her face, because she was bursting with love. Knowing that she was having a garden this year was more than enough to help her feel love, she felt seen and more loved because the gift was enabling her to show love to others without need to be reserved or anything else. It was a gift that was freely given so that she could freely give to others.

Growing herbs in repurposed gutters hung on a cyclone fence.

I know that this story may or may not show you specifically what you can give the hard to shop for person, but there is a valuable lesson here.

A good gift is designed to make a person feel loved because it speaks to how they most readily feel loved.

If you don’t know this love language, ask your person how they most feel loved. They will gladly tell you. It could be a tangible object or food that makes them feel loved. Or it can be a non-tangible activity, expression, or display.

A great gift is one that fills their love tank, but also doubles as a tool to enable them to share their love with others.

Container growing garden with DIY budget friendly or recycled components. Chicken wire trellis threaded through upright supports.

Maybe your loved one is not like this mother. Maybe they don’t show love to others by giving them things. Maybe they show love through acts of service. However their schedule is busy. By gifting them your time to do tasks for them or help them create time, this can free up time where they can show love to others by spending time with another person.

My encouragement to you today is to be inspired with a gift idea that doesn’t come from the shelf of a store. Yes, there are many store bought items that are amazing and meaningful. I want to strike the inspirational fire to give a gift out of love and seeing the other person at a core level. And also enable them to pass on love to others.

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Right now we live in an interesting moment in history. It is an uncertain time for many families. But it is also a prime moment to celebrate others by giving to them in a way that shows them that you remember past conversations. Where you have heard and remembered things that could have easily been passed off as trivial information in the moment.

Let’s show our loved ones that we see them. And we celebrate them for who they are.

Again, Happy Mother’s Day!

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This post contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commissions on products purchased through these links, but at no extra cost to you. This item link is to Amazon but may be purchased at local markets, and found at your local library.

If you are unfamiliar with Love languages, here is the book that started it all.

The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman

Originally this was written for understanding your mate. There are several other editions available to meet other relationship needs such as children, being single, and in relationship of a military service member.

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Saving Seeds

I know this isn’t talked about in early spring, because the focus is putting seeds in the focus is on planning and putting into ground right now. BUT….

Here’s my garden right now. Even before the seeds go in the ground, I still have seeds that are preparing to be ready to harvest.

Talking with others who are expanding their seed saving skills, they haven’t yet experienced saving seeds from the Brassica family (cabbage, kale, cauliflower, broccoli and others). One reason for this is most likely because we grew up being told to clear out garden beds at the end of the year. But for gathering these seeds, you need to leave the plant in the ground after you’ve harvested.

In previous years, I harvested cabbage in the spring after the pods have formed and dried. But when I let this bed go fallow, I left the cabbage in for a second year. Mainly it was to see what the life cycle of cabbage looks like after I’ve long pulled mine.

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In the second year with cabbage, any additional heads that grow are much smaller than the original year (for growing purposely, definitely not the best use of garden space). What I hadn’t counted on was a second gathering of seeds.

Why might you consider these seeds?

The general rule of thumb is that you save the seeds from successful plants–the biggest and best. But as I said, this second year cabbage didn’t really produce heads of quality in the second year.

Seeds are the memory of the plant.

The seeds of this second year cabbage not only contain the memory of the first year head growth AND it remembers the bad growing season this past year (unseasonably cold and wet that made me question if I’d grow anything).

Originally I wasn’t going to save these second year seeds because the potential passing on of tiny cabbage heads is not what I’m looking for. However the seeds do contain the memory of surviving through an uncharacteristic cold year.

So after going back and forth on what I’m going to do, I’ve decided to keep these seeds. I’m going to perform a comparison of first and second year seeds to see what the difference in performance will be.

This will be a future post since the seeds are not ready to do the comparison this year.

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What is the life cycle of Brassica and their seeds?

Whether you’ve allowed your Brassica family plants go to seed or they just bolted on you when the heat of summer came, you may have seen something like this:

This was one of my rapini that bolted on me. The first thing that you see is the bolt.

Next, the flowers (which form the seed pods) grow for pollination. While there are still flowers you will see some of the seed pods developing.

