Patio Gardening 2010: Week 11 - Cherry Tomato Flowers

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This week hasn’t been too different from last week. We still have the same pattern of stormy days alternating with super hot days. This makes it a challenge because I’m trying no to over water on rainy and humid days but then have to make sure to water enough on hot and dry days.

We still have powdery mildew on some of our cucumber plants, which I’m still treating with the milk/water solution. The flowers and cucumbers seem to be unaffected, it’s just the leaves, so I’m not going to worry too much.

The winds are still brutal, but everything seems to be holding up fine. I had to add a taller stake to some of the cucumber plants because they’re getting huge. We have two cucumbers that are getting pretty big, and more female flowers forming.


Unfortunately we haven’t pollinated all of our female flowers successfully and have seen a couple shrivel up. It actually happens pretty quickly, so we don’t have any false hopes. Here’s a picture of a failed pollination:


Our bean plants continue to produce, which is great. There are still no female flowers on the pumpkin, squash, and zucchini plants.

The most exciting change this week is that we now have flowers on one of the cherry tomato plants! I also see some buds forming on other plants, so hopefully we’ll have cherry tomatoes soon. They are self pollinating, so I don’t have to do anything with them.


I have to go pick some basil now for pesto tonight. I’m looking forward to it!

Here’s the video for this week. In it I give a demonstration of the technique I use to pollinate the female flowers on our cucumber plants.


For those who are new, this year the boyfriend and I are doing a little container gardening experiment where we are trying to grow various herbs and vegetables on our patio. We live in the city of Chicago, so traditional gardening is out of the question. You can subscribe to the RSS feed to instantly receive the posts each week and also check out our previous posts. Feel free to subscribe to our Youtube channel as well.

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Posted at 11:38 AM, June 28, 2010 by Tiffany


Friday Freebies, Samples, & MP3s 06-25-2010

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Where has the month of June gone? There’s only one week left and I feel like it just started. My main complaint about June is the weather. Oh my goodness, every weekend has been full of thunderstorms (or at least forecasts of thunderstorms) and then we’ve had crazy thunderstorms this past week (including a tornado warning). Plus the yo-yo hot and cold. I do not appreciate it.

But it’s Friday! Yay! (Though the forecast is rain and thunderstorms for the whole weekend. Plus we’ll be running errands and cleaning.) Let’s celebrate anyway with some freebies and free music!

Freebies & Free Samples

Free Music & Mp3s

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Posted at 11:33 AM, June 25, 2010 by Tiffany


Buying Generics & Store Brands: Is There a Difference?

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One of the simplest money saving tips is to buy the generic or store brand version. From prescriptions to toilet paper or food, the generic version tends to be cheaper and can save you money in the long run. Yet, there’s two schools of though on generic brands.

The first is that these generics are cheap because they’re made cheap and don’t work as well or taste good or whatever. The other point of view is that it’s all the same and you’re only getting charged more for the name brand. Which of these opinions do I follow? Well, a combination of both.

First of all, I don’t automatically buy the store brand assuming that it’s the cheapest. When I shop, I consider all the prices, any coupons or deals, and the ultimate price per ounce or count, and then base my decision upon that. So for things like tin foil, dish soap, or dry pasta, we look for the cheapest option.

Now, there are certain things that I am brand loyal to, and these are usually health related. For example, since I have eczema I have to use hypoallergenic laundry detergent (All) and soaps (Dove). There are also certain brands we just don’t like (usually this is related to food, either being unhealthy or not very tasty). Beyond that, I tend to be open minded about most things.

I will say this: sometimes there is a noticeable difference between the named brand and the generic version of certain things. Sometimes it doesn’t matter but sometimes it does.

Here’s a recent example. I’ve been on this new crusade to use up random things we have around the house. The boyfriend accidentally bought some conditioner (he only uses shampoo) which has been sitting under our sink for over a year. Since I’m the only one in the house who uses conditioner I figured I’d just use it up.

