Main > Gardening
Plant health is similar to human health. Slow-release chemicals, stable levels of moisture and warmth, no focus on cosmetics or dress-ups, and moderate exposure to water, bacteria, and fresh air and water.
Also, plants are stronger when exposed to a wide variety of bacteria and other environmental changes.
kellyjones00 (593)
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Main > Gardening > Fruit and vegetables
Keeping seedlings moist enough is the main key to giving them a good start. Delicate starters (carrots, onions, cucumber, etc) can be kept moist under hessian sacks until the sprouts have unfurled a leaf or two, whereas sturdier types (silverbeet, radish, beans, corn, peas, etc) can be sown in a raised then depressed mound (a mound with a soil edge) to aid in drainage and also to prevent run-off.
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Main > Gardening
When buying plants for your landscape, select well-adapted plant types for your soil, temperature range, and sun or shade exposure.
Kevin Solway (173)
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Main > Gardening
The most important step in pest management is to maintain healthy soil. It produces healthy plants, which are better able to withstand disease and insect damage.
Kevin Solway (173)
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Main > Gardening
Compost improves soil structure, texture, aeration, and increases the soil's water holding capacity. It also promotes soil fertility and stimulates healthy root development.
Kevin Solway (173)
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Main > Gardening > Pests
Washing-up liquid can be used as an insecticide when you mix it with water. Take 1 to 3 tablespoons of washing-up liquid, mix into 1 gallon of water, put it in a spray bottle and spray the entire plant.
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Main > Gardening > Flowers
Cut flower stems at an angle. This creates a larger surface area for the flower to draw up water. Also, remember to put your cut flowers in water immediately so that air-pockets don't form in the stems and cause them to droop.
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Main > Gardening > Potted plants
You can use bubble wrap to line pots of container grown plants to keep the warm during the winter months.
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Main > Gardening > Bulbs
To prevent animals from digging up your bulbs, before you plant them, wrap them in a thin layer of steel wool.
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Main > Gardening > Potted plants
Use old knitwear or newspapers as low-cost hanging basket liners.
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Main > Gardening > Hedges
Make sure you get a level edge when pruning garden hedges by fastening a length of rope to two points across the top.
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Main > Gardening > Weeds
Salted boiling water makes an excellent weed killer on paths and driveways.
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Main > Gardening > Pests
Stop cats climbing into your garden by spraying your wooden fences with surgical spirit.
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Main > Gardening > Pests
Deter dogs with unwanted perfume and aftershave and liberal sprinklings of pepper.
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Main > Gardening > Planting
If you plant seeds in a straight line you'll be better able to spot weeds as they come up.
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Main > Gardening > Planting
Use a length of garden hose or drainpipe to sow seeds if you have difficulty bending down.
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Main > Gardening > Fertilizer
For an instant plant pick-me-up give them a drink of non-diet coca cola.
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Main > Gardening > Lawn
Always water your lawn in the evening. This allows time for the moisture to soak in overnight and prevents burnt spots.
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Main > Gardening
Cut up old margarine tubs and use them to create plant labels.
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Main > Gardening > Greenhouses
Bring a sparkle back to your greenhouse windows by rubbing them with scrunched-up newspaper dipped in water and vinegar.
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Main > Gardening > Potted plants
If you live in a cold climate, don't use cold water straight from the tap to water your house plants, but fill your watering can the night before so that the water is at room temperature.
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Main > Gardening > Lawn
During a long spell of hot weather leave grass clippings on the lawn to act as a mulch which will keep the soil more moist.
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Main > Gardening > Equipment
Garden boots and wellies starting to smell? - cut an orange into two and place one half in each over night - it works a treat.
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Main > Gardening > Lawn
Use a mulching mower, saving you the trouble of having to use a catcher, and returning the clippings to the lawn as fertilizer.
Kevin Solway (173)
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Main > Gardening > Lawn
User fertilizer to make your lawn grow thicker and greener. This will make it harder for weeds to grow.
Kevin Solway (173)
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Main > Gardening > Lawn
Mow your lawn frequently, never cutting off more than about 30% of the length of the grass blades. If you let grass grow too long the grass will become less dense, and this leave room for weeds to grow.
Kevin Solway (173)
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Main > Gardening > Lawn
Blade Sharpness: A dull mower blade shreds the tips of the grass blades. The shredding opens the ends of the leaf blades for increased moisture loss and potentially provides a site for disease invasion. Lawns cut with a dull mower blade may have an overall white appearance from the shredded grass blades.
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Main > Gardening > Lawn
Property value: A great lawn has more than just health value. Appraisers estimate that a well-landscaped and maintained lawn adds 7% to the value of residential property. A recent Gallup Survey concluded that a 15% increase in selling price can be realized when the home is nicely landscaped.
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Main > Gardening > Tree removal
If you live in a cold climate, you may be able to have the tree removed for a reduced price if the wood from the tree can be used for firewood.
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Main > Gardening > Stump removal
Remove a stump without a stump grinder: Make many cuts and cross cuts on the top of the trunk with a chain saw or circular saw (in a crisscross pattern). Pour a liberal amount of water over the stump. Next put one or two shovels full of compost on top of the stump. Then place a sheet of clear plastic over the stump and secure it into place with rocks or bricks. A combination of the sun, heat, existing bacteria in the compost and the moisture will cause the wood to break down and accelerate the decomposition process.
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Main > Gardening > Tree removal
If the tree is close enough to your house that it may do some damage during removal, make sure that the person doing the removal is covered by insurance.
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Main > Gardening > Tree removal
Make sure you have someone to help you. Even with smaller trees, things can go wrong.
