Gardening is a great hobby for the frugal enthusiast because growing your own produce can also cut down your grocery bills. Here are 8 tips to save money on your garden this spring.

Compost

If you don’t already have a compost pile, you should start one. This will give you a great place to dump any leftover food, as well as give you healthy soil to use in your gardens. You can build one out of wood or make one out of a large trash can to keep your costs down, or simply cordon off a small area of your yard.

Mulch

Shredded paper makes great mulch and costs a lot less than buying from a garden store. Use the leftovers from your home or office shredder or ask friends and family for their old newspapers.

Seed Pots

Don’t buy seed pots from your garden store – instead, use egg cartons or yogurt cups to get your seeds growing.

Shop Around

When shopping for seeds, make sure to shop around. You should be able to find the best deals on seeds by comparing prices online. There are also some non-profit organizations that offer seed packets and other helpful resources with membership.

Perennials instead of Annuals

Investing in perennial plants instead of annuals means a larger upfront cost, but it also means less financial maintenance next year when you have to replace them.

DIY Pesticide

There are tons of recipes online to make your own pesticide to repel bugs. You can even find organic recipes that will help protect your plants without causing harm.

Sharing

Team up with a friend, family member or neighbor to share your harvests. You can both save money and enjoy fresh produce.

Think Local

When deciding which plants to grow, think about your environment. If you’re in Texas, don’t plant items that are from tropical environments and expect to keep your water bill low. Native Texas plants are used to living through droughts and are much easier to maintain than their water-hogging cousins.

Want to learn how to raise backyard chickens? Is your outdoor living space too small for a full-size garden, but you still want home-grown produce?

The 23rd Orchard in Bloom garden and art show will offer tips, solutions and demonstrations for advanced and beginning gardeners.

“Forty percent of Americans are growing produce in their own backyard and in containers, and that number is increasing daily,” said Elliott Pruitt, the event’s spokesman. This year, the event, which typically attracts more than 7,000, will offer innovative products and landscape tips.

Among the features are:

The Garden Pavilion, featuring gardens and garden-to-table landscapes.

Micro-gardens, showcasing container gardens and growing options for small spaces.

Garden and natural living symposiums where experts offer tips and demonstrations.

The annual “Containers in Bloom Competition.”

A children’s area that includes outdoor fun and entertainment.

The Garden Cafe, offering meals and snacks made from natural and organic produce.

Exhibit tents featuring more than 100 local and regional vendors.

This year’s featured artist is Brad Cox, 42, who will showcase his home and garden sculptures that combine art and nature.

A certified welder, Cox creates whimsical sculptures from found objects such as iron skillets, horseshoes and assorted industrial parts.

“You wouldn’t believe the parts that come from industrial places all over. I’m going to do seven-foot cattails out of bolts the size of your hand and dragonflies made out of a transmission spline,” said Cox, who lives in Brown County and works in a mill with a wheel that produces fuel for his studio.

He features 85 designs and travels to art shows nationwide. One of his sculptures includes an alligator from a chain-saw blade with a tail made of a railroad spike.

“I enjoy when people know that it is recycled, and I like the look on their faces when they recognize an old part.”

<!– –>
• 
  Tweet
  
• 
  –
  A
  A
  A
  +
  

<!–

–>

KUSA – This is the fourth of growing the 9News Kitchen Garden. Every year we want to do something new and different and this year, we are adding a grape arbor.

No matter what you grow on them, arbors and trellises are great for backyard gardens. They add interest with their height and they are both functional and artistic. 

Many vines love to grow on arbors and include hops, wisteria, trumpet vine, Dutchman’s Pipe-and even grapes, which is what we’re growing this year in the 9News garden. Since grapes won’t produce fruit when the vines are on the ground, they do need a trellis or an arbor.

Typically, when we think of grapes in Colorado we think of the Western slope. But there are varieties that are suited to the Front Range. 

For the 9NEWS garden, we have a Plant Select variety that has been developed for our growing conditions. Be sure to build the trellis before you plant and make sure it has good drainage.

Garden planning tips from the 9News Kitchen Garden:

 

• Plan your garden each year before you plant and know which crops need to be rotated to prevent insect and disease problems that linger in the soil. Tomatoes and squashes, for example, should find a new place in the garden each year.
• Make sure you have enough tomato and pepper cages for this year’s crop.
• If you are planting tomatoes or other tender plants now, be ready to protect them from frost with a wall of water or other insulating material as the threat of frost goes through mid-May.
• If you haven’t yet planted seeds, you can still plant carrots, radish and beets.

