The only negative is that when I wash every inch of the car by hand, I notice every dent, scratch, and paint chip.  But at least the mitt and cloth are gentle enough not to make any of those worse.  Grumble grumble.

I also use the wash mitt to clean other dirty outdoor things like patio furniture.  I like to clean off outdoor tables with Norwex microfibre before serving food on them so I know the outside tables are as clean as the inside.

Well, I tried to video tape myself washing the car for a real life demonstration but apparently forgot to hit record.  So all I have for you is a photo of the cloth and water AFTER the car was cleaned.  And a demonstration video from another Norwex consultant.

car wash mitt and cloth and dirty water

For a long time I only had the envirocloth for use in the kitchen and it did great.  I used it for counters, appliances (including the awful stove top), cupboard doors (even the greasy ones), floors, and whatever else that needed cleaning.  The envirocloth only uses water to clean, no need for any chemicals (actually please don’t use chemicals with the envirocloth).  I love the envirocloth.  The microfibre technology (the fibre is 1/200th the width of human hair vs 1/6th the width of human hair in standard microfibre cloths from the department store) picks up everything from greasy bacon fat to sticky maple syrup to chicken juices (picks up over 99% of bacteria) and locks it inside the cloth so it doesn’t cross contaminate then it easily rinses under running water.  Wring it out and hang it to dry and the silver gets to work killing any lingering bacteria in the cloth so the cloth doesn’t smell or fester mildew and is ready to use again.

But Norwex has many more kitchen related products.  I use the spirisponge for every day dishwashing.  There is also the spirinett for extra tough caked on grime like stuff burnt on to a roasting pan.  There is a textured kitchen scrub cloth that is similar to an envirocloth but with more abrasion so it’s good for your pots and pans.  There is a dish net cloth for washing dishes that people just love. Nothing dries quicker than the dish net.  There is the all purpose kitchen cloth that is similar to the envirocloth but it is ribbed and specially designed for kitchen related tasks like counters and appliance fronts.  It comes in pretty colors and has all the same great antibacterial capability as the envirocloth.  There’s the dish drying mat which makes life so easy!  It eliminates the need for a drying rack and it doesn’t start to smell the way  lesser brands’ drying mats do.  And you can even hang it up to dry and fold it in half for easy storage.  Use Norwex’s dish soap or dishwasher detergent for an all natural biodegradable concentrated alternative to chemicals. I love the silicone bottle brush with it’s envirocloth type sleeve for cleaning my travel mugs!  I could go on and on about Norwex’s kitchen products.  Did I mention the fruit&veggie wash and scrub cloth?

When I hosted a Norwex party in my home as a customer, the consultant said to me “tonight I’m going to switch you from regular tea towels to Norwex kitchen towels.” And she did.  I bought two and loved them immediately.  They are so absorbent.  Previously I found most kitchen towels just pushed water around, the outside of a glass would still be wet, there just wouldn’t be water dripping off of it.  But the Norwex towels just plain absorbed the water, leaving no wet behind on the glasses.  Wow.  Love them.  You know what else I love about them?  The silver antibacterial technology.  I no longer worry what other people in my house have done with the towel when I wasn’t looking.  Did they actually wash their hands before touching the towel? Did they wipe up anything other than water with it?  I don’t have to worry so much any more.  I know that whatever the towel touched is locked up inside the towel and the silver is killing the bacteria.  What peace of mind.

The other item that really needs to be discussed is the cleaning paste.  You can clean anything with this.  Some grime is hard to clean even with the Norwex cloths, such as coffee stains on your sink, or long built up grime on an old stove top, or permanent marker on a wall…. The cleaning paste along with a cloth or spirinett is what you need.  It also refreshes copper bottom pots.  The container may look small but it lasts a very long time.  A little really does go a long way.  Check out this great video demonstrating the uses of Norwex Cleaning Paste:

Norwex Kitchen

Here’s a great demo of a woman cleaning her whole bathroom with just water!

