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!