What to plant now:

 

• Hardier plants, if they have been hardened off, can be planted outside now.
• Plant fruits such as strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and fruit trees.
• Plant perennial herbs such as oregano, thyme, lavender, sage.
• Buy starter plants of lettuce (if you haven’t planted seed), broccoli, cabbage, kale and onions.

Be water-wise from the start:

 

• Make this the year to install drip irrigation for your garden to give plants what they need without wasting even a drop of water.
• If you hand water, soak the bases of plants well and avoid getting too much water on the foliage.

Information courtesy Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado-sponsors of the 9News Kitchen Garden and the 9News Water Wise Garden. For help with your landscape needs, go to www.alcc.com and click on Find a Pro.

(KUSA-TV © 2012 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)

<!–
Remembering Sally

–>

Uncategorized

Apr. 26, 2012

By Cathy Adams

Cathy is a long-time writer and novelist with an avid interest in gardening. She has served as an editor at Southern Living and Portico magazines, a creative writing instructor, among other achievements.

Tweet

Whether you farm-at-home a three foot wide third floor balcony downtown or three acres in the country, anyone with access to the outdoors can enjoy container gardening.

 

CONTAINER OPTIONS INCLUDE:

–Traditional terra cotta and decorative pots, including faux stone materials that are light weight and easily moveable, to creative and whimsical repurposing of ordinary house and garden objects.

 

–Windowboxes and hayracks

 

–Hanging baskets

 

A rusted iron bed frame becomes a container flowerbed.A tall urn adds vertical interest to a patio.Wooden flower boxes should have metal liners to protect the wood.

When choosing plants to fill containers, keep eye level in mind.  Will you be looking down on it, up at it, or straight across it?

Upper story window boxes call for more dramatic groupings than pots on a small front stoop.

 

Metal hay racks with coconut liners are easy to install on porch railings.

 

DESIGN RULE OF THUMB FOR FILLING A CONTAINER:

 

–Thriller, filler and spiller-or “reach for the stars and the ground”

 

Thriller-a taller, vertical element rising from the center as a focal point

Good options include fountain grass, plumbago, large caladium

 

 

 

 

 

Filler-lower growing, massing anchoring the body of the pot or box

Depending on light conditions, group seasonal bedding plants such as impatiens, marigolds, geraniums, annual salvias, petunias, lantana

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spiller-plants that weep or spread over perimeter

‘Marguerite’ and ‘Blackie’ sweet potato vines, Swedish ivy, bacopa, calibrachoa, trailing lantana

Marguerite sweet potato vine and lantana spill over the edges of an urn.

 

THE BIG THREE-SOIL, SUN AND WATER:

 

–Around Birmingham, where heavy red clay prevails, a container can be a gardener’s best shot at achieving perfect soil

 

For healthy container planting, avoid using garden soil and instead invest in an inexpensive bag of commercial potting soil, amending with a few handfuls of peat moss,  moisture saver polymer pellets for locations receiving full sun, and time release fertilizer such as Osmocote

 

–Read sun or shade requirements on tags when selecting plants

 

Full sun=6 hours direct sun (morning preferred) necessary for most flowering plants

Partial sun=3-6 hours morning or early afternoon sun, protected from hot late afternoon sun

Full shade=less than 3 hours direct sun per day, suitable for impatiens and foliage plants such as hostas, ferns and sedums

 

–As a general rule, containers need a good drink of water every day

 

Good drainage is essential-make sure that containers have adequate holes in the base and layer bottom of pot with small pebbles or broken pieces of terra cotta before adding soil

 

DIY irrigation is easy to install with inexpensive tubing and mister heads, available at home improvement centers, attached to a faucet with a battery powered timer.  Before leaving town for extended vacations in summer, invest in new batteries!

 

Be water wise-water early mornings or evenings rather than mid-day to minimize evaporation

 

CHOOSING CONTAINER PLANTS:

 

–Study plant tags and take advantage of professional advice from local nursery and plant shop personnel to assemble plants with similar light and water requirements

 

–Measure containers and take pictures to help garden shop personnel in making recommendations

 

At the plant shop, group the plants on the ground to evaluate configuration

 

–Come up with a color scheme and a theme

 

Primary colors sizzle-particularly pleasing around a swimming pool and magnets for birds and butterflies

Bright primary colors say summer.