In my bathroom I keep an envirocloth hanging on the inside of my cupboard door under the sink for just general wiping down of everything.  I keep a window (drying/polishing) cloth and the bathroom scrub mitt hanging on the wall next to my tub (suction cup hooks on the tiles).  The scrub mitt is great for soap scum on tub, tiles, and grout but otherwise the envirocloth is all you need and infact I used just the envirocloth on my tub area until my recent purchase of the mitt (which is much easier. less muscle work).  I use the window (drying/polishing) cloth just to dry off my mirror after wiping with the envirocloth or when the mirror gets foggy from a hot shower.  For cleaning my toilet I actually use the silicone ergonomic toilet brush which does a great job scrubbing aware the buildup in the toilet bowl and is shaped to scrub under the rim.  Then the silicone brush rests suspended in it’s holder so that it doesn’t sit in it’s wet filth like a regular toilet brush.  Here’s the toilet brush I use:

There is also the Sanira Toilet Brush System which has a non-poisonous, non-corrosive vegetable based cleaning solution that bio-degrades within 48 hours.

Did you know you can clean your body and even your makeup covered face with just water? No soap… what?  How can that be? It’s possible with Norwex.  Norwex has these wonderful soft microfibre body cloths that you can use to clean your whole body with, from feet to armpits to face… well I might choose to go in the other order but it’s up to you.  The microfibre grabs all the grease and grime off your face and body the same way the envirocloths do on all the surfaces in your house.  Just rinse it and wring it out before hanging to dry after each use and you can use it over and over between laundering.  I love it on my face.  It really pulls away that extra oil.  People find it is great for clearing up oily skin acne.  It’s been known to help with eczema and cradle-head too.  I’m not a makeup wearer but for those who are, the makeup removal cloths are for you.  They gently clean off your makeup, even waterproof mascara at the end of your day.

After your shower, you can dry off in less time, less mess, with a Norwex towel and a Norwex Hair Turban.  Norwex towels and turbans are absorbent, lightweight, and gentle.  The turban absorbs 70% of water in just minutes.  Hair dries so quickly, there’s hardly a need for a blow dryer any more.   Of course your towels and turbans are quick drying when hung up after each use.  Another bonus people love, the Norwex towels are light and thin so they take up less room on your shelves when folded than regular towels.  And just because they are light and thin does not mean they skimp on softness.

Norwex Bathroom Mitt and Window Cloth

The microfiber envirocloth is amazing and unlike the microfiber you find in department stores.  To be called “microfiber”, the fibres must be no bigger than 1/6^th the width of a human hair.  Norwex microfibers are 1/200^th the width of a human hair.  What’s my point?  It takes a lot of that microfiber to make a cloth!  That’s A LOT of surface area for pickup and absorption power.  If you unravelled an envirocloth, the fibre would reach from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

With just wetting and wringing out the cloth so it is damp with water, the envirocloth can clean just about anything: counter tops, floors, windwos, appliances, toilets, sinks, toys, upholstery, dashboards…. And it doesn’t even take a whole lot of muscle power behind it.  The envirocloth grabs 99% of bacteria and holds it in the cloth so that it doesn’t cross contaminate to the next surface.  Just rinse it and wring it out then hang it to dry after each use.  The envirocloth has silver embedded in it.  Silver is naturally anti-microbial and it basically sanitizes your cloth as it hangs drying. That means it is clean the next time you use it and doesn’t smell or grow mildew.  It means you do not have to launder it between each use.  You can use it for days before laundering.  You can clean with it in one room today and another room tomorrow because the microfiber locks in the germs and the silver kills the bacteria.   There, you’ve just cleaned with just water.  No chemicals.  In fact, you should never use your Norwex envirocloth with any cleaning chemicals.  Chemicals will coat the fibres which over time will make the cloth less effective.

The dusting mitt is wonderful.  Dusting has never been so easy and fun.  I truly enjoy dusting my house.  I slip on the mitt and the fluffy microfiber grabs all the dust.  I can wipe flat surfaces or I can grip and rub all over knickknacks. No need for any furniture polishes which leave a residue on everything. Did you know furniture polish residue actually attracts dust?  Once my mitt is full of dust, I like to go outside and shake or whack the mitt against something to knock the dust off then continue dusting.  There is a special rubber brush that can be purchased from Norwex that will pull the dust off the mitt as well if you prefer not to go outside in the middle of your dusting.  I never have the need but other people find that for extra thick dust just lightly dampen the dusting mitt and the thick dust is no match.

