Coyote Valley Nursery Customer Appreciation Day

On Friday, September 20th, Derek and I attended a customer appreciation day at Coyote Valley Nursery, which is one of our plant suppliers. We were able to take a tour of their 15 acres of greenhouses and fields to see how our plants begin their journey to our store for customers to purchase.



They start as a single seed in a tray of 500, and are called plugs. The plugs are then hand transplanted to a six pack and moved to the greenhouses, where they are nurtured and watered until they are big enough to sell or transplant into a four inch pot.





Coyote uses a soil/sand/lava rock/vermiculite mixture (shh, it's secret) to help the seedlings grow and they supply our bedding plants, violas, pansies, snapdragons, ground covers and several perennials.



We finished the day with a BBQ dinner; a lecture on Winter fertilization and the Downy Mildew outbreak  (more info coming soon!); dessert and a raffle, in which I won two prizes - a $25 dollar movie card, and $25 dollar Chipotle gift card! It was an all-around fun, informative and enjoyable event!



-Teresa Smith

VINEGAR WEEK IN REVIEW

We're starting a new month, and therefore are starting a new theme week. This month, its' awesome tips using vinegar - and it's not just for your salad anymore.

[caption id="attachment_1140" align="alignleft" width="150"] Image © Trvia King[/caption]

• Kill weeds and grass growing in sidewalk cracks and in the driveway by pouring full-strength white distilled vinegar on them.


• Help acid-loving plants like gardenias, azaleas, rhododendrons and hydrangeas (helps turn hydrangea petals blue or purple if there is too much aluminum present in the soil)  by watering them with a distilled white vinegar solution now and again. A cup of white distilled vinegar to a gallon of tap water is a good mixture.


• Here’s an answer we give a lot: Cure a cement pond before adding fish and plants by adding one gallon of white distilled vinegar to every 200 gallons of water. Let sit three days. Empty and rinse thoroughly. It will help neutralize the alkaline cement.


• Clean your  hummingbird feeder with white distilled vinegar - soap or detergent leave behind harmful residues.


• Added too much garden lime to the soil? Neutralize it by adding some white distilled vinegar to the area.


• Keep cats out of your flower beds! Place sponges or cloths soaked in distilled vinegar around the plants.  Cats can't stand the smell.

Cleaning:

• About a year ago, I had a customer ask me how to fix his extremely cloudy glassware.  Since his glasses were so water stained, I suggested putting all his glassware in the sink, covering it with a full gallon jug of our white vinegar, adding enough water to ensure all pieces were covered, and letting it sit overnight. He was skeptical, thinking some strong chemical was needed, even though he was hesitant to use it on his drinking glasses. Well, two days later he came in, and hunted me down, just to tell me how incredibly pleased he was with the vinegar solution!  You gotta love happy customers.


• For your standard white spots/thin film you can simply soak paper towels or a cloth in full-strength distilled white vinegar and wrap around the inside and outside of the glass. Let sit a while before rinsing clean.


• For coffee makers, remove mineral deposits with distilled white vinegar. Fill the water reservoir with 1 cup or more of the vinegar and run it through a whole cycle. Run it once or twice more with plain water to rinse clean. (As with any appliance, check the owner's manual before doing any home repairs or cleaning.)


• Get rid of lime deposits in a tea kettle by adding 1/2 cup distilled white
  
  [caption id="attachment_1143" align="alignright" width="150"] Image © Holgar Ellgaard[/caption]
  
  vinegar to the water and letting it sit overnight. If more drastic action is needed, boil full-strength vinegar in the kettle a few minutes, let cool and rinse with plain water.


• Deodorize and clean the garbage disposal with distilled white vinegar ice cubes. Simply freeze full-strength vinegar in an ice cube tray. Toss several cubes down the disposal while flushing with cold water.


• You know that box of baking soda in the back of your fridge and freezer that you're supposed to change monthly? When it gets old, use it to clean and deodorize a drain by pouring in 1 cup baking soda, then one cup hot white distilled vinegar. Let this sit for 5 minutes or so, then run hot water down the drain. (Works fabulously to help prevent hair clogs in the bathroom sink and tub! Use regularly!)


