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Do you have a question?

Category: Organic Tips for your Garden | Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 11:45 pm

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I would like to ask anyone who reads my blog a question!!

I get asked many gardening questions over the years and hopefully I have helped people to make their gardens, just what they wanted.

I would like to start a site, that would allow people to ask me gardening questions, and I, hopefully, can answer them.
I just wanted your input into this idea before I get it going.

Please just click on my comment link, and let me know if you would enjoy participating or just reading the questions and answers.

thank you Mrs Greenthumb.

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Have you grown a Tree Peony??

Category: Organic Tips for your Garden | Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 11:38 pm

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Many people ask me about growing tree peonies and one lady told me she had bought 2 peonies in consecutive years and they never grew , she wanted advice,

Defining insanity, is doing the same thing repeatedly, expecting different results.!

After a winter in cold storage, no fine feeder roots are`left, so it is best to plant in the FALL, when roots get a chance to become established. You need to plant about 6 weeks before the ground freezes.

Tree peonies are usually grafted onto a piece of herbaceous peony root. The root helps the tree peony to get established, takes about 2-3 years.
Good growers will wait to sell a plant when it is on its own root, but some others who are not so reliable, may sell them at a discount price with the herbaceous root still attached.

This only leads to a poor plant and sometimes the original peony root will start to put up its own stems.

Plant your tree peony 10-15 inches deep in perfectly drained, slightly acidic soil with protection from the sun, during the hottest part of the day.

The real key to success with these gorgeous plants , is to plant them at the right time, in the fall!!

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Do your Pansies smile at you?

Category: Organic Tips for your Garden | Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 3:54 am

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When the winter winds blow and I am feeling completely dejected, I make myself feel better, by reading my seed catalogues.

Of all the pictures of flowers that I see, nothing makes me smile more than the pictures of Pansies!. They have such expressive faces, I feel that they are almost human and are smiling out of the pages at me. I know this sounds dillusional, but it makes me feel that spring MUST be around the corner.

I started trays of pansies in my basement some years ago, and to my delight they came on leaps and bounds, I had read that they had to be kept dark to germinate, and this did work. I was so proud of myself, as I had always thought that they would be hard to grow.

This euphoria did not last long!

My basement is not used as living quarters, as I live in a 120 yr old house, and the basement actually gives me the creeps!, but in order to have the right growing features for my seedlings, it was ideal.

I was not the only one to think this, oh! no, the mice that winter in the walls of the old basement, thought that I was being over generous, I was actually feeding them, with nice green shoots!
So, when I went down to check on my pansies, DISASTER! they were no longer there! All I had left were trays of earth that had been knocked over and were lying on the floor, not a pansy in sight!

So, I reverted back to visiting my garden center and buying trays of pansies to plant as soon as the weather co-operated.Pansies like cool temperatures and are perfect for early spring planting. They will bloom all summer, but do tend to get "leggy' so you must be very strict with yourself and cut them right back, and then you will get twice as many blooms as you had before, and they will continue to keep blooming into fall.

I could not imagine my garden without pansies, I still say that their faces smile at me as I go by, whether from the pages of the catalogues or the window boxes that they live in!.





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Make a String Thing!!

Category: Organic Tips for your Garden | Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2007 2:08 am

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I don't know about you, but I go through a lot of string in my garden in the summer and fall, as plants get too tall and need some help to stand up, so I have a " string thing' that really helps me to keep it tidy and clean.

If you have to buy the large cones of string, it can be costly, bulky and hard to handle, so why don't you give this idea a try!

Take a bleach bottle( empty of course) and cut a flap in the side large enough to put a cone of string in. Put the cone of string inside and thread the end of the string through the cap. Place a couple of pieces of Velcro on the flap that you cut open , so that it is easy to open and close.

Carry the " string thing" ( never did find a name for it !!) and pull out the string as needed through the cap. All the while the string stays dry and clean inside.

Squirrel Repellent.
Use an old spice jar with a perforated lid,fill it with cayenne pepper, sprinkle it around your young transplants to repel the squirrels, it not only works for that, but it also keeps squirrels off the bird feeders, and the birds don't seem to mind a bit!!!

I have read, that to keep deer away, you use human hair( I don't have enough to spare!) but if you do this, the hair lasts longer when it is sheltered from the weather by a cup.

Mrs Greenthumb.


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Those Darn Aphids!!!!

Category: Organic Tips for your Garden | Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 7:36 pm

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APHIDS.

I am listing some tips on how to get rid of these pesky creatures, on your plants.

