I have often seen bars of laundry soap on store shelves and wondered what they were for. I have Laura Ingalls Wilder images of a happy washerwoman skipping through a field of daisies down to the creek with a basket of laundry, and whacking a dirndl against a rock, furiously rubbing it with an oversized chuck of soap and rinsing it in the bubbling brook. Or maybe the bar of laundry soap is used as a pre-wash; applying a vigorous rub with the soap on a stubborn stain before throwing it in the machine. 

The main use appears to be using the bar on a stubborn stain, as mentioned, before tossing it in with the wash. Wet the spot, moisten the soap and rub the bar into the stain.

Another use for the bar soap is to supplement your powder or liquid soap by grating a little of the bar right into the wash. Some folks recommend grating as much soap as they desire right into some hot water and letting it dissolve before adding to the wash.

I talked to veteran campers who bring a bar –or half a bar-of the soap with them when they go into the country for extended trips. It doesn’t take much room or add much weight to the ol’ backpack, you can use the same bar over and over, and there is no packaging to deal with, which is great when you are in the middle of nowhere and don’t want to lug around an empty carton or box or bottle.

But the most intriguing use for bar laundry soap  just may be using it as a base to make your own, homemade liquid laundry soap. There are numerous “recipes” for homemade soap, most of them use a base of borax and soap, and they are all economical and somewhat environmentally friendly. Linda Laundry Soap, for example, is made in Italy and described as “a natural laundry soap that can be used on any type of fabric.” And of course, if you make your own liquid laundry soap out of it you can use the laundry bottles over and over.

don’t get carried away with the DIY stuff and go back to the pioneer days in your laundry room!

Here, gleaned from various sources, is how to do it!

In a large pot on the stove combine:

about 8 cups of water

1 bar of Linda laundry soap grated

1 cup Borax

1 cup washing soda

–use a dollar store grater for grating the Linda soap - it’s hard to clean afterwards so don’t use it for food!

–Over low heat and stirring often mix the contents until they are completely dissolved for about 20 minutes. Leaving it on the stove longer won’t hurt it — but any shorter and you may not have it completely dissolved.

Add this mixture to a 5 gallon pail and fill the pail till about 2/3 full with hot water. Stir using a whisk, immersion blender or a hand mixer. It should turn into a gel by the next day when it cools completely or it may look a bit watery like cottage cheese but either way it cleans your clothes very well. You can re-blend it if it bothers you. That’s all there is to it!

Use about a heaping tablespoon per load. If the clothes are particularly greasy or dirty use a little more. The cost is about five cents per load.

Here is another post with a similar recipe, complete with pictures!

These grape hyacinths were purchased almost a month ago, and still blooming outdoors.

Those divine potted flowering spring bulbs in the grocery store and garden centre! We plunk them on our dining room tables, and they look beautiful for three days  then kack out, (that’s a thing, right?) from dry indoor heat. I will still use bulbs this way, especially in January or February, but there are better alternatives now that it’s April.

1. You can plant your bulbs inground in spring, it’s almost a better time than the fall. Buy multiple pots of the same variety, dig holes in your garden, and plunk them in, while they are in full bloom. The great thing about this is you actually see how they look, unlike burying dry bulbs in the ground in the fall. You’ll enjoy the flowers for weeks. Don’t worry about the cold weather; bulbs are hardy and can take a light freeze. This works best with daffodils, crocuses and grape hyacinths, as they multiply rather than run down.

Put a hyacinth close to your chair, for the scent. I couldn’t resist this unusual violet coloured variety.

2. Add potted bulbs to an outdoor planter that you can enjoy from indoors. I love seeing potted hyacinths through my kitchen patio door.  The flowers last a very long time with cool, moist outdoor air. And when the day is warm enough to take my tea and bask outdoors, the scent is delightful.

3. Keep bulbs you’ve enjoyed indoors to plant in your garden. Don’t toss those bulbs in the compost. Once the blooms fade, cut off the flower stalks of hyacinths, or daffodils, put the pots with the leaves outside, and keep watering till the foliage dies down. Store dry bulbs till fall and plant in garden. (This doesn’t work quite as well with tulips.)