• Want an easy way to remove sticky labels, decals, or price tags? Cover with a cloth soaked in distilled vinegar. Leave the cloth on overnight and the label should slide right off.


• Remove white water rings from wood with a solution of equal parts distilled white vinegar and vegetable oil. Rub with the grain.


• Create an all-purpose window cleaner with a few ounces of white distilled vinegar in a quart of water.


• Remove fireplace soot and grime with undiluted distilled vinegar. Use a brush to scrub and a towel to blot up the wetness and dirt.


• Clean fireplace glass doors with a solution of 1 part white distilled vinegar to 2 parts water. Spray or wipe on, then wipe clean with a dry cloth.

One warning: NEVER  use white distilled vinegar on marble. The acid can damage the surface.

[caption id="attachment_1141" align="alignright" width="150"] Image © Erin Kohlenberg[/caption]

Laundry:

• Lint clinging to your  clothes? Try  adding 1/2 cup white distilled vinegar to the wash cycle.


• To remove soap residue that makes black clothes look dull use white distilled vinegar in your final rinse.


• Get stained white socks and dingy dishcloths white again. Add 1 cup white distilled vinegar to a large pot of water, bring it to a rolling boil, turn off the heat and drop in the articles. Let soak overnight.


• Give patent leather shoes and bags a better shine by wiping them down with white distilled vinegar.


• Get cleaner laundry! Add about 1/4 cup white distilled vinegar to the last rinse. The acid in white distilled vinegar is too mild to harm fabrics, yet strong enough to dissolve the alkalines in soaps and detergents. Besides removing soap, white distilled vinegar prevents yellowing, acts as a fabric softener and static cling reducer, and attacks mold and mildew.


• Fluff up wool or acrylic sweaters (hand- or machine-washed) and rid them of soap smell with 1/2 cup white distilled vinegar in the last rinse water.

Today’s Vinegar tips include some surprising beauty tips!

• Clean a hairbrush by soaking in a white distilled vinegar solution.


• Tone facial skin with a solution of equal parts white distilled vinegar and water.


• If commercial aftershaves cause rashes and itching, try using undiluted white distilled vinegar as an aftershave lotion.


• Lighten body freckles (not facial freckles) by rubbing on full-strength white distilled vinegar.


• Eliminate bad breath and whiten your teeth by brushing them once or twice a week with white distilled vinegar.


• Stop insect stings and bites from itching by dabbing them with a cotton ball saturated with undiluted white distilled vinegar.


• Soothe sunburn with a spray of white distilled vinegar, repeating as often as you like. Ice-cold white distilled vinegar will feel even better, and may prevent blistering and peeling.


• For cuts and scrapes, use white distilled vinegar as an antiseptic.


• Foot odor? Wash feet well with antiseptic soap daily, then soak them in undiluted cider vinegar for 10 minutes or so. Also helps with nail fungus.


• Make your nail polish last longer. Wipe fingernails with cotton balls dipped in white distilled vinegar before putting on nail polish.

[caption id="attachment_1139" align="alignleft" width="150"] Image © The Hungry Dudes[/caption]

After learning how to clean with vinegar, garden with it and do our laundry with it, lastly we're going to learn we can cook with it too! Who knew, right?

• Perk up any can of soup or sauce with a teaspoon of red or white wine vinegar.


• Eliminate the greasy taste in food cooked in a deep fryer by adding a dash of white distilled vinegar.


• If you’ve added too much salt to a recipe, add a spoonful of white distilled vinegar and sugar to try correcting the taste.


• Keep molded gelatin desserts and salads from sagging or melting in the summer heat by adding a teaspoon of white distilled vinegar for each box of gelatin used.


• When making tuna salad add a dash of any herb-flavored white distilled vinegar.


• Turn out great rice by adding a teaspoon of white distilled vinegar to the boiling water.


• To make the perfect picnic potato salad dressing combine 1 cup mayonnaise, 3 tablespoons white distilled vinegar, 1 tablespoon sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.


• Olives or pimiento covered with white distilled vinegar can be kept almost indefinitely if refrigerated.


