Gardening Tips ~
Most of these were gleaned from gardenguides.com. Take a look for an Extensive array of articles.
-Compost piles can help lighten up clay-heavy soil or absorb water in a more sandy soil. Set aside a small area with some chicken wire, some scrap 2x4's, or even hay bales, and fill it with the following:
- Grass clippings and leaves
- Wood chips from local tree care companies
- Coffee grinds from the local cafe
- Shredded newspaper
- Vegetable scaps and egg shells
- Dryer lint!
-Get creative when seeding new plants. The following can be used instead of purchasing containers:
- Margarine tubs
- Yogurt containers
- Egg cartons
-Instead of heat mats for seedlings, try the top of a water heater or your VCR. Also, fluorescent tubes can be used in place of expensive heating lamps.
-Save seeds from your own plants to make growing next season easier.
-Click
here for tips on organic gardening tools that keep pests and disease at bay.
-To prepare a bed for planting organically, strip down the area you're working with and dig a good 10" before laying down either a layer of cardboard or brown paper bags, or 9 layers of newspaper. Add 6-10" of good topsoil.
Good topsoil is:
- Rich in organic matter (dark in color)
- Well-drained, not sticky, clay-based, or fill sand
- Grainy, not formed into little balls that you can crush with your fingers. These are probably clay-based, and will trap water during rain seasons and get too hard when it's hot and dry
- Strained through a screen (if at all), Not shredded
-Pruning is always okay when the plant is: Damaged, Diseased, or Dead.
-Find your county's "Master Gardener" for helpful information on correct growing instructions for local plant types.
-Potassium is good for the soil. Eat bananas, and put the peels in the compost pile! Nitrogen is also good for the soil, and can be found in grass clippings - be sure to add these to your compost. Always layer whatever you're putting in your compost pile, and always end with a layer of soil. Turn the pile once a week and water only if it seems dry. Wood ashes are good to add as well.
-Prepare organic matter to mix into the soil several weeks before planting.
-If plants are wrapped in burlap, ask if it's genuine or imitation - the imitation burlap is non-biodegradable. Also check these plants for nylon string around the stem. These should be removed before planting.
-Check container plants for roots coming out of the drain holes. Cut these, as they will get torn off during transplanting. After removing from the container, examine the roots. If they're growing in a circular pattern, you may slice three vertical lines down the root mass to encourage new outward growth into your garden. You should definitely loosen up the root mass with your fingers to break the circular pattern.
-In order to determine whether new growth is a weed or something you planted last year and forgot about, always plant in groups of threes or fives, so that you can get a better idea (through how many sprouts are working their way upward) of whether this newcomer is friend or foe.
-A Rosemary rinse for oily hair:
- Add a heaping handful of dried or freshly cut Rosemary or Lemon Verbena sprigs to about 1 quart of water, which you've brought to a boil in a non-metal pan, such as Pyrex.
- Reduce the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes.
- Strain your rinse and transfer the juice into a non breakable container, which you can leave in the shower.
- After you wash your hair, saturate it with about 1/2 cup of the herbal mixture and do not rinse your hair again.
-To draw
butterflies to our garden, consider a permanent puddle as our western element, and a piece of driftwood over a rock as our northern element.
-To attract hummingbirds, consider Columbine (Aquilegia), Delphinium, Foxglove (Digitalis), Geranium (Pelargonium), Gladiolus, Impatiens, Iris, or Lilac. Also try
Butterfly bushes.
-Sweet woodruff can make an excellent ground cover.
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