Remedy for Bitter taste in cucumber

Dear Family & Friends

Have you ever sliced cucumber for salad only to realize that some slices taste bitter?

cucumber slices

We have had a very weird weather pattern this year. The mid-July which is the hottest month of the year for us was filled with lots of thunder storms, along with torrential rains, bringing odd cool days and cold summer evenings, causing stress to cucumber plants...and this results to some bitter fruits.

cucumber and tomatoes are good food partners

To help take the bitterness away, a good remedy is to slice the end of the cucumber and rub it onto itself till it foams. Do this with both ends.

rubbing cucumber ends to take the bitterness off

This is what the foamy bitter substance looks like. Just rinse and wash this away...and proceed with slicing them for salad. A trick I have learned this year:)

bitter foams off the cucumber

We're into Autumn...our tomatoes and cucumbers are winding down with their ever so fruitful ways. I'm somehow relief, because we have had too much by now. Every meal seems to have tomatoes thrown in! Meanwhile, ducks and chooks gets chopped cukes thrown into their pen too:) !! 

I'm starting to sow cool vegetable plants for autumn and winter harvest. Gardening can be an all year round activity. Joy:) So.... I end this post with good wishes for you and do enjoy the joys of everyday living too.

Yours

Old Trough to New Wash Basin

Dear Family & Friends

Our wise, clever guy is constantly occupied with home projects during his free time. He have the knack of making ugly things into beautiful master piece:)

We found some old trough in the barn house and so Mr. Innovative decided to recycle and make good use of it. I'll show you how and what he did!

Mixing sand and cement to glue the cut tile onto the surface of an old trough

This trough was probably used to hold water for the barn animals to drink in it's previous life. It's made of cement and quite heavy. As we need a sink outside in our garden area, our 'can-do-everything man' set on another home project, using his leftover bathroom tiles to cover the trough, inside and out.

The tiles were all precut to measure

The hardest part was cutting the thick blue tile, especially as we don't really own a good tile cutter...but he made do, and everything else came easy afterwards.

The inside of the sink is now blue

We didn't have enough blue tiles to cover the whole trough, but who says you can't mix and match tiles for artistic flare? Thus, other left over cream coloured tiles were laid for the rest of the surface area:)

Our water pipe is encased in an insulated cylinder to prevent burst pipe during winter months

We now use this sink to wash all our garden veggies harvest before bringing them into the kitchen. All water drains into the bucket beneath it and we also recycle the water and use them to water our garden from time to time.

This no cost sink is seated on blocks and the bucket beside it collects the water flow

This repurposed and recycled garden sink is the best we could have...no, we can't even find and buy anything as good as this:)

Recycled home projects are fun:)

Yours

Gardening in the Winter

Dear Family & Friends

There's not much you can do in the garden during winter time. Probably it's gardener's rest time, but I just have to do some growing even in the middle of winter! Even when our temperature can come down to as much as minus 20.

Five Rosemary cuttings propagation in a soda bottle cloche:)

In December, I did a few cuttings from our Rosemary plant in the garden. I filled soda bottles with compost and planted my cuttings in. My simple way of propagating this herb. I'm hoping to get more plants to use as garden hedging in Spring time. For the moment this bottle cloche sits by the kitchen window.

My first propagated scented geranium is doing well by the window sill.

Sometime ago, a lady in our village passed this plant stem with a few leaves. I did not know what plant that was, but the leaves are very aromatic. I was told to use them in my fruit compote making. Unfortunately, most of the fruits were eaten fresh by the two girls. So, I decided to place this plant stem in the water and determined to search it's identity on internet. It's scented geranium!! The stem took roots in the water, and I planted them in a yogurt pot afterwards. It's doing well by the kitchen window. I will plant them outside when weather warms up and would want to have more of this charming plant later on.

My DIY mini green house for seeds and seedlings.

We often have bright sunshine during winter. More soda bottle cloches were made, I filled them up with home made compost, and lined them by the window ledge to sunbathe. My intention is to warm up the soil and use them to sow some vegetable seeds. We have no greenhouse, so this is my DIY mini green house to get some head start for this year.

Gardening is fun:) Let's make garden.

Yours

Weekend Outdoor Grilling

Dear Family & Friends

Before the cold season draw on us, we try our best to enjoy outside cooking...usually on weekend Sunday when all of us are on our "rest day" of the week. Lunch will have to be super easy and so, grill fish is always on the menu.

Outside sink comes very handy for this.... and a brave husband;P

The outside sink is very useful for cleaning and preparing food...like gutting fish etc.. (I know it is gross...but it is part of living) 

Mackrel Fish is a good oily fish...but grilling it means some oil splutter....Our master grilling chef is very meticulous ...he will set up his temporary shield for this kind of cooking:)

metal shield is a must...just in case grill starts spitting:)

Once cold weather arrives, all this weekend outside fish grilling routine will have to stop till next year once again.

We're people of routine...but even routine sometimes need changing for a variation:) Do you have some routine practiced in your home?

Wishing you lovely and beautiful days to enjoy.