 

Monochromatic colors soothe-pastels, whites and neutral greens and gray create a cooling mood

Use varying textures and colors of foliage for interest

 

 

 

English cottage garden-an exuberant mixture of soft and bright colored blossoms

A grouping of terra cotta and stone pots creates an English garden.

 

Formal-small shrubs underplanted with one color flower, especially white

 

–Consider the times of day and seasons you are most often outdoors

 

Pastels perform in early morning and twilight and popular as spring bloomers

 

 

 

 

 

 

Strong colors such as red or orange perform best in mid-day sun and reach full potential mid-summer

White blossoms and silvery foliage reflect moonlight for after dark drama

Gold, bronze, rust, and purple react well in autumn sunlight

Jewel toned colors perform in autumn light.

 

 

Transition with the seasons–misty colors in springhotter hues mid-summerjewel tones for fallintensely colored pansies paired with parsley, lavender or rosemary for color throughout winter

 

–Annuals, perennials, shrubs, herbs and vegetables

 

Annuals (plants with a single season life cycle) include flowers marketed as bedding plants

Consider replacing and supplementing annuals as the growing season progresses-when lovely-in-spring petunias limp in July heat, pop lantanas in their places

 

An urn in summer.

 

 

The same urn in fall.

 

 

 

Planted with rosemary, pansies and parsley for winter.

Perennials such as small shrubs (miniature boxwoods, Fatsia japonica, dwarf conifers), ferns, or perennials such as lambs ears serve as “permanent” plantings, accessorized with seasonal fillers

 

Herbs and tomatoes planted in pots are functional for culinary use as well as decorative.

Some herbs, such as parsley and thyme, make attractive fillers when combined with flowers.  Mints are marauders when planted in a bed and should always be confined to pots.

 

Pots of herbs placed by the kitchen door are handy for cooking.

 

MAINTAINING CONTAINERS:

 

–Fertilize on a regular basis with a balanced 20-20-20 or blossom booster plant food

 

–For continued bloom, dead head spent blossoms of flowers such as geraniums and marigolds. 

 

Trailing plants such as sweet potato vines need occasional trimming to reduce weight on stems.

 

Impatiens and begonias can start to look leggy by late summer–shear them early July for a fresh start fall.

 

GOOD PLANTS FOR CONTAINERS:

Thrillers:

Purple fountain grass

Large caladiums

Plumbago

 

Fillers:

Geraniums

Annual salvias

Lantana

Begonias

Petunias

Impatiens

Dusty Miller

Coleus

 

Spillers:

Scaevola

Ivy

‘Marguerite’ and ‘Blackie’ sweet potato vines

Bacopa

Hellchrysum

‘Wave’ series petunias

Trailing lantana

Calibrachoa

 

Tomatoes and herbs:

Rosemary

Thyme

Basil

Sages

Fennel

Dill

Parsley

Small tomatoes such as ‘Saladette’ and ‘Mountain Magic’

Lavender

Kale

 

Small shrubs:

Dwarf Norfolk pines

Miniature hollies

Fatsia Japonica

Roses

 

Bulbs:

Plant tulips and hyacinths under pansies for a winter-spring transition

Tulips in a hayrack are bulbs treated as annuals.

 

 

 

 

Vines to climb railings or mailboxes:

Moonflower

Morning glory

Black eyed Susan vine

Hyacinth bean

Mexican flame

Mandevilla

Blue sky vine

 

 

Dirt, water, and the outdoors: kids and gardens are a great match. But if you’re not yet sure about gardening with your kids, here are some tips to help you get started.

1. Let kids use their hands

Kids love manual tasks that adults may find tedious, like shelling peas, poking seeds into the soil, picking currants off the stem, or dead-heading flowers. Explain what to do and put those nimble little fingers to work.

2. Invest in some kid-size tools

Kids will want to use your tools, but an adult-size spade that’s longer than your child is tall won’t be easy to use. To avoid frustration, get a few lightweight, well-made tools sized for small hands.

3. Don’t worry too much about a little dirt…

Young kids in particular may eat dirt when they’re in the garden, especially if it’s clinging to a freshly-pulled carrot. This is normal and, in general, a few grams of dirt won’t harm them. To reduce the risks of parasites and bacteria in garden soil, pick up animal waste promptly and use well-rotted compost, not fresh manure, as fertilizer.