Out of all the plants that I’ve collected seeds from, I think the Brassica family is the one that I’m most impatient with. I don’t know if it’s just my grow zone or everyone starts tapping their toe asking their plant, “Are you done yet?”

These pods remind me so much of beans. And I honestly expected them to bulge out more than you see above. But this is what the end of the seed maturing stage looks like, immature beans. Even though these pods are fully grown, they still aren’t done yet. They will turn beige.

Everyone I’ve heard always described them to turn brown. I translated that to mean that they would darken. But the first time that I saved these seeds, they started bursting open when they were beige in color. So once you start seeing the green fade from these pods, you know it’s almost time to pull the plant and collect the seeds.

What you are waiting for is the pod to turn papery dry. If you go out each day to check on your seed pods, you will get the feel for it when you see the first one pop open. The pod will look very much like this threaded hook:

Do you see how the center of this hook has a frame and then there is negative space?

Theseed pods of Brassica have the exact same structure. There is this frame like structure with negative space in the middle.

When the pod bursts, it’s the dry skin that cracks open and falls away. The seeds live in this center portion of the frame. So when the pods open, the seeds fall out and the frame remains on the Brassica stem.

The goal is to catch your Brassica with fully mature branches, dry beige skin, before they release their seeds. Once you accomplish this, you cut the branches off or uproot the whole plant.

If you can’t open a pod by rubbing it between your fingers, you will want to hang your branches/plant upside down in a cool dry place. This can take a week or two. But the pods will crumble.

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Removing the Seeds from the Pod

Once the seeds opened in my hand, I chose to put the branches into a pillow case and tie off the open end. Then I gave the pillow case to my kiddos and told them to hit the pillow case against the deck!

This was perfect timing for this project because my kiddos were at each other and I couldn’t keep them from hitting each other. So I gave them an alternate action of being aggressive. After each one had a turn, the pods had all broken open and the seeds were all released inside the pillow case.

To separate out the seed from the chaff (stems and pods), I just used the traditional method of winnowing. I modified this by using a little modern convenience of a box fan on high speed. Because the chaff was so thoroughly dried out, they blew away with ease. And even though the seeds are small, they really do drop back down into the pillow case that I kept at the porch in front of my box fan.

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If you want to see how this type of winnowing process is done, there are countless videos on YouTube. There are some that do this winnowing with Brassica seeds, but the majority is in relation to wheat and other grains. The process is the same. So whether you watch how grains or Brassica are winnowed, you will understand this process. There’s no need to invest in a winnowing box or other tool unless that is the path you want to go down. All you need is your seeds on a cloth and a wind source (whether natural or manufactured).

There’s no further step that you need to take in processing your seeds. Just store

Even though now is the time to plan and plant in your garden beds, I wanted to talk about saving Brassica seeds now. Where you plant your Brassica now for a spring crop, it will stay there for the rest of the growing season. And in some locations, it will need to overwinter to give your plant enough time to make its seeds and mature them.

This is a slow process. But it so worth it when you can grow hundreds upon hundreds of seeds in a single season and not be dependent on what’s available in future market sales.

What are your tips for saving Brassica seeds?

What other seeds do you save from your garden?

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4 responses to “Saving Seeds”

  1. Cary Avatar
    Cary

    This post answered some questions I was having, thanks.

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    Reply
    1. Pacific Northwest Event Design Avatar
      Pacific Northwest Event Design

      I am so glad that I was able to help!

      Like

      Reply
  2. Andre Avatar
    Andre

    Love the unique perspective you bring to this topic.

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    Reply
    1. Pacific Northwest Event Design Avatar
      Pacific Northwest Event Design

      Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoy other posts as well.

      Like

      Reply

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Starting On Your Own

Now that a new planting season is about to knock on our door, I’m beginning to hear more and more from those venturing into gardening the discouragement of last year’s grow season in the Pacific Northwest.

I’ve mentioned before that last year, we didn’t have a spring. We had back to back winter that went off the deep end and nose dived right into summer. We were cold and wet and literally missed a season. My garden didn’t know what to do. Even when I direct sowed at the proper time everything stalled for 2 months and it felt like I was the only person in my community that was grateful for the 6-8 weeks of extended summer weather. I needed it to finish off some of my vegetables, like my tomatoes.

