Holo Holo Blog

2014 Spring Garden

It's spring and everything is in bloom including my allergies. I started to work on revitalizing my herbs and fruits. I also planted a few veggies. So far I have strawberries, thyme, parsley, garlic, rosemary, green onions and mint in the raised planter box.

We have tomatoes and I am excited to see them growing so quickly. I think these are Hawaii tomatoes.

We also planted buffalo tomatoes in an upside down thingy I bought at Big Lots for $2. It is working great.

The Japanese eggplant is growing bigger everyday. I planted two of these and am praying they don't die.

I have had this dwarf lemon tree for years but rarely see any fruit. Usually the wind blows away all the flowers. This year looks promising. I am hoping the dwarf lime tree starts to produce flowers also. The flowers smell so good! What are you growing this year?

Grow Your Own Celery

I posted pictures earlier about growing your own green onions. Now I am growing my own celery for fun and to save money. The same method I used in growing green onions was applied to growing the celery. I chopped off the bottom of my store bought celery and put it in water. Here are the results from Day 1 to Day 9.

I will be planting them outside soon too. Don't wait too long though, you don't want the new roots rotting in the water. I was just waiting for things to warm up outside which seems to be taking longer than expected. I also have some ginger I am planning to plant, but that's another post. Stay tuned!

Grow Your Own Green Onions Update

I thought I would share this photo of my green onions that are growing like crazy after a week soaking happily in a glass cup. I had to trim them since they were starting to droop. It's warming up outside so I will be planting them in their new home soon.

Make Your Own Laundry Detergent - 1 Year Supply For Less Than $25

Today was make your own laundry detergent day. Not only can you save money by making your own detergent, you  can control what goes into your washer. A friend directed me to the website, One Good Thing About Jillee and this awesome laundry detergent recipe. There is another liquid laundry detergent version too. I made a few substitutions and forgot to add one more bar of Zote (note the missing third bar in the photo)! Darn it...I had to add that after I had cleaned everything. :(

According to the article, this recipe should make enough laundry detergent to last one year for a family of 4.

Ingredients:

3 Bars of Zote (or Fels Naptha) - $0.69 x 3 = $2.07 (99 Cent Only store)
1 Box Borax - $6.40 (Don't buy this at Ace Hardware like I did, it was more expensive than at the supermarket)
1 Box Washing Soda - $4.25
2 Cups Baking Soda - $0.99
2 Containers of Awesome Oxygen - $0.99 x 2 = $1.98
1 Bottle of Purex Fabric Softener Crystals - $6.98

Use 2 Tablespoons of detergent per load.

Total = $22.58 for 1 year's worth of laundry detergent

As instructed, I microwaved the soap for 30 seconds, decided it wasn't long enough and found that 60 seconds was too long. At least in my microwave. I suggest adding 10 second increments so your soap doesn't turn into a puddle of goo. I chopped the soap and added some washing soap to the food processor. By the way, this was the first time using this $4 food processor I bought at CVS a few years ago. It's kind of sad that the first thing I use it for is a non-food item.

Again, I took Jillee's tip about the trash bag and poured all of the ingredients into it and tied it up tight. The kid and I rolled the bag back and forth across the floor while the dogs chased us.

Here is the finished product. The Awesome Oxygen came with this cool little scoop that is just about 2 Tablespoons. I already did a load of laundry and it works great! There are some other homemade cleaner recipes on the Jillee site that I want to try since I have asthma and chemical cleaners cause me some major problems and attacks. Yuck! But I suggest you give it a try, it's a fun project for the family.

Grow Your Own Green Onions

Don't you hate that the cost of herbs and veggies add up so quickly? I do. I also hate that I sometimes have to rush to the market just for something small like green onions. Not that it's such a big deal since I can walk to the grocery store in 10 steps that-a-way. In any case, you can save money by growing your own geen onions. I try not to waste anything including the stems (is that what you call them?) and roots. I usually go outside and plant them but due to the really cold weather, I just put them in a glass of water to hang out until it warms up outside. As you can see, they are already growing new sprouts...leaves? On Day 2, these babies were growing while sitting on the counter without water. On Day 5, you can see significant growth while chillin' out in the glass of water. These green onions (plain ol' store bought) will grow like crazy and are low maintenance. You may need to give some away after a while. I swap herbs with friends when I can or make a lot of teriyaki sauce. What I really want to try when my green onions are plentiful is this:

Green Onion Pancakes. I found the recipe and post at Momofuku For 2. I'll let you know how it turns out if I ever get around to making it.

Set of 8 Dinner and Dessert Plates for Less Than $10

I really needed new dishes. I have been using the same mismatched dishes for the past 10 years, chipped edges and all. We got them free from the casino when thing were proseperous and they gave things away weekly. I finally decided to clean out the cupboards and get rid of the Christmas and Tuscan themed plates. I really wish I could afford to replace everything with Anthropologie ware! But who can afford $10 a piece dishes? So instead of getting this:

I ended up with this:

No pretty scalloped edges or crackle glaze finish but I didn't spend a fortune on it either. At $0.49 each + tax, I saved money and got the whole stack of plates for $8.48. Not bad for new dishes that aren't chipped. Well, not yet anyway. I think I need to buy some spares just in case.