A-Z Garden Tips: Milk Crates Minimize Messes

Milk crates are marvelous for garden shed and garage organization. For years, my garden stakes, peony hoops, and tomato cages tangled and toppled and made a mess of my garden supplies.

Not anymore. 

Now these bamboo and wooden poles and wire contraptions stand neatly in an overturned milk crate. These handy garden plant pick-me-ups stay right where I put them. 

The neon orange driveway snowplow markers go in there too.

Phew. That was almost too easy.

OK, we don’t actually steal milk crates. These handy plastic containers may be found online, in certain home organization shops, and in big-box discount stores.

Milk crate photos

c2015 by LAN/Nickers and Ink

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NOTE:  This blogger has no affiliation with any product/s mentioned in this post and received no remuneration from the manufacturer/s or product promoter/s for this post.

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A-Z Garden Tips: Loving Lettuce

I love leafy lettuce, especially when it is super-fresh. This year, I discovered a tidy and thrifty trick.

At the grocery store, I purchased a three-pack of romaine lettuce. Each time I trimmed and cleaned a head of the lettuce to make a salad, I saved the base. I stuck toothpicks in it (much like one would with an avocado pit) and placed it in a small glass of water.

This process works without toothpicks too, but the toothpicks seem to prevent the lettuce from bobbing and becoming all-over soggy.

Then I put the glass on the kitchen counter, where it would receive partial sunlight.

Within a few days, each romaine remnant produced new lettuce leaves. The base turned pale and then brown, but the new growth was fresh and healthy. 

As the new lettuce leaves grew, I snipped off a few to add to daily lunch or dinner salads.

After 8-10 days, I transferred each new lettuce plant into a ceramic pot with enriched potting soil.

The timing turned out great, because it is just about time here to put young lettuce plants outside.

Here’s another nifty lettuce planting trick I have learned.

Want to stagger your lettuce harvest this year? Mix a variety of lettuce seeds in a lidded plastic tub. (A clean and empty butter or margarine container works well. Plastic peanut butter jars do too.)

I like to include arugula, bibb, buttercrunch, iceberg, red leaf, romaine, and other sorts of lettuce seeds. Sometimes I toss in some spinach seeds as well.

Garden suppliers also sell pre-assorted lettuce seed packets.

After preparing the vegetable garden bed, plant a partial row of lettuce seeds once a week throughout the early spring. The salad harvest will last a lot longer.

Be sure to save a small supply of lettuce seeds. Lettuce is a cool-weather plant, so it’s handy to plant some in a container for indoor growing during the hottest stretch of summer.

Lettuce photos

c2015 by LAN/Nickers and Ink

All rights reserved

NOTE:  This blogger has no affiliation with any product/s mentioned in this post and received no remuneration from the manufacturer/s or product promoter/s for this post.

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A-Z Garden Tips: Go Away, Gophers!

Gophers (Geomyidae) may be small critters, but in the garden or yard, they can be gigantic problem. These furry rodents (measuring approximately 5” to 15”) eat lots of the best plants and burrow all over the place.

How can you get rid of gophers?

Gardeners have tried all sorts of creative and even crazy tactics to send gophers away. This can be a difficult endeavor. Remember Caddyshack? Take a look:

Short of bombing, burning, flooding, gassing, poisoning, shooting, smoking, spraying, trapping, or resorting to other violent tactics, what are the most successful gopher removal strategies?

Here are several tips and tricks for ridding your yard and garden of gophers.

1. Construct raised garden beds.
2. Put a sturdy textile (such as galvanized mesh hardware cloth) under the soil. 
3. Include gopher plants in your garden.
4. Let a cat or dog do the work.
5. Release a gopher-eating snake into the hole (run).
6. Set pinwheels, spinners, or other moving decorations around the yard, and rearrange them often.

Lots of gardeners pour all sorts of concoctions into gopher holes (runs) to send the creatures running. Certainly, caution is warranted with several of these options around children and pets.

Popular choices include:

1. Bubble gum
2. Castor oil (or castor beans)
3. Cola
4. Dirty fish tank water
5. Fish emulsion
6. Freshly soiled cat litter
7. Garlic
8. Gasoline
9. Ground glass
10. Hot red pepper flakes
11. Laundry detergent
12. Mothballs
13. Perfume
14. Tabasco sauce

Some of these may prove effective at gopher control, while others may be more like old wives’ tales.

Have you tried any of these gopher removal tactics?

Which works the best for you? Or do you have another method of getting rid of gophers?

And how successful have the same strategies been to eliminate moles and voles and other furry garden pests?

Gopher, by LeonardoWeiss

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NOTE:  This blogger has no affiliation with any product/s mentioned in this post and received no remuneration from the manufacturer/s or product promoter/s for this post.

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Gardening tips: How to pot plants without leaking soil

Spring planting time is coming! Are you starting those seedlings already?

Once you’re ready to transfer those sweet little flower, herb, or vegetable plants into patio pots, how can you prevent precious potting soil from slipping out of the bottom of your garden containers?

The solution is simple – and eco-friendly too!

Save a few old newspapers, magazines, or mail-order gardening tool and supply catalogs. Just be sure they are printed with environmentally-friendly inks.

Tear off a piece of paper to fit in the bottom of each of your planting pots, covering the drainage openings in the bottom.

Pour in the potting soil mix, and plant as usual. The paper will keep the soil in the container and help to minimize fast water run-out as well, but still allow drainage. Eventually, the paper will dissolve, but by then, each potted plant should be well-established.

Happy spring planting!

Related Items:

8 Great Reasons to Mulch a Garden

How to Plant with Mulch: Choose from 12 Popular Mulching Materials

Top 5 Online Gift Cards for Gardening Enthusiasts

Image/s:

Potted Geraniums by ASchaeffer

MorgueFile

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