Archive for the ‘Basic Gardening’ Category
Tips for gardening from experts.
30
Apr
Here are some tips on gardening:
Mix together rubbing alcohol with an equal amount of white vinegar and water and place in a spray bottle in order to remove salt deposits from clay pots. Spray the mixture to the pot and scrub it, then allow to dry before using as a planter.
If you would like to keep from getting dirt under your nails while you are working in the garden, you can scrape them across the bar of soap so that the nail cannot fit anything else under it.
Treat the line on your string trimmer in order to prevent jamming or breaking.
Place a garden twine in the pot and pull the end of the twine down through the drainage hole and set the pot unpside down on the ground.
Create markers by writing names of plants of plants with a permanent marker on flat rocks of different sizes and put them near the base of a plant.
You can control aphids with a blast of water from a hose or with insecticidal soap. Or, you can wrap a piece of tape around your hand, sticky side out and pat the leaves of the plants. This will collect them and get them away from the plants.
Plants respond well to water used to boil or steam vegetables. Also, you can use left over tea or coffee grounds. Plants such as rhododendrons, camelias, azaleas and blueberries love them. Lightly sprinkle 1/4 of an inch once amonth which will help keep the pH of the soil on the acidic side.
Chamomile tea can be used to get the plants rid of fungus. The fungus often will attach a young seedlings very suddenly, but if you use the chamomile around the base once a week or use it as a foliar spray.
Building rock walls or boundaries around gardens or flower beds.
19
Apr
More and more people are using stones in gardens these days. Flower beds or gardens can be edged in stone and rocks or an entire wall can serve as a planting site. Weeds will grow through the rocks so plants and herbs can be a nice touch. Here are a few steps to help out if you decide to do these things.
First of all you will need to choose your rocks or stones that you would like to use. Make sure that they fit with the rest of your landscape and that they are flat. Stone quarries can be a great place to find the rocks that you need that are flatter.
Use good planting soil and compost can be used for the wall. If you mix in some gravel, it will assist in the drainage.
Place stakes where you want the wall to begin and end and run a string between them to mark the walls. Dig a trench around four inches deep along the string and fill in with sand and/or gravel. You need to stomp on the filler so that it is stable.
Place the rocks together over the base and leave an inch or so between the rocks. Cover each layer with an inch of soil mix and stagger the rocks as you place them, leaving a larger space for larger plants.
Tuck the plants and herbs in the spaces and fill in the extra places with more soil and tamp it in. Water from the top down so that the water will roll down the wall.
