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Gardening Tip Contest
(March 1 - April 30, 2017)

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March 1 - April 30, 201731


Silver Post Medal for All Time! 418 Posts
April 25, 2017

Egg shells are a great source of calcium for tomatoes and peppers. I put a handful in the hole with the plants when setting them out. It helps to prevent blossom rot.

A plastic bag of crushed egg shells and a rolling pin.

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All Flowers Deserve A Hard And Digital File - peach and bronze iris flowers
All Flowers Deserve A Hard And Digital FileI preach keeping records of all your flowers, and I am the one guilty of not doing so. Not having truly permanent markers nor a camera or computer, I did tend to get sloppy with my record keeping. Now I have all three. There's no excuse.

 
1 CommentComment
Eggshells for Your Garden - brown egg shells
Eggshells for Your GardenEspecially when planting tomatoes, eggshells can really help your plants, to provide nutrients. There is in fact a specific tomato ailment (blossom end rot) that can be cured by supplementing the soil with calcium AKA eggshells.

 
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Growing Vegetable Seeds - seedlings in small pots inside a larger black tub
Growing Vegetable SeedsGrow vegetable seeds in smaller pots or a small garden plot. The seeds will grow better than being just scattered around a big plot. When you throw seeds in a wide space, there is little chance that you see the tiny plant growing. It can be lost among wild grasses and not recognized as your seedling at first.

 
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Features Of A Tree Honeysuckle - pink flowering
Features of a Tree HoneysuckleEarlier, I did an article on training and growing honeysuckle as a standard (or tree form). I thought I had pictures with the post; maybe not. Even if I did, they were not of a more mature specimen in full bloom. That is why I chose to submit this picture.

 
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Succulent Plants Make Wonderful Gifts - dish of succulents
Succulent Plants Make Wonderful GiftsDid you know it is very easy to propagate succulents? If you have succulents in your yard, or at your family or friend's home, pull off some leaves, or a leaf with your finger or cut carefully and get the entire leaf than allow the leaves to dry for a few days!

 
3 CommentsComment
Composting Chicken Manure - bag of compost
Composting Chicken ManureWe have a small poultry pen at the back of the house and get so much chicken droppings every day. They can be a burden to you and your neighbors if you don't clean them up. So, what we do is gather the chicken manure and dump into a compost pit.

 
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Label And Catalog Your Flowers = closeup of dark purple and white iris
Label and Catalog Your FlowersA lot of my labels faded before I knew it. In time, I had no idea which flower was which. I remedied that by making labels from vinyl siding and using an industrial permanent Sharpie.

 
7 CommentsComment
Calibrachoa (Million Bells) Hardiness - closeup of red flower
Calibrachoa (Million Bells) HardinessI'm not very familiar with these plants and the fairly new cultivars. I'm sure most of you have seen them in garden centers. They are usually sold under the common name, 'Million Bells'.

 
1 CommentComment
How to Maintain an Air Plant - plants sitting on rocks in glass dish
How to Maintain an Air PlantIf you do not have any luck with keeping plants alive or you do not have the time to maintain indoor plants, and want some green in your office, or home - an air plant will be ideal for you!

 
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Building a Frame for Dragon Fruit Tree - simple wooden support frame
Building a Frame for Dragon Fruit TreeThere are many different methods and materials you can use to build a frame for dragon fruit trees.

 
3 CommentsComment
Homemade Strawberry Collars - collar around base of plant
Homemade Strawberry CollarsStrawberries love lots of water. At the wrong place and at the wrong time, it can cause a proliferation of the Mycosphaerella fragariae fungus which can ruin a crop and do serious damage to the plant. The plants usually recover, but the harvest can be lost.

 
8 CommentsComment
A plastic zipper bag with a seedling inside.
Use Plastic Zipper Bags as Mini GreenhouseMy husband got some thermal shirts that came in these zippered plastic bags and he decided to use them as mini greenhouses for his seedlings! I gave him additional ones that I had from some linens I had bought previously and couldn't bear recycling. I knew they could be up-cycled as something else!

 
2 CommentsComment
Spinach seedlings growing inside a concrete mixing tub.
Spinach Grown In ContainersI hope I have persuaded some of you to look into the possibilities of using concrete mixing tubs as containers for plants. Once you fill the container with soil, that's it!

 
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Netting The Cabbage Moth - butterfly net leaning up against a wooden fence
Netting The Cabbage MothA 73 year old zipping around with butterfly net in hand may be a bit disconcerting to some. Maybe the men in white jackets will come after me yet. What the heck, you live only once. Live it with the mindset of a child as much as you can.

 
4 CommentsComment
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Slowing Down Morning Glory InfestationThis is for morning glory (MG) vines that you can actually tell where they are coming from (ours come up from where the soil meets the foundation). I read about using white vinegar/Dawn dishwashing detergent to kill weeds, and decided to give it a try with this year's scourge of MG.