And throughout the area of 4 or so cities, a good number of people said their vegetables gardens failed to produce anything.

I get it. The vegetables that I planted in May were harvested at the same time as what I planted in July.

This year I’ve already started in on my plan of getting ready for this spring. And I’m treating it like I’m going to have another cold, non-existent spring. Everything I overwintered is indication we’re not going to have a repeat this year, but I’m not taking chances. Food prices are insane. I need to offset my grocery bill by growing more than I have in the past. So I’m going to share with you what I’m doing this year to give my garden a leg up on what may or may not happen.

The Big Leaf Parsley and Oregano that I planted last year, which did not germinate at all last year, all of a sudden decided this winter that they were going to germinate and sprout. I’m looking forward to a lovely spring this year.

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Uneven Germination Rates

If you have a small garden that you work, one of the frustrations that you have is when you plant your seeds according to the proper measurements and seeds just don’t germinate. You start off thinking that you’re going to get a certain amount of starts of one vegetable, and in the end you find out you get a small fraction of that.

I’ve tasted that bitterness. In a normal year you can successive plant a new seed where there’s gap. But last year that didn’t work at all.

So this year I’ve started off my seeds indoors in small flats.

I’ve already repotted four other bunches of these sunflowers. You can see here that the seeds just didn’t want to sprout at the same time. I’m okay with that. I’m starting my seeds this way, because if none want to sprout, I won’t waste my limited garden space.

With how shallow this flat is, once these sunflowers get to a certain height, it’s time to repot them. They want to spread their roots and grow. And as much as they love this loose soil, it’s time to get these tall fellas into a pot where I can thin them out and give them more space.

With my pots a third full I sprits the soil with some water so that it has a little moisture to start the seedling off. Next I go to my flat, with a spoon, and insert it off on the flat’s wall and gently lift up on the roots. With the roots free, I set the seedling on top and put soil around it so that it can stand on its own again. I’m putting 3 of these seedlings into this 6 inch pot.

Yes, this is not at the final spacing on the seed package. But if you’ve purchased plant starts, the majority of the time all the seedlings are crammed packed. You’ve also learned how to massage the roots apart. And you’ve also learned that you end up snapping roots. The plants do live and do grow.

To minimize this breakage, if the primary root is long (you’ll see this shortly really well with some corn that I repotted), then I loop it on top of the soil as I get it settled into this new pot. The roots will still grow out and spread to fill this pot, but with the central heart of the roots a little more compartmentalized it should keep the greater heart portions of the roots of each of the plants more separate and easier to knead apart when it’s time to put them in the ground.

With each layer of soil I put down, I give it a spray of water.

The corn on the other hand, I’m finding that their root system has vastly out performed in growth in comparison to the sunflowers.

Ok, I have to pause here and say that I was blown away with this root system growth, because I’ve uprooted my corn at the end of the seasons that I’ve grown it, and my direct sow root systems were maybe a handful at the end of a season.

So here I have three seedlings in my hand and their main roots were already trying to wrap around the smaller ones that I didn’t want to bring out yet. These ones needed massaging already to separate. Originally I was going to put three seedlings in the pot, just like the sunflowers. But I still have frost going strong and I need more time in the pots. So I’m only putting two seedlings in the pot so that I can maximize root growth now.

Even with the fact that these roots are already large, they’re definitely going to fill the pot before it’s time to plant. So a weekly diluted spray of fertilizer is going to be necessary to keep these starts healthy and not eat through all the nutrients in the soil before it’s time for the roots to get adjusted to their new home in their final resting place of my garden bed.

I’m actually looking forward to seeing how these starts perform this year, because a few years ago I always bought corn starts and so many were crammed pack together in a pot of equal size. Those corns always underperformed.

But that’s the beauty of growing your own starts. You can do things differently.

If you talk with anyone who pour their lives into perennial plants, you will always hear them talk about their success comes from healthy root system. If perennial plants grow healthy with focus on their season of root growth (during the winter), it really makes sense that annual plants really benefit from root growth as well. Yes, their life span is short. But if you’re looking to get a good return, in the form of produce, attention to root growth is necessary. If a plant has a healthy root system, their rest of the plant is going to be healthy too.

