5 Tips To Help Make Your Vegetable Garden A Success

By now you might be able to guess I am anxious to get my vegetable garden going. I have been scouring the Internet and reading all my gardening books for all the best tips in growing a great  vegetable garden. I figured as I am working on my garden I would share the information I found with all my gardening friends.

1. Save all your egg shells for your garden soil. What I do is crush the egg shells in to small bits and add it to my garden soil. This will give a boost to your vegetables. I also throw a handful into the holes where I am planting my tomato plants. This will help prevent blossom end rot.

2. Sprinkle a hand full of coffee grounds around your vegetables. The coffee will slowly release nitrogen which is very beneficial to your vegetable plants.

3. 1 tsp of Epsom salts and 4 cups of warm water sprayed on your plants will produce a boost in fruits in about ten days. Now this I have not tried. I have sprinkled Epsom salts on the soil around my plants. I will try this tip and see how it goes.

4. I found this on Pinterest. DIY plant food. I am going to try this.

Mix 1 cup coffee grounds, 2 crushed egg shells, 1/16 oz. ammonia, 1 cup water, 1/8 tsp Epsom salts. Stir well. Spoon this around the base of your flowering plants, except African Violets.


5. One last tip. I am planning to use this watering method with some of my vegetable plants. I found it on Pinterest of course.

Last years photo of the Mini Farm Sustainability Project. I am lending the same raised beds this year to their project. We can't wait to learn more from their gardening techniques.
I hope you will be able to benefit from some of these gardening tips. If you have any great tips to share please leave them in a comment. Happy Gardening.

Simple Cake Decorating Tip: Icing With Out Crumbs

I started decorating cakes when my daughter asked me to make her Wedding Cake. I did a lot of practicing when I first started. I would like to share with you some of the easy techniques I learned along the way. My first question was how do I keep cake crumbs out of the Icing while I am frosting my cake. Have you ever frosted a cake and been aggravated with the crumbs getting into the icing making the surface speckled with bits of cake. I can not stand crumbs in my icing. The answer I found that worked for me was to use the two layers of Icing method. The first layer is called a crumb layer. The second is the finishing layer.

Chill the cake before you begin. I usually set it in the freezer for 15 to 30 minutes. Now dust any crumbs off the cake. Your icing should be room temperature.  This will make it easier to spread. Use a spatula to spread a thin layer of icing over your cake. Try not to let the spatula touch the cake. Once you have the first layer of icing on the cake let it sit to air dry for about 5 minutes.  Now spoon a large amount of icing in the center top of the cake. Using the spatula spread the icing out to the edge. Do not allow the spatula to touch the crumb layer. Use a sweeping motion from center to edge. Lift the spatula taking the excess icing off. Scrape the icing off the spatula returning it to the bowl. If there are any crumbs on the spatula or icing clean the spatula off with a paper towel.  Now you can frost the sides with icing. Cover the sides with icing. Hold the spatula straight up and down. Hold the edge of the spatula against the cake smoothing the icing as you turn the cake. Any excess build up of icing can be returned to the bowl. Continue until the sides are smooth. Sorry I do not have any photos of this process.

  This is a photo of a smooth cake top. It was taken before the top was decorated. ( one of my first practice cakes)

This is the same cake with the sides decorated.