Powdery Mildew

I've not had much luck with zucchinis this year. Snails and slugs devoured the first, second and third lot I planted, and now that I've finally got a few going (in a different garden that the snails obviously didn't smell out), they've been hit with powdery mildew.

Powdery mildew shows up every year on all the cucurbits, but it never seems to get out of control or weaken the plants too much, so I've never bothered doing anything about it. This year though the zukes have really taken a hit. They took off quickly, growing strongly and producing lots of fruit but then went downhill just as fast. Even the leaf stems were covered.

A quick visit to Dr Google came up with this basic spray; a tablespoon of bi-carb soda, a tablespoon of oil and a few drops of washing up liquid all mixed up in a litre of water. It seems to have done the trick. I sprayed them weekly for three weeks and I think I've beat it, or at least got it under control. Although they look a bit bare where I've pulled off all the damaged leaves the new growth seems unaffected and there are lots of new shoots ...

... Hopefully to be followed by lots of yummy zukes :)

Salt Dough

Another rainy day... another day of inside play.

Today we made some salt dough figurines. Here's how we did it ...

One cup of salt

Two cups of plain flour

Mix them together in a bowl

Add one cup of water, a little at a time, and mix with a knife until it's workable enough to knead. Knead the dough until it is smooth and consistent.

Create!

The best thing about this craft is that Keanu could join in too. Indi always wants to do things that are a bit above Keanu's capabilities, so it's nice to find something that we could all enjoy. 

Here are our final designs ...

Indi made the horse herself and we made the mermaid together. We used the garlic crusher to make the hair and mane. The other one is a 'cookie' with sprinkles on top.

We baked them in the oven at about 100 degrees Celcius. They took 2 hours! I don't think the cookie is even hard through to the middle. Next time we might have to make them a bit thinner!

We did plan on painting them this afternoon when Keanu was asleep, but I guess it was just too much excitement for Miss Indi, because she has slept all afternoon too!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

A few days of cold cold rainy weather has seen me spend most of my time in the laundry; washing, ironing, hanging, airing, everything possible to avoid using the money-sucking dryer (I weakened and used it twice in 7 loads of washing.)
So on that note, I thought I might share my laundry detergent recipe.

It's really easy to make, fairly good for the environment (well, at least better than the over-fragranced-shop-bought ones) and best of all it's CHEAP! It costs bugger-all to make 10 litres. And yes, as far as I'm concerned bugger-all is a standardised unit of measurement ;) .
Most people probably know how to make it; it's a fairly common concoction but for those who don't and are interested, here it is.

What you need is:
1 cup of soap flakes. I use the cheapy homebrand laundry soap and either grate it or grind it up in the blender.
1/2 cup of washing soda
A good swig of essential oil. I use eucalyptus.
About 10 litres of water.

So first, I chuck the soap flakes in a saucepan with about 1.5 litres of water, whack it on the stove over low heat and stir it gently until the soap flakes completely dissolve.

Once the soap flakes have dissolved completely, add the washing soda. Stir it around for a bit; it should start to thicken up. Once they have dissolved, I add the essential oil. Stir it around for a bit longer, until it is all combined and smelling lovely ...

Then tip it into a big bucket and make it up to about 10 litres with hot tapwater. Stir it around a bit more until it's all mixed properly.

When it's cool enough you can pour it into bottles. I use old juice and milk bottles. Sometimes, if I'm feeling lazy, I just leave it in the bucket and scoop it out of there.
Once it cools it will solidify a bit. If you tip it into bottles, leave a bit of 'shaking room' or else it will come out like slugde.

I use about a half cup per load in the top loader. I only used half that amount in the front loader. It doesn't foam up like store-bought detergents, but it does the job for me ;)