• To keep eggs from cracking when boiling add a tablespoon or two of white distilled vinegar to water.


• To make basic vinaigrette salad dressing use 1 part white distilled vinegar to 4 parts oil.


• Make creamy vinaigrette by adding some plain or whipped cream to a mixture of 1 part white distilled vinegar to 3 parts oil.


• Tenderize meat with white distilled vinegar. Use it in marinades or when slow cooking any tough, inexpensive cuts of meat.


• When poaching eggs, add a little white distilled vinegar to the water. The whites stay better formed.


• For extra tenderness with boiling ribs or stew meat add a tablespoon of white distilled vinegar.


• To add a zesty new taste to fresh fruits such as pears, cantaloupe, honeydew, or others, add a splash of rice or balsamic vinegar. Serve immediately to prevent the fruit from becoming mushy.


• Freshen wilted vegetables by soaking them in cold water containing a spoonful or two of white distilled vinegar.


• When boiling or steaming cauliflower, beets or other vegetables, add a teaspoon or two of white distilled vinegar to the water to help them keep their color. This will also improve their taste, and reduce gassy elements. This also works when cooking beans and bean dishes.


• Make pasta less sticky and reduce some of its starch. Add just a dash of white distilled vinegar to the water as it cooks.


• Give some extra zest to your white sauce by adding 1/2 teaspoon of white distilled vinegar.


• Try cider or malt white distilled vinegar instead of ketchup with french fries—that’s how the British like to eat them. Either one is also great on fish or any fried or broiled meat.


• Remove kitchen odors that come from burnt pots or when cooking certain foods by boiling a small amount of water with 1/4 cup white distilled vinegar so that the steam circulates throughout the room.


• Make onion odors disappear from your hands by rubbing with white distilled vinegar.


• Add moistness and taste to any chocolate cake—homemade or from a box—with a spoonful of white distilled vinegar.


• To keep frosting from sugaring add a drop of white distilled vinegar. It will also help keep white frosting white and shiny.


• Make perfect, fluffy meringue by adding a teaspoon of white distilled vinegar for every 3 to 4 egg whites.

-Larissa Texter

Fiber Fix - Repair Things Without Welding, Nailing or Gluing

Ever broken a tool in the middle of a project, but it's too late in the day, or you're too over the project to do much about it but swear (or possibly cry)?

Next, you think about Duct taping it together and go so far as to come up with a splint-type fix-it plan, but as you're getting the piece of starter wood from the woodpile, you realize it's just a pipe dream.

At ACE, we break stuff all the time, and we thought fixing things like shovel and broom handles, chairs, hoses, and leaky PVC pipe was just a dream too, until we were introduced to Fiber Fix. It's 100 times stronger than Duct tape, it hardens like steel and it just wraps around the broken area!

I know what you're thinking - at the moment it only comes in black, but it's paintable, and sandable.



I'm thinking this is a must in our household's camping kit and in the car's tool kit next to the Duct tape!

For full instructions, check out this video, but it's really easy to use: Just wet it, tightly wrap the item to be fixed, wait five to 10 minutes and get back to work. It will be fully cured after 24 hours and is meant to be a permanent repair. It comes with gloves, and we recommend using them. The resin will stay on whatever it touches (ie: hands, clothes), so if you trim it with scissors, or get it on your hands, wash the resin off quickly. See instructions for full safety details.

Find FiberFix at all four of our locations: Half Moon Bay, Palo Alto, San Mateo and Willow Glen.

- FACE team, Hassett ACE Hardware, Half Moon Bay

Dr. Earth All Natural Garden Products

Introducing: Dr. Earth natural garden products, coming to our Willow Glen store on March 11, 2013!

Dr. Earth products are 100% NATURAL, ORGANIC, PEOPLE AND PET SAFE and include soils, fertilizers, weed killer, insecticides, fungicides, and snail and slug spray.

Dr Earth-soils are infused with Probiotic - living organisms like beneficial microbes and mycorrhizae. The microbes break down organic materials into forms more readily absorbed by growing plants. The soil can rebuild food reserves - a self regulating cycle that has occurred for millions of years as part of the wisdom of nature. Bigger, healthier and more abundant plants, fruits and flowers, that's the promise with Dr. Earth.

