Favorite gardening tip

Tired of your Terra Cotta pots drying out and not being able to water them frequently enough?? Before you pot, Line the inside of the pot with a plastic bag and make a drainage hole at the bottom. Make sure the plastic hole is bigger than the drainage hole and spread the bag away from the drainage hole. You must use a bag that will accomodate the upper part of the pot, but is is alright if the bottom has some folds that aren't flush. Just press the plastic to the pot as you fill. Fill the pot to 3/4 of the way and cut the bag down to size so that you will not see it after you are done filling with the soil... Oh yeah, put your plant in it too!!! Before you get the soil all in there!! You can use a large trash bag for your larger pots and it works great.

Susan McCoy

Just ordered my Mudgloves and they have a special for othere gloves and they are very reasonable. :) Thanks for sharing.

Susan

They are excellent gloves. You will be very happy with them. I love them because you can grip things easily (the rubber) like weeds and bags of top soil and wheelbarrows etc. Nothing but the most prickly things can go through them. They are washable as well.
Mobi

Glad this got bumped! I would never have found this thread otherwise.

If you can plan ahead, put your compost bin where you plan to put in
a new bed. I use one of those wire square ones. If its not composted
in the spring, you can put morning glory vines or some such to hide
it 'til fall and then dig the bed & amend it with your compost. saves
lugging the stuff around.

Be VERY careful about accepting plants from friends. Typically
there's a reason they have lots of extras to give away :-)

Yeah, like they're either weeds or invasive... LOL! Check for bugs Too!
Thanks for reminding me on that one Tammy.

~* Robin

Pencils are very handy for gardening. They're just the right sized tool to use for gently extracting seedlings to tranplant. They also make perfect sized holes for sowing seed.

And for inserting cuttings - pencils, that is.

more garden tips:

place lava rock around the base of your hostas , it tears the snails skin if they try to crawl across...

Large pots: fill the bottom half with gum balls and then add your potting mix, saves on so much potting mix and the gum balls decay over time...

I use plastic knives as garden markers.

loved the tip about panty hose to tie up plants and the alfalfa mix.

Well shoot! My whole flowerbeds are covered in lava rock. Nobody told the snails/slugs here that it does that. HARHAR

Great tips :)

If you write bigger than a plastic knife, you can pick up venetian blinds for a buck at yard sales, cut them up and use them as markers too.

Susan

To keep plants from creeping out the bottoms of their pots:

I put one to one & a half cup(s) of small limestones in each one gallon or 6" plastic pot!
You can use more if you want to. By the inches in bigger pots

Works wonders ie:
1) keeps roots from going out the bottom of the pots
2) prevents slugs and thugs from entering through a 'secret door'
3) better water drainage
4) adds weight for wind thrashing
5) and all plants love lime!

I use a paper towel (biodegradable) in the bottom of pots with big holes to keep the stones in check while filling them. The paper towels errode and the soil weight and water keep the stones in place later on.

~* Robin

When you plant trees, shrubs and other root bound plants into the ground, make four vertical slits into the root balls evenly spaced apart.

This stops the roots from growing compacted and encourages growing outwards.

Many city landfills have leaf mold or compost free for residents : )

my mother uses coffee filters in the bottom of pots to keep stuff in.

OOh, coffee filters sounds like a great idea!

My only real words of gardening wisdom that I live by is to NEVER miss an opportunity to amend your soil. Any hole you dig - no matter how small - always at least throw some compost in it - it will pay off in huge dividends down the road! -C

I use used dryer sheets, or newspaper in the bottom of pots to keep soil etc. in.

This message was edited May 4, 2005 10:25 AM

For whiteflies: I put about 1/4 to 1/2" of regular lemon-scented dish soap in a spray bottle and fill with water. Douse the plant with soapy water: presto! Insecticidal soap that will NOT harm the hummers and flutterbys. (I just caught my neighbor using malathion to get rid of fleas! GRRRRR! Do you want to enjoy my flutterbys or do you want to poison them all?)

Plant stakes: I keep a pile of deadfall in the backyard. It provides cover and shelter for some critters, nesting material for birds and I always have a ready supply of plant stakes that are just the right size (with my pruners) to help support a plant. And, they have the added benefit of a) decomposing eventually and b) camoflage -- the sticks blend right in with the foilage of a plant and you can't even see where I've staked the plant.

Coffee: I toss the grounds in with the leftover coffee, refill the carafe to full and then pour over the gardenias or hydrangeas.

Oh, and mulch, mulch, mulch.

Finally, like editors, you'll never get two gardeners to agree on the "right" way to do something. LOL

Here's what you can do with the catnip when you want to grow it outside:

1) Go to your garage (or neighbors) make sure you have permission, garage sale, lawn sale, thrift/second hand store, or local recycling place, etc... and get a bird cage, if it has no bottom that's ok. ** Make sure it is a wired type, with all 4 sides and top.** Make sure it can stand upright.

2) Remove bottom if it's there; use that for a water tray under some plants if it's plastic.

3) Buy or find some (8) metal garden 'cloth' U-hooks/Pins.

4) Go buy more catnip plants. Plant catnip where you want. Place bird cage ontop and secure down tightly with at least *8* metal garden 'cloth' U-hooks/Pins.

