A little perspective: A year ago, we were still up to our knees in snow, desperately looking forward to spring. Yesterday, I spent the afternoon cleaning out the strawberry patch. Oh, and I'm quite certain that our lawn will actually need to be mowed by the end of the week.
As tempted as I have been to go ahead and plant a few packets of greens, peas, and radishes, most of the yard and gardens are still too wet to work in, so I'm holding the thought of how cool it would be to plant some of my garden in March at bay (for now). But I was able to get my hands in the dirt a little bit this weekend, cleaning out the window boxes, daylilies, and the strawberry patch. The strawberry patch was definitely the big project. After an afternoon of pulling out last year's dead leaves, weeding out all the grass that landed in the patch during reseeding, and transplanting a few runners that had taken root outside of the boundaries of the patch, I was only half finished with the job. My hands on the other hand, were completely dirty, and for that, I was actually excited because I've been waiting for the opportunity to try out this homemade garden hand scrub.
I've seen variations of this simple sugar scrub everywhere lately and I wanted to try it since it seems like I often spend what feels like an eternity trying to get my hands clean after working in the garden. It's fast and easy to put together, but more importantly: it works. The scrub takes the dirt off much more quickly and easily than scrubbing with regular soap and water and as a bonus it leaves your hands nice and soft.
Garden Hand Scrub: Fill a small canning jar 3/4 full of sugar. Top off the jar with liquid dish soap (about half an inch shy of the rim) and stir until all the sugar is incorporated. Continue to add sugar until the consistency is nice and thick, but will still slowly drip off a spoon (if it gets too thick, just add a little more soap to the mixture). Cover and store near the sink.
Now, to tackle the other half of those strawberries at some point...
Labels: garden projects