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Main > Gardening > Tree removal
To remove larger branches from the tree, attach a rope around a single branch to help guide it down. Cut a wedge into the underside of the branch where it attaches to the tree. This will help to guide where the branch will fall. Slice from the topside of the branch, just above the wedge, in a downward motion to cut off branch.
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Main > Gardening > Stump removal
The dental method: dig a hole down into the root mass of the stump, stick explosives in there, detonate, then hook a chain around the stump and drag it out with a tractor.
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Main > Gardening > Fertilizer
For instant effects, use a soluble fertilizer. Use this only when plants are actively growing, otherwise it will be washed away without having any effect.
thesource (378)
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Main > Gardening > Fertilizer
Don't use too much fertilizer otherwise the excess will be washed away and end up in the waterways, where it will cause environmental problems. Rich soil with a lot of organic matter will require less fertilizer than poor soil.
thesource (378)
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Main > Gardening > Potted plants
When you find your pot-plants growing lopsidedly towards the sun, instead of vertically, don't correct them. It is using up their growing-energy, and they'll end up exactly as they were before anyway, unless you use a stake.
kellyjones00 (593)
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Main > Gardening
Compost: Egg shells are a welcome addition to any compost because they add calcium to the mix. However, they take a long time to break down. It is recommended you get a mortar and pestle and finely crush the shells before you add them to the compost. Otherwise they look very unsightly in the soil.
myxlfidian (150)
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Main > Gardening > Pests
Australian Brush Turkeys: Some places are plagued with these large ground-dwelling native birds, which destroy your garden to make a nest. One way to solve the problem is to buy a rectangular pot for growing small vegetables and place it fairly high up on a very small ledge. Preferably, the ledge should have no additional room on it for the birds to establish a foothold while they investigate (i.e. destroy) your crop. On top of an outdoor electricity box with access to sunlight is perfect. Although the birds can fly, they need a decent ledge to land on - deprive them of that and they are risking their own health to attack a small piece of dirt.
Some people try rubber snakes, stakes, chicken wire under the topsoil, netting, large mirrors (they are frightened by other birds), small greenhouses or planting in what appears to be an already debris-scattered area. Each of these techniques will fail because either the birds can still access the area and will eventually damage it or the costs are prohibitive. The only way is if the birds can't even get to the soil.
myxlfidian (150)
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Main > Gardening
Watering: It is advisable to do it at dusk or night so the water doesn't just evaporate away. It will seep further into the soil that way so that when the sun comes up, much of the water is already safe from evaporation underground.
For small pots, a trigger spray is better than a watering can. There's no chance of soil disruption with a fine mist. If you have seeds yet to germinate, a watering can might bring them to the surface where they may be eaten by small birds.
myxlfidian (150)
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Main > Gardening > Tools
When digging, wear spectacles and gloves. This helps keep bacteria in the soil from entering the bloodstream.
kellyjones00 (593)
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Main > Gardening > Potted plants
Growing Vegetables in Pots: Be aware that potted vegies need a lot more water than vegies grown in the ground. On a hot day you might have to water them several times.
Some ways of dealing with that are to get topsoil with a wetting agent (releases moisture more gradually over time, i.e. it can last 9 months), by a self-watering fluted planter that you fill with water from its base, place pots in largely shaded areas (not totally or plants cannot grow without light) and set up automatic watering if you have a tap nearby.
Make sure you plant seeds at the recommended depth because bulbs that grow in the sun will burst their skin. In this instance, top up the exposed areas with new topsoil.
Ensure you water seedlings less than 10 days old after germination at least once a day if not more, but reduce watering after this, unless you see signs of drooping or drying-out leaves.
myxlfidian (150)
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Main > Gardening > Pests
Half a teaspoon of eucalyptus oil mixed with half a litre of water makes for a good bug repellent for plants. But experiment first: you might repel helpful predators as well, and be worse off.
kellyjones00 (593)
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Main > Gardening > Fruit and vegetables
Grow vegies: most vegies are not wild plants, but human-dependent plants that need high levels of nutrients. During the warmer days of massive vegetative growth, they have to fertilised every 1-2 weeks and given trace elements (e.g. seaweed tea, worm castings).
kellyjones00 (593)
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Main > Gardening > Fruit and vegetables
Plan for continuous food with staggered sowing every 2 weeks or so. This means planning how much space you'll need in advance. Don't crowd your plants.
kellyjones00 (593)
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Main > Gardening > Fruit and vegetables
Weed with a sharp hoe: always keep weeds out of your vegie beds with a weekly scrape across the soil surface with a sharp hoe. Weeds are vigorous competition for nutrients that your vegies need.
kellyjones00 (593)
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Main > Gardening > Fruit and vegetables
Some cheap fertilisers: Well-composted poultry manure. Seedmeal (e.g. linseed, soybean meal, coprameal). Dolomite lime and gypsum. Baked then crushed shells and bones. Urine. Adjust proportions to suit your soil type.
kellyjones00 (593)
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Main > Gardening > Fruit and vegetables
Strawberries, blueberries: in early spring, after the new canes and new certified-disease-free strawberry runners are growing well, add pine needles to the bed to lower the pH. Don't add before they're thriving.
kellyjones00 (593)
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Main > Gardening > Fruit and vegetables
Leafy greens need to stay moist and well-nourished to burgeon. As well as a side-dressing of organic fertiliser, spray the leaves of greens with seaweed tea weekly.
kellyjones00 (593)
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Main > Gardening > Fruit and vegetables
Growing herbs cheaply: many cuttings strike roots. Buy some fresh herbs, clip off most of the leaves and trim the base, then dip in weak seaweed tea and place in potting mix. This works for many cuttings. Cover with the top of a plastic bottle to reduce moisture loss.
kellyjones00 (593)
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