4. …in fact, embrace kids’ love of mud and mess

If you need a hole dug or a bucket of water flung somewhere, you may be in luck. Kids rarely find any job too dirty.

“There’s something about dirt,” says Steven Biggs, a gardening coach and father of Emma, 6, Quinn, 4, and Keaton, 2. “My two little boys are crazy about anything involving digging. A few times I’ve been out digging and they’ll run over with their diggers and tractors and want to dig beside me.”

Just be sure they’re wearing old clothes that can be washed, or a bathing suit (or nothing at all). “I think if parents want their kids in the garden, you have to tell yourself beforehand they will get dirty,� says Biggs.

5. There can still be rules

Letting the kids into the garden doesn’t have to mean anarchy. You can make and enforce rules about where they can go and what they can do, like “don’t go past these rocks,� or “don’t pick these flowers.�

Make sure the rules are clear and specific. “If I say ‘stay out of the garden,’ that doesn’t really sink in, but if I say ‘stay on the path,’ that works beautifully,� says Biggs.

6. Give kids a patch of their own

Set up a patch, or a container, that your child can plan and care for herself. Your child will enjoy choosing plants, looking after them, and watching them grow. If it’s a larger patch, you can put in stepping stones for ease of movement.

To avoid the “out of sight, out of mind” problem and encourage your child to spend time in “herâ€� garden, put it somewhere easy to see and get to.

7. Don’t be deterred by small spaces

Even if you live in an apartment, you can still involve kids in gardening. Set up a window box for them, or get them to help with the house plants. A planter of fresh herbs for cooking can be a great way to introduce kids to new flavours.

8. Stay safe

If you have toxic plants, put them in a part of the garden that’s off-limits. Teach older kids to recognize plants that aren’t safe to eat.

Like any activity involving sharp edges and power tools, gardening can cause injuries. Teach kids to treat lawnmowers, hedge trimmers, and shears with respect, and supervise their use.

And, of course, slap on the sunscreen.

9. Accept imperfection

Inevitably, some of your plants will be stepped on or eaten. Supervising your kids in the garden will probably slow you down as well.

“It’s more to encourage them just being out there, at first,� says Biggs. Set realistic expectations for yourself and your kids, and don’t worry too much if a task isn’t done exactly to your standards.

10. Have fun

Don’t just dig for potatoes; dig for pirate treasure. Use garden paths as roads for cars and trucks. Take wheelbarrow rides. Look for rainbows in the sprinkler. Enjoy the sights, smells, and textures of the garden. Above all, don’t try to turn gardening into a chore; enjoy the time together. You might find yourself surprised by what your kids can teach you about the garden.

As the days grow longer and warmer, we are slowly starting to emerge from hibernation and return to the outside activities we enjoy. For many people, gardening tops this list.

Gardening might not be as dangerous as extreme sports, but it is not without risk. Repetitive stress injuries from bending and reaching, and strains and sprains from pulling a large, tough weed are just some of the things to watch out for when you make your way to the garden. Here are my top 10 tips for staying injury-free this gardening season:

1. Give your muscles a chance to warm up before working in the yard or garden. Practise stretching with the various muscles you will be working in the yard, or take a short 10-to-15-minute walk around the block.

2. Avoid prolonged bending, pushing and pulling while raking and hoeing, which can strain shoulders or the lower back. To avoid strain and muscle spasm on one side of the body, switch hands frequently.

3. Opt for long-handled tools. Forward and sideways bending can aggravate the neck or lower back.

4. Kneel to perform tasks, rather than bend, whenever possible.

5. Keep overhead work to five-minute episodes. Avoid extreme reaching with one arm.

6. Stretch. Exercise helps to prevent recurrences of spinal and related health problems. Back exercises should deal with flexibility first, strength second.

7. Carry medium-to-smallsized loads of debris close to your body or use a wheelbarrow to avoid strain on your back. Save heavier work for midway through your chores. This helps avoid sudden strenuous exertion on unused muscles and joints.

8. If you are using a hedge trimmer, keep your back straight and use short strokes to avoid upper arm and neck strain. Pause after three to five minutes.

9. If a task seems like too much work, it probably is. Hire a professional for tasks like landscaping, tree-topping or trimming large hedges.

10. If you overdo it and experience pain, visit your doctor or chiropractor as soon as possible.

Don Nixdorf is a Richmond chiropractor

Special to The Sun.