Here’s the new home of these sunflowers and corn. I have a whole lot more starts to repot. Some will be repotted into different size pots, and some in different composites. I’m currently experimenting for what’s going to work best for my garden and me. Just like not all parents share the same parenting style, neither to plant parents (or gardeners). Our soil isn’t the same. Our touch and interaction with plants aren’t either.

As I leave you today, I just want to let you know that it’s okay if your garden didn’t do well last year. It could have been the fault of the weather. It could have been the seeds, starts, or root health of the plant. It could be a combination of so many things. But I want you to know that you are empowered to do things differently. There’s not one set way of doing things successfully with your garden. You really do have your own science experiment that you perform each year, because the variables will change. Last year my changing variable was the weather. And I learned a lot. A LOT.

This year I choose to do things differently to see what happens differently. I’m pushing through more seeds than I have in the past. But I’m also growing out my long maturity plants so they have more time. I’m choosing to thin the least healthy starts even before they go into the ground and maximizing the use of my small garden.

How are you doing your garden different this year?

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Does it really matter???

Before I answer this question, I should put it in a framework. In some instances no, it doesn’t matter if you don’t follow directions on a recipe, or do things out of order. And in other instances, YES it absolutely matters if you do things in the right order AND measurements.

What is the determining factor?

The item you are making.

For example, cooking and baking. I will absolutely advocate experimenting. Yes, even with bread (which we’re always told is a science and should never be deviated from). I’ve gone in left field with bread recipes and have had success.

How can you have success?

Photo by Ron Lach on Pexels.com

Know the science. If the ingredient is not part of the active component, it’s just there for flavor. Experiment away. Yeast (going back to the example of bread) is a living organism and has preferred temperature and environments for optimized leavening activity. This is the science part that you cannot change no matter what you toss in the bowl. Kill your yeast, there’s nothing you can do (even following the recipe perfectly) that will get that bread to rise.

So by all means, if you want some fancy bread with herbs tossed in to complement a meal you’re making, do it! Use a recipe you’re familiar with and add the herbs you want to add. Go ahead and baste the bread with salted garlic butter right before cooking it. Modify to your heart’s content.

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When does it really matter?

Soap making is definitely one of those times where you must follow the recipe.

Mind you, I’ve been less than precise where I’ve added a couple of grams more or less of the fat/oil components of the recipe and the bars have turned out fine. Some fat/oil are known for making a softer bar, so be prepared that if you use more of a softening fat/oil, your bar is going to turn out softer than if you were more precise. But the soap is still soap and still becomes firm when you cure the soap.

Just because I brought this subject up, here are fat/oils that affect the hardness of your soap: Sunflower oil will make a softer bar. Harder bars of soap can be obtained by using Cocoa Butter, Lard, Palm Oil, or Tallow.

Take the time to do a quick search and learn what all the different fat/oils do. Many contribute multiple attributes to your soap. Some attributes you can find are lather, shine/conditioning, oil control for acne, helping dry skin, and so many other factors. It really is fascinating to see what can contribute or irritate your skin’s health!

And when you make soap, the ingredient that it absolutely matters how you use it is Lye (sodium hydroxide for bar, potassium hydroxide for liquid)!

Of course there are the standard safety warnings: use in a well ventilated area; wear long sleeves, gloves, and eye protection; and use equipment that are least reactive to this caustic chemical (use glass or plastic).

But this particular ingredient, it absolutely matters how you use it!

Here’s one way that I messed up!

Disclaimer: At no point in time am I ever encouraging you to go against directions with caustic ingredients. At all times use safety equipment and be aware of what you are doing. Understand what you are working with, what reactions are happening, and never leave a project at a volatile moment in the process. Be present. Be aware. And have safety equipment and procedures in place. And always work in an environment free from distraction.

Even know I don’t know why I thought I could make soap during the day when the kiddos were awake. There’s a reason why other women also tell you to focus on soap making after you put the kids to bed for the night. I knew exactly why and I still chose to give into the illusion I could do this and it would turn out all right.

