If you use Epsom salts when planting tomatoes, will you get bigger tomatoes? Find out on this episode of the GardenFork Radio podcast. Erin joins Eric to talk gardening myths, and we find out which ones work and which ones don’t.
Epsom Salts, Fact or Fiction?
Does using Epsom salts with tomatoes help?
Use treated wood for raised beds?
Does hydrogel work?
Does soap deter deer?
As you listen to the show, clearly Erin of The Impatient Gardener has done her homework, and Eric learns a few things. A good takeaway from the research we did was that you can find any answer you want on the internet, so stick to sites that have a good reputation. Erin suggests that information from accredited universities is a good place to start. So look for websites that end in .edu for reliable information.
We reference a very good garden book, The Truth About Garden Remedies, for good information to dispel or prove some of these garden myths, a big thank you to Jeff Gilman for the effort he put into the book.
There is that FOMO thing that happens when you hear about a tip for growing better tomatoes, and the anxiety that you are missing out on a cool thing by not using this simple tip to better vegetable gardening. This is why Erin and Eric picked a few topics suggested by GardenFork viewers to talk about on this podcast. I’ve seen videos on YouTube get thousands of views with these simple tips to better fruiting on plants, and I feel the compelling need to watch them, then I realize what the video about is not worth the time I spent watching. At least while listening to GardenFork Radio, you can also do something else.
We will be doing another garden myths show, please let us know what garden myths you have heard in the comments below.
Learn how to sharpen lawn mower blades and cut your grass better with our mower video. Then read through the steps below and you’ll be set to mow the grass.
Key Points To Sharpen Lawn Mower Blades:
Be sure to put some plastic food wrap under the gas cap so it seals before you tilt the mower.
Whatever side of the mower that has the gas cap should be tilted up.
Wear safety gear when sharpening the blade, save your eyes and ears.
The video shows best how to tilt the mower so the gas doesn’t spill out, its easier to show than to put into words, but I trust you get it. Some gas caps have vents in them, hence the need for the plastic wrap to seal it.
Use a block of wood and a clamp set against the rim of the mower deck to keep the blade from moving while you remove the bolt. Do not use an adjustable wrench, use a socket or wrench, or you may round off the bolt.
Clamp the blade into a vise and use a right angle grinder to sharpen the blade, you want to do your best to keep the angle of the blade the same. If you do not have a grinder, you can buy a mower blade sharpening stone that attaches to your corded drill.
The most important part when you sharpen lawn mower blades is to balance the blade after sharpening it. If the blade is off balance, it will wobble when its cutting and damage the engine. Bad things will happen.
When attaching the blade to the mower, do not over tighten the bolt, hand tight and then a little more. Be careful not to bend the blade against the clamp when tightening the bolt.
The engine will take several pulls to start, don’t worry, the gas has to settle in the carburetor again. It will smoke a bit when it first starts. I sharpen my blade several times a year, it makes for a healthier lawn and a cleaner cut.
What are your thoughts on blade sharpening? Let me know below.
Here’s a homemade bucket bee feeder I made to feed the honeybees sugar syrup. Watch the video and then step through the photos below.
I like the bucket bee feeder because you can feed the bees sugar syrup in the early spring and fall without having to open up the beehive. Our other sugar feeder videos all involve opening up the hive to feed the bees. This doesn’t.
The downside is if the weather is wet or cold or both, the bees wont fly and can’t get to this feeder. So I will use a combination of hive sugar feeders and this outdoor feeder.
Couple of tips when making the bucket bee feeder:
Be sure to buy a food grade bucket with a gasket ring that seals the lid.
Don’t drill holes where the handles meet the bucket.
Fewer holes might be better.
The bucket must be level when inverted.
You may have to shop around to find a bucket with the support ring that we will use as the feeder. This ring is for a person to be able to handle the bucket better with their hands, but when the bucket is inverted, the spaces under the ring make for great sugar cups.
5/64″ holes
I found that a 5/64″ drill bit worked well for me. Several people have suggested, after watching the video, that fewer holes would keep the sugar syrup from overflowing as much when its first turned over. With fewer holes, one would drill or cut through the walls between the spaces to allow the syrup to fill the ring. I’ll have to experiment with this. Let me know if you do as well.
