Part 2: DIY Christmas Gifts - Flavored Salts and Sugar

Who can't use their own personal small collection of flavored salts and sugars to update their spice cupboard? Possibly the perfect DIY gift for anyone who loves to spend their time cooking and baking in kitchen and on the outdoor grill. Your recipients are sure to love these flavored salt and sugar recipes.

DIY Instructions and Project
Image Courtesy of: Good Housekeeping

Let's face it, salt is in everything. So why not add a little extra flavor where it counts. Salt is so versatile that it can go either way (savory or sweet). Cater your salt flavor to your recipient's taste, or just use what you have on hand. Sweet ideas include:

Meyer Lemon Salt

(Recipe courtesy of Lauren Hendrickson POPSUGAR)

INGREDIENTS

3 Meyer lemons
1 cup kosher salt

DIRECTIONS
Zest three lemons in a shallow oven-proof dish. Mix salt in with the lemon.
Juice one lemon into the salt. Mix the salt, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Be sure to use a fork or your fingers to break up the salt as much as possible.
Preheat the oven to 200ºF. Place the lemon salt in the oven for about 20-25 minutes to dry out the salt.
Wait for the salt to cool and use a fork or your fingers to break up salt.
Package up the salt in small jars.

*Part of POPSUGAR's 30 of our favorite edible gifts Collection

Photo: Flavored Salts

Ideas for flavors to infuse into your sugars include:

• Habanero Sugar (use dried ground habaneros)
• Espresso Sugar (use espresso powder)
• Coconut Sugar (use coconut flavor and coconut oil)
• Lemon and Lime Sugar (use dried lemon zest and dried lime zest)
• Peppermint Sugar (use peppermint extract)
• Vanilla Bean Sugar (use real vanilla beans)
• Colored Sugar (use natural food coloring)
• Cardamon Sugar (use whole cardamon or crushed cardamon)

Method:
 1 cup of white granulated sugar or raw sugar
 1- 2 tsp of flavor or spice
Store in an airtight Mason Glass Jar for one week, unrefrigerated.
After one week, taste and determine whether to store longer, add more flavor, or proceed to gift giving.

Part 1: DIY Christmas Gifts - Lemon Leaf Christmas Tree Craft

Christmas is just around the corner. Have you considered making your Christmas gifts this year? Many people enjoy gardening and appreciate garden-inspired gifts. In the next blog posts we will share are our top garden-inspired gifts that you can make yourself. We are also giving you the alternative version, i.e. what it would look like if you fail and need to buy it.

What you need to make the Lemon Leaf Christmas Tree Craft:

1. Purchase a package of preserved lemon leaves on stems
2. Remove the leaves from the stem
3. Take a 6-inch by 3-inch Styrofoam cone
4. Twine it
5. Then use straight pins to attach the leaves, starting at the bottom. 
6. Cover the cone, placing the leaves below the bottom edge.

Photo: Good Housekeeping

Stay tuned for more DIY Christmas ideas.

How to Test and Evaluate Your Garden Water Quality

Do you know how to test your drinking water? Is the water that you are providing for your garden good water? Or is it too high in salt, minerals, or chlorine?

There are many ways to test your water, but first you need to start at the source.

Where does your water come from? Do you have city water, a well, or water delivered? Many home tests can help you determine this. We are pleased to offer our valued customers a 15-in-1 drinking water test kit that is designed to detect impurities and potentially harmful substances in your water. Our kit is a reliable and comprehensive solution that provides quick and accurate results, giving you peace of mind. 

Photo: Crater Lake, Oregon

Our kit tests for 15 different parameters, including iron, copper, lead, fluoride, pH, cyanuric acid, total alkalinity, residual chlorine, total chlorine, bromine, ammonium chloride, total hardness, carbonate, nitrate, and nitrite. It is easy to use, and its comprehensive testing capabilities make it a preferred choice for those who are concerned about the quality of their drinking water.

We understand how important it is to have access to safe and healthy drinking water, and our water testing kit is an excellent tool to help ensure that your water is of the highest quality. We stand behind the effectiveness and reliability of our product, and we are confident that you will be satisfied with your purchase.

