Color Your Own Flowers

Do you know that dying flowers at home is so easy? The method does not require any expensive tools or skills at all!

All you need to have: food coloring, vases, and white or light colored flowers.

1. Buy some white or light colored flowers.

2. Cut the stems diagonally at the tips to ensure a fresh cut so water will be taken up easier.

3. Fill your vases or other container with water.

4. Add the desired amount of food coloring.

5. Place flowers into desired colored water.

6. Keep an eye on the flowers and remove once the desired color effect is reached.

7. Put flowers into fresh water vase and enjoy!

Choosing Allotment Supplies for Your Projects

When it comes to creating some do it yourself projects, it is absolutely necessary to have the correct allotment supplies so that you can get the job done right. There are several differences in some of the tools and you need to know what you need to get your own allotment project started by using the right equipment.

You must prepare ground for growing vegetation so that you have a good crop to harvest, regardless the size of your allotment plot. When you grow your own vegetables, you need to make sure that you have the right spades, rakes, shovels, trowels or other tools so that is most effective as well as efficient. It simply isn’t logical to try to grow a large vegetable garden by just using a trowel. It would take forever!

Depending on the soil type, you need to have a sturdy tool to help you work the ground. You must also consider your own height or if you are using a raised vegetable kit, you may need a tool of a different length. Bending over can cause you to have aches and pains if you don’t have the right equipment to get your job done.

Mega Trade Store offers allotment tools that can help you plan out your garden, whether it be large or small. One of the easiest ways to grow vegetables or even flowers when you have little yard to work with is through the use of a raised bed kit. This allows a person to have a plot of a certain size where plants are planted closely together so to extend the growth period and life of the plants.

A raised garden kit is extremely economical and easy to use. By filling it with soil, this type of gardening system helps prevent erosion because it sits up off of the ground. The kit from Mega Trade Store consists of a series of boards made of European Whitewood and is one of the top raised garden vegetable kits that money can buy and the wood is left untreated or is tantalised.

Other allotment supplies include materials such as garden netting, garden membrane, and gardening gloves also make the job of growing a vegetable or flower garden much easier. Heavy duty garden netting can protect plants from insects or birds. Garden membrane helps save energy and time by preventing weeds from growing among your vegetation. All of these allotment supplies are a must for an effective garden.

Written by Ellie Roberts for Mega Trade Store.

Where would we be without washing machines?

Where would we be without washing machines? 

I don’t know about you, but I think I spend at least two hours washing, hanging up and putting away clothes every week. It is a chore that I loathe, particularly the putting away bit, which is fiddly and time consuming. But that is with modern electrical washing machines. Imagine how long it would take without one?

The small amount of hand wash items in my collection is bad enough and that amounts to only five items. Imagine if you had to wash ALL of your washing by hand. For some households that could easily be 10 loads a week! All that soaking, rubbing, rinsing is enough to give anybody arthritis in the hands.

The first special-purpose washing device was the scrub board – a ridged contraption that could be placed in a tub of water and used to scrub clothes on. This was invented in 1797. Before then people scrubbed their clothes on rocks in streams in an attempt to get them clean.

Next came the rotary washing machine in the 1850s, first powered by hand, then powered using a single cylinder engine. It was not until the early 20^th century that the electric washing machines that we know and depend on today were on the market.

Back then washing machines had to be anchored to the floor to stop them from walking! Sometimes when my machine is spinning it feels like it could quite easily do the same! Our washing machine has recently started making a loud screeching noise when it is spinning… I am starting to worry that it could break soon, which would not be good. So in an attempt to keep it going for longer I have been researching washing machine maintenance ideas. Here is what I have found:

1. Read the instructions on your washing detergent. Using this the wrong way can clog things up and cause problems. Some go in the drum, some go in the drawer, it can be confusing so make sure you check. Especially if like me you change your detergent depending on what is on offer in the supermarket!
2. Run a ‘maintenance wash’ once a month. Essentially this involves running the machine without any clothes in it. Use detergent, set it to run at a temperature of at least 65C and leave it alone. This will wash the machine and help you to avoid having to wash by hand.
3. Wash out the soap drawer. Do you have soap scum building up in the drawer? Most soap drawers can be easily removed, washed and replaced.
4. Leave the door open after use. This will prevent mould and stale odours building up, although the chance of that happening in my house is small given the amount of washing we get through!
5. Clean the filters. Every six months or so it is worth doing this, but be careful to read the instructions that came with your washing machine carefully, and remember, it is electrical.

I have started running a maintenance wash each month and cleaned out the soap drawer, and while the washing machine still squeaks every now and then, it’s not every time and I am a bit less panicked about life without it!

My advice, if you can’t imagine life without your washing machine, is to treat it with care. Start running maintenance washes and make sure you read the instructions on your detergent every time you buy a new one. You would be surprised what a difference those simple steps can make and will save you having to spend hours doing all of your washing by hand!

A natural born writer, Stacey Barton writes professionally and for fun across a wide range of niches with particular attention to how classic brands can continue to offer the same product for decades and somehow survive the turbulent and ever changing consumer market.