Post by olhillbilly on Feb 4, 2010 15:35:08 GMT -6
Improve your Soil and Feed your Plants
1. Fertilize plants lightly but often to make sure that excess fertilizer doesn’t run off with each rain or the next watering.
2. There is nitrogen in pet hair and the scent may discourage some varmints from your garden. Place extra pet hair around your plants and water to keep them around the plants.
3. Save banana peels until they are crisp and crumbly. Cut them into small pieces and bury them a few inches in the soil around rosebushes and tomatoes. They are rich in potassium and phosphorus.
4. Acid loving plants like azaleas, camellias and blueberries love coffee grounds. Add a thin layer to the soil around these plants.
5. The potassium and tannic acid in chamomile tea make it a good drink for African Violets.
6. Potted plants benefit from the many minerals in cooled tea.
7. Rabbit droppings are rich in nitrogen and phosphorus.
8. Fresh manure can burn plants. It needs to sit 6 months to a year before using.
9. Fish emulsion can be diluted and sprayed every week or two on annuals, perennials, vegetables and potted plants. If you have a fish tank, use the aquarium water on plants when you clean it out.
10. When you clean your yard pond, gather the algae and scummy water and dump it onto the soil around your plants.
11. Bury fish scraps when you clean the fish you catch under and around your rosebushes.
12. When planting bulbs, add some bone meal to the hole for phosphorus. After daffodils or tulips bloom, sprinkle wood ash on them for potassium.
13. Carrots like phosphorus and potassium. Sprinkle them with hardwood ashes and bone meal.
14. Sawdust has a high carbon content and chicken manure has a high nitrogen content. If you mix the two it creates a perfect balance.
15. Mix 1 tablespoon of blackstrap molasses and 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar with a gallon of water for a spray on boost of minerals.
16. Add 1 tablespoon lemon scented ammonia and 1 tablespoon lemon scented dish soap in a garden sprayer. This will fertilize and discourage mosquitoes.
17. Do your dishwashing in a tub and use the dirty water to water shrubs, flowers, and vegetables.
18. Using rusty tin cans to water your garden will add some iron.
19. Put a rusty nail in with African Violets for brighter blossoms.
20. If your lawn and/or garden is healthy, leave it alone. It doesn’t need fertilizer.
21. Decide where your tomatoes will go. Rinse out empty milk jugs and put the water on the tomato bed. Rinse the slime out of egg shells, let them dry, crush them and add that to the bed, also.
22. Roses and tomatoes like 1 tsp of Epsom Salt for every foot of height. Sprinkle it in a circle around the stem and work it in. If leaves are yellow, dissolve the salt in water and spray the leaves. Do this a couple of times a month.
23. Mix half a cup of Epsom Salt with wood ashes stored in a metal bucket. Sprinkle over bulbs when they start to sprout. Ashes have calcium, phosphorus, and potassium and Epsom Salt has magnesium and sulfur.
24. Lay down a thick layer of compost and mulch every season and you will build up a rich topsoil.
25. Dampen peat moss thoroughly before adding it to your soil. It is ideal for loosening heavy soil and helping it retain moisture.
26. If your soil pH is below 6 and you want to plant something that isn’t acid loving, sprinkle 5 pounds of dolomitic lime for every 100 square feet of ground. You should wait a couple of months before using that bed. This lime will “sweeten” the acid soil while providing calcium and magnesium.
27. A good time to add lime is when you winterize your garden. This gives it time to soak up the lime and activate it before your new plants take root.
28. Gypsum gives all plants a jolt of calcium without changing the pH. Horticultural gypsum loosens up hard soil and improves drainage.
29. Sawdust and wood chips need to age for a year before using. These materials will fluff up your soil but deplete it of nitrogen as they decompose.
30. Pelletized horse or cattle feed contain crushed grains and molasses and will give plants all the NPK they need. Put pellets in planting holes or lightly sprinkle them over the soil.
31. If you have a few seasons to prepare your soil before you plant a new bed, sow a cover crop. Alfalfa, clover, rye grass, or vetch all have deep roots that loosen the soil and add nutrients. Till them in or cut them down just before they reach maturity and start producing seed. Let them compost directly on the ground. Two weeks later, you will be ready to plant your bed. The rich loamy earth will be a pleasant start.
32. Birdseed and deer plot mix are cheap sources for cover crop seeds. Sprinkle seeds thickly in a recently plowed or cleared plot and let them grow for a few weeks. Just before the flowers mature, plow them under or cut them down. The rotting greens will quickly enrich your soil with nutrients.
33. Mulches can leach out nitrogen. Place grass clippings or a different source of nitrogen on the soil before the mulch.
34. Add a cup of vinegar to a gallon of water and sprinkle some under acid-loving plants like rhododendrons, gardenias, azaleas, and blueberries. Vinegar will lower the soil’s pH and release iron in the soil for the plants to use.
Sprinkle a pinch of baking soda on a tablespoon of wet garden soil. If it fizzles, your soil is acidic with a pH under 5. Vinegar fizzes when it comes in contact with alkaline soil. The more explosive the fizz, the higher your pH
1. Fertilize plants lightly but often to make sure that excess fertilizer doesn’t run off with each rain or the next watering.
