“In the garden I tend to drop my thoughts here and there. To the flowers I whisper the secrets I keep and the hopes I breathe. I know they are there to eavesdrop for the angels.” ~Dodinsky, www.dodinsky.com
Spring is in motion and summer will be upon us in no time… hence, let’s add a few gardening tips and tricks to your horticulture skills!
- Natural Insecticide – add onions and garlic to a jar of water, let stand for a week, and spray plants with it.
- Rose Holder – if cutting thorny rose stems, hold onto the stem with a spring clothespin.
- Tomato Ties – cut old stockings lengthwise to make ties for tomato plants. These are strong but will not cut into the stalk.
- Painted Flower Pots – turn a flower pot upside down over a large tin can when painting them. They can easily be turned until the paint dries.
- Vegetable Carrier – replace the bottom of a wooden box with chicken wire to place your freshly-picked vegetables in. Spray vegetables with a hose; dirt and bugs will be washed out, without dirtying your kitchen sink.
- Preserving Flowers – spray cut flowers with hair spray to make them last longer.
- Tinting Flowers – mix food coloring in warm water and put flower stems in the solution. Stems will absorb the color and tint the flowers.
- Removing Poison Ivy – mix a gallon of soapy water and 3 pounds of salt and spray the area.
- Rabbit Plague – use the cheapest talcum powder you can find around the base of your vegetable plants and it will rid you of rabbit and flea beetle pests.
- Sowing Seeds – use a salt shaker to sow seeds in your garden, it will spread the seeds more evenly.
- Watering Seedlings – push a drinking straw into the soil and funnel water into it to avoid disturbing new seedlings.
- Killing Weeds – pour boiling salt water on grass or weeds growing between sections of sidewalk.
- Preventing Weeds – Sprinkle salt or cheap motor oil between brinks in a walk to prevent grass and seeds from growing.
- Egg Water – Use the water from eggs that have been boiled to water plants – a good source of minerals.
- Melted Snow – Snow contains wonderful minerals for plants – during the winter bring some in, let it melt and water with it.
- Watering Plants – Use room temperature water.
- Watering While on Vacation – For extended vacations, put plants in the bathtub on thickly folded newspaper in a few inches of water. Water will be absorbed through the bottom of the pots.
An old fashion cure all… a tablespoon of castor oil chased by water will bring sick plants out of their slump!!
Have Fun Happy Gardening!!
Love God bless,
Lori
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