Kitchen Garden 101

Difference between Humidifier, Dehumidifier, Hygrometer and Humidistat

2011-01-04T17:21:00.000-08:00

As you talk about humidity you will hear about the Humidifier, Dehumidifier, Hygrometer and Humidistat a lot. All of them are related to humidity but their function is different. Humidifier : Adds moisture. Search Amazon.com for humidifier Dehumidifier : Removes moisture.Search Amazon.com for dehumidifier Hygrometer : Measures humidity.Search Amazon.com for hygrometer Humidistat : Measures

How to Maintain Humidity Level in Home?

2010-12-15T06:22:00.000-08:00

We need to maintain proper humidity level in the house. If the humidity is too low then we have dry skin. Low humidity causes dry nose, skin and throat. It also creates static electricity which is pretty annoying. It effects wood and dry wall. On the other hand high humidity can cause mold and rot. It will cause the wall paper and the paint to peel off the walls. Maintain the relative

Humidifiers Need Regular Cleaning During Winter Months

2010-12-07T09:37:00.000-08:00

How to clean humidifier? As lot of us in cold climate are using heat to heat our houses and run in to the problem of the dry air and then we use humidifiers. Humidifiers need special care as they may become source of airborne microorganism. Below is recommendation by the CPSC. NEWS from CPSC U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Office of Information and Public Affairs Portable

Type of Humidifiers. (Different Kinds of Humidifiers)

2010-12-07T07:23:00.000-08:00

There are different kind of humidifiers available in the market. Evaporative : These transfer moisture into the air invisibly by using a fan to blow air through a moistened absorbent material, such as a belt, wick, or filter. Impeller : These produce a mist with help of high speed rotating disk. Ultrasonic : These creates ultrasonic sound vibrations to create mist. Steam Vaporizer : These

Dry Air and Humidifiers

2010-12-07T06:46:00.000-08:00

Cold weather is here in our zone. Lot of time is being spent inside in heated house. Most of the houses have forced air HVAC. As furnace heats up the air to warm the house it gets dry as it can hold more moisture. Dry air can cause lot of problems to the human body and also to the things in the house. Read the article by EPA (US Environmental Protection Agency) Indoor Air Facts No. 8:

Kitchen Garden 101 Store

2010-12-02T07:26:00.000-08:00

Deals on Humidifiers

2010-12-02T06:51:00.000-08:00

Crane Humidifier, Cool Mist, 1 Gallon, Panda, 1 Humidifier - Ee-3189 Provides Relief for Cough, Cold and Flu Symptoms. Easier Breathing for a Good Night Sleep. Recommended Non-Medicated Alternative for Children with Colds and Coughs. Supports Easier Breathing and Congestion Relief from Allergy and Asthmatic Type Symptoms. Provides Moisture for Dry Coughs, Sinus Irritation and Dry Skin

How to fill raised garden or vegetable beds?

2010-12-01T11:06:00.000-08:00

It is easy to make raised garden beds but it is hard to fill them with dirt. If you are making 8 ft x 4 ft x 1 ft bed you need 34 cu ft of dirt or soil. It not only cost you money plus it is hard labor as you have to haul this dirt in to the bed. Best way is make the beds in fall and fill them with biodegradable material so that the material can decay through the winter. If you have time then

Humidity Level In The House And How To Measure Humidity Level

2010-12-01T06:09:00.000-08:00

Maintain the relative humidity in your home between 30% and 50% if possible. Humidity levels above 60% may allow moisture to build up indoors and condense on surfaces, where bacteria and fungi can settle and grow. This is as per CPSC recommendations. To measure humidity you need Hygrometer. (Search Amazon.com for hygrometer). Some of them are less than $10.00. Taylor

Electric Lawn Mowers Corded or Cordless

2010-11-16T12:30:00.000-08:00

Electric Lawn Mower There are two type of lawn mowers available under electric lawn mower category. These run on electric power instead of gasoline. There are no more fumes and very less noise. These mowers have less maintenance as compared to conventional gas powered lawn mowers. These are very good for small yards and light mowing. If you have big yard and you mulch leaves then

Make compost in your backyard

2010-11-15T10:07:00.000-08:00

Composting is nature working. Compost s miracle happening in the backyard. It is very easy to make compost. It is not dirty, smelly or fishy. If you follow certain guidelines you will have clean compost without much effort. Compost Bin: First you need bin to make compost. If you do not have resources to make one or you do not like to build one then buy one. Check out the compost bins

How to make compost from Oak leaves?

2010-11-07T13:40:00.000-08:00

Oak leaves are very stubborn and take long time to decompose. Oaks leaves must be shredded well before throwing in the compost bin. See how I use my lawn mower to shred oak leaves before composting them. This way the leaves are shredded in to small pieces and also volume is reduced. You do not have to empty the bags more often. Add some green too. I shredded my tomato plants along with

Raised Vegetable Garden Beds.

