Tips past down over Generations

Hi Just thought I would post these old garden tips I have come across

Soak seeds in a cuppa
To encourage seeds to germinate, soak them in cold tea. Its tannins will soften the casing. Chamomile tea is particularly effective as it contains anti-fungal properties, which reduce cases of ‘damping-off’ — a horticultural disease that weakens or kills seeds before they germinate.

Some species, such a sweet peas, will struggle to get started unless soaked overnight.

From pots to pots!
Keep the water from your boiled eggs, potatoes, pasta, vegetables etc. It contains valuable nutrients that are released during the cooking process.

Before you use it to water your plants, make sure the liquid is cool. Don’t use salted water, which can be harmful to soil, or any that contains cooking oil, which will attract pests.

Keep ants away with curry
To avoid an ant invasion, grow a lavender bush. Ants hate the distinctive aroma given off during flowering. Similarly, many insects don’t like curry plants.

In fact, they avoid most spices and will never cross a line of curry powder or cayenne pepper should you sprinkle it around your flower-beds.

If you’ve already got ants, place a squeezed orange half on the ground. As they congregate to devour the citrus fruit, put it on a bird table, where the birds will happily eat the ants.

Trusty rusty nail trick
Iron-loving plants, such as rhododendrons, camellias, blueberries or cranberries, will thrive if you water them with a solution that has had nails sitting in it for while. Just remember to remove the nails first.

'If you are attempting to grow roses or sweet peas, or any other plant that requires plenty of potassium, just bury a banana peel among the roots'
Banana-barmy roses
Similarly, if you are attempting to grow roses or sweet peas, or any other plant that requires plenty of potassium, just bury a banana peel among the roots.

The peel’s potassium will give the plant a nutritional boost and should help it resist disease.

Save your tomatoes
Hang brightly-coloured ornaments – such as red Christmas baubles — on tomato plants early in the season.

They will frighten birds away and so stop them from pecking holes in the fruits.


Too much mint?
Plants that spread rapidly, such as mint, can be contained by planting them in a long hollow pipe, buried vertically.

The roots then have to go a long way down before they can spread out.

Burn that pampas
If you have unruly pampas grass with dead stalks that are tricky to remove, burn it down. The root will remain and the plant re-grow.

Be warned: pampas is very flammable, so don’t do this if it’s close to your house — and make sure you have a hose to hand.

Plentiful peppers
'Plants that spread rapidly, such as mint, can be contained by planting them in a long hollow pipe, buried vertically. The roots then have to go a long way down before they can spread out'
Peppers and chillies demand lots of sulphur to grow healthily — so, when planting them, place two or three unused matches a few inches below the roots.

As the plant grows, the roots will extend down towards the matches and feed off the sulphur, producing a bountiful crop.

Tip-top tools
Fed up with hacking through brambles with rusty, sticking shears? Rub some car wax on the hinge so they don’t get jammed.

Another way to keep (non-electrical) gardening tools in good condition is to store them in a bucket of sand. This will keep them clean, dry and free from rust and corrosion.

Floss for your vines
Due to its resilience, dental floss is ideal for securing vines, such as cucumbers, tomatoes or roses, onto a trellis.

Just be careful not to tie the floss too tightly or it will dig into the growing stems.

Keep green fingers clean
Your nails can be kept clean during gardening by scraping your fingers along a bar of soap before starting work.

The soap stays under the nail and prevents dirt getting in. Afterwards, simply wash using a nailbrush to remove.

See off slugs
To keep slugs off your plants without using pesticides, cover your soil with crushed sea-shells or pistachio nut-shells.

Eggs-tra growth!
A nifty way to sow seeds is to put them in an empty half eggshell, filled with compost, and then placed back in the cardboard egg-box.

Once the seedlings appear, place the carton in the ground.

The eggshell and box will disintegrate and also help to nourish the soil with its minerals, acting like a natural fertiliser.

Put a child's windmill on a mole-hill - the vibrations of the turning plastic blades should deter even the most persistent creatures



Scare off moles
Put a child’s windmill on a mole-hill — the vibrations of the turning plastic blades should deter even the most persistent creatures.

They also hate the smell of orange peel, so a few bits scattered on the grass should keep your lawn intact.

Weed them out
Even with the best gardening equipment, it can be tricky removing weeds from tiny cracks and crevices.

Try a grapefruit knife instead — the small, curved blade is perfect for tight spaces.

 

Good evening Victoria my friend and thank you,I always take a pre 1960's book either poetry/Coleridge or wordsworth with me on my walks,and find somewhere to sit and read for awhile