Archive Category: 'Garden & Plants'

• How To Grow Roses In Pots: Today’s feature is from Rose File with their information on Growing Roses in Pots: Why Pots? Growing roses in pots makes possible a number of good things. One can: Grow roses on decks, pavements or patios. Grow roses too tender for your USDA hardiness zone. Move roses about to create new color combos. Sequester roses with diseases until recovered. Raise a rose [...]
• How To Make A Daisy Chain: Today’s feature is from Alice Hayes at FlowerBud.com with the tip How To Make A Daisy Chain: I just discovered that not everyone knows how to make a daisy chain! In my mind, learning how to make flower jewelry was a natural part of childhood, like learning to jump rope or ride a bike. And aside from [...]
• How to Grow Upside Down Tomato Plants: Today’s feature is from Todd with his web page giving the tip: Upside Down Tomato Planter: The first upside down tomato plant I made was in 1982′ish I see now others have caught on this great idea, I also see people are trying to capitalize with gadgets to do this.. So I made this website [...]
• 10 Organic Aids & Natural Planting Tips For Gardening: Epson Salt Spray: 2 ounces of salt per 2 gallons water. Benefits: Helps with Black Spot, Mildew, Wilt and Rust Mineral Oil Spray: 3 parts oil per 100 parts water. Benefits: Helps with Aphids, Codling Moth, Leaf Roller, Mealybugs, Scaled Insects, White Fly Beer: Stale or mixed with molasses Benefits: Helps control Slugs Tomato Leaves Spray: Crush leaves and soak in [...]
• How to Build a $15 Compost Bin: Here are two different projects for making a compost bin… The first project is from This Garden Is Illegal (love the name!) with their tip on How To Build A $15 Shipping Pallet Compost Bin: I need a good size bin to keep my compost in. The compost bin needs to be able to dissuade animals from [...]
• Advanced Gardening Tutorial: Pleaching: Today’s feature is from English Cottage Gardening with information and details on Pleaching: A pleached hedge is one in which branches have been bent down or interwoven to form a living wall. This very ancient technique was known to the Romans and mentioned by Julius Caesar who saw it used as a military obstacle in Flanders. [...]
• Gorgeous: How To Make A Succulent Ball: Today’s feature is from Burke’s Backyard with a step-by-step tutorial for How To Make A Succulent Ball, you really have to check this one out: Don and Cheryl Maddocks teamed up to make a magnificent, succulent ball. While hanging baskets are eye-catching, a hanging succulent sphere is simply riveting. Visitors will be amazed when they see [...]
• Organic Insect Repellent For Plants: This is a free method to use in pest control around the home and garden since you’re just using scraps of onions. Organic Insect Repellent Save onion skins, peels and ends then refrigerate in an empty margarine-sized tub or ziploc bag until the container is full. Once you have enough, place the onion pieces in a pail and [...]
• Installing An Automated Drip System: Today’s feature is from Lifehacker with their tip from last summer: Never Forget To Water Your Garden Again With An Automated Drip System: I did some research on drip irrigation systems and was impressed to find the cost and features of this technology has really come along. You don’t need to know much about hardware or [...]
• How To Make Compost Guide: oday’s feature is from Garden Organic with their guide How To Make Compost: Making and using compost is the cornerstone of organic gardening – if you want to ‘Grow Your Own’, there’s no better place to start. The finished product is rich, dark, crumbly and sweet-smelling. It is made of recycled garden and kitchen waste, and can [...]
• Make Your Own Cheap & Easy Worm Bin: Today’s feature tip is from Washington State University, Whatcom County Extension, with their instructions for a Cheap and Easy Worm Bin! blockquote>Composting with redworms is great for apartment dwellers who don’t have yard space, or for those who don’t want to hike to a backyard compost bin with their food scraps. Some kids like to [...]
• Lawn Care Tip – Secret Lawn Tonic Recipe: Today’s feature is from two sites with the same lawn care tip. First Wise Bread with this tip for healthy, green grass: Secret Lawn Tonic Recipe From Golf Course Groundskeeper. You will need: One full can of regular pop (any kind-no diet soda) One full can of beer (no light beer) 1/2 Cup of Liquid dishwashing soap [...]
