Tips for the Home Gardener

Here are a few helpful gardening tips I thought I'd share.

Please feel free to share gardening tips that you've found helpful too.

Test your soil – testing the ph of the soil can help you identify deficiencies of vital nutrients necessary for growing healthy plants, leading to a bountiful harvest. (ph – acidity / alkalinity). Most plants prefer a ph level of 6.0 – 7.0 in soil. List of Ph preferences for Trees, shrubs, vegetables, and flowers

- Fertilizer will NOT work correctly when the ph balance is off.
- ph issues can lead to deficiencies / toxicity of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, etc…

Chrysanthemums – Mums show wilting from lack of water before other plants. You can use mums as an indicator that your garden needs to be watered. Plant mums in a few in different areas of your garden.

Horseradish – repels potato beetles. Plant horseradish at the corners of your potato patch; be sure that the horseradish is planted in pots as it tends to spread.

Peppers and Eggplant – acid loving plants that like sulfur, which lowers the PH of the soil
- put a match stick in the bottom of the hole, cover with a thin layer of soil and plant.

Tomatoes – Magnesium deficient soil can cause blossoms to drop.

Red and orange colors attract garden insects –
- Paint milk jugs bright orange, and red
- Apply a light coat of tanglefoot to the outside of the milk jug to trap insects.
- Place in 12 foot (3.6m) intervals throughout the garden.
- Once the jugs are covered in insects, discard them and place new traps.

Companion planting – planting specific vegetables, herbs and flowers together that benefit each other. Some plants support / shelter each other, provide extra nutrients that benefit neighboring plants, repel pests, attract beneficial insects, and may keep diseases away. Some plant's can be partnered by growth habit, size, scent, oils, plant hormones, and enzymes given off by roots and leaves. Example - plant tomatoes, peppers and basil together. (see list of companion plants - in process will update as soon as I have it done ).

Great tips, doin!

Is there a good way to test my soil's pH with my hydro pH meter? or do I need to buy a soil pH kit?

Great tips, doin!

Is there a good way to test my soil's pH with my hydro pH meter? or do I need to buy a soil pH kit?

Thanks Unclenugs!

hahaha! Good question
If you're comfortable with using your hydro ph meter to test the ph of the soil, yes you can. Not that I need to tell you, but you'll want to make sure that you sterlize / clean the meter when switching between soil / hydro

There are a couple different methods in practice that are said to be a "good" to check soil ph levels using a hydro ph meter. One is 'Pour through sampling'.

Pour through sampling *for potted plants*
Water with clean water, enough to saturate the soil 1 hour before testing.

After an hour, place a clean saucer under the pot to catch run off.

Using distilled water, pour just enough distilled on the surface to get X amount of runoff: Ex. for a 1 quart container, you need to use enough distilled to get 2.5 oz., 12 quart container you'll need enough for a 12 oz. sample to get an 'accurate reading'.

Collect the run off (leachate) and sample as soon as possible. You can check the ph / ppm's.

The other method 1 part soil to 2 parts distilled water.

take a decent sample of soil from as close to the root zone as possible, without damaging the roots. Allow enough time for the soil to air dry completely.

In a container, mix the soil with 2 parts of distilled water. Mix/stir well, allow to stand for 30 minutes so most of the particles sink to the bottom. Using two coffee filters together, pour the mix through filters into a clean container to filter out the soil / sediment. Take your reading.

I've come across this sampling method using 1 part soil and one part distilled as well. This option sounds like a PITA to me, but it'd be interesting to see if there's a difference between the two methods.

Hope this helps

If anyone has another method that they like to use, please chime in

Thanks for the great info, doin!

I knew you'd come through.

Thanks for the great info, doin!

I knew you'd come through.

You're very welcome

The conversion of yard waste compost has many benefits. It is an environmentally friendly way to reduce the amount of solid waste should be removed, and provides useful and beneficial products for lawns and gardens.

I like gardening. If you want to gardening you should test your soil and atmosphere. You should see a humidity and water quality. You must consider about Some plants can accommodation with each other to provide a conducive surrounding plants, It can be good for its roots and leaves too.

Edited by rickypalser, 07 December 2010 - 03:59 PM.

Soil is the most important part of your gardening and the tips you shared is very beneficial. Thanks for all the efforts.

some good tips, i would add to check into square foot gardening myself, the ONLY reason that i garden.
super easy, almost NO weeds, the ones that do show are VERY small and very easy to pull
supper effecient, can fit A LOT of plants in a smaller space than what it would take with a traditional row garden

1. You can't ever have enough worm castings! Buy as much as you can afford or preferably even better make your own.
2. Harvest Salix (willow) to make your own willow water i.e. plant tonic, rooting hormone, etc.
3. Most importantly have fun, a garden is meant to be enjoyed

Planting borage in your strawberry beds will increase your yield, brix levels and resistance to anaerobic pathogens.

Seeds are available from a plethora of seed companies.

HTH

LD
former commercial strawberry grower here in the People's Republic of Oregon

Planting borage in your strawberry beds will increase your yield, brix levels and resistance to anaerobic pathogens.

Seeds are available from a plethora of seed companies.

HTH

LD
former commercial strawberry grower here in the People's Republic of Oregon

thx for the info, it looks to me like these these can grow rather aggresively, ever had any issues with them competing with your strawberries?
also, what if you just had them NEAR your strawberries but not in the same bed, would that help?
I'm GUESSING that the reason they help with yield is via attracting bees, therfore just having them NEAR your bed should do the trick right?

Great info All Thanks for sharing

I'll add another....avoid working with plants when the leaves are wet, to avoid spreading fungus / disease spores to other plants.

if interested in an indoor garden, look up aquaponics

Good tips, thanks for the advice!

wow, been a while since the last time i posted in this thread, i have changed my thinking and methods quite a bit since then
here are a few things i have studied intensively since the last time i was in this thread:
polyculture
permaculture
huglekultur
food forest - 7 layers
sepp holzer - aquaculture and farming with nature(for larger pieces of property but still some stuff that can be applied to small pieces of land)
just tons of changes in my way of thinking as it comes to plants and growing them since then...

wow, been a while since the last time i posted in this thread, i have changed my thinking and methods quite a bit since then
here are a few things i have studied intensively since the last time i was in this thread:
polyculture
permaculture
huglekultur
food forest - 7 layers
sepp holzer - aquaculture and farming with nature(for larger pieces of property but still some stuff that can be applied to small pieces of land)
just tons of changes in my way of thinking as it comes to plants and growing them since then...

Just added a small swale to my garden. Lined it with rocks to spruce it up.

^nice!
i haven't yet decided whether or not to use swales on my small hill on my small acreage, as of right now i am building hugelkultur beds and planting a three sister's garden

im thinking i will update my sig with a link to a thread offsite of what im doing, fun stuff that i kinda wanna share:)

^nice!
i haven't yet decided whether or not to use swales on my small hill on my small acreage, as of right now i am building hugelkultur beds and planting a three sister's garden

im thinking i will update my sig with a link to a thread offsite of what im doing, fun stuff that i kinda wanna share:)

Think its against Tue rules to link off site. Pretty sure. Repost it here as a new thread.

^^ahhhh... but thats soo much work, i take like twenty pics a week:(