If you accidentally drill in to the ring cavity where there handle attaches to the bucket, like I did, you can glue the hole shut. Silicon caulk works, or some plastic glue.
When you first flip over the bucket, some syrup will pour out. It will slowly stop. If it doesn’t stop, the drilled holes are too big, or the gasket isn’t sealing.Be sure the bucket is level, or the syrup will flow out.
As suggested by a viewer, test this out with plain water first. I used a 1:1 sugar syrup solution with some essential oil mix added with the feeder. Here is a homemade essential oil mix. I now buy a commercial essential oil mix from a beekeeping supplier, its just easier for the small amount I use every year.
Can you show us how to prune a tree? Yes. For this post, we’ll be pruning an apple tree in spring, but this method applies to most trees. Watch the video, then read on.
How To Prune A Tree – Some Tips:
Early spring or fall is the best time to prune.
Use bypass pruners for live wood, anvil pruners for dead wood.
Cut away branches that cross each other.
Less is not always better.
Buy a quality hand saw
There are a couple of types of pruners. I have a pair of hand pruners, the kind that look like pliers that cut limbs, and then I have the larger kind the require some upper body strength for larger limbs. Bypass pruners tend to make a cleaner cut on live wood. Anvil pruners have one blade that presses against a flat surface, these work best with dead limbs, as they can smash up live wood. But again, use what you got!
One of the big reasons for pruning is to remove branches that rub against each other, or are about to. Rubbing branches damages the bark and can invite disease. You’ve probably seen branches that have kinda fused together after years of touching, something you want to avoid. Remove branches that will start to rub as they grow before it happens.
Pruning less from a tree is not always better. For fruit trees, its important to have what’s called an ‘open habit’, you want air to flow through the tree.
Tools To Use
I was recently given a 4 cycle gas trimmer from Troy-Bilt (a GardenFork sponsor) that has a chainsaw pruning pole attachment that is excellent for pruning a tree. I was able to use this to cut off a large limb that had snapped on one of our standard size apple trees. With the pole extension, this rig can reach 11′ up, and it cuts fast. Be sure to keep oil in the chain bar reservoir and the chain sharp. You can see how The Impatient Gardener uses this powered pole pruner here.
Chainsaw Pole Pruner Attachment
Get yourself a quality hand saw. I prefer the kind with teeth that cut on the pull and push. I think the blade is called a Japanese blade. Cheap knockoffs will only bind in the tree and mean more work. I used to buy cheap ones, then I got a nice one, and its great.
You get what you pay for with saws. This one is made in Germany and works great.
When showing people how to prune a tree, I use two kinds of hand pruners, bypass and anvil. I use the anvil pruners a lot on blueberries and raspberries.
To start pruning, first cut away branches that cross, these will cause problems down the road, so visualize which limbs will get larger and cross. Its easier to cut them now, not later.
How much to prune? The common wisdom is you can prune out about 25% of a tree without harming it. I know that you can’t actually measure 25% of a tree, but step back from time to time while you prune and see what effect you are having. Its OK to cut out large limbs like I did in the video above.
Seal the pruning cuts? No, you don’t want to seal up the bare wood, the tree will form an internal chemical barrier to protect itself from any infection or invasion.
Here is a great example of the before and after of a nicely pruned fruit tree. I pruned this tree in Austin when the Troy-Bilt Saturday6 team got together and volunteered to restore a community garden. Note how you can see through the tree after pruning.
So this is my version of how to prune a tree, any thoughts or suggestions? Let me know below.
FYI: Troy-Bilt is a sponsor of GardenFork and provided me with these tools. Its part of how we pay the bills here. I won’t feature products I don’t think are of good quality.
Learn here how to replace a broken window pane, its not that hard, and once you do it, its like butter.
Easy Steps To Replace A Broken Window Pane:
Remove the broken glass.
Remove the old putty.
Pull out the old glazing points
Measure the window pane.
Get Glass Cut.
Drop in glass and push in glazing points.
Press in glazing putty.