Now you can have catnip in the ground without the cats crushing it to death.... They can smell it.... They can reach in and touch it... They can even get a few nips off the top, when it gets taller, and pokes out of the top of the cage..... but they can't squish and roll all up into it.....

Besides; it's so much fun watching them try!

HTH

~& Robin

Sounds like a PLAN!

Thats clever Robin, I have some wire hanging baskets that are not being used, and I cut metal coat hangers when I need bendable metal ground fasteners, I bet I could make a decent "safe" catnip bed! Thanks for the idea!

Excellent tip about the catnip!

That is a neat idea. I have 3 outdoor kitties and they all love my catnip. I planted it for them but it looks so bad crushed over.

great idea Thanks.

Here's one that may already be on here.

Wear LONG sleeves when messing with any type of Ornamental Grass!!!! I have scars on my arms due to my hard headedness.....

Nicole

We generally get ants in the kitchen every spring. The boric acid/sugar/water mix works here. The way I do it is to make up the mix of 1/4tsp boric acid, 1 1/2 T sugar, 1/2 c hot water. This goes into a labelled canning jar just for this purpose. The trap is made from either an old plastic tub that coleslaw comes in, a 1 liter soda bottle etc. Clear is best but not necessary. 1 or more 1/4-1/2" holes are cut about 1/4 up from the bottom. A handfull of cotton balls go inside the container and the poison is poured on the cotton till it is saturated but not overflowing. The lid goes on and this is set in an out of the way place that the ants frequent. It may take the ants a day or so to find the bait and at least a week or two is needed to do the job. The ants will gather at the opening, feed on the bait and take it back to the colony. I only have to do a single treatment a year and when I stop seeing visitors the container gets thrown in the trash and the jar is washed and kept under the sink for next year.

I just ask mine to go away, and they do. If they don't, I put down several small slips of paper with "Ants 6X" written on it (homeopathic remedy) and that works.

edited for spelling

This message was edited May 10, 2005 9:39 PM

Wow, what well behaved ants Darius!! :)

Susan

Y'all can laugh, but it REALLY works~!

Well, it is different, but without getting all philosophical here, I do believe that there is energy we put out and senses that we are unaware of, so you (and your ants) just have a heightened sense is all :)

Susan

~ Bump! ~

~* Robin

When potting up cuttings for expanding a bed, I always mix into the potting soil some of the "native soil" from the area I plan to put the cutting. That way, it doesn't go into "culture shock" when its pampered little roots expand out and hit the real world of red clay (or what ever is out there).

Turn all containers without drainage holes upside down when not in use to prevent a major skeeter infestation.

Keep the spike type moisture meters everywhere. I lost count of how many plants I lost because I thought it was "wet enough" or "dry enough" and my meter was way over yonder. Now, I have half a dozen of them, and generally, at least one is within reach.

If you (like me) end up with pots of dirt/potting soil sitting around with nothing growing in them, always sift through the dirt before reusing it. I have had some strange combinations of flowers come up together because I forgot what had originally been in "that pot".

When friends, relatives and strangers start crossing the street when they see you coming, its time to just throw away some of the pruning bits instead of potting them ALL up and trying to give away the extras! (This is an extremely hard one to hammer home, but sometimes, necessary!)

TGIF - all are good hints, but that last one really hit home here. lol lol

Yeah but!!! DH says he cut something once, potted what he wanted and threw the rest into the gully behind the house. All the potted cuttings died, but the gully was in full bloom! Oh well, sometimes you win,.......

Hi,

I'm fairly new as a subscriber and just found this thread.

Last year there was a really short discussion about what people use for garden ties. Nylon stockings were mentioned. I used to use them but like the poster last year, I no longer wear enough. However, I also found that they would go through the compost year after year without breaking down.

Now I use my husband's old 100% cottom t-shirts. He wears them, no matter what the weather, under his dress shirts and really wears out a few each year. Sometimes I buy a package of fabric dye and color them green (save them up and dye several at one time or save half the package for another occasion). I've also colored them in strong tea which will lend a brownish color.

Then I sit down while watching TV (a rare occurrence - I'd rather work in the garden) and cut them in a spiral fashion. Stretch them and roll into a ball. When you get to the sleeves and top of the shirt where the pieces are shorter, I just tie them together before rolling.

They work great, can be cut to the desired size easily, and are fully biodegradeable. Also cuts down on landfill.

Ann

Good idea, Ann!

When building raised beds I had a real problem choosing a weed barrier, didn't want to use black plastic, weed cloth was the next option which I used on two, with the 3rd I used old, heavy duty 100% cotton sheets that I had been using for dog beds. Worked like a charm, I'm very pleased.

I'm also I'm planning on using them under the mulch this fall.

Judy

judyc-- One layer of the sheeting works ok? (great alternative idea, btw)

soozer,

I put down a double layer in the raised beds because I had plenty.

Judy

Really need to check the tags on the sheet so I don't lay down a cotton-blend that won't break down so well.

Even if you are absolutely sure you will remember what type of seeding you are potting up into 25 pots and you know what they will be, PUT A TAG ON THEM like I should have done!! I have no idea whatsoever what these plants are.

Susan