2. There is nitrogen in pet hair and the scent may discourage some varmints from your garden. Place extra pet hair around your plants and water to keep them around the plants.
3. Save banana peels until they are crisp and crumbly. Cut them into small pieces and bury them a few inches in the soil around rosebushes and tomatoes. They are rich in potassium and phosphorus.
4. Acid loving plants like azaleas, camellias and blueberries love coffee grounds. Add a thin layer to the soil around these plants.
5. The potassium and tannic acid in chamomile tea make it a good drink for African Violets.
6. Potted plants benefit from the many minerals in cooled tea.
7. Rabbit droppings are rich in nitrogen and phosphorus.
8. Fresh manure can burn plants. It needs to sit 6 months to a year before using.
9. Fish emulsion can be diluted and sprayed every week or two on annuals, perennials, vegetables and potted plants. If you have a fish tank, use the aquarium water on plants when you clean it out.
10. When you clean your yard pond, gather the algae and scummy water and dump it onto the soil around your plants.
11. Bury fish scraps when you clean the fish you catch under and around your rosebushes.
12. When planting bulbs, add some bone meal to the hole for phosphorus. After daffodils or tulips bloom, sprinkle wood ash on them for potassium.
13. Carrots like phosphorus and potassium. Sprinkle them with hardwood ashes and bone meal.
14. Sawdust has a high carbon content and chicken manure has a high nitrogen content. If you mix the two it creates a perfect balance.
15. Mix 1 tablespoon of blackstrap molasses and 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar with a gallon of water for a spray on boost of minerals.
16. Add 1 tablespoon lemon scented ammonia and 1 tablespoon lemon scented dish soap in a garden sprayer. This will fertilize and discourage mosquitoes.
17. Do your dishwashing in a tub and use the dirty water to water shrubs, flowers, and vegetables.
18. Using rusty tin cans to water your garden will add some iron.
19. Put a rusty nail in with African Violets for brighter blossoms.
20. If your lawn and/or garden is healthy, leave it alone. It doesn’t need fertilizer.
21. Decide where your tomatoes will go. Rinse out empty milk jugs and put the water on the tomato bed. Rinse the slime out of egg shells, let them dry, crush them and add that to the bed, also.
22. Roses and tomatoes like 1 tsp of Epsom Salt for every foot of height. Sprinkle it in a circle around the stem and work it in. If leaves are yellow, dissolve the salt in water and spray the leaves. Do this a couple of times a month.
23. Mix half a cup of Epsom Salt with wood ashes stored in a metal bucket. Sprinkle over bulbs when they start to sprout. Ashes have calcium, phosphorus, and potassium and Epsom Salt has magnesium and sulfur.
24. Lay down a thick layer of compost and mulch every season and you will build up a rich topsoil.
25. Dampen peat moss thoroughly before adding it to your soil. It is ideal for loosening heavy soil and helping it retain moisture.
26. If your soil pH is below 6 and you want to plant something that isn’t acid loving, sprinkle 5 pounds of dolomitic lime for every 100 square feet of ground. You should wait a couple of months before using that bed. This lime will “sweeten” the acid soil while providing calcium and magnesium.
27. A good time to add lime is when you winterize your garden. This gives it time to soak up the lime and activate it before your new plants take root.
28. Gypsum gives all plants a jolt of calcium without changing the pH. Horticultural gypsum loosens up hard soil and improves drainage.
29. Sawdust and wood chips need to age for a year before using. These materials will fluff up your soil but deplete it of nitrogen as they decompose.
30. Pelletized horse or cattle feed contain crushed grains and molasses and will give plants all the NPK they need. Put pellets in planting holes or lightly sprinkle them over the soil.
31. If you have a few seasons to prepare your soil before you plant a new bed, sow a cover crop. Alfalfa, clover, rye grass, or vetch all have deep roots that loosen the soil and add nutrients. Till them in or cut them down just before they reach maturity and start producing seed. Let them compost directly on the ground. Two weeks later, you will be ready to plant your bed. The rich loamy earth will be a pleasant start.
32. Birdseed and deer plot mix are cheap sources for cover crop seeds. Sprinkle seeds thickly in a recently plowed or cleared plot and let them grow for a few weeks. Just before the flowers mature, plow them under or cut them down. The rotting greens will quickly enrich your soil with nutrients.
33. Mulches can leach out nitrogen. Place grass clippings or a different source of nitrogen on the soil before the mulch.
34. Add a cup of vinegar to a gallon of water and sprinkle some under acid-loving plants like rhododendrons, gardenias, azaleas, and blueberries. Vinegar will lower the soil’s pH and release iron in the soil for the plants to use.
Sprinkle a pinch of baking soda on a tablespoon of wet garden soil. If it fizzles, your soil is acidic with a pH under 5. Vinegar fizzes when it comes in contact with alkaline soil. The more explosive the fizz, the higher your pH