• 

Petplan data reveals numerous claims to pet parents whose dogs and cats have helped themselves to the fruits (and nuts and vegetables) of their labor.

Philadelphia, PA (PRWEB) April 25, 2012

While warmer weather and longer days seem to drive the whole family out-of-doors – including furry friends eager to “help” with the springtime gardening – No. 1-rated Petplan pet insurance reminds pet parents that for some curious canines, a trip to the garden might turn into a visit to the veterinarian.

Petplan data reveals numerous claims to pet parents whose dogs and cats have helped themselves to the fruits (and nuts and vegetables) of their labor. Tales range from a dog who accidentally broke a plant pot with her head (and wound up with vet bills totaling $250), to a precocious Pug whose mushroom snack ended up costing his pet parents $2,900.

To keep your garden green while avoiding any unexpected detours to the vet, Petplan suggests keeping these tips as close as your trowel:

• Veggie tales: To avoid incidents similar to what the mushroom-munching Pug above experienced, consider carefully what you plant in your vegetable garden. Several vegetables can be dangerous if ingested by pets, such as onions and chives, which can cause red blood cell destruction; rhubarb leaves, which contain kidney-damaging oxalic acid; and members of the nightshade family like eggplant, tomatoes and potatoes, which contain deadly alkaloids.
• Chew on this: If your pets love to chew on sticks, be careful. Avoid trees with toxic bark, such as cherry, which contains cyanide-like components. Be careful around trees that yield stone fruits, like apricots or plums, because gobbled pits could cause an obstruction. Some nut shells, including walnut and almond, contain tannins that are toxic to dogs.
• Bedding down: When building your flower beds, avoid cocoa bean mulches. Their chocolaty smell is very enticing to pups, but just like chocolate, cocoa bean mulches contain theobromine, which is toxic for dogs. Pay attention to what you plant there, too. Flowers such as Foxglove, Belladonna and Larkspur may make our hearts happy, but they can have toxic effects on Fido’s heart and circulation.
• Go green: Gardening organically is good for the planet, and your pets. The herbicides and pesticides used in some popular gardening products can potentially make your dog sick. If you do choose to use these products in your garden, try to prevent your dog from digging-in/eating/licking the treated areas.
• Out and away: If it’s impossible to keep your pets’ paws from prying, consider installing some type of fencing to keep prying pets paws out of harm’s way – and away from your hard work.

For more tips to keep your pets safe this spring, visit http://www.GoPetplan.com.

ABOUT PETPLAN

Top-rated pet insurance provider, Petplan, is the only pet insurance company to have been included on Inc. Magazine’s list of 500 fastest-growing, privately held companies in America. Petplan’s fully customizable dog insurance and cat insurance policies provide coverage for all hereditary and congenital conditions for the life of the pet as standard, and meet the coverage requirements and budget for pets of all/any age. Petplan policies are underwritten by AGCS Marine Insurance Company, a member of the Allianz Group, rated A+ by A.M. Best (2010). For information, about Petplan pet insurance, visit http://www.GoPetplan.com, read the Petplan Pet Insurance Blog, or call 1-866-467-3875.

PDF


Print

One of the many challenges faced by greenhouse growers is keeping the plants height short and controlled. We nurture our plants providing the proper amounts of food, light, water, and temperatures and, even with all that, the plants stretch and get leggy anyway. Are there ways to control plant height and keep them from stretching?

There are three methods of control: biological, physical and chemical. Lets look at these methods separately.

Gardening Tips: Controlling Plant Height In the Greenhouse

Biological Method: thoroughly research the cultivars you want to grow. Many bedding plants have varying maturity heights; short, medium and tall. Select the cultivars that best suit the area in the greenhouse where it will grow. It is best to grow varieties that stay short, as this is an easier way to control the plants height. The plant takes care of itself.
Schedule your start times so the plants will mature on time. Starting seeds too soon and allowing them too much time to grow creates a need to “hold back” the plant. Trying to hold a plant back from maturing is very hard to do and in the efforts made to try and accomplish this, the quality of the plant can diminish. I remember starting tomato seeds in late February for a May planting. I was a little over anxious. The seeds germinated right on time and continued to grow rapidly. There was no holding them back and I wound up with tomato trees. I lost many of the plants along the way as I was trying to maintain them. The following season I adjusted the start times, what a difference a few weeks made.