Such as the Drinking Water Test Kit - 15-in-1 Chlorine Drinking Water Test Strips with eBook will test for:

• Easy-to-use drinking water and tap water test kit
• One bacteria test vial
• One lead/pesticide test packet
• One nitrate/nitrite test packet
• One pH/hardness/chlorine test packet
• Each test to be used only once
• Tap water test kit shows immediate results
• Tests of water quality to EPA standards
• 2-year limited warranty

Photo: Drinking Water Test Kit

This excerpt describes the essential components of water and what they are good for:
Excerpt from http://freshlysqueezedwater.org.uk/ via What's in your drinking water?

"Many prominent scientists are alarmed by the content of some drinking water and actively seek to change the processes involved. The practice of making water safe to drink actually involves adding large amounts of extremely poisonous chemicals to it. Key scientists are now providing evidence that long-term ingestion of small amounts of chemicals like these could be the cause of some major health problems.

Here is a list of just a few of the chemicals routinely added to our water supply:
Liquified chlorine
Fluorosilicic acid
Aluminium sulphate
Calcium hydroxide
Sodium silicofluoride
Even if the water leaves the source in a relatively clean state, don't forget that your water travels through pipes, which may have been underground since Victorian times. It is almost impossible for the water not to become contaminated by something undesirable.

Contaminants in Tap Water
Tap water is treated with a large number of chemicals in order to kill bacteria and other microorganisms. In addition, it may contain other undesirable contaminants like toxic metal salts, hormones and pesticides, or it may become contaminated by chemicals or microbes within pipes (example: lead, bacteria, protozoa).

Photo: Water Quality Tester

Typical Tap Water Content:

• Chlorine
• Fluorine compounds
• Trihalomethanes (THMs)
• Salts of:
• arsenic
• radium
• aluminum
• copper
• lead
• Mercury
• cadmium
• barium
• Hormones
• Nitrates
• Pesticides

Testing Your Own Water
You can assess the quality of your water by testing for Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) with a TDS meter which reads the TDS instantly and gives a read-out in parts per million (ppm) TDS. Generally, water with a TDS of 500 ppm or more is considered unfit for consumption. Most tap water ranges from 150 to 420 ppm TDS. A Reverse Osmosis system typically produces water with a TDS of 90 - 95% of the incoming water.

Fluoride in water
Another very important health hazard is fluoride, which is added by some water authorities in the UK, and is also present in many toothpastes and mouthwashes. Around 10% of the UK’s water supply is fluoridated, despite a huge and ever-growing body of evidence that the science behind this mass medication program is questionable to say the least. - For more info visit Tap Water Content by Freshly Squeezed Water

The UC Davis Free Gardening Handbook

The Vegetable Gardening Handbook for Beginners Grow L.A. Victory Garden Initiative Los Angeles County Master Gardeners
Visit: http://celosangeles.ucdavis.edu/files/97094.pdf

With ideas like:
"Planning your Garden Site Selection Growing vegetables in your home or garden is good for you, your neighborhood, and for helping to reduce your carbon footprint. Growing vegetables at home can be done in a single pot on your patio or on a larger scale depending upon the space and time you have available. Choose the best site for your garden, preferably in a location that is easily accessible from your home. •
 -  The size of your garden will be dependent upon available space, the time that you have to garden and the food needs of your family and neighborhood. Make a map of the proposed area using grid paper and drawing it to scale.

 - Make sure the site receives 6 to 8 hours of direct sun per day.
 - Full sun is ideal for all vegetables.
 - Root and leafy crops (carrots, turnips, beets, leaf lettuce, spinach, etc.) can tolerate some shade.
- Insufficient sunlight can increase disease problems when growing many plants.
- Put taller plants on the north side so that they don’t cast shade on the shorter plants.
-  Make sure there is an adequate and handy water source near your garden.
- Select a level area with well-drained soil.
- Soil can be amended with compost or other organic matter to improve quality for greater yields.
- Determine plant spacing by the size of the mature plant - their leaves should just be touching.
- Most vegetables can be planted over a long range of dates.
- Plant new crops once you’ve harvested the first ones. 

