Gardening Tips

My Gardening Tips

It’s a great looking Monday and predicted to be rainy, but here are a few helpful hints to use in your garden. Check them out and let me know if they help you.  I like the saucer or sled idea…..and I think I could make a hypertufa from it too!

Muddy shoes?

UsetheSnowScraper

I do get out in the yard and garden after (and sometimes during) rainstorms.

Do you have one of those window scrapers for snow that you’ve put away for the winter? Get that out and put it by your back door. You can scrape a lot of the mud off, and brush off the grass sticking to your shoes easily with one of these.

The long handle makes it easier to reach your shoes. This one is an adjustable handle and I had it all the way out.

Time to Tee Off!

golfbag-hypertufa-gardener

Did you or your husband get a new golf bag? Don’t get rid of the old one!

Make it a wheeled garden tote. It can hold various long handed tools, such as shovels, hoes, rakes. And the pockets can hold smaller spades, bulb diggers, gloves, garden clogs or anything else you may need including a water bottle.

It will maneuver around the garden and up steps and even stand upright for you. Perfect when you have a big garden.

Who Knew Some Birds Need Grit?

On your bird feeders:

 

BirdFeeder

Add a little gritty sand either on the feeder stand with your food, or scattered around beneath the feeder itself. This is especially important in the winter when birds may not have access to sand due to snow cover or it’s frozen.

But in the spring, birds may need a source of calcium that you could provide from crushed egg shells (washed and heated to a crispy crunch in the microwave.) This helps them have enough calcium for hard egg shells. http://www.gardening-for-wildlife.com/

Some birds, such as pigeons and doves, swallow the seed whole and need grit to digest their food, so give them a hand!

So give them a hand in both summer and winter, right?

Old Lamp Shades

Do you have old lamp shades of all sizes? Or do you see them at garage sales ?

 

Collect some for special covers for frost. But they can also be useful when planting out new plants and you want to protect them from harsh sunlight on their first few days. So save them in your shed for fall and spring. These stack easily in a corner of your shed or on a tall shelf out of the way when you don’t need them.

Use them as a cloche. The fabric or other material will shield your plant and the sizes are so varied you can find one to work on the plants that need protection. Just place over the top of the plant. If you need to, place a small piece of fabric over the top opening.

lampshadeascloche

Move it, move it , move it!

sled-hypertufa-gardener

Don’t throw away  a child’s small snow saucer or sled. Keep it for use in the yard and garden.

Make a hole for a rope or it may already come with a tether attachment spot.

Use this to place dirt dug from a hole, assorted flat of plants, bag of mulch, etc…anything you need dragged across your garden or yard.

If you dig a hole for a plant, you can put the dirt in the sled and it can even serve as your mixing dish, adding you compost and pellet fertilizer and mixing well before tipping it back into the hole!

And there you go! Let me know how this works for you. I would love to hear your comments .

 
ClosingColor-hypertufa-gardener

2 Comments

  1. Vicki Zwiebel says:

    Love the tips today! Especially the ice scrapper and lamp shade.

    1. Thank you, Vicki. Surely we are out of the frost danger now? But it is Ohio…

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