The window cloth is for more than just windows.  It is really a polishing or drying cloth.  When you wipe your windows, mirrors, chrome, glass, ceramic tiles or stainless steel with your damp envirocloth, you follow it up with the window cloth to dry and polish.  Did you read that thoroughly?  You just washed your windows with just water!  No window cleaning sprays and no papertowel.  This duo has no problems working through toothpaste spit, dog slobber, or even grease on your shiny surfaces.  Really!  If you don’t believe me than try this: once you have your envirocloth, rub some butter or other grease on a mirror or window then wipe it off with your damp envirocloth, wipe it dry with the window cloth for streakfree shine in seconds.

Take a listen to this consultant talk about Norwex Envirocloth:

How do you launder all this great microfiber?  In your washing machine (yay!!).  It is preferable that you use Norwex Laundry Detergent but any detergent without all kinds of additives will do.  Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT wash the Norwex microfiber products with your fluffy towels!  That great Norwex pickup power will grab all the lint into it’s microfiber fingers and not easily let go.  Which means lint on all your surfaces as you use the cloths.  So do NOT wash with fluffy towels.  Feel free to wash with clothes that are not prone to linting.  One more rule, do NOT wash or dry with fabric softeners or bleach in any form.

Norwex Dust Mitt

101 Uses for Norwex Envirocloth

Cow Parsnip is the native to North America, unlike other plants in the Heracleum genus.  It is found in every Canadian province and many American states.  Cow parsnip is a tall herb reaching about 2 meters in height at full maturity.  The Queen Anne’s Lace looking flower umbrels are about 20cm (8in) across.  The most impressive part of the plant, to me, are the leaves.  They are huge (about 40cm/16in across) and they kind of look like giant hands.

The stems and leaves of the cow parsnip contain a sap with furocoumarins, which is a chemical that causes a rash of burn-like blisters to the skin after exposure to ultraviolet light (aka the sun).  The rash commonly occurs after an unsuspecting person uses a weed eater to cut the cow parsnip and receives the splash of the stem and leave sap onto his or her skin on a bright sunny day.  You can also attain blisters by just brushing up against it!  Ouch!  Wear pants and long sleeves!

Parts of the cow parsnip are edible and have medicinal uses but obviously you need to know how to properly and safely harvest and use the plant.

Cow Parsnip spotted in Ojibway Park
www.gettingtheregreen.com

Neem oil is organic as it comes from the Azadirachta indica tree in Asia.  It is non-toxic when used following the product directions (Water it down. Wash it off your clothes and skin.  Keep out of reach of pets and children).

Neem oil as a pest control works well against squash bugs, potato beetles, aphids, leaf eating caterpillars, and other chewing insects.  Neem oil works systemically.  Once it is in a plant’s vascular system, chewing insects ingest it.  Once ingested generally the insect will cease eating and starve or prevent larvae from maturing, and the insect will no longer desire to mate and lay eggs.  It may take several days following an application to notice the bothersome insect population diminish.  Neem oil also works as a fungicide which helps combat fungi, mildew, rust, mold, root rot, etc.

Follow the directions on your bottle of neem oil.  The bottle I have says to use 1 tsp of oil to 1 litre of water.  I add 1 tsp of oil to about a cup of very warm water and mix it up, then add in the remainder of the water at a cooler temperature and mix it more.  Once prepared to the correct dilution, spray it liberally on the plant, on both sides of the leaves as well as in the soil around the plant.  Don’t use during extreme heat or extreme cold or during any time the plant is stressed by environmental factors. Don’t spray it on the plant at a hot sunny time of day or risk burning the plant.

Neem oil should be safe for flying pollinators such as bees as they are not eating the plant.  If spraying liberally in very large amounts (such as one would in a commercial operation), do so at a time of day when bees are unlikely to be present to avoid spraying directly on the bees.

Use your diluted solution the same day you mix it as it will break down and be far less effective after the first day.  Concentrated neem oil in a bottle can last up to two years if kept at room temperature in a dark place.  Spray your plants once a week for best results.

Neem oil breaks down quickly leaving no lasting residue so your produce should be safe for consumption assuming you are not consuming immediately after an application.  Wash your veggies as you normally would.

Warning: There are concerns about neem oil usage and human fertility.  If you are pregnant or trying to become pregnant, consider having someone else mix the oil and water for you, even though the risks are associated with actual consumption of the oil. Play safe.