Safety First! Be sure to wear gloves and safety googles, as you don’t want glass going into your eyes or your hand. If you can remove the window from its frame, it will be easier to do the work. If not, put a tarp below the window to catch the broken glass and old putty.
The putty may come out easily, it may not. Try to pull out the broken glass, it may still be held in by the putty and the glazing points. Alternate between removing putty, glazing points, and the glass, you will eventually get all of it out. Be careful with the wood trim that holds the window, you don’t want to beat it up.
To replace a broken window pane, we need to get a piece of new piece of glass, you can cut the glass yourself or have the hardware store do it. Measure the pane carefully, best to have it slightly smaller rather than too large for the opening in the window.
Place the new glass pane in the window, and press in new glazing points every 6″ to 8″. Again be careful, as you can crack the glass if you press down on it too hard while putting in the points.
If the wood frame is unpainted, you have the option of painting it or brushing on some linseed oil. The thinking here is that unfinished wood will draw out some of the oil in the putty, hampering its ability to form up properly and make it brittle. I have done it both ways, and have not seen a difference, but the theory makes sense to me.
Prepare the glazing putty by kneading it and adding linseed oil if you like. I like the putty more pliable than how it comes from the store.
Lay a bead of the putty all around the window pane, and finish with your putty knife as shown in the video.
Wondering how to cut up chicken? The chef term for this is to joint a chicken, but cutting up a chicken is a pretty good term for me.
When you cut up a chicken instead of buying, lets say, chicken thighs, you save a ton of money. The cost of a whole chicken is not that much more than buying already cut up thighs, for example, and you get a whole chicken to use for other meals.
How To Cut Up Chicken, Some Tips:
Buy poultry shears
Wash the cutting board really well
Pull out the neck before you start
I like the poultry shears that come apart for easy cleaning. Super simple way to clean up your tools after breaking down a chicken, and makes it easier to sanitize everything. Mine have good handles so I don’t slip while working.
Its important to clean your cutting board well after working with meat. I use comet cleanser, because is has some chlorine in it and is scrubs out stains as well. Its easy to cross contaminate, so pay attention to where you are putting your hands after handling chicken and tools.
Pull out the parts! Sometimes I forget to remove the neck and giblets, then I wonder what is going on with this chicken. Even me, the alleged expert has moments like this.
Consider cooking more than just the breasts or thighs next time, could you use the wings for something? You can make a nice stock with the back of the chicken and some vegetables, for basicaly free.
That being said, my favorite part of the chicken are the thighs, as they are the easiest to cook. You can overcook the dark meat and it will still taste good. Not true with breasts, you know.
Do you have any tricks or tips for cutting up a chicken, how about the best way to freeze a chicken after you have cut it up? Please let us know below.
Build this DIY Cold Frame with a window your neighbor is throwing out. I see windows out for the trash all the time, I could probably have built a whole greenhouse already! I like this home made cold frame for starting and growing salad greens, as they don’t get too tall, perfect for this rig. Watch the video:
Tips for building the DIY Cold Frame
A wood frame window works best, but use what you’ve got, or what you’ve found.
Be sure to prime and paint all surfaces.
Install a thermatic vent to keep it from over heating.
Our cold frame has a thermatic vent built into the plan, so you don’t have to manually vent the cold frame greenhouse, you can buy one of these vents at a home improvement store. Buy the vent here.
What I also like here is we are recycling materials to build DIY cold frame. You can find old windows somewhere in your town, someone is most likely replacing their windows, and they will put out the old ones for trash pickup. Or check yard sales, or your own garage attic or barn, its very possible there is a window or two sitting there that you can use for this cold frame plan. Also consider using scrap plywood for this, it doesn’t have to look like fine furniture, its for the vegetable garden after all.
Be sure to paint the cold frame with primer and an outdoor latex paint, you may also want to wrap the edges of the plywood that touch the soil with duct tape to keep moisture from wicking up into the plywood. You could also use old garden hose to protect the wood. Slice open the hose along its length and slip the bottom of the cold frame into the slot in the garden hose.
If you want to extend your growing season, check out the books below, they are the ones we use!
Rick joins Eric to talk for this episode of the GardenFork podcast.
