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It’s early February and spring is right around the corner; even though Milltown Mel predicted six more weeks of winter!  I already placed a seed order with Park Seed and I will need sow some of them indoors by the end of the month.  The last day of frost for Central New Jersey is approximately May 15th.  Starting certain seeds indoors, such as tomatoes, will yield crops earlier.  I plan on using my sun porch with a seedling heat mat to start things off.  Last year I did it without the heat mat and had great success.  However, it was nothing like a hot house!

Last year I build a raised bed with my dad to plant tomatoes, peas, spinach, and radishes.  It is a 16′ x 4′ full sun garden, surrounded by deer netting, that produced a lot of vegetables!  This year, I want to try Square Foot Gardening to make better use of this space.  Square Foot Gardening involves creating 1′ x 1′ squares within your raised bed.  The concept here is you can make more efficient use of the space when you break it down into smaller plots versus having a large one.  For example, you can fit one tomato plant per square foot and about twelve onions (depending on type) per square foot.  The raised bed we built last year is approximately 64 square foot.  In theory, I should be able to make 64 separate gardens and rotate them accordingly.  So if I wanted to, I can plant 64 tomatoes or 768 onions!

This year I want to build a few more raised garden beds.  Instead of making one long one, I would like to make multiple small ones.  This way, it will be easier to tend from all sides.  It was a big pain in the neck to walk through the tomatoes last year.  I’m thinking about making them 4′ x 4′ or 16′ x 2′.

I will have more updates once I start the seedlings and build the raised beds!

For the past six months, I’ve been making homemade laundry detergent.  I found the original recipe here: Homemade Laundry Detergent – Simple, Easy, Fast, & Effective.

I started with this, forgot the exact ingredients, and went off on my own (but not too far) when creating this:

1 cup – 20 Mule Team Natural Laundry Booster
1 cup – Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
1 bar – Ivory Soap

Shred the Ivory Soap using a hand grater into a large bowl.  Combine the Borax and Super Washing Soda and mix until consistent throughout (approximately 5 minutes).

If you do not want to mix thoroughly by hand, you can also send it through a blender to turn it into a powder.  Just make sure everything is combined together in a large bowl and mixed a few times before passing it through.  I personally like using the blender method.

This makes about 16 dry ounces and lasts about 16 loads of laundry when one tablespoon is used.

Tip: I also mix in a little Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (approximately 1/2 cup) while the basin is filling up.  This helps to make the laundry smell fresh.

Cost Breakdown

The cost of making your own laundry detergent is a lot less than buying it.  Let’s do a quick breakdown:

Prices from Alice.com

$3.50 – 20 Mule Team Borax, 76 oz (makes approximately 10 batches; $0.46/batch)
$2.76 – Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda, 55 oz (makes approximately 7 batches; $0.39/batch)
$2.43 – Four Pack Ivory Soap (makes 4 batches; $0.60/batch)

Initial up-front cost: $8.69
Approximate cost per batch: $1.45
Approximate cost per load: $0.09

If you are interested in adding baking soda to your laundry:

$6.16 – Arm & Hammer Baking Soda, 13.5 lbs at Sam’s Club (approximately 54 loads; $0.11/load)

Approximate cost per load with Baking Soda: $0.20

The ultimate goal is to get the clothes clean; not to smell pretty.  This could be perfect for someone (like me) with sensitive skin.  A lot of other laundry detergents cause me to break out; this does not.

Give it a try and let me know your outcome and suggestions!