A pesticide-free, organic gardening idea

Living out in the countryside I would like to have chickens to eat bugs in the yard but don't want the responsibility of caring for them as I plan to travel around a bit this summer with The Glampette. I also don't want to ever use any pesticides that can harm the beneficial insects or tiny toads, frogs, and snakes that live in the yard. That got me to thinking the next best pest-control option is to attract more wild birds to protect the organic vegetable garden I'll soon be planting. Last year it suffered damage by caterpillars and grasshoppers in late summer. And soon the mosquitos will be back in full force. Hmmm. What to do? A birdhouse? A feeder? A birdbath?

Have I mentioned lately that Fred is pretty amazing? After discussing my pest-control ideas with him he went down to his workshop, took three cedar boards, and made 5 custom birdhouses. . . In one afternoon. Not only that, he also hung them around the yard. All in the same day! One side releases using a pin at the top and a single hinge on the underside (which has small holes drilled for ventilation) which will allow them to be cleaned between seasons by popping the wall open. We added some custom made pine shavings to entice our feathered friends into staying.

The weather has been gloomy and raining but that hasn't stopped the birds from coming out.

After inspecting the house on the post the same Bluebird took a peek at one of the other houses in a tree. I hope he comes back with a mate because Bluebirds eat lots of bugs!

While Fred researched building birdhouses (designs, dimensions, and materials) I Googled "birds that eat bugs" and "birdhouse entrance size" to learn the importance of the entrance hole sizes (different birds like different sizes and as little as an 1/8" can make them move in or move on), how high up the holes should be on the face of the house, to perch or not perch, and where and how to hang the houses.

No house in this picture but I happened to get a shot of a beautiful male Cardinal to share. They don't use houses for nesting preferring to build their own in shrubs and trees.

You can't see much of him but a Blue Jay also stopped to take a peek at a house this morning. They also build their own nests but I read you can build an 8"x8" platform and they'll build their own nest on top of it.

After the Eastern Bluebird stopped by a Black-capped Chickadee came to take a peek and try out the perch. I read some birds won't nest in a box with a perch because Blue Jays will come stand on the perch, reach inside the hole, and eat their babies!

My neighbor also warned that yellow jackets may move in so keep an eye out for them.

Spring is definitely in the air. Today I learned something about the birds, not the bees.

"Look!" I exclaimed to Fred, "Those Robins are fighting" as I took pictures of a pair that seemed to be battling in the yard. He took one look out the window and informed me they were mating. LOL.

So, we've had a few lookers but so far no takers. I'll keep you posted if any tenants move in. If not we'll try moving the boxes around a bit, as in space them further apart around the property, and most likely move some a bit higher.

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave any birdhouse tips you may want to share!

I found a frog!

Today I went out to my garden to check on how the pumpkins were coming along and chase grasshoppers out of the enclosure when I spotted a frog! I'm pretty sure it's a Pickerel Frog after consulting with Google and the Michigan DNR (Department of Natural Resources) website. It made me soooooooo happy! I'd seen him before outside the garden tucked under the framing but today there he was, just hanging out under the beet greens.

Seeds planted late, but not too late, on July 1st

By the way if you were to ask me "How does your garden grow?" I'd reply "Bonkers!" I'll do a post soon with pictures of veggies and things I've made with them but for today I took a break from my ArtPrize project to share this little guy with you.

Radish, beets, beans, parsley, and Hokaido pumpkin.

Do you see him? He's on the top edge of the side board in the center of the picture  under the beet greens. Can I tell you I'm over the moon happy with all of the beet greens I've been harvesting? I actually enjoy eating the greens more than the beets!

I ran in the house, grabbed my camera with its zoom and macro lens and raced back out to get these shots.

I didn't have to hurry. This little frog was perfectly happy to sit and pose, even for close ups. Another day, another frog. Michigan makes me smile so much :)

The toads and frogs are just one of the reasons why I am set on keeping an organic garden. Pesticides would definitely have an adverse effect on them and they're two of nature's best pest control methods if you're lucky enough to have them come live in your garden.

Relief from mosquitos: A DIY natural repellent spray

A few days ago I posted on Facebook:

A week ago a mosquito bit the back of my leg. She drew so much blood and my leg swelled up so huge I think her long pokey nose got stuck inside me because when I saw her she was thrashing against my leg trying to get away but couldn't. So I smashed her. I have a lot of compassion for a lot of creatures but mosquitos and fleas didn't make the list. Especially since mosquitos in the Bay Area sometimes carry West Nile Virus.

Because I have very sensitive skin that breaks out easily and didn't want to use a commercial repellent I searched the internet and found this post on the Inhabitat website:

DIY: Homemade Insect Repellent Sprays and Lotions. This spray is recommended for adults but there's a kid-safe recipe on the same page.