If there isn’t enough room at home for a vegetable garden, consider joining a community garden to grow your vegetables. Community gardens can be found easily throughout the county. To find a garden in your community, please visit our website at Master Gardener UC Davis, click on Common Ground Garden Program, and then on Community Gardens for a four-page list of gardens."


Here is an example of the Free Gardening Handbooks Subjects:
The Table of Contents
Planning your Garden 6
Site Selection 6
Raised beds 7
Choosing containers 8
Plant selection 12
Getting Started 15
Soil preparation and fertilization 15
Seed starting 19
Transplanting 19
Composting 20
Wise water use 25
Pest management 26
Pests in the Garden 26
Beneficial insects 28
Pest Triangle 29
Weeds 30
Diseases 30
Insects 31
Harvesting 32
Storing Fruits and Vegetables 33
Food Safety in the Garden 35
Appendix 36
Principal Parts of a Plant 36
Principal Parts of a Flower 37
Garden Chemicals: Safe Use 38
Resources 39

For the complete manual visit: http://celosangeles.ucdavis.edu/files/97094.pdf

Check out environmental future favorites here.

LA Arboretum Annual Fall Plant Sale in October

The Los Angeles Arboretum and Botanical Garden, the 2015 Fall Plant Sale October 16 & 17

Image: Arboretum

This year’s sale will include plants that are or will be planted in Crescent Farm at the Arboretum and other plants.  In addition, there will be two plant talks. 

1. Scented Geraniums by Patrick Craig will be speaking on scented geraniums in the Oak Room.
2. Drought tolerant plants and the Crescent Farm by Jill Morganelli in the Bamboo room

Photo: Patio Trellis Outdoor Garden Trellis for Climbing Plants Vegetables Flowers

Plants for sale at the Garden and Gift ShopThe Garden & Gift Shop is a unique source for an array of peacock-theme merchandise. Almost everyone leaves the Arboretum in love with our beautiful peacocks and peahens. 

You can take them home, at least an image of the bird on a fan, candle, magnet, or puppet—to name just a few examples of our wonderful collection of peacock-motif merchandise.

–California Natives

–Drought-tolerant plants

–Landscaping/ground cover plants

–Assorted herbs

–Scented geraniums

–Succulents

Book Sale

The Arboretum Library will offer used books on gardening and plants for sale.

Don't miss the annual Spring rose sale:

Photo: Los Angeles Arboretum and Botanical Garden Rose Sale

Preparing for Your Visit
We look forward to welcoming you to our 127 acres of plants, natural landscapes, wildlife, and historic buildings. You will discover plants and trees from all over the world as you wander along paths and learn about California history on your journey through the garden.

Garden Etiquette & Rules
- Children at the garden
- Eating in the picnic area and on the lawn outside the Arboretum
 - The Arboretum is a museum of living plants
 - Pets are not permitted
 - Only service animals for the disabled are welcome
 - Discovering wildlife

For detailed information on these subjects, visit:  

Garden Etiquette & Rules

Accessibility
The Arboretum, its buildings, and its tour vehicles are all accessible. Due to the Arboretum’s varied topography, portions of the landscape may be inaccessible.
• Wheelchairs are available to rent for $10 non-members and $5 for members on a first-come, first-served basis at the Garden and Gift Shop. Reservations are not accepted. An ID must be left with Gift Shop.
• A wheelchair lift is located at the Queen Anne Cottage.
•Designated parking locations are found near the front entrance.

For more information on Service Animals, visit the LA Botanical Gardens - Accessibility

Garden Map
For an overview of the Grounds, view the Arboretum Visitor Map (pdf)

Photography
All formal posed photography and videography at the Arboretum require a location permit. A formal posed session includes weddings, engagements, family portraits, graduation, proms, and quinceaneras, as well as senior portraits or photos taken for portfolios, even if the photographer is not a professional.
For more information visit: LA Arboretum's Photography Rules

++Information on this page has been copied from the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden's Website (2015)

For more information, visit the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic GardenCalendar at: http://www.arboretum.org/calendar/

Photo: Metal Garden Trellis