2010-11-05T07:32:00.000-07:00

I am planning to put some raised vegetable garden beds. Should I build them or buy something and assemble it. It is start of winter. I am planning build one now and fill it with yard clipping and mulch and let it sit for winter. I am looking for some pre-built raised vegetable garden beds. Here are some options 1. Cedar Looks 4' X 6' Raised Bed Planter Cedar Looks 4' X 6' Raised Bed

Heated floors are turned on.

2010-11-03T05:51:00.000-07:00

As the weather is getting cold, turned on the heated floors in the kitchen. It makes a difference. Check out my postings on the heated floors. There are lot of options available on the web for Radiant Floor Heating.

Leaves are back.

2010-11-03T05:37:00.000-07:00

Summer is gone and fall is back and so are the leaves. The blog went dormant during the summer and we are back again. I found that it is better to mulch the oak leaves first. Run your mower or tractor (riding mower) in mulch mode and just run over the leaves. This will break down the leaves. Then run it with the bagger. Now there will be less volume and you do not have to empty the bags

Home

2010-11-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to kitchen garden 101 Watch the seeds grow. Watch the seeds take roots. Grow your own organic vegetables in your backyard and use it for cooking. You do not need much space. You can start in pot or containers. If you have space then you can move to raised vegetable beds. You can build your own raised garden bed or you can buy them. How to build raised garden bed? How to shred

Garden Blog Hop

2010-06-01T06:42:00.000-07:00

Home and Garden Resources

2010-01-30T07:02:00.000-08:00

Add your blog or site to our directory Home and Garden Resources E Essential Garden Guide G Gardening Directory H Home Brew N Newsodrome- Gardening News T This Garden is Illegal Y Your Home And Garden Blog Add your blog or site to our directory

Submit or add your blog or web site to My Garden Resources

2010-01-16T09:00:00.000-08:00

Submit or add your garden blog or website to My Garden Resources Step 1. On your blog add a link to http://www.kitchengarden101.com or add the following html code in < > a href="http://www.kitchengarden101.com/">kitchen garden 101 Step 2. Then fill the following and submit. The site will be reviewed for the content. <p>&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp

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2010-01-07T10:41:00.000-08:00

Shredding and mulching leaves with lawn mower.

2009-12-02T06:43:00.000-08:00

I use my exisiting lawn mower to shred leaves. This answers many questions regarding building or making your own leaf shredder or mulcher. I have highlighted the steps I do to shred leaves. My yard is full of oak leaves and this works really good. Run your lawn mower in discharge mode. Direction of mower depends upon the discharge side. Idea is to collect leaves in a pile. My mower

Where to buy Bitter Mellon, Bitter Gourd or Karella (Karela) Seeds?

2009-11-19T06:41:00.000-08:00

One of the reader wanted to know where to buy the bitter gourd seeds. Jawahar Bitter Gourd seed packet are available on internet and these are Indian variety. As per web site, these are Long, green variety, quite bitter and with anti diabetic properties. Bitter gourd are hard to sprout specially in colder climates. I was lucky one vine was successful out of 10 seeds. I bought it from

Used tea bags and tea leaves in compost along with egg shells. Tea party in compost.

2009-11-16T07:45:00.000-08:00

We are tea lovers and most of the time drink tea instead of coffee. I collect the used tea bags and tea leaves in a brown lunch bag. I put some paper napkin on the bottom of the brown bag so that it soaks the liquid. I did add some egg shells. No white or yolk. When ever the weather is nice and I go out for a walk in the yard, I take the brown bag with me and stick the bag in the compost

Home Grown Vegetables. It is total bliss.

2009-11-13T07:50:00.000-08:00

Sharing another picture of sample of home grown vegetables. This is part of last harvest. Winter is setting in. There are still few vegtables on plants. They may end up in compost. There is full tray of hot peppers sitting behind. Home grown vegetables.

Compost Oak Leaves. Shred, add greens and moisture.

2009-11-09T06:20:00.000-08:00

We have lot of oak leaves. Oak leaves are tough and they slowly break down. Best way is to shred them as much as possible. I ran my lawn mower in mulching mode. Then ran my Garden Tractor and bagged them. This job is easier when leaves are dry. Then emptied the bags of shredded leaves in to my home made compost bins. Leaves and leaves every where. Oak leaves are hard, so shred them

Radiant Heating and Ceramic Tiles

2009-11-06T06:21:00.000-08:00

Joe posted following comment on Nov 5 This is a cool idea. I can imagine the feeling one have having warm floors in winter. This blog inspires me to have radiant heating. How are the ceramic tiles doing? Does the heat crack them? Joe November 5, 2009 5:54 AM These tiles were installed in 2006 and so far no cracks. Grout has come out of one place which is normal. I have to fix it . Needs

Home grown vegetables.

2009-11-05T14:57:00.000-08:00

Sample of home grown vegetables. Growing your own vegetables is total bliss.