Nope. Even nap time is not a good time to make soap.

Photo by Mikhail Nilov on Pexels.com

After the frazzle of getting the kiddos to go to sleep, I forgot that the recipe I was using did not call for water (to react with the lye). Instead I was using Aloe Vera liquid (which acts like water in this recipe). I put the Aloe Vera in the bowl that I was melting down my solid fats (coconut oil being one). I caught this accident when I grabbed my Olive Oil to measure out.

I so wanted to kick myself!

Instead of wasting all these ingredients, I decided to move forward and see what happens when you make the mistake and proceed with the batch.

The first thing I learned, you can’t sub out a fat/oil for your “water” ingredient.

This comes back to science–which you cannot change no matter how much you wish you could. Olive Oil did not dissolve the lye. The chemical reaction with the lye never took place until I added the fat/oils into the bowl and started mixing. The Aloe Vera finally came in contact with the lye and the reaction could proceed.

And this is why soap recipes are broken up into two components: lye and fat/oils!

When your lye and water start to react it produces heat. If you have your whole recipe in a bowl when this happens, your fat/oils are instantly heated by the reaction. What follows is the accelerated rate of saponification. And if this happens before your fat/oils are emulsified with the lye solution, then you are faced with all the problems of soap making.

In this particular instance, my soap broke. I had an oil slick on my hands. And I know for a fact that my soap wasn’t set up because it hadn’t had the time needed to emulsify everything together.

And the more that I blended the soil back into the soap version of cottage cheese, the problems didn’t go away. By the time I got the oil slick to disappear, my soap seized up!

At this point there were only two options. One, I could throw everything away and start again. Or Two, I could see if this would work.

Normally, everyone tells you to take the blending of your cold press soap to a light trace. I’m not like everyone else. I find that a light trace gives me a soft soap (even when following a recipe to utter perfection). So my comfort zone is to take my soap to a medium trace. It gives me a firm soap that doesn’t melt in the shower thanks to young hands who sometimes leave the bar in the water. And it still allows me to make bars without air bubbles. (I’ll come back to that trick in just a moment.)

I kept blending that seized soap past my usual medium trace and prayed to see the final signs of emulsification. This one is hard to describe in words, because this is just where experience comes into practice–you know when you’ve emulsified.

At this point the soap was so thick from seizing and still being worked that I only had a few minutes before complete loss. And I didn’t even have time to stop and put in my scent. So I stopped and immediately transferred into my individual soap molds and my loaf mold.

Tip for Removing Air Bubbles: This one is taken directly from the baking world of cake making. Have you ever seen someone drop a cake or cupcake pan down on the counter several times? They were removing the air bubbles to keep an even crumb. I use this same trick for soap making, especially with the batches of soap with a heavier trace.

I dropped my molds like there was no tomorrow, to remove the air bubbles. I knew they were there. And because of how I could or could not drop the molds, both types had different outcomes.

The individual molds were not rigid and could only use a light drop. The silicone wouldn’t hold up to much gravitational help. As a result, you can see here how these soaps turned out to have a cratered texture.

On the other hand, the loaf mold has that beautiful wood frame (thank goodness for jointed corners!) which definitely could withstand a little help from gravity. I dropped that loaf mold several times until the soap started lying flat in the mold and no more air bubbles came to the surface. And as you can see here, no one would ever know that I had trouble with this batch of soap. (These ones again will be for family use because I didn’t include the scent.)

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What if recovery is not possible?

This time I was able to pull soap out of that massive mistake. But I already had a backup plan in my back pocket in case I unmolded the soap and there was total devastation.