Watch me mix neem and apply it to my zucchini plants here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuZ7BtIiraQ

How to Use Neem Oil for Pest Control in the Garden

The ideal growing soil is light sandy somewhat acidic soil.  But sweet potatoes are not all that fussy, they can grow in pretty well anything, even clay soil.  I personally have had tremendous success growing sweet potatoes in straw bales and will continue to use this method as it makes for extremely easy harvesting.  Choose a warm sunny spot in your yard for planting.  Sweet potatoes love warm soil so you may wish to take the additional step of mulching the bed by either natural means or with black mulch plastic.  Dig a mini trench in your soil and lay the slip in the trench then bury the slip leaving a few leaves above ground.  Water well.  During the first few days you will want to take special care of the slips to be sure they aren’t stressed by too much direct sun or drought.  After a few days the slip’s roots should be strong enough to continue without much effort on your part.  The sweet potato slips may appear to stop growing at this point but part way through the summer the vines will grow like crazy. Sometimes the vines will root along the vine as they run across the ground, you can choose to allow them to root or gently pull them up and train them where you want them to go. Sweet potato vines are beautiful; many varieties are grown for aesthetics.  If you have large containers, you can grow sweet potatoes in the containers and allow the beautiful vines to cascade over the sides. Sweet potatoes are happy to live in your warm sunny yard and will tolerate some drought throughout the summer season.  Try to water deeply during dry periods.  Stop watering as the season nears the end.

After the first frost, the vines will turn black.  You need to harvest the tubers immediately.  Gently dig them up so as not to scratch their soft surface.  Leave them laying out in the yard for a few hours to dry.  Transfer them to a newspaper lined container and store them in a warm environment for two weeks.   Once “cured”, you can store them at room temperature for up to a year.

The squash vine borer (Melittia cucurbitae) is a moth.  The most surprising thing is that it looks nothing like a moth, it looks more like a fly and it’s far more attractive than you’d expect for such a malicious monster.  It’s like a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

The fly lays it’s eggs on the squash plant itself, usually on the stem but can be on a leaf, within a couple of inches of the soil.  After the eggs hatch, the “caterpillars” (maggots!!!) burrow into the stalk of the squash plant.  The only evidence of this happening is a patch of yellowish brownish fine sawdust looking stuff that gathers below the hole in the stalk made by the squash vine borer “caterpillar”.  Once inside, the squash vine borer eats the stalk from the inside out.  Most gardeners discover the invader when leaves turn brown, shrivel up, and fall off.  It’s almost 100% too late at that point.

Once the borer has had it’s fill, it burrows into the ground and cocoons for the winter.  Guess what happens in the spring?  shiver.

So what can be done?  Well, I’ve tried a few methods and know of a lot more.  After about 3 years of battle, I haven’t beat it yet.  Here are some combat methods:

– pesticides – useless to the borer once inside the plant.  also pesticides must not contaminate the flowers or all pollinators will be killed.

– wrap the based of the plant in nylons, tinfoil, plastic, etc etc to block the moth from laying its eggs at the base of the plant.  I tried this and it didn’t work for me but I know it worked for other gardeners

– row covers so the fly cannot land on the plant – must get the cover off in time for pollination of flowers so it’s all a timing issue, you may need to hand-pollinate flowers if they are early in the season (oh, and what if that cocoon hatches and the fly is INSIDE the row cover?  whaaat!)

– bury multiple points along the stalk so that your plant puts out roots in multiple places.  this allows for nutrients to flow to unaffected parts of the plant and the original portion of the stalk can be cut away if it becomes infect (my favoured option so far)

– cut away the “old” leaves that may have seeds on them during egg laying time. the problem is that eggs are often laid directly on the stalk and it’s a timing issue again

– plant your squashes later in the year past egg laying time – can anyone tell me when, precisely, that is?

– harvest your squash early, before the plant is killed – in my experience not many squash are produced that early on

– slice open the effected stalk and kill those life-suckers one by one – good luck. it’s gross. it’s difficult. usually results in the loss of the plant anyway or at least results in a non-productive plant.