Try to grow Bitter Melon, Bitter Gourd (Momordica Charanti)

2009-11-05T05:40:00.000-08:00

This year we tried to grow bitter gourd ( also known as bitter melon, karela or karella in India, goya in Japan). It is hard to grow in cold climates. We tried to grow bitter gourd from couple of seeds and only one vine survived. We got couple of bitter gourds. We are still keeping one on the vine for seeds. As the weather has turned cold the vine is almost dying. One bitter gourd left

How to mulch leaves and make compost in your own backyard and Various Leaf Shredders

2009-11-03T10:20:00.000-08:00

Shredding of the compost ingredients is very important in order to have success with compost. Mulching with mulching lawn mower is one option specially for leaves. We mulch oak leaves with mower. Run the mower on leaves couple of times. I use my The Yard Machines 21" 3-in-1 deck push mower to mulch leaves and any small twigs. I use the bagger when mowing the grass so that I can catch

Compost Leaves. Composting really works. Make your own compost bins.

2009-11-03T07:37:00.000-08:00

We used to collect all the leaves and put them in bags and leave it on the curb for pickup. We used to have some times 70 bags in one day. I know the leaves got recycled but do not know what happened to the bags. There are lot trees in our neighborhood and we get plenty of leaves. Filling the bags with leaves was enormous task. We tried to mulch the leaves in the grass. There were so many

Gardening and Meditation- Dharma in Dirt

2009-11-02T07:47:00.000-08:00

Found an nice article in New York Times about Wendy Johnson "Dharma in the Dirt". Later on found out that she has also written a book. (Gardening at the Dragon's Gate: At Work in the Wild and Cultivated World.) The best place to seek God is in a garden. You can dig for him there. ~George Bernard Shaw,

Floor heating is in vacation mode.

2009-11-02T07:21:00.000-08:00

We have entered in to November, still thermostat is set to vacation mode. It has not been that cold yet. At least I am saving some on electric bill. I used Suntouch Programmable Floor Stat Model 50600-120R. I think it is better than the non programmable (which was cheaper) as it saves lot of time and energy. As floors are heated smoothly and slowly, I do not have to wait for the floors to

Vegetable garden needs lot of sun.

2009-11-02T06:42:00.000-08:00

Sharing picture of last year vegetable garden. Most of the vegetables loves sunlight. Make sure your vegetable garden gets enough sunlight. That is the first thing for a successful garden. Chose the spot which is brightest and gets maximum light. In case you do not have that spot then try containers and pots. Keep them in sunny spot on patio or deck. If you have no sunny spot you can try

How good is AeroGrow AeroGarden® Kitchen Garden?

2008-12-07T12:59:00.000-08:00

I did read lot about this product. Does any body have first hand experience? The AeroGarden Kitchen Garden is the first consumer product to incorporate Aeroponic, the world's highest crop yielding. Aeroponic technology creates a near perfect rainforest growing environment; just add water and nutrients. No green thumb needed; a built in timer alerts you to add water and nutrients. The

Do it yourself floor heating.

2007-07-20T11:03:00.001-07:00

We have cold winters and ceramic tiles gets really cold in winters. We heard and read about floor warming products. As we had concrete slab underneath laying water pipes was hard. We selected electrical heating pads. We took this adventure on our own. It was worth it. In winter when outside is 20 deg F the floor is 82 deg F. You love standing on it barefoot. Kids bring their books and just sit

Installing tiles over floor heating mat

2007-07-20T10:34:00.001-07:00

Installing tiles over radiant floor heating mat (homegardenblog) You have to be very careful while laying tiles. Do not damage the electric wire (blue in our case). We tried to keep the area clean. We have to keep reminding the tile laying crew.

Heated Floors: Do not damage the mat

2007-07-20T09:18:00.001-07:00

Make sure not to damage the blue wire. We hooked up an multimeter across the two wires. We monitored the resistance all the time. We kept our fingers crossed till the last tile was placed. If we broke the wire it will show very high or infinite reading. It will be zero if we shorted the two wires. Tile laying contractor had to be told repeatedly not to damage wire. In the end it worked out to be

Heated floor temperature control--Suntouch Programmable Floor Stat Model 50600-120R

2007-07-20T08:50:00.000-07:00

Suntouch Programmable Floor Stat Model 50600-120R. Works very well. No batteries and retains the setting on power failure.

Installing floor heating mat

2007-07-20T06:44:00.000-07:00

Installing Radiant Heating Floor Mat (homegardenblog) We installed heated floor for our kitchen in winter of 2006. It is called radiant heated floors.The mats are placed between the kitchen counter where you spent most of the time cooking. Be careful not to damage or cut the heating wire. Inspite of our strict instruction contractor kept the bucket. On the bottom left corner is the

Deals and Coupons

2006-11-04T08:26:00.000-08:00

Here are latest deals from Amazon.com, Kmart, The Great Indoors etc. These are real time coupons and deals. These are updated regularly. Bookmark this page so that you can visit it again.