Made in America.

Cub Scouts Birdhouse Project at Our Half Moon Bay Location

We hosted a troop of Cub Scouts last Monday for a great project on making and painting birdhouses. The boys got a great hardware lesson in the different types of woodworking nails and tools and we had a lot of fun helping them learn and play!

Thank you, Troop 263!

Note: If you have a group who'd like to do a fun project at one of our locations, let us know!

Girl Scout Silver Award and Oh So Much More

[caption id="attachment_663" align="aligncenter" width="529"] Before and After[/caption]



Ella rocks. I knew this about 20 seconds into our first phone conversation. Or perhaps I had a glimmering even before we spoke, when I learned why she and her parents had come into our store seeing if we could donate some supplies to her project.

Ella, and two other Girl Scouts in her troop, were working on their Silver Award. I thought, “That sounds like a fairly important award - Gold, Silver, Bronze, and all that.” What I soon learned is that a Silver Award entails 50 hours of community service.  Let’s let that one sink in a bit – 50 hours. From someone who’s only 13.

We were more than happy to support her efforts, and Katie, Ella’s mom, was so pleased with our employees, she sent me an email with photos and a great big thank you to everyone at our store.

Katie had previously volunteered with InnVision Shelter Network and Ella was moved by the drab playground at one of the locations. That’s when she decided where she would spend her time earning her Silver Award - bringing light and fun, energy and color, to a children’s space that was otherwise brown and overgrown with weeds.

The weekend neared to install the projects the girls had created over several months – a sandbox to be placed where once there was only tanbark; a sensory garden - child-height - where sage, rosemary, geranium and lavender were planted to waft their gorgeous scents at the brush of a small person passing through;  a long, plain, concrete corridor floor painted bright with hopscotch and footprints.

I was so impressed by what Ella was doing and by her poise and grace, I offered to come help out. She and I talked on the phone a bit about her project and I got to spend some time working with her and the other volunteers that weekend. I saw the playground transform as they worked, and I experienced  something wonderous – people helping out other people, just for the sake of adding some beauty and joy to the world.

So, to Katie and Ella and all the other volunteers on that warm, late-summer Sunday afternoon, building beauty and kindness: Here is my great big thank you right back. For  for including our store in such a wonderful experience and contribution; for showing others that serving is also a blessing; for spreading color and joy in the world; and for helping just to help.

Labor Day Sale

Check out our great prices on everything you need to do your last summer DIY project!

August 31 - September 3

Lavender Lemonade

[caption id="attachment_281" align="aligncenter" width="1024" caption="Lavender Lemonade"][/caption]

I was poking around Pinterest, in the name of finding fun things that can be made with ingredients from ACE - have I mentioned I love my job?

I found lots of fun projects including painted plastic animal figurines as place settings, mason jar lanterns and decorated chalkboards. And then I came across Lavender Lemonade.

Now, if you're anything like me (or even nothing like me, really) you probably like lavender. And if your mom is anything like mine, you know that people actually cook with lavender. As an herb. Imagine!

So when I saw that there was such a thing as lemonade enhanced with a bit of lavender simple syrup, I actually took pause and thanked the elves at Pinterest for placing this delicacy in my path.

Then, I promptly copied the URL for the recipe and was about to email it to my mother, when I thought, wait. There are way more people who need to know about this. And so, I share it with you.

Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

1 cup sugar
About ¼ cup fresh lavender blooms, stripped from their stems*
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, strained.

DIRECTIONS

1. Make a simple syrup by combining the sugar with 2 ½ cups water in a saucepan and boiling until the sugar dissolves, about 1 minute. Remove from heat, add the lavender blooms and cover. Let stand for 1 hour, or up to 4 hours. Strain syrup and discard lavender.


2. Pour lavender syrup into a pitcher. Add lemon juice and 2 ½ cups water. Stir, taste, and adjust to your liking, adding more lemon juice or water if desired. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

* Culinary lavender can be found in farmer’s markets if you aren’t lucky enough to have some growing behind your garage.

