Ask Mavis: Crayon Candles, Container Gardening, Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream Recipe and More

It’s that time again. You ask, and I pretend to know things and answer your burning questions. It really is so much fun to open my inbox and see the wide variety of questions you guys have. Reminds me that my readers are so diverse and pretty dang awesome. So keep those questions coming and I’ll keep racking my brain for answers. As always, please pipe up if you have any input or are knowledgeable when it comes to any of the following questions:

I’m planning on starting some vegetable containers this summer (I’m in the Midwest and we might still have frost until mid May). Do you have any “blueprints” for what you put in one container? By this I mean companion plants, as well as location within a pot so one won’t overshadow another. Thank you!

~Gigi

I love container gardening! I’ve blogged about container gardening a number of times, but this post on Tips for Container Gardening might be the best place to start. As far as plants that do well in containers, there are tons of choices.  Botanical Interests has a pretty awesome “set” you can buy of seeds that are specifically for small space or container gardening.  It’s called Container Vegetable Seed Collection {it includes carrots, cucumbers, kale, lettuce, onion/scallions, sweet peppers, spinach, and tomatoes}, which is a pretty well rounded garden, if you ask me.

Hi Mavis! I absolutely loooove your old fashioned strawberry ice cream recipe! I saved it a few years ago and I actually just use the base as my vanilla ice cream. Sunday is my son’s 2nd birthday and I wanted to make vanilla ice cream but the page has been taken down! Any chance you could point me in the right direction of where to find it?

~ Ashley

That ice cream really is so delicious! Not sure why the link wasn’t working for you, but I checked to make sure it’s still live, so you should be good to go. Here is the Old Fashioned Strawberry Ice Cream recipe. Enjoy! {And happiest of birthdays to your little one!}

 

Hello! My neighborhood is doing a competition for landscaping. There are actually a couple of categories: most improved, best curb appeal, best landscaping and grass. Any ideas for how to quickly and frugally improve our yard to try to win? First prize is free lot rent (we’re in a mobile home park) for a month! Thanks in advance!

~Jennifer

Some fresh bark, some cheap flowers and a rock border. Seriously, you can’t go wrong there. The obvious things like weeding and mowing are a must, but all you have to do is cordon off some areas with a nice rock border {free if you can find spare rocks}, plant some cheap flowers {the more the merrier. And you can normally find them on sale this time of year!}, and cover with bark or landscape rocks! Flowers make EVERYTHING more beautiful, and a yard full of them is sure to turn heads!

I was on Pinterest the other day and saw a post about how you can light a crayon on fire if you need an emergency light but don’t have candles. I know you remake candles from old candles so I was wondering if you could melt down old crayons to make new candles. What do you think?

~Thanks, Jenny

You actually can! All those old, broken crayons can be repurposed! You’ll need a wick and empty votive jars, but basically you just peel off the paper, melt, pour and let sit. Easy peasy. I found a great crayon candle tutorial here.

Have a question for me? Submit them HERE and I’ll try to answer them.
~Mavis