Decorate palm trees :)

Actually palm trees are not very beautiful trees but widely used in landscaping. Only a truck and some leaves on the top.
But in the summer house gardens they work very good as they do not block your or neighbours view.
you can easily decorate the trunk by hanging wall planters or baskets on them.

Plant more beautiful than the flowers in the photo. :)

Innovative space saving furnitures.

I liked the video and wanted to share.
Italian designed very practical space saving furnitures. See the sofas, cabinets, tables, coffe tables,  etc.
In big cities many people live in small apartments.
You may say folding beds out there in the market since decades but these are really different.

Vegetable Gardening : How to Grow Heirloom Tomatoes

Here's a video showing howto grow heirloom tomatoes.
Growing heirloom tomatoes is best done in the spring time, in a tomato cage.

I like to eat heirloom tomatoes see the photo of the one I ate last summer. Click the garden label.
:))

You can use White Vinegar to clean your coffee maker

You can easily remove coffee oils and hard water deposits, using a solution consisting of white vinegar and cold water.

• Mix two parts water to one part white vinegar. Mix a full pot of this vinegar and water solution and pour it into the reservoir of your coffee maker.


• Turn on your coffe maker


• let the vinegar-water mixture cycle through. After the solution has completely run through, turn off the coffee maker and allow the pot to cool


• Pour the solution down the drain, rinse and clean the pot.


• Pour water into the reservoir of your coffee maker and cycle through the coffee maker. This will rinse the vinegar-water solution out of the coffee maker.

It may work for you too. But ofcourse check for the producer comments and user manual of your coffee maker.

:))

Tree planter again :)

If you got a tree trunk in your garden as it is very difficult to remove the roots, you may use it like a planter for other flowers.

Make a hole in the trunk of the tree and plant some flowers.

To see other tree planters in this blog please click here.

Carob tree for your health

Another tree for decoration of your garden and also good for your health. But this need a climate like mediterranean countries.

The carob tree , Ceratonia siliqua, is a species of flowering evergreen shrub or tree in the pea family, Fabaceae, that is native to the Mediterranean region. It is cultivated for its edible seed pods. Carobs are also known as St. John's bread because, according to tradition of some Christians, St. John the Baptist subsisted on them in the wilderness. A similar legend exists of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his son.

Carob, dried or roasted and having a slightly sweet taste, in powder or chip form, is used as an ingredient in cakes and cookies. Carob is sometimes used as a substitute for chocolate. The seeds, also known as locust beans, are used as animal feed. They are also the source of locust bean gum, a thickening agent used in numerous processed foods. In Egypt, carobs are consumed as a snack. Crushed pods are used to make a refreshing drink. Compotes and liqueurs are made from carob in Turkey, Malta, Portugal, Spain and Sicily. Carob has proven effective in relieving diarrhea in infants. In Libya, a syrup is extracted from carob named rub used as a complimentary to Asida meal. In Peru carob syrup is used in a popular mixed drink, la algarrobina.

Carob has also been used as a non-toxic alternative to chocolate in dog treats, as the theobromine in chocolate is toxic to most dogs.

• No cholestherol
• no cafein
• plenty of Ca, about 3 times higher than milk
• high zinc

It is said that it has alot more advantages for health. But please check all the information here (actually you should check all the information you get from internet before using it).

I liked the tree and the fruits of it also the food made of it. I took the photos of the fruits on the tree. It is a nice evergreen tree for landscaping. You can also collect the fruit of it.

But the fruit does not look nice like an apple. ... :)

Here is a nice big carob tree at the seaside

Lantana Camara flower

It is a nice flower for your garden.

It gives flowers every summer continuously and you do not have to work much for it.

:)

It grows to 1.8-2meters high. But ours not, we cut because of the view. :)

In the same plants you can see many flowers with different colours.

It should be good for butterflies and bees, because I saw a lot of bees and butterflies visiting these flowers

:)

A healthy and beautiful tree for your garden

If you have a garden and want a fruit tree Zizihus zizyphus is a good idea.