• How To Build A Cold Frame With An Old Window: Today’s feature is a DIY cold frame instruction set found on two different websites. I’ve been searching online for simple, cheap cold frame plans that use recycled materials–and are easy to understand–but it’s been a tricky task. These two sites come close since they use old storm windows: Mag Ruffman’s A Greenhouse for $20 as well [...]
• Build a Coconut Birdhouse: Today’s feature is from Birdwatchers Digest with the details on How To Make A Coconut Birdhouse: It is good to see small species of birds move into the safety of my coconut houses, away from competition from some of the larger birds. These little houses are both fun and easy to make, and I am happy [...]
• How To Make A Butterfly Garden: Today’s feature tip comes from the University of Minnesota with their details on Creating a Butterfly Garden: Butterfly gardening involves planning your garden to attract, retain, and encourage butterfly populations. A sample garden plan is shown in Figure 1, and a list of host plants is given in Table 3 and Table 4. Flowers of similar [...]
• How To Build A Raised Garden Bed – Cheap: Today’s feature tip is from Green Options with instructions on how to build a raised garden bed using old doors! Weekly DIY: Planter Box: You can easily build a low-tech box like this for your garden for very little money and with very little construction experience. These raised planter boxes can be as large or as [...]
• Make Your Own Garden Pots With Hypertufa: Today’s feature tip is from TimpyWorks with their instructions on Hypertufa 101 and Hypertufa 201: This first lesson will help you learn how to modify a mold and will get you thinking about using the common containers you already have around your home. This lesson will also show you how to make openings in the walls [...]
• Make Seed Starting Pots From Newspaper: Today’s feature tip is from Mr. Brown Thumb with the instructions on How To Make Seed Starting Pots From Newspaper: One easy and frugal way to get lots of pots for seed starting is to make them from things you may find around your house. Seed starting pots from newspaper is not only very cheap but [...]
• Grow Your Own Catnip: Although approximately 1/3 of cats couldn’t care less about catnip, the rest flip for it. And drool. And race around! Why do cats love it so much? Catnip (or catmint) produces Nepetalactone oil and that acts something like an aphrodisiac for cats. Is it harmful to them? Experts say no, there are no short term or [...]
• How To Make A Terrarium: Today’s feature tip is from Inhabitat with the tutorial HOW TO: Make your own terrarium I found a large, clear, sphere-shaped glass bowl at a floral supply shop. A glass vessel of this shape is called a “rose bowl” and they come in many different sizes. Mine happens to have a 15″ diameter at the widest [...]
• How To Make Seed Balls: Today’s feature tip is from Path To Freedom with their project Making Seed Balls: Seed balls are a method for distributing seeds by encasing them in a mixture of clay and soil humus. Some native North American tribes used forms of seed balls. More recently natural farmer Masanobu Fukuoka has applied them, as have others inspired [...]
• Make Your Own Organic Potting Soil: If you make your own organic potting mix, you still have to avoid using any prohibited ingredients, and that means checking out all the individual ingredients for their organic acceptability. It may surprise you to learn that products like peat moss or limestone are sometimes treated with prohibited materials such as wetting or anti-caking agents, so [...]
• How To Make Flowers Last: Today’s feature blog post is from Frugal Upstate with this tip: Making Flowers Last: I really love cut flowers, but we don’t splurge on them very often. Of course I like to make them last as long as possible when I do get them. So here is what I do. The tips are: Keep the flowers out of [...]
• How To Grow An Avocado Tree: You can grow an avocado tree from the pit that you harvest from a fresh avocado. You probably won’t produce any fruit from the tree, but it is a nice addition to your home plant life. You may also want to start 2 or 3 at a time in case one fails. For best chance [...]
• How to Dry Herbs With a Microwave: Cooking with fresh herbs is nice, but most times we grow or buy more than we can use. Drying the extra is a great way to save money as well as ensure that we always have good quality cooking herbs on hand. Here’s a quick & easy method to drying them in the microwave if you [...]