Happy Garden - June 7, 2007

We have lots of gardening tips this week, I hope you find them useful. We also have been recieving more gardening photos than in past weeks, which is wonderful! Keep them coming, we love to see what readers are growing in their gardens.

Until next week...

Happy Gardening!

Susan

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Photos:

• What's this Flower
• The Easter Bunny and My Veggies
• Homemade Rain Barrel
• Beautiful Fuchsia
• First Rose of the Season
• Rainbow Through the Lilacs

Tips and Articles:

• Reuse Cooking Water In Garden
• Skewers To Keep Squirrels Out of Planting Containers
• Wire Coathangers For Gardening
• Use Tires for Protecting Plants
• Chemical Free Lawn Care
• Shoe Covers in the Garden
• Frugal Weed Killer
• Storing and Caring for Lawn and Garden Tools
• Milk Jugs to Protect Plants From Rabbits
• Garden Decor With Yard Sale Finds
• Plastic Knives as Row Markers
• Starting and Keeping a Worm Bin
• Starting Morning Glories

New Requests:

• Dealing With Annoying Birds
• Climbing Rose Advice
• Thick Webs on My Pear Tree
• More Dandelions Than Lawn
• Getting Rid of Lambsquarter
• Reducing Algae in a Pond
• Struggling Asters
• Starting a Rose Bush from a Cutting
• Are Hens & Chicks supposed to bloom?
• Ground Cover Advice
• Separating Plants in a Dish Garden
• Can carrots and zucchini successfully grow in the tropics?
• Keeping Cats Out of Flower Beds
• Starting a Hedge with Forsythia Clippings

Growing Guides:

• Growing an Indoor Herb Garden

Crafting for Fun and Money!

If you are an avid crafter, capable writer and own a digital camera, you are eligible to participate. Submit your craft projects to ThriftyFun and we will pay $15 for any crafts that we publish.

More Information:
Click Here: http://www.thriftyfun.com/post_craft.ldml

What's this Flower

I deadhead flowers and collect the seeds from various plants when I'm out looking at gardens around the area, then throw them out in the garden. This may be one from one of my excursions or may have been brought in by the birds. It grew last year and is bigger this year than last so it may be a perennial but because I live in a temperate climate, some annuals grow like perennials.

The leaves look "maple like" but with three major sections. The flowers stand up from the leaves. Because there is other foliage around them, it might be hard to tell but hopefully someone can identify this for me.

Susan from ThriftyFun

Flower Close-up


Leaf Close-up

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The Easter Bunny and My Veggies

The following day I shot the second photo from our front yard. I haven't seen him since. He comes and goes at will. I explained on my blog that he's the original Easter Bunny and the youngsters in my extended family were delighted to finally see the elusive fellow actually exists. Now, if I could just capture the real Tooth Fairy too, I'll be legendary.

I really do enjoy The Happy Garden Newsletter. Keep up the great work!

Regards,

Jean

Rabbit Taken In Our Back Yard

Taken the following day in the front yard

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Homemade Rain Barrel

First, cut out the hole in the top, then drill out a hole near the bottom and reach in and attach the faucet parts. There will be a nut on the inside and the faucet on the outside. Run a bead of silicone caulk to make sure nothing leaks. We had the hardware cloth on hand and used small zip ties to attach it. It doesn't keep mosquitoes out, but with three preschoolers in our family, we were more concerned about keeping them out than keeping mosquitoes out. If that isn't a concern for you, you can use window screen for the top.

Our downspout was loose, so we removed the bottom section of pipe, pulled it out from the wall a little, and put the barrel up under it and rested it on some stacked bricks for a gravity flow. I've also seen barrels in my neighborhood with the downspout pipe shortened and directed to flow through the mesh into the barrel.

After the winter thaw and things warmed up, there was a lot of algae growing in the barrel's standing water. The garden plants don't care!

By Katie from Gallup, New Mexico

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Beautiful Fuchsia

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First Rose of the Season

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Rainbow Through the Lilacs

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Reuse Cooking Water In Garden

Save water! Rather than throw leftover water down the drain (from drinking cups or boiling food), use it. I keep a watering can outside my kitchen door that I use to water small outdoor plants. When I go to use it, it's already filled and ready to use.