Eric tells of his trip to Austin to meet with GardenFork sponsor Troy-Bilt and meet up with rest of the Saturday 6 bloggers. The community service project, reviving a community garden, was done working with Planet In Action.
Rick tells about his LED grow lights and his concerns about UV light. He is moving the lights to the garage. We then move into talking about Rick repairing a door that had been chewed, and learned a lot about a product from reading online reviews.
The Garden Gem tomatoes we talk about are available here.
Clyde’s Garden Planner is a great tool for planting times, we love it. It is also available as an app!
This is the first mini greenhouse build we did and we learned a lot. We have built several more since, and they are great garden season extenders. I start my salad greens early and can keep kale growing into winter with a PVC mini greenhouse. Watch the how to video:
A few tips on the Mini Greenhouse Build
You can use 3 mil clear plastic from the hardware store.
Buy the most flexible PVC tubing you can find.
Be sure to have plenty of staples for the staple gun.
Use at least one thermal vent.
You can get a UV resistant greenhouse plastic, but I don’t. My thinking is a tree branch or dog is probably going to crash through the mini greenhouse before the plastic is broken down from sunlight. Be sure to double over the plastic where ever you are stapling it to the frame. Where the plastic wraps over the edge of the plywood end, you can run duct tape or a slit rubber hose over it to reduce the chance of tearing.
There are several kinds of PVC pipe available. Go to your local hardware store and test the different kinds to see which bends well for the size greenhouse you are building. Pick up some pipe holder brackets from the electrical department of the store to hold the PVC to the wood frame.
Buy more staples then you think you need. I always run out! Hammer in any staples that don’t go in all the way themselves. Fold over the plastic where ever you staple it to reduce tearing.
Thermal vents are key here. The mini greenhouse build can overheat easily. I use at least one vent, if you use two, put one high and one low on opposite ends. Buy the vent here.
If you are building this to sit on top of a raised bed, make the dimensions slightly smaller than the raised bed size, so the hoop house will drop just inside the borders of the bed, makes it much easier to deal with that way.
Our cold frame hoop house greenhouse is based on those built by Eliot Coleman in his book, If you follow the procedures outlined by Elliot in his book, you can harvest food all winter. nice. We also learned a bunch from Nikki Jabour’s book. (affiliate links)
Want to build a grow light for seed starting? In this video I show you how to make an inexpensive one from parts you can buy at the hardware store. This rig may not be fancy, but it works, and that’s what its all about on GardenFork. Check out our seed starting video below as well.
Tips on how to build a grow light
Its ok to use regular fluorescent bulbs.
The plant leaves can touch the bulbs, it won’t hurt the plant.
Keep the bulbs on 18 hours a day while growing seedlings.
People say you have to buy special bulbs to grow seedlings. I don’t. For the short time we are using the grow light for a tray of seeds, regular bulbs are fine. Save your money. Sometimes I have seen packs of regular bulbs on sale, doesn’t hurt to buy them on sale!
The leaves can touch the bulbs. Its actually good they do, as they are getting the maximum amount of light from the bulb then. You don’t want leggy plants, they will perish when you transplant them. Adjust the lamp height as the plants grow. If you have different plants under the same light, you can raise up the light for the tall plants and then slide wood or something under the shorter plants to stay close to the light.
I keep the grow light on 18 hours a day to make up for the lower brightness of bulbs versus regular daylight. Get yourself a simple light timer and plug it in.
I have found chain is the best way to hang the light on the stand, it makes it easy to adjust the height. Rope doesn’t work well.
After build a grow light, you can learn how to start seeds, its easy to do:
I made a new video on how to start seeds indoors to reflect all I’ve learned lately. This included making cool paper pots and cardboard tubes.
To start seeds indoors
You need warmth and light and water. Lots of light and warmth, and not much water. Soaking wet seeds or seedlings will die off, imagine having your feet in water all the time, not fun.
I start my seedlings near the furnace in our basement. You can also buy a waterproof grow mat that is like a heating pad but built for seeds starting. Don’t go and use your heating pad for this, OK?
When the seeds start to sprout, its time to move them under the grow lights. The seedlings do not have to be as warm once they are started. But is is very important to keep the seedlings directly under the lights, basically touching the bulbs. With our DIY grow light rig, you can slowly raise the grow light as the plants grow.
