Writen by Heather Diodati
Want your beautiful lawn and garden to be the envy of all your neighbors? Here are a few tricks to use that will "baby" your garden and entice it to do its very best!
1. Make sure you pull up weeds before they go to seed.
2. Remove faded flower blooms to lengthen the plant's growing season.
3. Turning and dampening your compost often will ensure that flies will not breed in the pile.
4. When preparing for winter, be sure to remove all vegetation, turn over the soil and add any organic materials such as compost. Add fertilizer according to package details and use a pitchfork to mix in all these elements. Rake your garden to even it out and you'll have less work to do in the spring.
5. Free mulch idea: use shredded newspapers (which decompose) held down with grass clippings.
6. Planting a small flower bed around the base of a tree will keep animals and lawn mowers away from the trunk.
7. Before buying grass seed, ask a professional at your garden center which grass types are best for your growing area and type of soil (clay, sand, mix) as well as amount of sun and shade.
8. Wire mesh at the bottom and sides of the holes will keep rodents away from your bulbs.
9. When you remove your bulbs for storing, make sure your storage area is cool. Keep them in vermiculite, shredded paper or sand to keep them from drying out and to provide protection and air circulation.
10. Prune roses just above a 5-leaflet leaf to encourage flowering.
11. Pinch off spent flowers to continue flowering of annuals and perennials. If the plants are too tall, cut them back a bit farther on the stem if they start to look neglected to produce new growth.
12. Cleaning up the area around fruit trees and fruit bushes, picking up fallen fruit and weeds, will help to ward off any diseases before they start.
13. Digging your fingernails into a bar of soft soap before working on the garden will keep most of the dirt out from accumulating under your nails and will wash out later.
14. Pour beer into a shallow container and position a few of these in your garden. Slugs will be attracted to the scent and will crawl in to leave your veggies alone!
15. To avoid blossom end rot and cracked tomatoes make sure you water very often and avoid fluctuations in watering during the first critical 5 to 6 weeks after transplanting your new tomato plants, and also during the development of the tomatoes.
16. Plant sunflowers and climbing beans. The vines will latch onto the thick sunflower stems. This old Indian trick was taught to settlers!
17. Use zip lock baggies to enclose your empty seed packets. Attach them to wooden stakes to identify your rows of veggies and flowers.
18. Pinch the new growth in between two branches of tomato plants to encourage the plant to grow stronger and bushier instead of tall.
19. Use old pantyhose cut in strips to tie up your tomato plants to avoid cutting into delicate stems over time.
20. Never water plants from overhead during full sun to avoid burning delicate plant leaves and flowers. Water droplets resting on leaves and flower petals act as little magnifying glasses.
21. If you have only a few newly planted tomato plants and you want to make sure they're watered regularly, punch small holes in the bottom of a plastic one-gallon container and sink the container several inches into the earth near the stem of the tomato plant. Keep water in the container to ensure that the plant gets enough water as it needs it.
22. Mix bulbs, annuals and perennials in your garden to have three seasons of beautiful color.
23. Vary the direction in which you mow your lawn. Grass mowed always in the same direction is pressed down and stressed the same way. Mow diagonally, then in a circular pattern the next time and in a square pattern after that.
24. Leave short clippings on your grass to supply nutrients as they decompose. However, if too thick a layer of clippings is left, this will prevent air and sun from reaching your live grass and will choke it.
Want more of Heather Diodati's articles and how-to's? Visit http://www.whimsies-online.com/freecontent.htm. By the way, you are free to use these articles on your websites and ezines provided you include the author's bylines. A courtesy copy or an email mentioning where the article was published would be much appreciated! |
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