Gardening Tips & Techniques

Gardening Tips & Techniques

-Seal Plants — Gardeners use white glue for sealing the ends of pruned stems and branches against insects and excessive moisture loss.

-When doing your fall flower planting (if you order from a company that sends you the roots and/or bulbs in labeled bags) put rocks in the bags and leave them where you planted them so next spring you’ll remember where and what you planted last fall!

-When storing bulbs for the winter sprinkle them with medicated baby powder and store them in old onion sacks.

-Prevent soil from leaking out of a potted plant. Place a pair of pantyhose in the bottom of plant pots to provide drainage.

-A birth control pill dissolved in one quart of water will help ferns grow faster and stronger.

-Use all those fall leaves! Shred them and put them in your flower and vegetable garden for extra nutrients in the soil and protection from the cold winter!

-If you want moss to grow on your rocks …paint plain yogurt on the surface. Make sure you repeat the process after any rain.

-Garden Tool Carrier – One great tip is use an old golf bag to store your garden tools in, it can carry both your long handled and short handled garden tools. Makes gardening so much easier since you don’t need to run back and forth for your tools.

-Weed after a rainfall. Weeds pull easier. If you need to weed and it hasn’t rained, water your garden first.

-A great way to maintain moisture to the soil, as well as reducing weeds is to lay down several layers of newspaper sheets between the rows and plants. At the end of the season this mulch can be turned into the soil. Make sure the print is vegetable oil ink.

-To get rid of weeds that come up between patio cracks and gravel, just sprinkle salt.

-To prevent dirt from getting under your fingers while gardening, scratch a bar of soap before starting to work. When you are finished, the soap will wash out from under your nails and your nails won’t have those telltale dark stains under them!

-Use an inexpensive plastic kids pool filled a few inches with water to keep your potted plants in when on vacation.

-Cut the bottom of empty plastic cola bottles (any size) to use to start seedling. They are the perfect size and you will also be recycling.

-Rinsed out milk cartons are excellent containers for kitchen scraps waiting to go out to the compost.

-When starting new plants from cuttings, if you will put a little sugar in the water, it seems to help the cuttings get roots a little faster!

-If an unsuspecting frost came upon your garden while you were sleeping and the plants were not protected, get to the garden before the sun shines on the plants and spray the foliage with the garden hose.

-You can make a tumbling composter using a plastic garbage can with a sturdily attached lid. Just poke holes in the sides for aeration, and roll the can to mix the compost.

-Besides regular water, once a month dissolve an Aspirin in a cup of tea and feed to plants.

-Herbs for the winter: Cut 4-5 inches of stem from your favorite herbs, tie in a bunch and hang upside down to dry in a cool place. Its beautiful, smells great and its economical as well!

Indoor Gardening Tips

– Water your hanging plants with ice cubes and you won’t have water spilling out the bottom!

– African Violets- Water them with chamomile tea…..will make them bloom profusely.

– Amaryllis-To keep the flowers blooming, remove the pollen bearing anthers with tweezers before they begin to drop.

– Cactus- To get a cactus to bloom, water sparingly – once a month or so, and leave outside in a dry sunny spot as late as possible in the fall. Bring indoors when nights are cooler. This will stimulate blooming for the following spring.

– When you change your aquarium water, don’t just dump the water down the drain – – use it for watering your indoor plants – – it’s loaded with nutrition your plants will love!

10 thoughts on “Gardening Tips & Techniques

  1. Herbal Shower For Plants

    Water all your house plants with herbal tea. Use the tea after your done with your cup and sprinkle it in your plants.

    Have a little left in your cup? Pour it on all house plants.

    1. Great tip! Reusing herbal tea for watering plants not only saves water, but it also provides the plants with natural nutrients and minerals.

  2. Sharing My Gardening Tip

    Organic soil enhancers produce more and higher quality fruits and veggies. Chemical fertilizers toxify the plants and they will begin to show it. An organic feritlizer that has its origin in the sea, as fish extract and sea kelp promote organisims that the plant’s roots system thrives in. The chemicals are toxic to the foilage, whereas liquid organic fertilizer feed the plants through it’s foilage. This organic soil enhancer is called AGgrand and can be diluted and sprayed on the plant or on the soil without fear of burning. Try doing this on your with chemical fertilizers and you can have a funeral for your plants.

    1. Thank you for sharing this helpful tip on using organic fertilizers. It’s always better to use natural options for plant nutrition instead of harmful chemicals.

  3. Tips From My Garden

    Try this sometime. If you have an infestation of moth larvae in your lazy susan or cupboards, try laying down mint leaves or even rue. For some reason, they don’t like it. The same goes for outside, if you have an ant/bug crawling problem, the rue deters them.

    I tried an experiment once and mixing the mint and rue together (by grinding them up) and made a paste. This I put around my roses base and it seemed to keep away the crawling creatures. Now all I have to do is figure out how to get the flying ones off.

    1. Using mint and rue to deter moths and bugs is a great eco-friendly option for pest control. I’ll definitely be trying the paste around my roses!

  4. Gnats Will Not Bite

    The farmers in my area (Cape May, New Jersey) always go into the fields with LISTERINE (out of the bottle) rubbed all over their skin and hair. Believe it or not, the gnats and mosquitos will not bite you. An added bonus is that when put into the hair (I put it on just after washing my hair so it will touch my scalp) your hair will be nice and shiny.

    The medicinal odor fades away leaving a film on the body and safeguards you against their tortuous bites.

    I love your column. I found it by accident and now check it out quite often. Thanks, JAC

    1. This is an interesting tip on using Listerine to repel gnats and mosquitoes. It’s always great to find natural alternatives to chemical insect repellents.

  5. Tips for Plants

    Keep the water after you boil eggs, it’s good to water your plants with it! It has a lot of minerals in it.

    Grow extra large and juicy tomatoes. Before planting add one tablespoon of Epsom salt in the hole.

    Homemade Insecticide: Spray plants with your old dishwater. The soap kills of the bugs.

    Sprinkle crushed up eggs shell around flower plants and roses to keep slugs and bugs away.

    Clean the leaves of your plant with a cotton ball dipped in milk. Makes it shiny.

    1. These are all great tips for plant care and insect control. I especially love using boiled egg water for watering and Epsom salt for tomatoes. Thanks for sharing!

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