Mesh Bags

For supper last Saturday, Shirley whipped up a pot of her famous onion soup. Yum, yum! Not only did I get a great meal, but I also got some terrific leftovers—no, I’m not talking about the soup, I’m talking about the mesh bag the onions came in! It’s got a whole host of additional uses around the house, including these:

Place a rolled-up mesh bag in the bottom of a vase to hold cut flowers in place.

Pack suet into a bag and hang it from a tree branch for a makeshift bird feeder.

When you remove your tender bulbs for storage in the fall, hang ‘em in mesh bags in the garage or basement

Blanch tomatoes by putting them in a bag and submerging them in boiling water for 30 seconds.

Hang a bar of soap in a mesh bag on an outside faucet—it makes a terrific after-gardening clean-up station!

"Can" You Believe It?

It was a bit chilly this weekend working in the yard, so I had a nice big bowl of chicken noodle soup for lunch on Sunday. And that got me to thinking, what are those soup cans good for? After rummaging through my files, I came up with the following uses:

Reseed bare spots in your lawn by poking holes in the bottom of a soup can, filling it with grass seed, and shaking it over the soil.

Set a few open cans around your garden before you start to water. Once you’ve gathered an inch of water in each can, you know you’ve watered enough.

Make a terrific seedling protector by removing both ends of a can (save them for use in the next tip). Then push the can into the soil around your seedlings to protect ‘em from cutworms.

Thwart rodents and keep critters out by nailing the can lids to a wooden floor to plug any knotholes.

And for a quick-and-easy (and free) birdfeeder, fill a can with suet and wedge it between a couple of tree branches.

Tea-rrific Tidbits

I tell you, used tea bags are like gold nuggets around the Baker house. Here’s a few easy ways to put yours to good use, instead of tossing them in the trash:

Repair bare spots in your lawn by placing a moist, used tea bag on the spot and sprinkling grass seed directly onto the bag.

Dump used tea bags onto the soil in your container plants and cover with mulch. The decomposing tea leaves will provide your plants with nourishment every time you water.

Steep used tea bags in water overnight, and then use this water on your azaleas and ferns to boost the soil's acidity and take your plants to new heights.

When repotting plants, place two or three used tea bags in the bottom of each container on top of a drainage layer of pebbles to help the soil retain moisture.

To get your grass seed off to a rip-roarin’ start, steep a used tea bag in 1 gallon of hot water until cool, then mix the resulting weak tea with 1 cup of dishwashing liquid and 1/4 cup of Epsom salts. Soak seeds for 2 days in the refrigerator, dry out, and sow to your heart’s content.