I have found putting seed trays in the window doesn’t work. The plants get very leggy and top heavy. When you transplant them, they fall over in the wind. Your experience may be different, as I live in New England, where the winter light is poor at best.
It’s OK that the leaves touch the bulbs of the grow light
For the grow light, we use regular fluorescent bulbs, not the expensive lights. For seed starting, this works fine.
You don’t want to over-water your seedlings. This can cause mold and fungus to grow and will kill the young plants. Best is slightly moist to slightly dry. Many of the seed starting trays have a wicking mat under the seed pots, and this works pretty good. Watering from underneath instead of over the plants is best. I do not mist the plants.
I use a prepared seed starting mix, I don’t make my own, too much work, I think. Do not use regular potting soil or soil from your garden. You can get Clyde’s Planner here.
Tom built this brick pizza oven that is heated by a DIY aluminium foundry, and sent me a note and great photos. He says:
Eric, loved your pizza oven video, so I built one and it worked as described. Mine only got to about 600 degrees, so instead of 90 seconds cook time like Naples style, it took me more like 5 minutes. Not quite as much char and the crust is just not quite there. I spent a lot of time in Italy as a kid, so I really want to try to get the temperature up without having to build a full size permanent wood fired oven in the yard.
I thought you might like to see my first attempt to get higher temps. I took a portable aluminum foundry (YouTube video) and built the oven around it. Above the heat source, I put a 8th inch piece of steel, and laid a pizza stone on it. when fired up (which took about an hour instead of 4), the steel bowed quite a bit (you can see this in the picture), and this caused the stone to crack, so I didn’t force the temp any higher (controlled by amount of air pumped into combustion chamber). I did get up to around 700 degrees, so I’m moving in the right direction. Cook time was more like 3 minutes, and the taste is about 92 percent of what I remember from my childhood. Hopefully by spring, I’ll have a trail number 3, with a thicker slab of steel and a new stone, and a front door to trap more heat. I’ll probably order the Naples flour and tomatoes and pick up some prosciutto and good mozzarella. I’m hopeful I can get up to 850-900 degrees. If I actually do, I’ll send you pics and let you know how it went.
Homemade aluminum foundries are popular on the web, but I never thought of using one to heat up a DIY pizza oven. Brilliant idea, I think, and something I never would have thought of. A big thank you to Tom for sending us the photos!
Here’s a how to on cooking steak on charcoal by our friend Will of the The Weekend Homestead. I’ve been emailing with Will about different DIY and homesteading topics, and he watched our video on how to cook steak directly on charcoal and shot a video about his steak. Nice.
I’m not sure why people get weird about cooking directly on charcoal. Its wood! Like the wood your cutting board is made out of. And your food gets plenty of ash on it when its cooked on a grill or in a wood fired pizza oven.
“Eric, what do you think of the Flow™ Hive?” I get this question every week, so I thought I’d write out a post to refer people to for more information.
The short answer is this: It is a great solution in search of a problem.
People who are not beekeepers see this product and the beautiful videos, and then email me saying:
“I’m going to buy a Flow Hive so I won’t have to touch the bees and get stung.”
My first rule of beekeeping is: You are going to get stung.
Having a hive where you just turn on the tap and out comes honey isn’t realistic, in my opinion.
Bees are the same as other farm animals, you have to take care of them.
For most beekeepers, you harvest honey one day a year. For the other 364, you have to take care of your bees.
Below is a quick rundown on taking care of a beehive through the year.
In spring, you have to first make sure your bees are alive, then feed them sugar syrup and pollen patties until food sources appear in your are. If you want to prevent swarming, you may re-queen the hives now. In late spring you’ll add honey supers.
Spring into summer you will do periodic checks to make sure the queen is alive and laying. If you see queen cells being produced, you’ll try to prevent swarming. You may split the hive as a check against swarming. Be sure check the electric fence to make sure the bears don’t tear apart your hives.
Keep an eye on nectar and pollen sources and see if there is a dearth due to drought or just the plant cycle of your area.