– locate the eggs on the plant and scrape them off – you might not get them all but worth a try

– plant your squash in a different location every year since the moth arises from the earth directly under last year’s infected plant.  problem is my property is way too small for this to be effective

There are hundreds of species of grasshoppers and most are pests to a garden.  Grasshoppers are herbivores.  They like to eat green leaves, which sometimes means grass and weeds but it can also mean leaves of your garden plants.   A “good” year for grasshoppers can appear like a locust plague as described in the Bible.  A swarm of grasshoppers can devour a farmer’s field.  Grasshoppers start out eating holes in leaves but can quickly devour entire leaves leaving just the stem and the veins of the leaf.   I’ll include pictures below.

The lifecycle of a grasshopper ranges depending on the species.  In general, after mating, the adult female grasshopper burrows a hole and deposits her eggs.  She can deposit a few hundred eggs over her lifetime but not necessarily all in one day.  Most grasshoppers over-winter in their egg stage (some can overwinter in other stages) and hatch in the spring as nymphs, which are 5mm (0.2inch) small looking grasshoppers.  Pretty cute little things.  But they begin eating green leaves immediately.  They can’t travel far at this stage so they eat what is in close proximity to their hatching site.  Most grasshoppers go through about five skin sheddings (moults) to become their adult versions with full wings.  In ideal conditions this can take between one and two months.

A warm extended fall season greatly increases the amount of grasshoppers the following year, and can even give them a head start in the Spring if they got to develop longer in the egg before cold winter temperatures set in.  Cold winters with little snow actually can kill off many of the eggs depleting the grasshopper numbers in the spring.  So if you were ravaged by grasshoppers this year, you should be hoping for a cold winter!  Cold winters help a lot in controlling the pest population.  You might hope a late spring frost will kill newly hatched grasshoppers but that hope is in vain.  Young grasshoppers are very hardy and a late frost will do nothing to diminish their numbers.  A wet spring and summer will discourage heavy feeding.  Grasshoppers really thrive in dry conditions.   A humid summer can increase disease in the grasshopper population which can help control the grasshopper numbers for the following year.

How to control the grasshopper population without chemicals?

• Encourage growth of beneficial insects that eat other insects.  Crickets love to eat grasshopper eggs.  So crickets are your friends!  Bee flies and blister beetles lay their eggs close to grasshopper eggs, then their larva hatch and eat the grasshopper eggs.  Wasps work the same way… but who wants wasps in the garden?  Infact, blister beetles are no fun either!
• Some birds will eat grasshoppers so do what you can to attract beneficial birds to your yard such as bluebirds.  Chickens are a fabulous pest control bird, if you can keep chickens legally.   However, keep in mind that birds will eat your beneficial insects as well.  So it seems that for every great help with controlling grasshoppers you get another disadvantage to your garden.
• I think the best thing you can do to control the grasshopper population is to till your soil in the fall so you expose the grasshopper eggs to the harshness of the winter.  Till again in the spring to kill young weeds so baby grasshoppers have nothing to feed on in the area and either they die or just move on.  Tilling before egg laying time (late summer) also discourages female grasshoppers from laying their eggs there because they prefer undisturbed soil for egg laying.  It’s only the top inch of soil you need to till.  They don’t lay their eggs very deep.

Exodus 10:13-15 “So Moses stretched out his staff over Egypt, and the Lord made an east wind blow across the land all that day and all that night. By morning the wind had brought the locusts; they invaded all Egypt and settled down in every area of the country in great numbers. Never before had there been such a plague of locusts, nor will there ever be again.  They covered all the ground until it was black. They devoured all that was left after the hail—everything growing in the fields and the fruit on the trees. Nothing green remained on tree or plant in all the land of Egypt.” NIV

Often times when I share seeds I put them in tiny little ziplock bags purchased from the dollar store.  The benefits of the ziplocks are that people can SEE what’s in the packets, they are great for presentation, the seeds are very unlikely to spill, and the packets can be resealed over and over and over.  The disadvantages are the processed bags, the likelihood that they came from overseas rather than local manufacturers, the pollution of the environment, the costs (though minute), etc.  In the past year I have favoured making my own little seed envelopes with paper previously bound for the recycle bin (actually… pulled from the recycle bin where they were already making a home).  Here’s my method, I hope these pictures explain the process clearly.  You’ll notice that I show two methods for sealing the envelopes – a folding method and a tape method.

Alternative to using tape, fold over farther and tuck in the bottom: