Helpful Tips and Hints Wanted

[Ann B.]

Hi, Everyone!

One of our members has made the wonderful suggestion of starting a new thread asking for helpful hints and tips.

If you are like me, you have your eyes and ears open for all the tips you can get regarding propagation and gardening.

So, please help us all out here, and place your tips and hints here!:D

[Ann B.]

Where I have my hostas and pink hydrangeas used to have a lot of shells that the builder put there. They are also close to my patio which is cement and increases alkalinity. The small amount of acidity added by tea bags should be able to be compensated easily by some ground or pulverized limestone which also has the added benefit of calcium which can be lacking in our acidic soils.

So, now you can tell my Master Gardener instructor that, maybe, I am learning something after all. I am just kidding. I am learning a lot from my training. And Acidity in the soil can be a benefit, but can also be detrimental to many plants.

One thing I have learned from MG training is that it is a lot easier to increase PH (ie., reduce acidity) than it is to reduce alkaline content(ie., increase acidity) depending on your natural soil conditions.

Maybe, I should make a topic of this... Hmmm, Maybe I should learn more first!

[Ann B.]

P.S. I have applied coffee grounds (used) to my hosta beds to help to rid of slugs, and my hostas flourished without those critters nibbling on them so bad. The slugs still do not bother the hostas, even though it has been two years since I spinkled the grounds around the hostas. However, they are eating everything else that I have not treated with either coffee grounds or course sand.

Slugs adore our humidity and wet climate...

[Ann B.]

Most of my vinyl blinds are too long (height) for my windows and really need to be shortened. What does that have to do with gardening?

Well, I remove the extra blind segments, cut them up and use them as plant labels. A #2 pencil writes very well on them, and you can cut the sections into whatever length you need and even cut them in half again vertically to make more narrow markers. You can make them any length that you want, and an ordinary, cheap pair of scissors will cut them.

(Do the cuttings while watching the evening news or during a thunderstorm like we had here today and put them in a zip lock bag for future use.)

In fact, you can make the plant markers any size you please, and one blind will last a very, very long time. The cheaper the blind, the better. You can usually find these at Walmart or Kmart for $4-$5

The pencil markings will erase, but will not wash away in the rain, and you don't have to worry about using a permanent ink marker.

Keep everything labeled and dated, and your life will be much simpler.

Hope that helps at least one of you!

[Log Cabin Pat]

Hi
This is great I love tips. Heres a few from me.
1) Get out of your greenhouse in a lighting storm! I got zapped once, lighting travels underground and gets everything metal in the way.
2) Dry out egg shells grind them and put them, along with coffee and tea grounds into your compost pile. I know everyone here has a compost pile.
3) I make use of all my old milk jugs. They make really nice make shift pots cut off the tops and put holes in the bottom. In the spring I cut out the front leaving the handle and put determinate tomatoes in them. They are able to grow to a really nice size and sell them for $2. Everyone loves my jug tomatoes as they call them. They are easy to carry with the handle still on.

Pat

[Ann B.]

Also, when a thunderstorm is approaching, do not let the lack of dark clouds and rain fool you. Yesterday, we had one of those unusual storms where the lightening reached us 30 minutes before the dark clouds and rain did.

The sun was shining and a storm was located to the west of us. Hunter and I were outside talking to a neighbor when there was a loud clash of thunder which instantly followed a bolt of lightning. Hunter ran inside immediately. He has been taught not to be outside if there is thunder.

I was going to shut the greenhouse door in case there might be a lot of wind, but a bolt came down just to the northeast of us. Again, there were no dark clouds. I told my myself, forget the door, we can replace it if it rips off.

Don't take the chance folks! If you can hear the thunder, go inside. We were lucky and nothing was hit, but our neighbor's computer was fried well after the storm had passed us.:(

[Ann B.]

So, you have just bought some seed that look like dust and require light for germination. How do you plant them without them being so close together.

The dust like seed are difficult. If they require light for germination, then it is very difficult to spread them evenly. And keeping the soil moist is even more difficult.

This is what I do. I use a large flat instead of tray cells and fill only half way with a fine soil mixture. Dampen the soil mixture, then I sprinkle the seeds, dispersing them as well as I can in the center of the flat. Then I spritz the center of the container with water.

I set the spray to provide as fine a mist as I can, then hold the spray bottle of water as perpendicular as I can to the surface of the soil, spritz several times. The spray of the water will disperse the seeds without burying them.

Then keep the top of the soil moist by spritzing as needed and please cover with plastic wrap or a sheet of plexiglass or glass to retain moisture.

I have grown many african violet and gloxinia with this method. The trick is to keep the soil moist, not wet, and the humidity high.

[Ann B.]

Use a clean and sterile salt shaker which has small holes. Remove the top, then fill with 1/4 to 1/2 inch fine, dry, sterile sand. Pour the seeds into the salt shaker. Making sure your hands are freshly washed and very dry, cup the palm of your hand tightly over the salt shaker (without lid), and shake to disperse the seed into the sand.

Replace the top of the salt shaker and shake the mixture on top of your prepared soil, lightly, just as you would salt your food. Spritz with water as described in the previous reply, cover with clear plastic, plexiglass or dome.

Keep moist and Watch those tiny babies grow!