Yours

Veggie Garden With Covering

Dear Family & Friends

Remember the woodchips we gathered from the pine wood forest for our garden? Well, it was a lot of work... we had at least 75 bags brought into the garden with the intention of covering pathways in the veggie garden area.

Bags of woodchips waiting to be laid on top of our veggie garden

From big bags, we transferred buckets after buckets into garden row pathways to suppress all unwanted weeds and to maintain moisture in the soil.

Bucket after buckets of woodchips were poured into the veggie garden

The pathways in between vegetable rows are now covered and it is pleasant to walk around the area as  the ground is softer to walk on, and the soil underneath it won't get packed in anymore.

Veggie garden pathways covered with wood chips

The veggie garden area is big, but we managed to get it covered with family team effort!

Cardboards were laid  before putting in the woodchips on top

Before we laid the woodchips...cardboard boxes were laid in first to suppress existing weeds. The woodchips will keep the cardboard in place and will act as filter for rain water, keeping the ground moisture. 

The veggies in row are still watered with drip irrigation when needed

I still need to do weeding amongst the growing veggies, but a lot of it is taken cared of by this covering at least. Gardening is a lot of work...but I will always admit it is great fun and there are ways to make things easier.

I hope you have great day today too:) Me?... I'm heading back to the garden...

Yours,

Wood Chips For The Garden

Dear Family & Friends

Not very far from where we live, we found a forest that we can access free wood chips! It's like finding gold! This is an area where pine trees in the forest get chopped! As it's just by the road side, it is very convinient for us to gather them!

We arrived to gather some woodchips for our garden.

We decided to cover our garden pathways with these free woodchips. We saw videos of Back To Eden and we got inspired in doing the same method for our garden too:) 

Plenty of wood chips!

Most of our gardening fun activity are family effort. The two girls enjoyed and were thrilled when they discovered this woodchips area. They also helped in covering our garden pathway with it. I will show you our finished work in our vegetable garden next time.

Beautiful place covered with wild flowers!

Whilst we were in the pine forest area for the woodchips, we also took the opportunity to enjoy the scenery. It felt cooler up there due to higher elevation and most area were beautifully covered with wild blue, white and yellow flowers!

An expanse of dark clouds which gave way to heavy rain and T-storm

But then, we looked up the sky and noticed that dark clouds are threathening us with rain. It's all good timing for us. We have bagged our needed woodchips, enjoyed the natural scenery, and it's now time to head back home.

Wishing you a lovely day too:)

Yours

Everybody Is At Work

Dear family & Friends

Everybody is at work. Work is good for men...it makes us feel worthy...and work always brings about  form of payment for labour done.

One genius guy who is working on homemade trellis archway to beautify the garden

Working outdoor is specially good...sunshine, fresh air, exercise is what our body needs from time to time, to stay healthy.

Another work project done and we look for more to do

When we get things done, it's also rewarding feeling knowing that we are capable, and that we can create a beautiful surrounding for the comings days to enjoy.

Our chicken tractors at work...they will happily clear up that patch for us

Even our chickens are at work...we get them to participate in some homestead jobs...they can do some gardening for us just like a tractor would. They too feel happy for the job given:)

Local village grandmother preparing her garden too

When we go around our village, we see old grandmothers and grandfathers working in their land...we stop and chat with them and they feel happy and proud for the hard work they are doing or have done. Yes, work can be hard sometimes, it can even bring body aches at the end of the day....but sleep comes sweet when our body is rested at night...for all you know, when morning comes, we work again:) Ah! Life....

Hope you have a nice and wonderful day today and more to look forward to!

Yours 

Boxwood Multiplication

Dear Family & Friends

This boxwood has grown so big that it was time to downsize it...mainly because we also need a wider passage way as we proceed with installing a garden wash basin just next to it.

Boxwood Plant

So, the boxwood had to be chopped to ...half it's size!

This was after we chopped in down in half.

We managed to retrieve at least a 100 or so boxwood plants with strong roots. We decided to replant them in containers, and later...perhaps we could start shaping it as mobile topiary in pots.

Boxwood stems with strong roots were retrieved to be replanted

We bought 10 litre size plastic builders' bucket as oppose to a proper claypot planter, which would have been nice...but, builder's bucket is much cheaper and we needed a lot!

A good soil with added compost should help these planted grow in their buckets

To save pot containers, we also had to put as many plants per pot. Some were planted directly in the garden, in lines of 24 plants... a lot of it was shared with our neighbours too.

A few boxwood planted in container, and more to go...

It was good fun! For a while we thought we were opening up a nursery plant business with all that work we did. Boxwood grows very slowly, but I'm hoping that I could start training them into various topiary shapes...so, here I am dreaming in my gardening world:)

Hope you have a nice day today...because we did.

Yours

Garden Arts of Interest

Dear Family & Friends

It's a blessing that we can enjoy being outside, working in the garden and then find some of God's amusing creation to entertain us as well.

Our big cherry tree is now loaded with cherries...but we still have to wait for a few more days for the fruit to turn very red and sweet. Right now it's still yellowish to reddish! So, you can just imagine my growing hungry girls alway inspecting for the "ready" signs...and yet perhaps a little bit more patience needed. But look what they have found to amuse us all.  

