Vertical Strawberry Planter

We just completed the build of a small vertical strawberry planter. We used some scrap wood that was given to us and some old milk jugs.

We removed the 1x4's that were part of a packing crate. We then used a hatchet to split about 1" off off the width of the slats. Then we attached milk jugs to the slats by sliding the slat through the handle of the milk jugs. After that, we re-attached the slats to the frame, then cut the bottoms of the milk jugs off. The last step is to take a nail and poke holes in the caps of the milk jugs to allow for drainage.

Following that, the only thing left to do was to fill with soil and plant our strawberry crowns.

The video of the build can be found here.
 
Thanks for stopping by!

Around The Homestead - Prepping For The Hard Frost Tonight

Since Fall arrived, we've had aour share of colder than normal days. Today was 15° colder than normal. We're supposed to get our first real frost tonight. We've had some light frost which withered our grapes and what's left of our tomato and pepper plants.

Tonight the low is 29° for the town closest to us so it'll be 5-7 degrees colder here.

In order to prepare for the freeze, we dug our some old moving blankets that were given to us and wrapped our rain barrels with them, then secured them with bungee straps. The added insulation helped keep them from freezing last year (our first year with them). I originally thought that if they were full that they wouldn't freeze just do to the sheer amount of water, but have heard several stories of people whose water barrels froze partially, expanding and cracking them, so we didn't want to take any chances.

The second thing that we wanted to get done was to finish getting the remaining tomatoes and jalapeno peppers off of the plants.

Lastly, I stopped by the our chickens. Their feathers came in just in time and they were all fluffed and full. I removed their waterer for the night as it's an outside one and it's made of metal, so it'd definitely freeze.

Now all that's left to do is to make some fried green tomatoes or green tomato bread, which I have not tried, but it looks pretty good.

For those interested, here's how to make friend green tomatoes. Well, God made them, we just cook them.

1. Slice tomatoes
2. Dip in raw scrambled egg. 
3. Then dip in flour seasoned with salt and pepper. 
4. Some folks add a little heat like cayenne pepper.
5. Fry in olive oil for best health and flavor, until brown and soft. 

Although I've never tried it, here is the recipe for Green Tomato Bread, if you'd like to try it.

Enjoy the weather and stay warm!