You only need three ingredients and a spray bottle: Witch Hazel, water, and an essential oil, preferably Citronella or Lemongrass. I'd kept my eyes open for both of them but hadn't seen either in my recent wanderings to natural food stores or nutrition shops.

Did I mention mosquitos love me? I am no doubt a mosquito magnet. Once they do bite I get huge welts. After a particularly bad swollen hand and wrist after being bitten three times last fall in Michigan's UP I did some research and learned that most likely I am targeted over others nearby because mosquitos are attracted to:

1. Body temperature. If yours runs higher they're going to notice you first - CBS
2. Carbon dioxide output - WebMD
3. Steroids - WebMD
4. Lactic Acid - WebMD
5. Uric Acid - WebMD
6. Movement - WebMD
7. Dark Colored Clothing - CBS
8. Genetics - CBS Scientists don't know 100% why some of us are the most appealing to these blood sucking critters but it may be a combination of some or all of the aforementioned features that make one person a target over others in close proximity.

Even though I killed the one on my leg a few days ago I'd prefer practicing avoidance so I got on the phone and started calling nutrition shops. I located both essential oils at Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy in downtown Los Gatos.

I purchased an empthy 4 oz spray bottle and filled it with the following ingredients:

I hadn't ever bought witch hazel before so I didn't know where to look for it in the store. I have to say that I received some of the best customer service in recent memory both when I called on the phone and once I arrived in store. Kudos to Pharmaca for caring about what seems to be becoming a lost art.

Even though the recipe I used only called for one or the other I got both. The scents are very similar and combined smelled wonderful.

It's easy to count the drops as they come out because the bottles had little droppers built right in.

Once filled shake the bottle to blend the ingredients together. I tested the spray on the back of my hand for an allergic reaction. In the air and on my skin the scent was light and very pleasant. It smells refreshing like the way it smells when you walk into a spa, not a candle store which can often trigger a migraine for me because of the heavy perfume that is often times overwhelmingly pungent.

That night I went out for a walk at dusk after spraying my legs and backs of my hands and guess what? NO MOSQUITO BITES! Not one! I saw a mosquito come near me and used my hand to wave it away and that was it. I'm sold.

I'm not sure this recipe would work on the mosquitos in the Midwest because they're downright fierce. . . Here's a video of Wisconsin mosquitos waiting to eat me during my first night in The Glampette last June. I'd taken Kitai out to go to the bathroom and they literally swarmed me. Once safely back inside the trailer they were predators lying in wait for me to dare to step foot outside again. It was creepy like a horror movie but on a much smaller scale.

For now I'll be wearing the light and refreshing scent of lemongrass and citronella in the evenings and will hopefully remain bite-free for the foreseeable future.

If you have any other great natural-remedy mosquito avoidance tips please feel free to share them in the comments. I'm also planning on surrounding my yard with herbs (once I relocate) because I've read that mosquitos are also repelled by sage, basil, rosemary, and mint.

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From what I've read a spray like this can work but DEET is better. So, if you live where there's a high concentration of mosquitos or diseases like West Nile Virus or Malaria you're probably better off sticking with a commercial repellent.

Recycling leftovers instead of to go containers

Recently we had breakfast at the Southern Kitchen Coffee Shop.

It's located in Downtown Los Gatos on Main Street just east of the HWY 17 overpass between Icing on the Cake and the High School.

As usual, my breakfast was too big. But because I (almost) always bring a tupperware-type container with me I brought my leftover hash browns and English muffin home.

And for the first time ever our server didn't just smile or laugh that I had my own take out container, she thanked me for doing so and said she always thanks all of their customers who do the same. It made me feel good, not that she thanked me, that there are other people out there doing the same thing for the sake of the environment and for future generations.

Absolutely loving my Lodge Logic cast iron skillet.

So, what do you get when you combine leftover hash browns with a Beefless Gardein Burger or regular ground beef? Burger hash! I also re-toasted the muffin though it got a bit overdone because I didn't realize the toaster oven was set to bake and not toast. If I'd had an egg handy a fried egg would have made it a perfect meal the next morning.

I just tossed the hash browns in my cast iron skillet with a frozen Gardein burger. Once the burger cooked I minced it with the spatula and stirred it into the potatoes. It was terrific!

I find any type of hash browns reheat really well in a frying pan. I've also brought home leftover fruit to add to a smoothie and often bring home half a sandwich or burger from dinner and eat it for lunch the next day.

Leftovers from my first visit to Ike's Lair sandwich shop in Cupertino, CA

California is considering legislating to go/take out containers, something many cities have already done, to ban the use of styrofoam take out containers statewide. There are pros and cons if this is done but at the end of the day the reality is that we could choose to eliminate the use of a lot of styrofoam for leftover food by simply bringing our own reusable containers with us when we dine out.

