GENERAL TIPS

• Keep some tools and gloves right where you need them most.
• Do your cats love your plants a little too much?
• Garden grime under your fingernails? How to prevent
• Can't find your tools? Time to see red!
• When is the best time to water your garden?
• Garden memories to save and share

Keep those tools handy
Find yourself stepping into the garden “just to look” and leaving 3 hours later with dirty hands?  Of  course you do!   Here’s the solution:  Go to a home improvement store and buy a rural mailbox.  You can usually pick them up for five or six dollars.  Sink a 4x4 post into the ground in a corner of the garden.  Mount the mailbox on top of the post.  Inside, store a pair of gardening gloves, a trowel, a hand cultivator – anything that fits and that you use often.  Your tools will be handy and protected from the elements.  Decorating the mailbox can be a fun project for kids and adults alike.

 

CATS IN THE CATNIP? (Razzleberry) Two ideas for saving your houseplants: 1.  Put wire milk crate cage over your catnip plants, so the little buggers won't completely destroy it. 2.  Stick plastic forks, tines up, in the soil around house plants to keep pets from digging.

To prevent dirt from getting under your fingernails while gardening, scratch a bar of soap before starting to work. When you are finished, the soap will wash out from under your nails and your nails won't have those telltale dark stains under them!

Paint the handles of your garden tools bright red.  The paint will protect them from the weather and the bright red color will make them easier to find in all that greenery.

Whenever possible, water your garden early in the morning.  In the afternoon sun, much of the water will evaporate before it can get down to the roots.  In the evening, the roots absorb less actively and less evaporation occurs - a recipe for root rot.

Make garden memories to save and share (Tru) When Tru looks at the garden notebook her father made, she remembers him and the joy he took in his garden - not to mention that 228-lb pumpkin! Save the materials you use in planning your garden - pictures, articles, the plans you draw, seed packets. Take photos and make notes as the season progresses and your garden grows and changes. You'll have some great starting info for planning next season, a touch of summer to help make the winter days less dreary, and some wonderful memories for you and your children.