It is a beautiful small tree (about 4-5 meters high but in some regions it is higher) and has delicious and healthy fruits.

Ziziphus zizyphus, commonly called Jujube, Red Date, or Chinese Date, is a species of Ziziphus in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae, used primarily for its fruits.

I took the the photos here during my summer holiday in mediterranean cost.

It is very good in that climate.

The fruits are used in Chinese and Korean traditional medicine, where they are believed to alleviate stress.

The freshly harvested as well as the candied dried fruits are often eaten as a snack, or with tea.

The fruit is an edible oval drupe 1.5-3 cm long; when immature it is smooth-green, with the consistency and taste of an apple, maturing dark red to purplish-black and eventually wrinkled.

On the photos the green and brown stages of the fruit can be seen.

I ate the ones on the last photograph they were delicious

:))

Door handle problem :)

If your house is near the sea and if you are about to buy door handles, think twice.

On the photo you can see a door handle that was bought last year.

Next time I will go to the do it yourself market and ask about the properties of the handles more detailly.

I will tell about the weather conditions and wan a door handle suitable for the weather conditions.

:)

If your hobby is diy and search the net and if you find a solution please tell me

:)

Upside down tomatos :)

I saw a ready made upside down planter for vegetables in a website.

I found interesting.

If you do not have a garden with this system you may have your garden in your balcony of your apartment :)

Growing tomatoes upside-down eliminates the need for weeding, staking or tying your plants and it's ideal for gardeners with limited space or limited mobility.

When you’re ready to plant, simply fill the liner with our Organic Self-Watering Container Mix, add our All-Organic Tomato Fertilizer (both sold separately) and insert a tomato seedling through the bottom opening. Hang the planter in a convenient, sunny spot and before you know it, you’ll be harvesting your own sweet, juicy organic tomatoes.

For more details:

http://www.gardeners.com/Gardeners-Revolution-Planter/VegetableGardening_SpaceIntensive,37-850,default,cp.html

2nd phase of plums

This is the second phase of the plums in our garden. I have sent the flowers in my previous post.

I think third photo will be when I am eating them :)

Another spring flower

See our apricot tree flowers, blooming :)

Signs of spring

So, spring has come. Here is a photo of plum flowers.

Rose hips

The end of roses.

In the winter season the photo of roses.

Actually they are rosehips.

Some type of these are dried and you can drink like tea. You can find a lot of information in the internet saying that they are very healthy. But which type of rose hips?

For better rose pictures see http://www.hephotos.blogspot.com

Black mulberry tree planter

This is a black mulberry tree. The main part of the tree was dead but the branch is still alive and we ate a lot of delicious mulberries last summer.

Inside the dead trunk they decided to plant a planter. Now it works like a planter.

As it is winter now it is not very beautiful. I hope I will take a photograph in summer and post here again.

Datura stramonium

I saw this beautiful flower in our garden. Actually nobody planted it. Seeds should have come from somewhere.

First did not know what flower is that. But I searched the net and found that it is Datura stramonium.

According to wikipedia it is also known as jimson weed, ditch weed, stink weed, loco weed, Korean morning glory, Jamestown weed, thorn apple, angel's trumpet, devil's trumpet, devil's snare, devil's seed, mad hatter, crazy tea, malpitte, and, along with Datura metel, zombie cucumber is a common weed in the Nightshade Family.

All parts of Datura plants contain dangerous levels of poison and may be fatal if ingested by humans or animals, including livestock and pets. So, may not be good for your garden.

So, it is a dangerous plant but it can be used as a medical plant also. There was a time when stramonium, a drug obtained from the leaves and seeds of Datura stramonium, was used medicinally (Herbalgram). Because of the dangers of tropane poisoning, datura is not used medicinally today, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has claimed it to be unfit for human consumption

For more information check : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura_stramonium

a tree planter

If you have an old tree in your garden or around. You can easily cut it but it is difficult to remove

the roots and log completely.