By Carrie from Yakima, WA

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Skewers To Keep Squirrels Out of Planting Containers

During the summer, I plant vegetables in containers and keep them on my deck. In the past, I've had a great deal of difficulty keeping the squirrels from digging up my new sprouts. A friend gave me an idea which has worked well. What you do is get a package of bamboo skewers, which usually runs about a dollar, and stick the skewers into the soil, with the points sticking up out of the soil and over the edge of the pot. This deters the squirrels from climbing into the pots to dig up the seedlings. It's worked very well, no squirrels have been injured, and my vegetables are allowed to flourish.

By Marie from West Dundee, IL

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Wire Coathangers For Gardening

Re-use old coathangers by twisting to desired shape to hold climbing plants, like roses, in place on lattice or wire structures. Once the cane is trained, you can remove and use elsewhere. Much less painful that tying back! Also handy to hook onto high canes to pull down and position.

By Susan Mary from Tasmania Australia

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Use Tires for Protecting Plants

Old car tyres placed over new trees or shrubs will deter rabbits and possums until plant is mature. The tyres also hold rain-water in the rim which creates a humidified environment for the plant. When watering, also fill the rim. I have used this for some time and found that the plants with tyres flourished more quickly than ones without.

By Susan Mary from Tasmania, Australia

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Chemical Free Lawn Care
By Ellen Brown

We spend a lot of time trying to achieve the perfect lawn. Most of our energy is directed at discouraging the plants we don't want by using weed killing herbicides and insect eradicating pesticides-chemicals that are known to be poisonous. There is a healthier and easier way based on the principle that "less is more." The key is to encourage the plants we do want by optimizing the conditions that encourage grass growth.

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Shoe Covers in the Garden

Plastic food storage bags make great shoe covers when you're working in the muddy garden. Slip 2 bags over each shoe and secure them with rubber bands around your ankles. Instead of dealing with muddy boots, just discard the bags when you're done outside.

By Joesgirl

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Frugal Weed Killer

To get rid of grass, weeds, or anything you don't want.

• 1 gallon white vinegar
• 1 lb. salt
• 1/4 cup dish washing soap

It really works and is much cheaper than weed killers or spray.

By Marj

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Storing and Caring for Lawn and Garden Tools

Take a large bucket saved from laundry detergent or paint and fill it half way with sand and the used motor oil from your car. (Yes I said used motor oil) Clean and sharpen your shovels and other cutters and place into the sand and oil to store. The oil will keep the tools from rusting and the sand will help to keep a sharp edge.

While your at it, if any of your handles are looking mighty worn and cracking, get a sanding sponge and give them a sand. Apply a good wood oil to them and they will last you a good long time. Murphy's oil soap is great for cleaning the wood if it has sat out for a while and gotten dirty.

By Debra in Colorado

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Milk Jugs to Protect Plants From Rabbits

Use empty gallon milk jugs for back yard planting season. The rabbits would eat all our new pepper plants. The only way to keep them away was to cut off the bottom and top of the milk jug and bury the wide bottom part in the ground a couple inches. Sunlight and rain could come in from top and rabbits somehow didn't bother the plants. It worked every year.

By LadyD

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Garden Decor With Yard Sale Finds

I was going through the unsold items from my yard sale. I found some wooden art frames. They were beautiful. I used some of them as flower garden borders, and some I wrapped thread, yarn, etc around and made a trellis out of it, it is leaning against the porch. I planted some morning glories.

I also stuck some dead branches I had cut off one of the trees, they were about two feet high and pretty thick, into the ground for a trellis. I like using natural things for trailing plants.

I am going to use some old shoes as hanging planters and hang them in the trees also.

By Racer

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Plastic Knives as Row Markers

Save those plastic knives from your picnic to make durable row markers. Mark plant variety and planting date with permanent marker. Push knife with handle side in the ground. These can be used year after year.

By Katz

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Starting and Keeping a Worm Bin

You can easily turn kitchen wastes into a rich compost by using composting worms. Proper home composting of organic kitchen wastes can reduce the volumes at the landfill or incinerator. Volunteer home composting is a cost effective method of dealing with compostable kitchen wastes.

Composting is an efficient way to divert organic wastes from our County's solid waste stream.

Read the rest here:
http://gardening.wsu.edu/stewardship/compost/kitchen/wormcomp/wormcomp.htm

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Starting Morning Glories

I use coke bottles, the small regular ones, to start morning glories. When the vine gets too long, I cut it off and put it in a coke bottle with the top cut off. I then put a string through either end and attach it to a clothes line with a paper clip or twine. They are so pretty.