Carnation dry milk: Mix the milk with water according to directions. Fill a spray bottle with the solution, mist the infected plants with it. The aphids get stuck in the milky solution as it dries on plant leaves.
Lemonade powdered drink mix. Mix 4 teaspoons and 2 cups water in a 16oz spray bottle. Spray on plant leaves being attacked by this pest. The liminoids in the mix,kill the pests.
Real lemon. Mix 4 teaspoons of this product and 2 cups water in a 16oz spray bottle,spray on plant leaves, the limonoids in the lemon oil, kill the aphids.
Olive oil/Ivory. Mix one cup of olive oil, 3 drops of Ivory dishwashing liquid, and 2 cups water in16oz spray bottle, spray plants with solution and then spray with water.( do not use on cabbage,cauliflower, or squash).
Yellow tennis ball. Use an electric drill with a one eighth bit, to drill a hole, screw an eyehook into the hole,the coat the ball with petroleum jelly an hang over the diseased plant. Aphids, like Whitefly are lured to the color yellow, and get stuck in the goo!!! and then they die.
You can also place a Ziploc bag around each ball and coat the bag with the jelly, and then you just have to remove the bag and replace it when necessary.

An aphid has a tube for a mouth, it uses this tube to pierce the stems of plants and suck out the juices.

Aphids excrete a sweet fluid, a favorite food of ants. Ants are known to protect colonies ofaphids so thay can have an endless supply of food. Ths ants will also move the aphids from one plant to another to sustain their colony.!

Aphids mate in the fall, and eggs hatch in the spring.
The femal gives birth to living femal aphids, hatched from unfertilized eggs in their bodies. This fatherless process can continue for many generations , until the fall, when aphids develop into males and females, restarting the cycle.

Mrs Greenthumb.



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All about Bulbs.

Category: Organic Tips for your Garden | Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:09 am

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To protect bulbs from moles, rodents etc, cut the top half from a clean empty Bleach jug,punch drainage holes in the sides and base of the bottom of the jug, sink the jug into your flower bed, fill with soil,and plant bulbs inside it.

Protect bulbs from voles, they are sure to tunnel under the earth, plant your bulb inside a clean empty yogurt cup, punched with holes.

To store plant bulbs, I fill the foot of a pair of panty hose and hang it high enough to keep the contents dry, and the fibers of the hose also help to repel rodents and insects.

It is difficult sometimes to know what depth you are at, when planting bulbs, my friend uses liquid paper to mark off inches along the edge of her trowel, this makes a convenient ruler to measure the depth.

Protect gladiolas and freesia bulbs from pests by soaking them for 12 hours in a mix of 2.5 tablespoons of Listerine in a gallon of water. Take the bulbs out of the Listerine dip and WITHOUT rinsing them off, plant them.

Deter rodents from digging up bulbs by sprinkling ground red pepper around bulb plantings.

Many people don't know that the tip of a bulb is the top, from which the central bud sprouts.Roots grow from the bottom.
I did read that no matter what way you place a bulb in a hole, it will turn itself the right way up.!!!

Just a little titbit of knowledge::
In the 17th century owning rare bulbs became a status symbol,especially tulips.
The bulbs were sold by weight, usually still in the ground.Traders could earn themselves approximately $40,000 dollars a month!. In 1635, I think, three Rembrandt tulip bulbs sold for $25,000 dollars
and in that same year, the tulip market crashed..

NEVER eat hyacinth bulbs, if eaten, they can cause death, so watch out for your children.

Till next time
Mrs Greenthumb.

This blog entry has been viewed 1253 times

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Anything can be a planter!!!

Category: Organic Tips for your Garden | Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 5:50 am

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I have found that we gardeners, are very adept at finding things to do a job that they were not originally meant to do.
Take Bushel Baskets for instance.
They make ideal container gardens!! Line a bushel basket with plastic, slash a few holes in it for drainage, and fill it with potting soil. You should also add a handful of compost as this helps the soil to support plant growth.

Besides being cheap, the baskets are large enough to accommodate a small salad, flower and herb garden. You could start with planting radishes,parsley,
violas and onion sets in the spring and then for summer, you could plant bush beans, basil and calendulas.
If you position the basket near a railing or a trellis,you can add vines such as morning glories etc.
Not only that, the baskets are portable, they even have handles.

For best results, put something under the basket so its not in direct contact with the ground, maybe a couple of bricks, wood or concrete slab. This allows the basket to drain better and increases the air circulation and retards rot.
These baskets, taken care of, could last two seasons!!