  • Melt down the soap and mix it with a correctly formed soap mixture. This is what soap makers do all the time when they forget to mix in a scent or even a couple of other errors. Especially when you do a cold process of soap making you have a little more time to decide if you want to fix this mistake by melting down and trying again.
  • Cube or shave the soap down into decorative pieces and add it into a soap batch that worked out better. If you’ve ever seen soap that has another color “floating” in the bar of soap. This is the technique they use. The day that you unmold these soaps and cut them down, they are solid enough to add to a fresh batch of soap. You will just cure the bars on the time scale of this fresher batch of soap. (Tip: make sure that this fresh batch of soap is stopped at a light trace. This will help get around all the corner/curves and get into any craters without the need of dropping the mold to remove air bubbles–which would throw off the suspended look.)
  • Use it for other DIY projects. Make sure that you still cure this soap because you don’t want the lye to cause problems with your other projects. But you can use this soap to grease that sticky glass slider track or any other trick that you’ve seen elsewhere.

Just because this mistake had a “happy” ending…

I want to give this disclaimer one more time.

Disclaimer: At no point in time am I ever encouraging you to go against directions with caustic ingredients. At all times use safety equipment and be aware of what you are doing. Understand what you are working with, what reactions are happening, and never leave a project at a volatile moment in the process. Be present. Be aware. And have safety equipment and procedures in place. And always work in an environment free from distraction.

Sometimes, you just need to know the reason why you’re told “this is the way that you do this”. As I said earlier, in instances where you accidently gravitate away from a recipe, you’re not going to start a fire or blow your house up by adding herbs or seasoning in a recipe that you’re told to stick to. But when you’re working with chemicals, the process that you’re told to follow is there to prevent serious issues from happening. There’s no doubt a long list of possible things that could happen by mixing soap out of order, most of them causing harm to your body.

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How can you prevent mistakes from happening?

  • Make sure you’re in the right headspace for your project. (You’re not distracted or sleep deprived as examples.)
  • If you’re rushed, stop and find a different time to do this project. (You are in control.)
  • Rewrite your ingredients in the order that you will use them.
  • Rewrite you steps in precise order (short and easy to read).
  • Before you start your project, organize your materials in groupings of what you’re adding together, in the order that you will add them.
  • Pre-measure out everything into separate containers.
  • Even if you’re used the recipe before, reread through the ingredients and steps and make sure you remember what you’re doing.

Even when you do prepare, mistakes are still going to happen. Know in advance what you’re going to do. Have plan B, C, and D already in your head. This allows for quick thinking and recovery. One of these plans needs to include what you do when you need to dispose of a failed project.

Here’s the final cut

As I walk back through all that happened, I’m actually still surprised by how things worked out in the end, having dealt with broken soap and fixing it until it seized. When you look at these pictures you will see that the bar on the left (the soap I put in individual molds) definitely show the war that took place. However the bar on the right (cut from the loaf mold) looks like the only issue was minor cosmetic issues.

Most of the issues on the loaf mold soap are really seen from the side view. And the worst of the individual mold is seen in the face picture.

As a point of reference, if you ever hear a soap maker describe a problem as looking like brain matter, what they are describing is the face shot of the individual mold. It doesn’t literally look like a brain, but it has webbing and crater like surface.

Hopefully you never have to go through any of this while making soap of your own. But here’s at least some conversational information that you may or may not hear from anyone that you’re learning soap making from or in any of the countless videos on YouTube.

Above all, at least now you have some information and images to go with everything else that you are learning elsewhere.

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Planning Your Garden

It’s that time of year where we need to look at the space we have to grow a little something to supplement what we get at the grocery store. This year, more than ever, is this important. Grocery prices are skyrocketing, independent farmers are finding it more difficult to stay in business, and there are just times where you want to buy produce and there was a run on that item with nothing left for you.

The great news is that you’re not held captive by what is or is not available in your local market. Even if you choose a little something that is easy to grow, that is one less thing that you have to depend on others for putting up in your kitchen.

Maybe a Victory Garden sounds intimidating. You don’t have to go down the rabbit hole of homestead farming. Start by picking one vegetable that you eat a lot of. Do you use a lot of pasta sauce, tomato paste, tomato soup, or ketchup? You can start by growing some tomatoes and offset those items that you usually buy from the store by making it yourself. You will find it surprising at how few ingredients you really need to make those items. And you cut those preservative and other junk ingredients out of your diet that are put in those commercial products. And tomatoes are not demanding when it comes to you time. You can fit this vegetable into the cracks of your time.

Even if you respond to me right now by saying, “I’m not a vegetable gardener. I plant flowers. I love flowers.”

