When my water blob post went viral last month, I received dozens of requests for a tutorial on how to make the walls-of-water that I mentioned in the post. If you haven’t used walls-of-water before, they are basically just a little greenhouse that provides insulation for your plants (I use mine on my tomatoes) when temperatures are colder than the plants would otherwise be able to survive or thrive in. The sun during the day heats the water around the plant, keeping it from freezing overnight. Once temperatures increase a little and your plant begins to outgrow the wall-of-water, it is usually removed.

Last year I used both homemade and store-bought walls-of-water in my garden. They worked equally well – they really are basically identical in size and quality. The only difference is in the color of the plastic.

So, here’s my little disclaimer – you can buy walls-of-water for less than $6 each when you get them in a 3-pack. Or, you can make your own for about $3. Once you get the process down, they take 15-20 minutes to make. Is it worth the $3 savings? I’m not really sure. If you are the DIY type, you may just enjoy the fact that you made your own – but as far as saving time and money, it might be worth it to just go with the store-bought version.

If I haven’t scared you away from making your own yet… here’s how you do it!

You will need:

• 1-yard of 54″ 12-gauge vinyl (do NOT use thicker!)
• about 3.5 feet of parchment paper
• iron/ironing board
• ruler & pen

First, fold your parchment paper in half, hamburger style.

Draw a line down the length of the center, then two more lines on either side 3″ apart. Then, mark another line about 16″ from the fold. These lines will be your template on where you will fuse your plastic together.

Next, take your vinyl and lay it out flat.

Then, carefully fold in half along the length (so that it is 18″ wide, 54″ long). I secured mine with a bit of tape, but that is totally optional, it will cling to itself pretty well.

Then, you are going to lay out your plastic (shown in grey) and align your parchment with the end. The plastic should be sandwiched in between the parchment – so that it will not melt onto your iron or ironing board when you heat it. The folds of both the vinyl and parchment will align at the bottom, and the end of the plastic should overlap your last line by about an inch.

Next, you are going to seal the end of the vinyl by ironing along the one-inch overlap. It’s a little bit hard to see in this pic, but the dotted line indicates how far the vinyl is overlapping the line. With your iron on its hottest setting, carefully and slowly run your iron along the side of the line, applying firm pressure to seal.

The vinyl will turn from shiny to matte when it has melted and sealed completely. Be careful not to heat TOO much, or your plastic may thin or rip. You can always remelt if you need to later!

Once the end is sealed, you will run the EDGE of your iron along the other lines, beginning at the fold and ending at the 16″ mark (so that the top 2″ are not sealed). Make sure to apply a little bit of pressure as you go. At first, this may take a little bit of trial-and-error to get right – just remember that you can always go back and reseal, but that if it melts too much… a duct-tape band aid is really your only fix.

After you have sealed all of the lines on the parchment, move the parchment down the vinyl sealing lines every 3″ until you come to the end – where you will seal the last entire inch again.

Then, fold the vinyl in half and close your wall of water with a piece of duct tape at the 1″ sealed ends. You COULD melt the ends together – but I actually prefer the duct tape because I can leave it on the plant a little bit longer. Instead of trying to get the wall-of-water off of your plant when it begins to outgrow it – you can just take the tape off, or even cut the tape at the seam so that you don’t risk damaging your plant by pulling it off over the top.

And that’s it! Fill each compartment of your wall of water about 1/2 way before filling the entire thing. For smaller plants, you can fill it about 3/4 of the way and “tee-pee” it inward, providing more insulation. As it gets bigger and the temperatures increase, you can fill it all the way and it will stand up straight.

If for some reason when you fill your wall-of-water a seam pops open, it just means that it was not melted or sealed completely. Empty the water and seal it again (it’s ok if its still wet inside).

When you are ready to take your wall-of-water off of your plant, give it a little rinse and make sure it is completely dry before storing it for next season – it will last you years and years!

A few months ago, our good friends convinced us to get a juicer, they recommended the Omega 8006, which has fabulous reviews across the board. We opted for the Omega 8003, mostly because I was able to find it barely used for less than half the price – love me a good deal! The biggest difference between the two is the color – they have the same motor, and a few parts made of different materials.

 

There are many different methods and time tables online on how to grow your wheatgrass. The truth is, there isn’t one right way to grow it. If you can get your grass to grow tall and green, you’re golden. I’ll just show you how I like to grow my wheatgrass.

Their favorite is was planting the seeds – and they LOVE watching our wheatgrass grow! Wheatgrass grows so quickly that you can see a noticeable difference everyday – we sneak into the garage a few times a day to check up on our grass. Who even needs a dog, anyway?

Cover your berries with water and let them soak for 24 hours, give or take.

Day 3

Rinse every 12 hours. You will see the seeds begin to sprout!

Day 4

Planting day! When the sprouts are as long as the seeds, you are ready to plant!

Give them one more rinse, keeping them a little wet.

Line your cookie sheet with dirt, and get it nice and damp.

Dump your seeds out…

… and spread across, making sure NOT to overcrowd! You want the seeds right next to each other but NOT on top of each other.

The first time I grew wheatgrass I overcrowded some of my flats and saw a huge difference in growth. Here’s a comparison taken at day 7-8ish – both of these flats were planted at the same time. The one on the right was overcrowded and is much less full and quite a bit shorter than the flat on the left. Don’t be tempted to pile on your seeds!

After you have spread out the seeds, cover them with a black garbage bag. You want to block out all of the light so that the seeds put down strong roots first, rather than growing up.

Some people use damp newspaper instead of a bag – it works the same. I prefer the garbage bag because it is easier to take off when I need to water, it’s clean – and I can use it again and again.

Water as needed. Keep damp, but not wet. Wheatgrass will mold very easily if it is too wet.

I like to use a spray bottle to water – but a little cup of water will do just fine, too.

If your wheatgrass does mold – it’s okay. Just make sure that you cut above the mold when you harvest your wheatgrass. You might loose a inch or so of grass, but it is not worth throwing out for.

Day 8

REMOVE COVER

Once your grass is 2-3 inches tall, it’s time to remove your cover! It will green up in a matter of hours after being exposed to light!

Day 9 – 14

Water as needed.

Try to store the grass in the same direction – as much as possible. It will make juicing easier and more efficient.

You can store your harvested wheatgrass in the fridge for a week. Keep it covered or in a plastic bag.

There are many conflicting sources – but wheatgrass juice is best fresh. Some say you should drink it within 6 minutes of juicing, others say up to 48 hours. We keep our grass in the fridge and juice it right before we are going to drink it.

I find that running the pulp through one time pulls out a lot more juice – don’t forget to run it through again.