I lay a napkin beneath sandwiches to wick away moisture from the bread

The question I posed to myself when I started doing this is if we don't mind walking out of a restaurant with a take out container, why should we mind walking in with one?

Other eco-friendy dining out ideas include using reusable chopsticks and bringing my own plastic cup to restaurants that use throw away cups for in-house dining.

I won the battle of the ants. I hope.

12 days ago I awoke to find the kitchen sink filled with ants. And the weird thing is there wasn't even any food in it. Nonetheless I could follow the trail back to a tiny gap at the top of kitchen cabinets along a wall near the window over the sink.

Some of you may realize I face a moral dilemma when it comes to killing bugs. I just don't like killing anything. Begrudgingly I will kill fleas and mosquitos but everything else is catch and release when found in the house and I let nature take its course outdoors. So that first day I sprinkled chili powder and cayenne pepper flakes all around the counter. But it didn't seem to deter them at all.

 So I waited for hubby to wake up the next morning and told him to deal with them. LOL. I hate pesticides so that was the first I learned that he had a liquid ant poison hidden in the back of a cupboard. He put some drops out. The ants flocked to it. It contains borax which is toxic to ants but they carry it back to the nest and it will kill the queen. Once that happens the colony will collapse.

So we waited. It got worse before it got better because the ants thought they'd found a food source. After several days they were back in full force so my friend Carl suggested we try a different ant bait called Terro. Again the ants flocked to the bait but it didn't stem their flow.

At this point our friend Harpreet asked if I could see where they were coming from. I went home and looked outside the window and sure enough could see the steady flow of ants climbing the side of the house and entering through a little spot along the underside of the roofline. In the past I've successfully blocked ant trails by filling the interior entry point with Elmers Glue. But since the entry point was hidden in the tiny gap over the kitchen cabinet I couldn't find it to block it. There were so many ants in the house I hadn't wanted to block the hole as then I'd have to deal with all of the ants trapped inside.

My friend Dana said to pour boiling water down the sink to wash away any debris caught in the pipes. I did but first I turned the water on slowly and ants came out. I gradually turned it on higher and higher and more ants came out. When I turned it to hot the exodus was extreme! When it appeared most were out of the drains I added two huge pots of boiling water. The ants pretty much steered clear of the drain from that point forward. But they still kept coming in.

So then, also Dana's suggestion, we purchased Grants Ant Stakes. But they aren't instantaneous. Apparently the worker ants won't collect the bait until a scout ant gives the A-OK.

Enough was enough. I haven't been able to cook in the kitchen for almost two weeks as the steady stream of ants wandered around our sink and counters! So I went online and searched "How to get rid of ants" and found many non toxic solutions and tips on how to remove and avoid them.

The first was to spray the area they were targeting with vinegar so I did. OMA (Oh My Ants) they did not like that but instead of making them retreat all of a sudden four times more ants were streaming into the house. So I wiped up what I could and went to the second home remedy: baking soda. I sprinkled it all over the kitchen counter leaving a gap for ants already there to return to their nest but it didn't deter the incoming ants at all.

So then I tried another suggestion cinnamon. Immediately it was clear that the cinnamon was the ticket. They did not want to walk across it so I liberally sprinkled it all across the counter. At this point I took a spatula and began pushing the baking soda and cinnamon in towards the ants shrinking the area they were occupying. So then they started walking sideways across the glass window.

So then I began throwing pinches of cinnamon directly into their paths. It stopped them. I reasoned if the ants were that averse to being in contact with the cinnamon I need to put cinnamon everywhere. The best solution I came up with was to take a wire sieve and scoop the soda and cinnamon powder with a spatula into the sieve and fling it all around that area of the counter and wall. It worked!

I knew at that point that putting cinnamon near their entry point would be helpful. But the space they were coming through was only 1/8th of an inch high. So I got a plastic drinking straw, shoved it into the jar of cinnamon, put my finger over the end to create a vacum to hold the powder in, placed the full end into the gap and blew the cinnamon into the crack.

And it worked!

The flow of new ants almost ceased. But now I had dozens trapped between two points. This is where the kitchen sponge comes in. To catch them one by one would have been tedious so I began swiping them up with the sponge in groups and walked them to the front porch to release them. It took about 20-30 trips to get almost all of the ants back out where they belong.

I blew about 4 more straws full of cinnamon into the gap and tomorrow will go get some clear caulk to patch the entry point from the outside.

It's been around 9 hours and while I've found a few stragglers to catch and release I think the worst has passed.

If you have ants in your house try the cinnamon first. It's working for me so far and on the upside my house now smells like Christmas :)

A green idea: Eco-friendly to-go containers

No, it's not a new product. It's just a simple idea that feels great every time I don't have a disposable container to throw away or recycle.

