organic green garden tips

This Thursday, with Sring sproinging out all over and the ground warming up, I’ve got:

Tried and True Green Gardening Tips

(personally tested and used here in Thorne’s World)

1) Recycle those old vinyl mini-blinds!! They make great plant markers. Write on them with pencil, it actually holds up better than even a sharpie!

2) Toilet Paper rolls make perfect, biodegradable collars for tiny delicate seedlings. Push it down about 1/4″ into the soil to keep creepy crawlies from climbing up the stem to eat the tasty tops of your seedlings! (These work great against cutworms.)

gardening recycled cans3) Soup, veggie and stuff cans. Use a can opener to remove both ends. Use as a collar to protect small plants from bugs n critters.

recycled nursery planters collars4) Gallon plastic nursery planters. I cut the bottoms out of these with a razor knife and use them as collars for larger plants like squash and broccoli. (The different sizes help to space plants, too.)

 
recycle reuse plastic bottles garden5) Plastic water bottles, laundry detergent and bleach and fabric softener bottles all make great plant warmers. Fill them with water and place them around your plants. They absorb heat from the sun in the daytime and radiate that heat to keep your plants warm on chilly spring nights.

 
6) Ladybugs eat aphids. ladybug(And don’t you just love them in the garden?)

praying mantis eats grasshoppers7) Preying Mantises eat grasshoppers. (I love these lil guys, too. They’re so mystical looking, somehow.)

 

 
8) Chickens. I know, not all of you city gardeners can have chickens, but just one or two in the garden will take care of most of your bugs and grubs and other plant devastating insects. Protein, yumm!

9) Double Dig your beds. This helps to optimize your water use.

10) Plan an Intensive garden. This type of layout maximizes water and soil nutrients to plants by staggering the feeding depth of roots.

11) Don’t top water. Top watering wastes a lot of water by evaporation. Bury soaker hose about 4″ deep, usually 10′ to 14 apart.

12) Cover the tops of your beds in a light mulch (straw or grass clippings work great!) to help retain water.

13) If you must top water, do it in the morning or late afternoon to minimize evaporation.

Extra tip for Fruit: Used CD’s glued sparkly side out and hanging where they will spin and move with the breeze will scare birds off of your berries and fruit trees. Tinsel tied tightly to string works too and looks so pretty. (It makes rainbows!)

Peace, out!