Note: If you’d like to make Pink Lemonade, add a splash of grenadine.

Recipe and Image taken directly from Shindig411.com, credited originally to Elizabethwgiftbaskets.com though I couldn't find the recipe or the image on that site.

- Jocelyn Broyles

California Gardening in Winter

 

This post has been generously shared, in its entirety, by Love Apple Farms, a wonderful organic and biodynamic farm in Santa Cruz. Check them out and attend one of their classes or enjoy the fruits of their labor at Manresa Restaurant.

Originally published January 24, 2012

There are lots of things to do in your garden in late January and early February.   Here are a few ideas:

1.  This is a great time to lay out some new beds or regenerate old beds.  Double digging ensures plant roots have the best possible environment.  Planting beds should be light and fluffy so that young roots can easily push through the soil.  We've got a tutorial on double digging, if you're interested in learning.

2.  Start seeds of tomatoes, peppers and eggplants now.  These heat-seaking summer plants need a long lead time to get going, so now is the time to start them.    Sow seeds in a drainable tray in great potting soil, such as Gardner & Bloom's Blue Ribbon Premium Potting Soil.  Lightly cover with 1/4" of soil and keep moist on top of a heat mat until they sprout.  The heat mat should be set to warm the soil between 70 and 80 degrees and you should get good germination of both tomatoes and peppers within a week, 10 days tops.  Heat mats are available at most good nurseries.  Be careful when using a human-type home heating pad, as they are not water proof and tend to super heat the soil.

If you'd like more tips and tricks on how to start seeds properly (because it IS a bit more involved than that!), consider taking our Growing Tomato Transplants from Seed class, or  Growing Peppers and Eggplants from Seed class this Saturday.  We let students bust into our extensive seed banks and sow a tray of their own to take home to tend.

3.  Start a late winter/early spring vegetable garden.  You can get lots of interesting things growing RIGHT NOW.  Root veggies can be sown directly in a well-prepared bed (double dug, fertilizer and compost added and raked smooth), lightly covered with soil and kept moist until they sprout.  Thin them down so that each root receives a couple inches of space all around it.  You can do the same with greens: mustards, lettuces, spinaches, kales, mizunas are all capable of being sown now outside or in a tray and then transferred outside.  These fast growing, cool weather plants can be feeding you and your family before summer kicks in.  Learn how to do this successfully (and sow a tray of seeds to take home) in our Early Spring Vegetable Gardening class on February 5th or the 25th.

4.  Keep on top of winter weeds.  Don't let them take over your garden.  They steal nutrients, light and air away from your other plants.  And particularly don't let them go to seed and become an even bigger problem.  We've got a blog post about winter weed control, so check it out if you need some help in that department.

5.  Don't let your garden dry out too much in this weird winter we're having.  The California Bay Area had no precipitation in the month of December, and watering their garden or landscape plantings wasn't on many people's radar.  But a dehydrated plant is more more frost sensitive than their well-watered brethren.  It sounds counter-intuitive, but a plant that has water in it is more insulated from the cold, and can ward off frost damage more efficiently.  So if we go too long without another episode of rain, check your plants for watering.

6.  Start a compost pile.  If this is your garden down-time of year, and you don't have a compost pile yet, consider putting something up that is quick, easy, and inexpensive.  We use free wooden pallets to make our piles.  We just twine four pallets together, place some twigs and branches in the bottom for additional airflow, and start adding layers of green (nitrogen based) plant trimmings and kitchen waste with brown layers (dried leaves, straw, newspaper, torn cardboard).  You'll have some good looking compost come summer time.  If you'd like to sharpen your compost-making skills (and learn about keeping worms as well), our first Compost & Vermiculture class is on April 7.  Come play in the dirt with us out at the farm and see how we build a compost pile from scratch.

7.  Plant a bare root fruit tree or two.  This is the time of year to get a fruit tree in the ground.  Although they look spindly at the nursery, trees such as cherry, apple, apricot, peach, pear and plum love to be planted now.  Just be mindful of how big they will get and where they will cast their shade, as you don't want to end up with a too-shady garden spot for your vegetable plantings.  We can teach you all about fruit trees in our February 19 class.