You can remove some parts inside and use it as a natural planter.

It is decorative and natural.

Plant some flower inside. I took this picture when there was no flowers inside yet. With the flowers it will become more beautiful.

Humidity in vegetable section of refrigerators

Especially in no-frost refregerators sometimes you can find some water inside the vegetable or fruit box . In the fridge there should be air circulation.

The solution is easy.

Just pull the drawer a little and let air flow. Instead of pushing and closing tight it is better to leave the box a little out.

The humidity in the refrigerator will be much less.

Garden pond, green slopes

If you are planning to make a garden pond to your garden you can use several items.

Dig the hole and put a liner or a plastik ready made pond. If you use a membrane liner then to protect it you should use a nonwoven filter.

Select some stones and pebbles for the slopes or use a three dimensional mat to protect sliding the soil or stones inside the pond.

You can use a product called Enkamat or similar.

This products holds the particals and if some plants start to grow through it it will protect the slopes.

How to tell if an egg is bad

Food poisoning is one of the worst experiences a person can go through, and it can even be lethal. Eggs can be the source of some superb meals, but they can also be the source of food poisoning if they are eaten when they've gone bad. How do you tell when an egg is fresh or if it has gone off, without cracking it open to find out?

Steps:
1.Place the egg into a bowl of water. The water level should be deeper than the egg is long.
2.Observe what the egg does.

• Fresh eggs will sink to the bottom of the bowl and lie on their sides.


• Slightly older eggs (about one week) will lie on the bottom but bob slightly.


• If the egg balances on its small end, with the large end reaching for the sky, it's probably around three weeks old.


• Eggs that float at the surface are bad and should not be consumed.

3.Crack the egg open and look carefully.

• Blood spots (also referred to as "meat" spots) don't signify a bad or fertilized egg. It's caused by a ruptured blood vessel during the formation of the egg. Since blood spots are diluted as the egg ages, their presence actually means you have a fresh egg. You can eat it safely, or remove the blood spot with the tip of a knife, if it makes you feel better.[1]


• Stringy, rope-like strands of egg white are chalazae which are present in every egg to keep the yolk centered. They're not a sign that the egg is bad or fertilized, and they can be consumed safely or removed.[1]


• An egg white that is cloudy or has a yellow or greenish cast to it is caused by carbon dioxide not having had enough time to escape from the shell and is especially common in fresh eggs.[1]


• Smell the egg. With time, bacteria break down the proteins in the whites of the egg and create a gas. This gas is hydrogen sulphide, better known as "rotten egg gas."

Tips:

• The floating test works because the air pocket inside the egg gets bigger with time as the egg contents lose both moisture and carbon dioxide. As the air pocket gets bigger, the egg is more likely to float.


• When a recipe calls for a lot of yolks or whites, separate the eggs in a different bowl then dump the contents with the rest of the egg yolks (or whites). There's nothing more wasteful than cracking open egg number 14 in a 15 yolk recipe and finding out that it is a bad egg. You could also test all the eggs for freshness using the floating technique.


• If you're worried about the egg being fertilized, keep in mind that most eggs come from large-scale operations where laying hens are never exposed to a rooster. If the eggs come from a smaller farm where roosters are present, there is a chance they might be fertilized, but the only way to tell is by candling (holding a light up to the egg in a dark room and looking for blood vessels, movement, and chick development). That being said, fertilized eggs are no more or less nutritious than unfertilized eggs and both are safe to eat.

Warnings:

• Do it in the sink; it is easier to clean up an egg in the sink than on the bench or floor.


• Be careful with the eggs; if you have a rotten egg and you break it, you'll have more than the egg mess to clean up. The smell is quite unpleasant.


• If you're the least bit doubtful about the egg, it's better to be safe than sorry - skip it and try another one.


• Avoid eating eggs past their expiration date. Check the date stamped on the carton or the egg itself.
  

source : http://www.wikihow.com/Tell-if-an-Egg-is-Bad