The other day I had this fresh and nutritous Spinach Salad for lunch at the Bell Tower Bistro in Saratoga, CA. The salad comes with baby spinach, caramelized walnuts, apple chunks, blue cheese and a raspberry vinaigrette dressing. I passed on the blue cheese but had all the rest plus some freshly ground black pepper.

And it was so good!

And it came with two pieces of focaccia bread.

I'm trying to help start a new trend.

And I couldn't eat it all so I took almost half the salad home with me to eat for dinner that night. Took it home in my own to-go container that I'd brought with me.

Since 2009 I've blogged about bringing your own to-go containers with you when you dine out. Have you done it yet? It's so easy. I mean what's the difference between walking in with a container if you're going to walk out with one? I find more and more the wait staff really supports the idea.

At first Hubby thought it was weird but he's now more or less desensitized to my habit. Of course the fact that I also bring my own reusable cup, improvise containers when needed, and carry reusable travel chopsticks all helped to get him there. LOL

If you do it too take a picture of your food in your container and send it to me. I'll add it to this post :)

Eco-friendly: A fabric gift wrap idea you already have at home

Here it is: Instead of wrapping our gifts to each other in paper, hubby and I wrap them in pillow cases and bed sheets. I add ribbon for a fancier touch and  even reuse the ribbon each year. LOL

To be honest I'm not sure why hubby likes this idea. I like it because it's eco-friendly. I think he likes it because it's less work than wrapping with paper.

Every year I keep saying I'm going to buy some cute holiday fabric and sew a few pillow case style bags in different sizes for small and medium sized items and have a few larger flat sheets for bigger boxes. With holiday fabric they would be so much more festive looking. But I still haven't got around to it so I decided to show them to you as they are.

For the large box I used a flat sheet with three small binder (paper) clips to clip the fabric from two sides together across the top. I created hospital corners with the extra fabric and drew up the other two sides and tied them across the top with a piece of ribbon.

The effect of opening a fabric wrapped gift is the same as a paper wrapped gift. It just takes a little less time and there's nothing to throw away after :)

How wine corks promote sustainability: Recork, reharvest, reuse

I'm not a wine drinker but I thought these used wine corks, on their way to being recycled, created both a great visual and a great informational story.

Cork trees stripped of their bark from the CorkForest.org website.

Did you know that the cork from wine trees comes from special oak trees that can life for 200 years and grow in the Mediterranean countries of Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria?

According to several websites I visited, including PBS.org, Recork.org and CorkForest.org, the trees not not harmed during the harvesting process, there are thousands of workers who strip the bark creating jobs for many people and the trees themselves protect the land they are on from neglect or being developed. Most people don't realize that natural corks are more eco-friendly than plastic or screw caps because the cork can be recycled into a number of products that extend the life of the material even further while the millions of acres of harvested trees soak up millions of tons of carbon dioxide, a leading green house gas. So the trees create a replenish-able, recyclable material and jobs all at the same time.

Only the bark is removed and it's harvested every 8 to 12 years. This results in a tree that helps the environment more because it absorbs five times more carbon from the air than a tree that has never been harvested. Who knew that? I didn't.

So where did I get that great picture of the used corks? At San Francisco's Ferry Building.

Tucked right in between the Ferry Plaza Wine Bar. . .

And the Imperial Tea Court. . .

I spotted these bins along the wall.

Intrigued, I stopped to take a peek and thought how cool that the Ferry Building was helping to promote the recycling of used wine corks by setting these bins out for shoppers to see.

After I got home I went to the Recork.org website and began learning all about the cork growing, manufacturing and recycling processes.

Then I found a second website called CorkForest.org that had even better photos of the harvesting process.

I just wanted to let you know that there are cork recycling programs out there :)

So I wanted to share this information with you in case you're a wine drinker or a business that serves wine and you throw your corks away because you didn't realize they could be upcycled into something new.

To learn more about how to become involved as an individual or business please visit the following websites to locate collection boxes or learn how to set one up where you work.

www.Recork.org - Zipcode locator
www.CorkForest.org - List of participating companies

For more information about the cork growing and harvesting processes visit Where does cork come from? on How Stuff Works.

ETA: The only downside I could find about using natural corks vs. synthetic corks is that the natural corks can sometimes make a good wine go bad when the cork is infected with a fungus called TCA (2,4,6-trichloroanisole). The resulting "cork taint" can result in a wine that tastes musty or moldy and can affect anywhere from 5% to 12% of wines depending on whose article you're reading. For some boutique wineries and wine connoisseurs this is a deal breaker and they will opt for the synthetics. For a guaranteed success rate at protecting the wine from TCA, synthetics are the definite choice. And while a bad cork can ruin a bottle of wine, the overall consensus of the articles I read online is that natural cork is more eco-friendly than synthetics.