Due to some suggestions, I've been asked to add new helpful hints to the beginning now instead of the bottom of the list... so here we go...
Baking soda sprinkled on the leaves of broad leafed weeds will kill them. The sodium is absorbed by the leaves, usually killing the weed within 48 hours.
Boiling water poured on dadelions, clover, horsetails, etc. Will kill weeds. As the boiling water is absorbed into the plants roots, the heat causes the blants cells to expand and explode. The weeds turn black within hours.
Before using your hands to dig in the garden or any dirty project, dig your fingernails into a bar of soap. When you are finished, dirt and soap can be scrubbed out easily.
Water your plants with old aquarium water, or cooking water from potatos.. Also water your plants from a just finished container of milk filled with water. Ferns especially like this.
To pre-spout seeds (especially expensive or rare ones) Take squares of paper towel or tissue, mark the name of the seed on it. Lightly moisten it, and place the seeds on it. Roll up the paper towel, put it in a sealable baggie and place on top of fridge for bottom heat. The seeds will usually sprout in about 1/2 the normal time. After they sprout, plant as normal.
Save your grass clippings, if you arent throwing them in your compost pile, use as mulch, pile up about 1-2 inches each time.
Spray to get rid of aphids - 1 part vinegar to 5 parts water - put in a sprayer bottle, and spray on the aphids, they'll leave!!
Pour pickle juice around your gardenias!!! They love it!!!
Pinch the 1st blooms off of pepper plants, (I know this is hard to do). They will bloom better, grow taller, and produce more.
Pinch off blossoms of new strawberry plants the first year (also very hard to do!) you will be rewarded the following year with bigger stronger plants and much more fruit...
Cut up panty hose to tie up plants. They wont bruise the plants stem like rope, string or jute will. Also when staking up plants, tie the "tie" around the stake, just loop it around the plants. Never tie it directly to the plant stem...
When planting in window boxes, line the box with plastic (kitchen trash bag works well) be sure to poke holes in it for drainage, and use a soiless mixture (its lighter, especially if you have them on the second floor like I do!) The plastic will retain some more of the moisture, so you wont have to water twice a day, and the soiless mixture keeps it light enough. The plastic also guards the wood against rotting, prolonging the life of box.
1tsp vinegar per gallon of water. - Water each houseplant 3 times allowing water to flow through but dont allow plant to sit in the water. This will disolve the salts in the pot and soil . White vinegar is best, and cheapest, but any vinegar will do
Fertilizer - once per month..1 gallon of water. 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp Epsom Salts, 1 tsp saltpeter and 1/2 tsp household amonia - spray on plants
Plant pole beans next to sunflowers. The beans will climb the lower part of the sunflower and you wont need poles. ! (Also works with peas for the fall planting)
African Violets will bloom longer and prettier with a few rusty nails in the soil alongside them.
Put cut flowers in a container of lemon-lime soda mixed with water for longer lasting blooms.
To protect plants from slugs, spread a layer of crushed (rinsed) eggshells around them (works for lettuce too!)
Thanks Laura.!!
Bury banana peels around the base of your rose bushes, the extra potassium really helps. And the plants reward you with the bigger and brighter blooms.
One Banana peel, one cup of white vinegar, one cup of sugar into a 2 liter soda bottle. fill to with in one inch with warm water. Tie jute or strong string around neck of the bottle and wasps, beetles and other annoying insects will drop in and not be able to leave. One bottle hanging from a tree or in a bush can handle about 50 sq feet.
Heavy clay soil? Have a plant that needs good drainage and you cant wait til you ammend all the surrounding soil? Dig a little deeper and put sand in first, cover with soil or better - compost then plant as usual.
Cant seem to get that compost heap started? Before you toss those leftovers (except meats and meat products) Bury them in as of yet unplanted portions of your gardens or yard... (Or in spaces between plants) You are now composting.!! The easy way - thanks Nanny!
Use those grass clippings as mulch around your plants. If dryed heap it on to 2-3 inches, if wet or fresh cut, sprinkle a little around as mulch each time letting the layers dry out.- thanks Nanny!
Home made Fertilizer - Ingredients - 1 can of beer, 1 cup of molasses - 1 cup of ammonia - 1 cup of dish soap - 1 cup of liquid lawn food - In a hose end sprayer with a golf ball for airation, add all ingredients. Recommended outside only, for inside substitute 1 cup white corn syrup for molasess. Spray everthing in garden with this every two weeks. For best results, spray before noon.
Spring and Fall - buy the cheapest fertilizer - it doesnt even matter what the numbers are on it. and a box of epsom salts. 1 box per 50 lbs of fertilizer. Sprinkle on with hand held spreader. Epsom salts - greener faster longer, stronger, bigger petals on flowers, stronger roots for everything.