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Did you know that right now the price of living has risen so much that people are putting off doctor visits because they can’t afford to pay the co-pay? In 2018 44% of Americans skipped visits due to price. (Forbes) In 2021, 41% skipped visits due to pandemic concerns. (AMA) Even with statistics provided in December, 2022, 40% of Americans still are avoiding visit for various reasons. (First Stop Health) This is a reality for many people. But that doesn’t mean that you do not have to go without treating your body with items from your garden, even your flower garden.

There are many flowers that you can grow in your garden that have medicinal properties.

Echinacea by Oast House Archive is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0

Flowers

  • Echinacea: good for boosting your immune system and fighting colds and flus.
  • Rose Hips: (the dark pink or red fruit seen after roses have gone dormant for the winter) are high in vitamin C and good for fighting colds and flus.
  • Lavender: treats insomnia, reduces blood pressure, reduces menopausal hot flashes, and treats acne inflammation.
  • Dandelion: there are so many uses this flower has but some are soothing an upset stomach, aide with gall stones, and detox your liver.
  • Mullein: benefits for your lungs, sinuses, and ear aches.
  • Bee Balm: helps relieve flatulence and urination.
  • Yarrow: helps with fevers.
  • Elderberries: are high in flavonoids, vitamin C and A, betacarotene, iron and potassium.
  • Comfrey: is great mulch for all gardens (hint: in case you find it difficult to find a fertilizer). It also has anti-inflammatory properties (great for many different skin conditions), but also has a long history of being a bone mender. There are many medical articles that talk about how using a comfrey salve can decrease your broken bone healing time by half.
  • Chamomile: helps with muscle spasms and insomnia
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There are so many more flowers that I could put on this list. Last year I started increasing the amount of medicinal herbs and flowers in my garden. Not only are herbs amazing for making your meals flavorful (hello oregano, sage, basil, and the whole mint family), but they can also be used in tea with the above flowers to help treat the symptoms of oncoming colds before you become sick. Or maybe you have a skin condition where you need to look for specialty soaps in the store. Did you know you can make your own soaps for a fraction of the price and better for your skin? Fact!

I’m inspired. What’s next?

Whether you’re ready to grow your own vegetables or just want to stick to our flowers, there are plants that do well next to each other and ones that don’t. So by planning on where you are going to put everything you want to grow, you can be sure to keep the friendly plants next to each other and competing plants away from each other. And by knowing if your herb or flower is a spreader, you can plan on keeping them in their own contained area.

Some vegetables you can’t plant next to each other:

  • beans and onions
  • tomatoes and corn
  • celery and carrots
  • garlic and leeks
  • carrots and herbs (parsley, dill)
  • onions and beans/peas
  • lettuce and broccoli
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Vegetables that should be planted next to each other:

  • garlic and tomatoes
  • spinach and strawberries
  • beans and tomatoes
  • tomato, basil, and lettuce
  • corn, beans, and squash
  • radish and carrots
  • carrots and onions

By searching companion planting and the vegetables you want to grow, you can see what grows well together. You can also find out what does not do well together.

For example Marigolds deter pests that attack tomato plants, brussels sprouts, cabbage family, and bush/pole beans.

Search not just for vegetable companion planting but also flower companion planting.

  • Geraniums and Roses do well next to each other
  • Coneflowers and Black-Eyed Susans
  • Astilbe and Hosta
  • Hydrangeas and Daylilies
  • Daffodils and Amsonia
  • Daisies and Petunias
  • Marigolds and Lavender

Saving Time in the Garden

Now that you know what you want to plant, what does well together, and what doesn’t do well together, don’t wait until it’s time to plant your seeds or put your starts in the ground. Spend the time now in drawing out your grow space and determine where you will put everything.

I grew up putting seeds in the ground without a “map”. We would spend all day planting in a small garden because there was a swapping around of seed packets and other time wasting activities. Last year I mapped out where I was putting everything. By the time it came to putting seeds and starts in the ground, it only took me a couple hours to plant twice the area that my mother’s garden was.