So what we have is Garnier Fructis and Shique Essential Fruits (this is the Aldi brand from before they redesigned and re branded their products). They look almost exactly the same. The name brand is a “Fortifying Cream Conditioner” and the store brand is only a “Fortifying Conditioner” boasting an “Active Fruit Concentrate” while Garnier has “reinforced active fruit concentrate” plus some vitamins. They’re both labeled for “normal hair.” I check the ingredients, the first 17 on both are exactly the same, but the name brand has 22 ingredients and the generic only has 20.

I started out using the Shique. I have thick, frizzy, wavy hair that’s pretty dry so I usually use moisturizing shampoo and conditioner. I noticed after a week of the Shique that my hair was really dry, frizzier than normal, had a hard time holding curl, and seemed to get tangled a lot more. I chalked this up to the fact that the conditioner is for “normal hair.”

After awhile, I got sick of the Shique and decided to try out the Garnier. Immediately I noticed a difference. Obviously it still wasn’t as effective as moisturizing conditioner, but my hair was less dry and easier to manage. Even the conditioner itself just looked better and felt creamier.

In this case, the named brand is definitely better and I will never buy the Shique again. This hasn’t turned me off all generics. I’ll still buy the store brand saran wrap and hand soap. Sometimes the savings are worth it and sometimes you just have to wait for a sale on the name brand and stock up.

Have any generics you love or a brand you can’t live without? Let me know in the comments.

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Posted at 3:20 PM, June 24, 2010 by Tiffany


Patio Gardening 2010: Week 10 - Storms & Powdery Mildew

Filed under: All, Food, Home, Money Saving Tips, Patio Gardening 
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Sorry to get this post up a day later than usual. I was working on some other projects yesterday, and we didn’t even get the video up until last night, so I’m posting today. Good news is that my camera is back from the shop, so we’ll have better quality photos starting next week.

The weather hasn’t been treating us too well this week. Last week it was rainy, chilly and humid. So we started out this week with some powdery mildew on some of our cucumber plants.

This is the first bout of disease we’ve had to deal with, and I’m not happy about it. I clipped off the leaves that had it the worst, and spray the rest of them with a mixture of 1 part milk and 9 parts water. As a precaution, I sprayed the unaffected cucumbers, plus the squash, zucchini, and pumpkin. Hopefully that will take care of it. We’ll see.

Here’s a picture of the powdery mildew from before I hacked the leaves off:


Our tomato plants shot up after we staked them, which is great. We may have to cage them soon if they keep growing at this rate. The unfortunate thing is that Friday night two very severe thunderstorms swept through the area, with winds 60-70MPH. Our poor plants were beat up pretty bad–especially the tall ones like the beans and tomatoes. (Check out some footage of the wind in our video) The tomatoes are looking a little worse for the wear now.

We’re supposed to have more thunderstorms this week (we had one late last night too). Hopefully they won’t effect the plants that much. I’m mostly worried about the humidity helping to spread the powdery mildew.


On Sunday we were able to pick about 12 more beans, which we fried up in olive oil and had with dinner that night. We also picked a ton of basil and had a delicious caprice salad (basil, fresh mozzarella, & tomato drizzled in olive oil–then we eat it with big crackers). Unfortunately, we didn’t grow the tomatoes, but it was great to save money on the basil (they sell packages with about that much basil in it for about $6 here. It’s robbery!).


We’ve had a few more female flowers show up on some of our cucumber plants and they’re starting to grow into little cucumbers. Hopefully I hand-pollinated them well enough and they won’t fall off!


Check out the video for this week:


For those who are new, this year the boyfriend and I are doing a little container gardening experiment where we are trying to grow various herbs and vegetables on our patio. We live in the city of Chicago, so traditional gardening is out of the question. You can subscribe to the RSS feed to instantly receive the posts each week and also check out our previous posts. Feel free to subscribe to our Youtube channel as well.

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Posted at 12:23 PM, June 22, 2010 by Tiffany


$4 AMC Movie Tickets Deal is Back!

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Just in time for the weekend, you can snag a $4 AMC movie ticket from KGB Deals. Just like last time it will be available for about 4 days, so jump on it, it’s a great deal!

Here are the cities available:

Looking for other ways to save at the theater? Check out my posts on cheaps ways to go to the movies and free movie screenings.

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Posted at 1:37 PM, June 18, 2010 by Tiffany


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