From using leftover coffee beans to preventing dirt from getting underneath fingernails, master gardener Paul James shares his top 14 tips and shortcuts to make spring gardening a breeze.
Here, the latest tips and tricks from Paul
James, host of Gardening by the Yard:
1. To remove the salt deposits that form on clay pots, combine equal
parts white vinegar, rubbing alcohol and water in a spray bottle. Apply the
mixture to the pot and scrub with a plastic brush. Let the pot dry before you
plant anything in it.
2. To prevent accumulating dirt under your fingernails while you work in
the garden, draw your fingernails across a bar of soap and you'll effectively
seal the undersides of your nails so dirt can't collect beneath them. Then,
after you've finished in the garden, use a nailbrush to remove the soap and
your nails will be sparkling clean.
3. To prevent the line on your string trimmer from jamming or breaking,
treat with a spray vegetable oil before installing it in the trimmer.
4. Turn a long-handled tool into a measuring stick! Lay a long-handled
garden tool on the ground, and next to it place a tape measure. Using a
permanent marker, write inch and foot marks on the handle. When you need to
space plants a certain distance apart (from just an inch to several feet)
you'll already have a measuring device in your hand.
5. To have garden twine handy when you need it, just stick a ball of
twine in a small clay pot, pull the end of the twine through the drainage hole,
and set the pot upside down in the garden. Do that, and you'll never go looking
for twine again.
6. Little clay pots make great cloches for protecting young plants from
sudden, overnight frosts and freezes.
7. To turn a clay pot into a hose guide, just stab a roughly one-foot
length of steel reinforcing bar into the ground at the corner of a bed and slip
two clay pots over it: one facing down, the other facing up. The guides will
prevent damage to your plants as you drag the hose along the bed.
8. To create perfectly natural markers, write the names of plants (using
a permanent marker) on the flat faces of stones of various sizes and place them
at or near the base of your plants.
9. Got aphids? You can control them with a strong blast of water from the
hose or with insecticidal soap. But here's another suggestion, one that's a lot
more fun; get some tape! Wrap a wide strip of tape around your hand, sticky
side out, and pat the leaves of plants infested with aphids. Concentrate on the
undersides of leaves, because that's where the little buggers like to hide.
10. The next time you boil or steam vegetables, don't pour the water down
the drain, use it to water potted patio plants, and you'll be amazed at how the
plants respond to the "vegetable soup."
11. Use leftover tea and coffee grounds to acidify the soil of
acid-loving plants such as azaleas, rhododendrons, camellias, gardenias and
even blueberries. A light sprinkling of about one-quarter of an inch applied
once a month will keep the pH of the soil on the acidic side.
12. Use chamomile tea to control damping-off fungus, which often attacks
young seedlings quite suddenly. Just add a spot of tea to the soil around the
base of seedlings once a week or use it as a foliar spray.
13. If you need an instant table for tea service, look no farther than
your collection of clay pots and saucers. Just flip a good-sized pot over, and
top it off with a large saucer. And when you've had your share of tea, fill the
saucer with water, and your "table" is now a birdbath.
14. The quickest way in the world to dry herbs: just lay a sheet of
newspaper on the seat of your car, arrange the herbs in a single layer, then
roll up the windows and close the doors. Your herbs will be quickly dried to
perfection. What's more, your car will smell great.