 
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Soda Bottles To Deter Cabbage Moth - upside down soda bottle over young cabbage plant
Soda Bottles To Deter Cabbage MothI was given a packet of cabbage seed. I planted them without reading the packet information. Later, I read that this Brunswick variety is best planted in the fall. My ag agent said they should do fine with some mulching. To protect the seedlings I used recycled plastic soda bottles.

 
1 CommentComment
A moldy grapefruit.
Feed Moldy Fruit to Your Fruit TreesOnce in a while, we forget to eat a certain fruit or the fruit becomes moldy. Instead of tossing the fruit in the trash, you could cut the fruit into pieces and feed to your fruit trees. The bees will suck the natural sugars from the fruit giving them energy to go about pollinating your trees and helping to set fruit.

 
3 CommentsComment
Flower Bulb Savings Continue - bulbs
Flower Bulb Savings ContinueJust because a garden center marks down bulbs to clear the inventory doesn't mean it's too late to plant the bulbs. Bulbs can be planted any time. Sometimes though, if planted very late, they might not bloom til the second year.

 
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Growing Grape Vines Requires Patience - potted grape vine
Growing Grape Vines Requires PatienceI saw a picture of a grape vine being grown as a standard. There was one main trunk about six feet tall. At the top were so many large clusters of grapes, there were few grape leaves to be seen. It was almost unbelievable and it was beautiful. I decided to give it a try.

 
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Upcycling A Stocking As Bird Feeder - suet balls in an old stocking with bird
Upcycling A Stocking As Bird FeederI purchased some fat balls for the birds, but I didn't have a metal bird feeder. So I upcycled an old fishnet stocking into one. The fat balls were stacked in a clean old stocking and knotted then tied to a piece of elastic around the drain pipe.

 
3 CommentsComment
Accepting Gardening's Disappointments - Crinum
Accepting Gardening's DisappointmentsI took some pictures before the last cold snap. I shared some of them with you. Things were looking pretty good. A week long warm spell had done its magic, forcing the juices of sleepy head plants to rise up to the promise of spring. Here are some after pictures, hopefully the damage is not too severe.

 
2 CommentsComment
Gardener's Easter Basket - Easter decorated flower pot with bulbs and two Easter plant pokes
Gardener's Easter BasketI have a few people who love to plant bulbs and garden. This basket is full of bulbs, and yet has the decorations for the season added for that special touch. Any plant-lover would be blessed to receive a gift like this, that celebrates life with the promise of new growth and beauty in the garden!

 
1 CommentComment
Store Flowering Bulbs Upside Down - bulbs in mesh tube
Store Flowering Bulbs Upside DownWhether you store bulbs in a box of dry sand, Perlite, or another medium, or whether you hang them in a material that permits good passage of air, always be sure to position the bulbs upside down.

 
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Wear Rubber Gloves Inside Gloves - thin latex type glove being worn inside work gloves
Wear Rubber Gloves Inside GlovesWe have been wearing rubber gloves under our winter and even gardening gloves this year. Hands stay dry, warmer, and cleaner!

 
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Start Your Gardening Early
Start Your Gardening EarlyMarch 10 - A snowfall is predicted to occur in a few days. So, I wanted to get a few pictures. Some of my plants could be hurt dramatically by heavy snow. As having the pics for my records, I thought I'd share them with you.

 
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Grow Microgreens at Home - growing micro greens
Grow Microgreens at HomeGrow your own fresh salad greens at home easily. Simply plant your microgreen seeds into potting soil in an empty container and cover with a wet paper towel and lightly water. Close and wait for 5 days. After your seeds sprout remove the paper towel and leave in the sun! Snip greens to add to sandwichs or as a salad!

 
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A rose bush with dark pink roses.
Rose Start Up TonicI got this from my Jerry Baker gardening book. I have used this tonic with great results. Here is his unique tonic:

 
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Homemade Fertilizer from Kitchen Scraps - original scraps before prepping
Homemade Fertilizer from Kitchen ScrapsDon't throw out your eggshells, banana peels, or used coffee grounds. Use them to feed your plants! Just cut the peels into small pieces and crush the eggshells with the bottom of a mug. Mix all of them together then spoon into your flower pots.

 
10 CommentsComment
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Dealing with Thousands of AntsDon't waste your money on ANYTHING at popular retail stores, it's not what works. Those cool looking traps are for you, not the ants. Find a store that specializes in pest control. You need to purchase granules. They will get it to the nest and eventually it will get to the queen and kill her.

 
7 CommentsComment
Inexpensive Grow Light - grow light with bent shade
Inexpensive Grow LightI wanted to have some grow lights, but a lot of them were $100. I found the slightly bent light fixture at an estate sale, and went to Home Depot for the special plant bulb, which was $5. It may not be the fanciest, but it is doing a great job. I'm looking forward to the best garden ever this year.

 
4 CommentsComment
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