A mixed turf lawn of grass, clover and the odd dandelion is the most eco-friendly one.

It’s the perfect time to spruce up any bare patches in your lawn. Grass seed likes the cool weather of April for germination, plus there’s ample rain.
Success with lawn revitalisation starts with soil preparation. Sowing grass seed onto hard, dry, packed-down earth just won’t do. Follow these steps for best results.

1.  Give the lawn a good raking, to lift dead leaves and twigs. Raking also helps to ruffle up the surface of the soil a little.
2. Sprinkle the bare patches with a good garden soil mix, from the garden centre.
3. Buy grass seed that matches your location. Shady grass seed for shade, regular seed for a sunny lawn. Fiesta stocks grass seed for deep shade, and sun and shade. If your lawn is at all shady, choose the deep shade variety.
4. Spread grass seed by hand or with a grass seed spreader. Walk over the seeded areas to tamp down the seed into the soil.
5.  Coated grass seed has a non-toxic super absorbent coating made from cornstarch that helps the seed hold onto water, so it has a better chance of germinating, especially if you miss a day of watering. The coating is made by the Zeba company, who use the absorbent technology in various water retentive garden and agricultural products. Their website says the coating

helps improve the rate of seed germination and emergence and enhances seed survival during critical development periods. Especially under less than optimal conditions

6.  Water every day, with a fine spray of water. Keep the seed moist, that’s what starts germination. Water in early morning or evening.
7. Mix grass seed half and half with white clover for a really healthy lawn. The clover adds nitrogen to the soil, and it flowers, making your lawn pollinator friendly. Or you can reseed with just clover. It’s a terrific, tough, low-growing ground cover. This summer, you could be barefoot in clover.

Your budget-friendly garden includes growing at least some of it from seed every spring. Not only does a three dollar packet of seed give you multiple plants, but it’s fun and ridiculously easy to do. Share extras with friends and neighbours, while you humbly brag the phrase, “I grew it from seed.”

The video above shows just how casual you can be about sowing. No need to be finicky about carefully spacing out seeds, as you can thin extras out later. Use scissors. A seed needs the basics: pot, soil, water and sun. They are very forgiving. Most seed packets have germination tips on the packet to help you out.

Hints for easy seed sowing:
• Use a loose soil-less mix for seed starting, like Pro-Mix.

• Water your mix in a tub or bucket before you add it to your growing container. Use warm water, it helps to absorb the water by breaking the surface tension of the mix. Get the mix damp, but not sopping wet.

• Buy a bag of horticultural or play sand. Use it to mix with tiny seeds like poppies or lettuce. This spreads them out and makes sowing easier, and more even. Use 2/3 sand to 1/3 seed.

Horticultural sand is coarse and gritty. Good for mixing with and covering seeds.

• Sow small seeds randomly in a large shallow container, just by scattering loosely over the planting mix. Avoid large clumps of seeds in one spot.
• Cover small seeds lightly with sand, rather than potting mix.
• Large seeds like nasturtiums or squash can be inserted into the soil with your finger, twice the depth of the seed.
• Use a block of wood to lightly tamp down the soil with even pressure.
• Water small seeds with a plastic sprayer, or set pots in a tray of water and let the water absorb from the bottom. Watering with a hose can dislodge seeds and make them clump up or get washed away.
• Cover seeds with plastic while you wait for them to germinate. Most seeds need light for germination, but not all. Check the packet.
• Cool white artificial shop lights are the best light source for seed starting, keeping the lights inches away from the soil. If you have a south facing window, you have the next best thing.

It’s time to rub elbows with the greenery. We’re chock full of Christmas trees, grape-vine orbs, evergreen fronds, pine cones, bright red berries, elegant coloured twigs and garlands. Pop over to the garden centre and we’ll inspire your holiday spirit. “Let the festooning begin!”.