12 Gardening Tips

With the new year, comes new years resolutions and one of your resolutions may be sorting out your garden. This article will help you get the most out of your garden with 12 industry secret tips to get your plants popping.

Why do we garden though?

There is a sense of contentment and tranquility that comes from observing either a single flower, or patchworks of color and texture that seem just right. Gardening is an assertion of influence on a small piece of the environment. That's influence, not control.

Simply, gardening lets you have your own little bit of this world that has been sculpted by your own hands.

So what can you do to garden to the very best of your abilities and have the most fun doing so?

Remove Salt Deposits

Due to the raw material that is used in making clay pots, the constant watering of your plants will end up causing a white deposit that can destroy or compromise the structure of the pot.

To remove these salt deposits that form on clay pots if you combine equal parts white vinegar, rubbing alcohol and water in a spray bottle then apply the mixture to the pot and scrub with a plastic brush, it can make it just like new again. Make sure you let the pot dry before you plant anything in it.

Dirty fingernails

Dirty fingernails are part of a gardeners life unfortunately. They are unsightly and unhygienic but it doesn’t have to be that way.

To prevent accumulating dirt under your fingernails while you work in the garden, drawing your fingernails across a bar of soap will effectively seal the undersides of your nails so dirt can't collect beneath them. After you've finished in the garden, you can use a nailbrush to remove the soap and your nails will be sparkling clean.

String Trimmer Maintenance

A string trimmer is an essential tool to keeping your garden nice and tidy so it is essential to ensure it is well maintained.

One of the biggest issues with a string trimmer is the line jamming or breaking. To prevent the line on your string trimmer having these issues, treat it with a spray vegetable oil before installing it in the trimmer and it should ensure that your string trimmer lasts longer.

Tool to measure

You will soon find that a tool doesn’t just have one use, you can turn a long-handled tool into a measuring stick.

Lay a long-handled garden tool on the ground and next to it place a tape measure. Using a permanent marker, write inch and foot marks on the handle and when you need to space plants a certain distance apart (from just an inch to several feet) you'll already have a measuring device in your hand.

Garden Twine

Garden twine is essential when gardening.

To have garden twine handy when you need it, just stick a ball of twine in a small clay pot, pull the end of the twine through the drainage hole, and set the pot upside down in the garden. Do that, and you'll never go looking for twine again.

Protecting from the frost

Frost is obviously going to be a big issue when gardening and knowing how to handle it will save your plants.

Little clay pots are very helpful to battle the frost as they make great cloches for protecting young plants from the sudden, overnight frosts and freezes.

Clay pot hose guide

Clay pots are used a lot in your garden and by now you should realize they have multiple uses, including using them as a hose guide.

To turn a clay pot into a hose guide, stab a one-foot length of steel reinforcing bar into the ground at the corner of a bed and slip two clay pots over it with one facing down, the other facing up.

There you have a simple hose guide and these guides will prevent damage to your plants as you drag the hose along the bed for watering.

Dealing with aphids

Aphids are a constant problem when you are gardening. You can control them with a strong blast of water from the hose or with insecticidal soap but there's another suggestion, one that's a lot more fun.

Arm yourself with some tape and wrap a wide strip of it around your hand with the sticky side out and pat the leaves of plants infested with aphids. The tape will lift the aphids away from your plants. Make sure to concentrate on the undersides of leaves, because that's commonly where they like to hide.

Veggie soup watering

This is most certainly something you will never have thought of. The next time you boil or steam some vegetables for your tea, don't pour the water down the drain and instead use it to water your potted patio plants.

You'll be amazed at how the plants respond to the vegetable soup water.

Hot drink for your ground

Much like using the water from your steamed vegetables you can also use leftover tea and coffee grounds to acidify the soil of acid-loving plants such as azaleas, rhododendrons, camellias, gardenias and even blueberries. A light sprinkling of about one-quarter of an inch applied once a month will keep the pH of the soil on the acidic side.

Additionally you can use chamomile tea to control damping-off fungus, which often attacks young seedlings quite suddenly. Simply adding a spot of tea to the soil around the base of seedlings once a week or use it as a foliar spray will help keep them safe.

Clay pot tables

Those clay pots have yet another use!

If you need an instant table for your all important cup of tea, look no farther than your collection of clay pots and saucers.

Just flip a good-sized pot over, and top it off with a large saucer. And when you've had your share of tea, fill the saucer with water, and your "table" is now a birdbath.

Drying herbs

If you are interested in drying herbs the quickest way in the world to do so is to simply lay a sheet of newspaper on the seat of your car and then arrange the herbs in a single layer. Roll the windows up and close the doors and your herbs will be quickly dried to perfection.

What's more, your car will smell great.

Conclusion

Using these tips should help your garden flourish and you will make the most of your time in your garden.