By Racer

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Dealing With Annoying Birds

There is a little black bird that's been in my garden for about a month now, and he's driving me insane. I love all animals but this little guy is really testing me. He tweets from 5:30 AM until I leave for work at 8 AM. I'm not sure how much more I can take. Can you tell me how to get rid of him without hurting him?

Lee from Ireland

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Climbing Rose Advice

I have a climbing rose that is just about finished blooming (I think), and I was wondering if I could make it keep blooming by trimming it. It's my first rose, so I'm kind of winging it. Any suggestions would be great!

Hardiness Zone: 5a

Beth from MA

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Thick Webs on My Pear Tree

My pear trees have thick webs that cover parts of branches. I have been told they are probably a worm of some sort but not sure what kind or how to get rid of them.

Hardiness Zone: 9a

Betty from Orange, TX

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More Dandelions Than Lawn

Please give me frugal ideas on how I can make my grass grow. I just divorced and moved in a new rental home and the grass will not grow. There is more dandelions than grass. I don't know anything about keeping a lawn up so can you please offer help?

Hardiness Zone: 8a

Onesummer

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Getting Rid of Lambsquarter

I need information on how to eliminate lambsquarter from our garden. The last two years it seems to always take over. I thought we would be OK this year because a farmer said it probably started when last year we put a lime product with fertilizer in it on the garden. However, this year we put nothing on it and it's back. I've already planted it and now where the black landscaping cloth isn't used it's all growing back. Our garden is very big about 70x30. I'm getting worn out from pulling it and it's very expensive to cover the whole thing. If you have any suggestions please let me know.

Hardiness Zone: 6a

Lamoon from Piqua, Ohio

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Reducing Algae in a Pond

If I use shock for a pool and chlorine to reduce the algae, would it be safe to use these items in my water pond if I do not plan on adding fish or plants for a month?

Hardiness Zone: 6b

Firsttimepondowner from Wichita, Kansas

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Struggling Asters

I purchased some beautiful annual asters at a local garden center and planted them a few weeks ago. They are not doing very well - they just look droopy and sad and it looks like something has been eating the leaves (bug, I think - I don't have many rabbits around here and it doesn't look like rabbit damage.) They are in full sun and we've had a very dry spring so far. I water when the soil is dry. They just look bad. Has anyone else in zone 5a had good or bad luck with annual asters?

Hardiness Zone: 5a

Heather from Indianapolis, IN

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Starting a Rose Bush from a Cutting

My daughter asked me "how do you start a rose bush?" Can you start one with a branch of the bush and rooting it in water?

Thank you,
Joyce from Wis.

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Are Hens & Chicks supposed to bloom?

Are Hens & Chicks supposed to bloom? I've had them for years, but mine have never bloomed before this year.

Hardiness Zone: 7b

Janus from Oakwood, GA

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Ground Cover Advice

I am looking for a well behaved ground cover that isn't invasive - got any suggestions? Winters can get to below freezing and summers up to 105F.

Hardiness Zone: 8a

Holly from Richardson, TX

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Separating Plants in a Dish Garden

I received a lovely large dish garden. It has 8 different plants. When should I separate and repot?

Hardiness Zone: 6a

Thanks, have a great day.
Peggy from Cortland, Ohio

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Can carrots and zucchini successfully grow in the tropics?

Can carrots and zucchini successfully grow in the tropics?

Hardiness Zone: 9b

Chrissy from Trinidad

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Keeping Cats Out of Flower Beds

How do I keep cats out of my flower beds? Our neighborhood is overrun with strays. Any fresh dirt is swarmed with cats! NASTY! Last summer I even had a 10 in planter that a cat did it's business in. How do I keep them out with minimal to no expense?

Jody from WYOMING

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Starting a Hedge with Forsythia Clippings

I have these bushes at work and would like to make a hedge using them. Can I root them to do so?

Hardiness Zone: 7a

Helen from Baltimore MD

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Growing an Indoor Herb Garden
By Kate Gilby

If you live in the northern hemisphere, then it is likely that your garden is tucked up for the winter. However, this doesn't mean you can't enjoy freshly picked herbs. Many varieties will grow quite happily indoors on a sunny window ledge or porch. In addition to providing a source of fresh herbs, an indoor garden can look extremely attractive, and they are a wonderful introduction to gardening for children.

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