Physical Method: this control method encompasses many aspects of the plants growth from the growing environment to the cultural practices used.

1. Light intensity is one of the easier ways to keep plant height controlled. Give the plant ample room to grow. Crowding the growing area creates competition for all available light giving less to each plant. Grow only the amount of plants that you can feasibly fit in your greenhouse. Once a plant senses the others presence next to it, the plant will start to grow upward. Keep the canopy open by limiting the amount of hanging baskets grown. The plants below will be shaded too much for proper growth. I ignored these suggestions when I grew for retail purposes. I would try to squeeze out as many plants as I could from the greenhouse and indeed some plants did suffer; growing tall and leggy and ultimately not surviving the season due to the stresses they were put under.

2. If your greenhouse is made of glass, make sure it is kept clean as much as possible. The amount of light that is able to come through a dirty glass panel is diminished considerably. Plastic coverings that are old tend to turn yellow. This too causes less light to come through. Replace the covering when it is showing signs of aging. Poor lighting conditions cause the plants to stretch and grow leggy. Provide as much light as you can.

3. Container size helps to control plant height as well. Using containers that are too small, creating restricted root systems, reduces the stretching of bedding plants.

4. Watering a plant less often, allowing it to wilt slightly between waterings, gives a shorter plant, but you risk poor quality if wilting is allowed to occur too often. Plants can tolerate a certain amount of wilting. Be careful to not allow the plant to wilt to the point of no return.

5. Fertilizing less is an old time favorite way to control plant height. This method can be quite successful, so long as it is controlled. The nutrients that effect plant size are nitrogen and phosphorous. Nitrogen withheld has the biggest effect on plant height; however, allowing too much deprivation of the N nutrient for too long a period can cause yellowing of the leaves and overall poor quality. There are special fertilizers sold at garden centers that have predetermined nutrient combinations, for example, regular use of the water- soluble 20-1-20 or 20-2-20, has been shown to produce shorter, stockier plants.

6. Temperature control, using a method known in the industry as DIF, has been shown to be a useful method in controlling plant height. Developed by researchers from Michigan State University back in the 1980’s, their research basically showed that the average temperature (the average day plus night temp) affects a plants growth rate with higher averages resulting in more rapid growth and development.

DIF, the difference between day temps and night temps affects stem elongation and height. Stem elongation is the distance of the stem from one node to the next. DIF is calculated as the day temp minus the night temp and can be either positive DIF (day temp is higher than night), zero DIF (day temp = night) or negative DIF (day temp is less than night).

Trying to keep a greenhouse in negative DIF is a difficult task for most. Another way was found that accomplished reducing a plants height and is the easiest DIF treatment to use, it is called “cool morning pulse”. By reducing the greenhouse temperature 5 to 10 degrees F lower than the night temperature for 2 to 3 hours, starting 30 minutes before dawn, reduced plant height as effectively as negative DIF and was easier to do. Here is an example: night temp of 68 -degreesF, two hour drop to 60 -degreesF (30 minutes before dawn), and then 65 -degreesF maintained during the day. For warmer plants: 72 -degreesF at night; 64 -degreesF pre-dawn for 2 to 3 hours; 65-degreesF day.

There are thermostatically controlled devices that you can set up to automatically change these temperatures at the correct times. Salvia, Rose, Snapdragon and Fuchsia had very good responses to this DIF control compared to Aster, French Marigold, Tulip and Squash which showed little or no response.

Mechanical Methods are used and have been known for a long time to be a good control. By brushing, shaking or bending the plant on a regular basis caused the plants to stay short. A mechanical device was created for use in commercial greenhouses that grow vegetable seedlings. A bar is drawn across the tops of the seedlings once or twice a day. The bar is low enough to make contact with the plant without breaking the tops. A 40 percent reduction in height was recorded. Other systems using vibrations, periodic shaking and blowing air movement are also good methods of height control.

Chemical Method is really the last resort that should be taken. Improperly applying these chemicals can cause extensive damage to the plant and can be unhealthy for anyone entering the greenhouse. Chemical growth regulators are not approved for use on vegetable seedlings. A hormone called gibberellins is responsible for a plants cellular growth and elongation. Growth regulators and retardants are anti-gibberellins that inhibit gibberellin’s synthesis thus keeping the plants from growing tall. Common growth regulators and retardants are A-Rest, B-Nine, Bonzi, Cycocel, Florel and Sumagic, each used on different plants and performing different functions.

