Gardening Tips Archives

Food Storage – The Information You Must Learn

If you have your own fresh herb garden, then sooner or later you will be faced with the problem how to store and preserve that abundance. It doesn’t require too much job to harvest and store your herbs, but will be a great addition to your cooking experience and diversity. So, don’t delay harvesting and storing your herbs.

You can harvest your herbs from your garden all summer long and store them as you go. If you harvest your plants successfully, then it is able to recover and give your more herbs to preserve for winter. As for the perennials, don’t harvest them too late during the season, as they need some time to recover before cold weather.

It is important not to cut any herb too close to the ground as you need to leave some leaves sets so that the plant could start growing again. Such annuals like basil and borage should be pulled up as a whole plant and used at the end of the season. The leaves of the most herbs are harvested before the flowers appear, but you could still harvest leaves after the blooming. But you should watch out for old and bitter taste. It is better to harvest quantities of herbs early in the morning, just as the dew dried off the leaves. You could get the strongest essential oils content in this time. It is better to harvest leaves on a clear day, but you shouldn’t be afraid of cutting some leaves any time to add to your dinner.

After harvesting wash your herbs quickly in cold water. Then, shake off the excess water. As for the large leaved plants like basil and borage, it is better to remove leaves from stems to shorten the time of drying. And such small leaved herbs as thyme, oregano, parsley and marjoram can be left whole.

Some of the herbs are better to be stored frozen, as others can be dried. As for the fresh herbs stored for a few days or hours, you should wrap them in paper towels and place them in the vegetable crisper in your fridge. If you want to store your herbs for a longer time than a couple of hours then you shouldn’t wash them and wash directly before using. Don’t use plastic bags for storing fresh herbs. They go bad very fast this way.

For dried herbs storing use air tight containers such as dark glass jars. Watch your containers for moisture and keep them in dark places which will preserve color and flavor better. And don’t forget to label every container. It is also good to keep leaves and flowers whole and then crumble only before using. Most of your dried herbs will keep their flavor for about half a year.

Are you aware that food storage can save you from lots of troubles during different emergency cases. Learn more about food storage on this food storage website.

Liming Your Lawn

When you start to look at your turf this spring, try thinking about the soil a little more than just the grass blades. In addition to that, think organically. There are several types of treatments that you can add to your grass to make it green and thick that do not involve chemicals. Lime is one of those important factors.

Why a Lime Treatment?
Lawns just will not grow properly if the soil is not in proper balance. In fact, most people only look at the grass, and not the foundation soil beneath. But in all reality, no lawn treatment will work well if the soil is off. That is where lime comes in, but only to reduce the acidity levels of your base dirt or soil.

You may have heard the terms "sweet soil" and "sour soil" somewhere? Sour soil has too much acid in it, whereas sweet soils are overly alkaline. Extremes on either end are not favorable, however. Grass needs balance, just like we do!

So now let’s all look back to 7th grade chemistry studies. Remember that pH is measured from 1-14, with 7 being neutral? Good, keep that in mind for a little while.

Just like experiments in the chemistry class at your local middle school, soil with a reading of less than pH 7.0 is acidic and soil with a reading greater than pH 7.0 is alkaline. Most turf grasses grow best between pH 6.5 and pH 7.0. That is referred to as 'neutral' and that is the target we are aiming for.

How can your lawn benefit from lime application?
Two important elements that help maintain the balance in the soil are calcium and magnesium. Those two elements together are lime!

Acidic soil is not necessarily useless, but is a sign that the supplies of calcium and magnesium are low and need to be brought back to healthy levels so the grass can grow.

In addition, high acidity or low pH levels may also cause other nutrients to be un-usable to grass plants. This means that micro-nutrients are bound up in the soil and grass roots cannot grab them for use. A common example if this binding is iron, which makes grass a deep-blue-green color. Iron binds up and becomes unusable with soil is highly acidic. The greater the acidity of the soil, the greater the need for lime. The lime helps release the iron which in turn, makes the grass deep blue baby!

Keep in mind that lime is not a fertilizer product, but more of a soil conditioner. Putting lime on your lawn is not going to make it green and thick. It will, however, allow your other organic products to do their jobs better.

Applications of lime on existing lawns are best applied in Fall and Spring because of cooler temperatures and readily available moisture. Ask your lawn care provider about lime treatments and when they recommend scheduling.
If you have big evergreen trees or shrubs in your lawn or around your landscape and no turf will stay alive underneath them, be sure to mention this when you call as this may require further lime treatments or other more drastic measures like digging out soil and replacing or amending.

You never want to over-do the lime. In fact, too much of it will hurt the turf and stunt the growth. Balance is the key with any of these products, even if they are organic. Throw in a little Milorganite organic lawn fertilizer, and your lawn will be super green and healthy all year long.
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