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Plus, that “map” had the added bonus of being a reminder of what I planted where. This is particularly important because I planted cabbage and I can’t plant any brassica vegetables this year where I planted cabbage last year because of the competition between these two vegetables.

Not everyone keeps a garden the same way. The focus on most of the gardening community is that you just fertilize your garden, or scorch and burn to add nutrients back into the garden. I decided to practice not just crop rotation, but also resting the land. All throughout history these two practices were how farmers kept land without all the modern conveniences of amending soils with fertilizers and other products.

By keeping this “map”, I can keep a record of how long I’ve had a garden plot, planter box, raised bed, pot, or any other container. This puts a concrete calendar that tells me when it’s time to rest an area. This past year was my first year in resting the very first garden bed that I started. It made me nervous letting a decent size space go fallow. But I watched saw that only a couple dandelions sprouted in the bed. I left them because one of the jobs of dandelions is to draw up nutrients from deep down in the ground to the surface where my vegetables for this year will use. But dandelions always grow where they are most needed. It was encouraging that there were only a couple and not a whole garden bed full of dandelions. So the rotation and natural fertilizing with compost and tea from comfrey is doing its job.

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By watching your land sit during a year of rest, you can see what you are working with. Because your land will talk to you just like your plants will talk to you. They will tell you if something is wrong.

How to map and plan

I’ve looked at so many different sheets that homesteaders put together to share their process. The problem I’ve had with everything that I’ve found is that I have to shift through a dozen different pages to note the information that I want.

This year I decided to make my own sheets that are simplified and keep the information where I want it.

I’m providing my 8×8 Garden Plot and Weather Log for free on my website. Just click here and select the style that you want.

Why is a weather log important?

When I kept a weather log for my wild yeast starter, the mystery of why the same recipe was yielding different results.

In the same way, our gardens are going to respond to different weather patterns that hit. For example, the non-existence of spring and the extended winter jumping right into summer weather stunted all my seeds and starts. By keeping a record of the weather, I can look back on past years and see if and when I need to be concerned and add in hoops or other insulating method to help my crops in an uncharacteristic early season. And there was also an additional issue of powdery mildew hitting my pumpkins and comfrey plants in the midst of a sunny streak with absolutely no rain or my watering leaves. It turns out that the problem was the extremely uncharacteristic humidity levels. After a month of fighting mildew, I finally checked the humidity and saw that it was in the 90% range!

With everything that I threw at my plants to treat them, I ended up with a long list of what didn’t work. This gives me information in the future for looking for a different solution without wasting these resources. So never underestimate the power of keeping notes!

Last year I used a grid pattern not just for my garden beds, but for all my containers and irregular shaped beds.

No matter what shape or container you’re working with, all you need to know is the measurements and then you can roughly draw it on the grid.

Just keep in mind that when you plan seeds, you’ll want to keep a couple of inches away from the side of your container or raised bed so you can have a healthy root system.

The grid will do the math for you!

I set up the grid so that the darker squares can be used for a 1 foot measurement and the smaller squares can be used for other incremental measurements that you seeds require. Having this information already in mind, this past year I just used my pre-mapped seed drops sites, poked the soil with a chop stick and dropped my seeds. I knew ahead of time how many rows and columns I would be making so I didn’t need a ruler or anything else to space. (And spacing is always the most time consuming part of planting!)

Another thing that I hated with the other planning sheets is that they didn’t set it up like a map, complete with symbols to make your coding easy. It’s easier to use a shape code than an initial code when diagramming your seeds. I’ll tell you what! You never recognize just how many plants start with the same letter until you try to put them on a map. And they’re all at the beginning of the alphabet!

Make it Simple

I hope these two sheets will help you and your garden out as much as I know they will make my life simpler.

The Garden Plot sheet I will use for each of my gardening areas. I will be leaving the back of the sheet blank so that all I have to do is flip the sheet over to have more space for notes on what this growing season throws at me. And the Weather Log will be nice because a whole year can be seen on one page.

So far, this year’s planning is only going to take me 6 pages instead of the 18 that I started off with last year.

Give this Garden Plot a shot and let me know in the comments how it works for you!

Also let me know what other information you keep records of when you are gardening.

Files Used

Garden Planning

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