Lime - the lawn and beds spring and summer.
Insect Control - Lemon scented soap, lemon scented ammonia, or in a lemon scented extract in regular ammonia, in hose end sprayer, spray on lawn and garden the morning before a yard party and this will get rid of mosquitos and flying insects.
Lemon scented soap and mint mouthwash - sprayed on lawn and garden, gets rid of crawling bugs for the day.
Every two weeks after mowing, best after 7:00pm - 1 cup liquid dish soap, 1 cup chewing tobacco Juice, 1 cup antiseptic mouthwash (or if really bad, fels naptha soap solution) - Spray on with hose end sprayer, every two weeks.
Fels Naptha Solution - 1 qt. boiling hot water, shave 1 inch of bar of fels naptha soap, put it in the toe end of a stocking, tie off, put 4 oz of liquid dish soap in immediately otherwise fels naptha will become rock hard.
Chewing Tobacco Juice - with your thumb and three fingers, grab as much chewing tobacco as you can with your fingers, put in toe of a stocking, marinate in 1 qt hot water. Do Not put the lid tightly on the jar to store, it will explode. Smells really nasty. Can add 1/2 the recommended rate of bug spray for really bad problems.
Dry Dursban and dry laundry soap, fall and spring in hand held sprayer.
***** Please note: I do NOT use chemicals on my gardens or lawns due to children and animals romping on my lawn. I have invited the toads to come and eat the slugs, and made birds welcome to eat the bugs and grubs, this is working fine for me.
To Dethatch Grass Clippings - Once a month in a hose end sprayer, 1 can Reg soda - 1 can beer - 1 oz soap. Spray on lawn.
Antimildew Spray - 3 tablespoons of baking powder dissolved in 1 gallon of water with 1 tablespoon of Murphy's Oil Soap. Spray on plants etc.
Houseplants - Before bringing plants back into the house for the winter: in the compression sprayer. Spray foilage top bottom and all over...
1 oz antisyptic mouthwash - 1 oz childrens shampoo - 1 oz chewing tobbacco juice - spray all over with a spray bottle.
For Insects in the dirt - with a piece of coat hanger: poke holes 1 inch apart - in a warm water watering bottle, put 1 oz of childrens shampoo, 1/2 the recommended rate of diazinon, water til it runs through - leave out overnight before bringing in. ALSO - split pencil into 4 pieces, push into soil, the cedar will discourage bugs from nesting.
When transplanting houseplants - only go to one size larger pot, on the bottom to cover hole, place a piece of paper towel folded three times, newspaper, or a coffee filter. Then the dirt wont fall through. On pots with no hole in bottom add charcol with dranaige material to keep roots from rotting.
Use professional mix soil (not potting soil) mix in hair and pencil shavings (from your pencil sharpner), the hair provides protein and nitrogen and pencil shavings provide insect control. Also on the top of the soil and mixed in you can mix in activated charcol - it holds the moisture and gets rid of water salts.
Banana skins, roasted til brittle, add 1 tbs per 6" pot, put on top of soil, roast egg shells also, grind to a powder, sprinkle on top of soil a (tsp) then a tbls of soda will help break it down. Stone in the bottom of a pot can be aquarium stone, its already sterilized and if you have a plant in a glass terrarium, it looks pretty too.
Misting Spray - 3 drops of antiseptic mouthwash - bacteria.
3 drops of ammonia - nitrogen
3 drops of tobacco juice - insect repellant
Fill balance with room temp. water mist 2-3 x per week.
For clay pots. Turn upside down in a box, spray point with scotch guard rug and carpet protector to waterproof outside, or spray paint with any rutoleum spray. Leave the bottom natural for better drainage.
A piece of apple 1/4 laid on top of soil of a plant will help it bloom, and boost a plant not looking well - A peice of apple in a dark box or bag with green tomato's and within 72 hours they will turn red.
Fertilizer for Houseplants - 1/2 tsp knox geleton, 2 teabags, 1/2 tsp of childrens shampoo, 1/2 tsp ammonia, 1 cap whiskey, 10% recommended rate of plant food, 1 cup of apple juice. Combine into a gallon of water to feed plants.
When watering brand new delicate seedlings, water with a sqeeze bottle instead of a watering can so gush of water won't harm the little starts. - Thanks Laura!
Sprinkle Epsom Salt around the bottom of your rosebushes every spring. Will boost the health and flowers.
Sprinkle Epsom Salt around the tops of houseplants - this will remove the harmful salts that accumulate around the top of the pot, and cleanse the soil. Will also make the plants foilage "greener" and healthier looking.
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