Prepped Living Blog

Did you know you can use household waste items to enhance your garden? “Wait,” you may be thinking, “I don’t have a compost pile.” No worries! Even without a compost pile, here are 3 household items you can easily use in your garden. Please note that there is a lot of disagreement on the internet as to best practices for gardening. Some sources say these ideas are great and others say these don’t work at all. We personally have had good results with them, and thus, we are sharing them here with you. Nevertheless, be sure to do your own research and do what you think is best for your own garden. Coffee grounds Coffee grounds can be used as a soil enhancer. They are particularly good for plants that thrive on acidic soil. We mix them in with the top soil or simply sprinkle them on top of the soil in between waterings. Banana peels Bananas are high in potassium and as such, their peels can be used to make a plant fertilizer. Simply cut up a banana peel, soak in water for five to...

We had the opportunity to forage some local plants recently. While many things are not quite ready to pick, below are some of the items we harvested on our latest walk: Wild Rose Petals -  Wild rose petals are delightful in herbal tea blends. If you are careful to just pick the petals, it will still produce rose hips for fall foraging. There are several varieties of wild rose out there, many of which have very fragrant petals you can harvest in the spring and produce rose hips you can harvest in the fall. Plantain -  We have both narrow and broad leaf plantain in our area. I was able to find some very large narrow leaf on the hill where there is no foot or car traffic, so I opted to pick there. Plantain is a great plant for wound healing and a simple poultice can be made by chewing the leaves (saliva breaks down the cell walls to release the healing constituents) (1). You can also make a poultice from the dried leaves by adding warm water and creating a paste. We like to add ...

Here are some of the things we have been up to since the last update in February: Gardening Installed the AeroGarden Set-up a Greenhouse  Installed New Easy-up Fencing Planted Onions Food Preservation  Canned Blueberry Juice Canned Potatoes Canned Pineapple Juice Canned Apple-pear Sauce Dehydrated Onions Froze Onions Other Homestead Projects Finished the Lap Quilt Learned to Darn Socks Made Remineralizing Tooth Powder Made Homemade Deodorant Waterglassed Eggs Made Homemade Curry Powder Installed Pantry Shelving Organized the Pantry Made Draft Stoppers   New Website Articles DIY Tooth Powder DIY Draft Stoppers Energy Bites What projects have you been working on this spring? We would love to hear your updates as well!

Outdoor Garden We set up the last garden bed that we didn't get to last summer. We purchased our third two-pack of the 6x3 beds last year and only set one of them up. I prepped the bed with cardboard and threw in some limbs, leaves, and grass clippings. I then topped it off with soil. We also did a bit of planting. Our larger bed has mint and tarragon on one side. They are healthy plants and come back every year, so I like to leave them alone. We planted a few flower seeds in the bare spots on this side. We planted dry beans on the other side using beans I had saved from a previous garden. The seeds are a couple of years old, so if they do not come up within a reasonable time, I will re-plant with newer seed. We also planted two of the shorter beds. This gives us four beds that are ready to go for the season: one of strawberries, two we just planted, and one with tarragon and mint on one side and the beans we just planted on the other. We will plant the remaining beds when the weat...