A Siamese twin cherry...one of which is more riper than the other one!

The Strawberries are now ready and the girls never fail to go out and have their fruit snack everyday. And today they found a very craftily created strawberry...4 in 1!!

Turn it upside down, and now it looks more like a butterfly!

Or as a 4 petals flower sprouting from a rock!

But not too long, it landed into someone's hand and it pop into the mouth!! Yum! It did taste like a real strawberry!!

While God can come up with creative fruit to amuse us, man can only make and built interesting things, using talents and creativity that also came from God,to amuse ourselves! Here goes.... amazing idea of how to make a portable garden shower!! It's still being pondered upon, and under a process of a few more test!!

The idea is to have hourly showers when the height of summer comes...yes...a shower under the sky...something like sunbathing/sunshowering!! The garden is enclosed with 4 solid walls, but we take no risk in giving our neighbours the pleasure....so we still have to have the shower curtain!!

Ah...can't wait for this project to be finalized and utilized!

Enjoy your day!

Yours

Drip irrigation

Dear Family & Friends

Even with smaller gardens, you might want to consider drip irrigation. Sometimes life gets busy, and you might not be able to water for a few days. If you had automatic irrigation, you wouldn’t have to worry about losing the garden you had spent months nurturing.

My first year of gardening, I was manualy carrying and pouring buckets of water from the well unto the plants. OH That was very tiring! and I don't thinkI needed more muscle building!

The second year, we bought an electric water pump and use a hose to stand for hours till the garden is watered. In the height of summer, mosquitoes were very keen on feasting me for the duration of the watering chore!! Yikes! 

The third year, we decided to make a deep trench on rows of plants and flood it with water to avoid becoming the party food of the mossies! But this uses up and waste so much water.

This year, we are getting clever, my husband installed a drip irrigation system. We placed a big water reservoir on top of a built-metre tall-pedestal. We pump water from the well into the reservoir and there is a switch for the main dripping pipe that channels to little plastic pipes that's laid onto the plant beds. Water is dripped using gravity and slow watering drips mean, the plant can take in the water into it's roots gradually... and we don't need to be there to do the chore either! Now, do you agree that we are getting clever?!

When life gets tough, there's always means and ways to find some solution. We are not experts here but gradually my husband is becoming quite a handyman...trying this way and that way...watching and learning from others too:) 

OK...I believe there's always hope..and we'll go for it. Be encouraged in whatever good plans you have too:)

Yours,

Water Business

Dear Family & Friends

Been looking for an old fashioned galvanized watering can for a while...For a time being, I patiently used a tin can that I nailed holes to act as watering can ...then finally, we saw one in the little shop. I might paint and do some creative things to it ...but that will be for a day when I find nothing to do.

Another thrifty project was this recycled plastic container...it used to hold some cookies that we bought from the shop. Now, its an effective container to grow plant seeds. The plastic cover creates a humid and warm atmosphere, ideal for seeds that needs this kind of atmosphere to sprout.

All I do is to lightly tap the cover and drops of water falls back to the soil and water the seedlings! Saves you from watering them often too!

We do use up a lot of water to keep our garden going. The sun and wind can be a bit fierce at times here. But water used for garden purpose are mainly from the 2 underground water well source and from rain water that we collect...and that's when the galvanized watering can comes handy.

Water for drinking, washing and in house uses, come from metred water. Yes, there's daily showering and we try our best to drink 8 glasses a day of liquid! But look at the bill we got!...this is more or less an average monthly bill.

That's about 4 USD or under 3 Quid only! Some things can be very cheap here... in UK we pay almost 10 times that!!

Cheap bills do have an effect in cheering people...don't you think so?

Yours

My Team Has Earned Their Keep

Dear Family & Friends

Today my husband came back home from work a bit later than his usual routine. Upon arriving home, he beamed with delight that he got me a second hand water container!

We did collect a fair amount of rain water for the garden the past days. ... but could have been more if we had extra water container. Useful but not essential...so we do refrain from buying this stuff...afterall, we prefer recycled materials whenever possible. There's nothing better than free....

How did he earned his keep? Well, as he was about to get into his car to come back home, an old boy called him, wanting his help in clearing up the weeds in his garden...so, my husband helped him and ended up with an old used water container given to him for free!!

OK, whatever we parents do, we must note that our children are always watching us in silence too....

Later on in the day, after a game of  badminton and tennis....our two girls decided to go cycling in the village to celebrate the beautiful sunny day. 

They didn't managed to go very far in their bikes because an old grandmother neighbour called them out to help her with her spring gardening cleanup...so, the two girls hopped off their bikes and helped her. 

In return, they too earned their keep...they both came home beaming with delight saying: "mummy, we earned some flower plants for you!"

Yes, these are little things: old water container, a  dozen or so of pansie and chrysanthemum plantlets wrapped in newspaper...but they are of great value to me...for I think my team have earned their keep by helping people out and they are so keen to bless me too.

I had a good day today. Hope you did and will too:)

Yours,