These chemical controls are considered pesticides and are best left to the professional. For the hobby greenhouse grower the non-chemical methods of control are best.

Spring is here and that mean many people are looking to get outside and do some gardening. Stein Gardens Gifts makes is easy. Angela shares some simple tips, take a look.

The information, advice and answers displayed by FOX 11 Living Sponsors are those of individual sponsors and not FOX 11 WLUK-TV / LIN Television Corporation. WLUK FOX 11 presents this content on behalf of each participating FOX 11 Living sponsor. Sponsored content is copyrighted to its respective sponsor unless otherwise indicated.

If you love birds, you’ll want your back yard to be a safe, inviting place for these creatures, and one they have every reason to visit and even nest in. There are three needs every bird has: Food, water and shelter. Providing these things can be expensive, but we’ve got a plan for attracting birds to your back yard for less than $100. In fact, you might have enough left over to pay someone to silence the neighbor’s cat…but we certainly can’t advocate that. Or at least we probably shouldn’t!

Food is the most fun, so let’s leave that until the end. Making sure birds have water is easy and can be relatively inexpensive. Consider a bird bath, for example. Rather than pay for a new one, you may find you can come up with one from what you already have. A saucer-type sled, for example, is perfect. Excavate a small area in the lawn that will accept the concave shape of the saucer and install it. Fill it with water, and you are done! Empty and clean the saucer periodically. You’ll likely think of other ready-made bird baths as you look through your garage or basement. Don’t use anything deep, since you don’t want birds or small critters like mice to get in over their heads. If you choose to elevate the saucer bath, perhaps an old grill stand will serve the purpose. These items might needs a little paint to make them look presentable, but that will cost much less than new items.

Attracting Birds to your Backyard with less than $100

For shelter, there are many options. Birds love trees, of course, where they can nest or rest off of the ground. Local arbor societies offer small trees, seedlings, or saplings very inexpensively. Yes, they’ll take a few years to grow to adequate size for nesting, but with some long-term perspective now, you’ll create a backyard that will be the envy of your birding buddies before you know it.

For bird houses, make them yourself out of scrap wood if you are handy. Easy to follow directions are available online, and the birds won’t care that it isn’t brand new! If you choose to buy a bird house, perfectly satisfactory models can be found for under $10, so two or three won’t break your budget.

When it comes to food, let’s talk about feeders. There’s no good reason to buy them if you are on a tight budget. Gallon milk jugs can be used quite easily. Clean them out thoroughly first. Then cut a small opening in one side for birds to access. Keep the cap on it to prevent rain from soaking the seeds. Tie some twine to the handle, and hang it wherever you’d normally place a feeder. Several of these in the yard will work really well as feeders. If you find the white unattractive you might be able to paint them brown or green to look better outdoors. Buy paint formulated to stick to plastic. Another option is to buy a few gallons of water in perfectly clear plastic jugs, which won’t will blend in well in the yard.

Finally, we suggest you grow your own bird food in a birdseed garden, since a season’s worth of buying it will break the budget pretty quickly. See our guide entitled “How to Attract Birds to your Garden” for details, but bird favorites like sunflowers, millet, milo, safflower, sorghum, and thistle may easily be grown. The simplest way might be to buy an inexpensive bag of bird seed, prepare a plot of it, open it up and scatter it in about the density you’d scatter grass seed. Rake it in, cover it with an inch or two of top soil and water it, then let it grow.

If you can purchase berry bushes or grape vines inexpensively, let the fruit on them dry, and the birds will feast on it! Do some research and find out what birds prefer which types of seeds, and grow what will attract your favorites. What you grow this year will serve as next year’s feed. If you want to remove the sunflower and seeds to place in feeders near the house for better viewing, that’s an option. Harvest enough to supply seed for next year’s garden, anyway. You can also leave it on the plant and let the birds harvest it for themselves! Grow flowers that produce an abundance of seeds. Don’t deadhead them, but let the seeds dry on the stem. The birds will find them and enjoy nibbling on their offerings. Good flowers for this purpose include Coneflower, Blazing Star, Black-Eyed Susan, Bee Balm, Indian Grass, Globe Thistle, and Evening Primrose. These are just a few. Check your growing zone to look for others.

Food, water, and shelter can be provided for your favorite birds, and on a budget, too! You’ll save money and experience wonderful satisfaction whenever you watch this creatures .