I was also thinking they would make a nice gift for Mother's Day!!!
Till next time,
Mrs Greenthumb


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The easiest annuals to grow from seed.

Category: Organic Tips for your Garden | Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:31 pm

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Easy Growers:
the easiest annuals to grow from seed are those that sow themselves. Alyssum, Calendula,Cosmos,Nicotiana,Nigella and Poppies will all come back into your garden the following year as long as you leave some seed heads, and then the seeds will fall to the ground. With this group of plants, you only have to seed once!!!

The next easiest would be seeds that are`larger in size. Marigolds,Sunflowers,Nasturtiums and Zinnias. You may also have luck with Portulaca.

Some seeds are cold weather germinators,
Nigella,Poppies and Larkspur, so if you are starting them indoors, sow them about
6-8 weeks before last frost, or else as soon as the ground can be worked sow them directly into the soil.

No matter how quickly they grow, annuals do need a couple of months to make it to blooming size. So if you want some of them to flower in summer, you will have to get varieties that get growing in early spring.

Annuals offer some of the loveliest scents in the garden.If this appeals to you try to make sure that you grow some of the following;
sweet alyssum, hesperis, nicotiana(sylvestris), stock, mignonette, and of course, sweet peas. Some people are surprised that petunias can offer a lovely scent, just stick your nose in them at the nursery before buying, as some have a lovely subtle perfume.

I will talk about an"all white" annual garden next time.

till then,
Mrs Greenthumb

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Buying Bedding Plants.

Category: Organic Tips for your Garden | Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 8:27 am

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The strip has become the most popular way to buy bedding plants for transplanting into containers or beds. These plants are grown in a series of snap-off strips which are made of rigid polystyrene or flimsy plastic.One problem is roots may be damaged as you pry them apart, this is less likely to happen than with tray-grown ones.
Trays. are the traditional method of buying bedding plants, it is also the cheapest way, but roots are often damaged when the plants are torn apart at planting time.
Packs. are made of flimsy plastic and is made up of usually 4-24 individual pots.
Each pot contains a single plant that are usually detached at the time of the sale.It is more expensive to buy plants this way , but there is no root disturbance at planting time. This type of unit is becoming more popular, especially for plants that hate root disturbance.
Pots.Individual pots are the most expensive way to buy bedding plants, this is usually the way to buy dot plants and top quality stock.Plants sold in pots, are usually available over a longer period of time and not just during the bedding-out season. This is a way to buy choice plants, but too expensive for mass bedding.

A`word of warning-------- do NOT buy plants which have been lifted out of the tray, and then wrapped in newspaper.
Mrs Greenthumb

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Kill that Fungus!!

Category: Organic Tips for your Garden | Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 8:25 pm

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Hi there!!
Today I will give you a few hints on Fungus sprays. Most fungi love wet conditions, and overwatering can produce just such conditions. If your soil does not drain well, and water stands too long at the base and around the roots, then your plant or shrub, is a prime candidate for water mold root rot.
There is no cure for this disease, so once your bush or plant is infected there is little to do but remove it.
If you notice other fungal diseases, you can control many with fungal sprays, made from simple ingredients.

Baking Soda.
The same baking soda that you use for baking etc, makes a great spray to combat fungi that attacks plants. Mildew on roses
or brown rot on grapes are just a few of the problems that baking soda sprays will help cure.
Basic Soda spray:
2 tablespoons baking soda
1 gallon water
(optional) 1 teaspoon vegetable oil.
Mix ingredients together and spray solution on problem areas. Repeat as necessary. The veg oil, helps the spray to stick to the leaves better.

Soda Spray for Rust.
2 tablespoons of Baking Soda
1 gallon water
6 tablespoons of vegetable oil
2 tablespoons kelp extract( get it in health stores)
Mix ingredients together and spray solution on rust-covered areas.Repeat as necessary.


As spring approaches ( I hope!!) dont forget when you remove the faded flowers from your bulbs, do NOT remove the foliage, as this is what feeds your bulb for next year.

When planting early vegetables, put them on the south side of the house etc. This will protect them from northerly heat, and then they release that heat at night.

Avoid planting related crops in the same spot year after year, for example:
tomato, peppers, potato.

When planting your tomatos try this:
instead of planting the stem of your seedlings straight down in the earth, plant them on their sides and cover with soil leaving only the tip of the plant turned up above the soil level. Firm in well. This allows roots to form along the stem under the soil, and will give you a much bushier and stronger plant.

Till next time!
Mrs Greenthumb

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