In late summer you might think about harvesting honey. You’ll have to think about how much honey to leave a hive for winter. How strong is the hive? If the hive is weak, you may combine it with another hive. You may also re-queen in late summer, early fall.
As fall approaches your whole goal is to get the hive in the best shape possible to live through winter, we have a bunch of videos about this here.
These are just some of the tasks of beekeeping, my point here is the Flow Hive is one way to keep bees, but its not a hands-off method of beekeeping, as many people seem to misunderstand.
Tracy joins Eric to talk more about how they moved their parents into care facilities, emptied the house, and sold it.
In our previous podcast about taking care of our parents, we talked about working with a medicare consultant or elder care laywer, this was very helpful for us.
Getting power of attorney is the basic tool of all this. Make sure you get financial and medical power of attorney, the legal document varies by state. You should be able to purchase it online and have it notarized by your local bank. You can hire a lawyer to help with this POA, which may be a good way to start working with an elder care lawyer.
A good real estate agent is key to emptying a house of its contents and selling the house for the best price. Using an estate sale company worked very well for us, they take possession of everything in the house and deliver you an empty house. No need for garage sales and travel. It was very nice to have the house emptied by a third party, it can eliminate a lot of the drama.
Having a bank account for your parents with your name on the account also is a great help. And if they are in managed care, having their bills mailed to your house is a plus. Let your postal carrier know you will be receiving their mail so it doesn’t get sent back.
There are several forms for assigning ownership of the car, bank accounts, etc upon one’s death, and it avoids probate. Ask a lawyer about it.
Erin of The Impatient Gardener joins Eric to talk about garden trends and what Erin see happening in the garden design world, something Eric knows nothing about, so this should be interesting.
White Gardens are big, but the number of plants are limited with that color. Boxwood is also all over the place in the gardening world. Erin has been using Redbor kale in her garden beds, and not just as an edible, but as an ornamental plant. Edible gardens are trending, we learn.
Seed starting and soil blocks come next. Erin has been using a soil block maker, read her seed starting post here, and we learn how the soil block keeps seedlings from becoming root bound. Erin makes her own soil mix and the results are great. She has a home made grow light, much like our DIY grow lights.
We then talk about how to deal with contractors during a renovation in your house. This is a tricky relationship and we talk about the how the situation works from both sides of the project.
Build this homemade pallet pry bar with parts from the hardware store, no welding required. Grab a bunch of right angle brackets and some nuts and bolts, and make a pallet buster. Neat.
Pallet Pry Bar Parts List
Eight 4″ right angle brackets
Two 3 1/2″ Grade 5 3/8″ bolts & nuts
Two 3/4″ 1/4″ bolts & nuts
Handful of lockwashers
Handful of 3/8″ washers
Six 1/2″ nuts to use as spacers
Three foot length of 3/4″ pipe
Right angle elbow 3/4″ pipe
Do a dry run in the hardware store and make sure this all works as best you can, it might save a trip to the store.
I don’t have an exact measurement as to where to drill the holes, you can use this photo as a guide. You can drill this with a corded drill, or ideally, a drill press. Be sure to oil the bit as it cuts to keep it cool. The drill bit will wander when making the holes for the homemade pallet pry bar, so use a pointed metal punch or nail to set a point for the drill to sit in.
Drill out the existing holes in the brackets to accept the bolts.
I used nylon lock nuts on the two bolts that go through the pipe, if you can’t find them, use lock washers to keep the nuts tight. The two smaller bolts that hold the brackets to themselves don’t have to be Grade 5, regular ones will do.
The oversized nuts work great for spacing the brackets off the pallet buster. I made this wide to account for different pallets I have run into.
Be sure to tighten up the bolts! There is a lot of torque happening here, you don’t want this to fall apart. After you have assembled the pallet pry bar, round off the sharp corners of the brackets. This will help minimize damage to the pallet wood, if you want to use it to build stuff.
I found the addition of the pipe elbow really helps this tool work well. It adds a little bit of leverage. I got the idea from the small wonder bar crowbar I have, it has a small loop of metal behind the business end of the bar.
Thanks to Darren and Rybitski of Instructables for the inspiration to build this.
What can we do to improve this pallet breaker? Let me know below.
