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To add perfume to scentless
annuals such as nasturtium, soak the seed overnight in rose water. allow
to dry before sowing and experience the wonderful rose scent when they
flower.
Gareth Wyn Jones (March '99 competition winner)
Snowdrops
which haven`t flowered very well are probbly overcrowded - just divide
into smaller clumps for good display next year.
Dawn
Quadling.
It's
the last few weeks you will be able to plant up your hedgerow with native
hedging plants e.g. hawthorn, hazel and field rose. This provides valuable
shelter and food for our native insects, birds and mammals.
Paula
& Peter
Not
original but very valuable! Grow some plants , Lilies for example ,
in pots . These will be very useful for strategically placing in those
bare patches of border during the summer. Black pots seem the easiest
to hide.
Elizabeth
Law
Recycling
newspaper and paper:
1. Lay thick, overlapping layers of newspaper underneath open-ended
plastic compost bins. It stops weeds from growing into the bins, and
eventually breaks down, improving the soil where the bins are standing.
The newspaper acts as a filter allowing water to seep through without
losing the fibre of the compost. The bins could be placed on stands
and the runoff collected and used as a liquid fertiliser in the garden.
2. If your plastic pot has large holes in it, line the bottom with a
sheet of newspaper. This will stop the potting soil from washing out
of the pot, will still allow the flow of water through and will eventually
break down.
3. If you have a paper shredder, add the shredded paper to the compost.
It breaks down in roughly the same amount of time that it takes to break
down lawn clippings.
4. When planting a new raised garden bed, lay down thick, overlapping,
layers of newspaper before adding new soil. This smothers the weeds
and prevents them from growing through into the bed, and is particularly
good where the weeds are invasive or the bed is being built over old
lawn. Eventually the paper will break down, but in the meantime you
don't have to worry about weeds (or lawn) growing up through the bottom.
Any weeds that do appear are usually surface rooted and easily removed.
Monica
Ciric
Free
plantpots for cuttings or growing on etc. labels and scoops.
Take any sized plastic milk container with a handle and cut through
the body leaving the handle attached to the base. Make four holes in
the base for drainage and you now have a plantpot with a handle A row
of these can be secured from blowing over by passing a stick or string
through all the handles in the row. Also they are easy to transport
as each pot has a handle. Climbers can be supported by inserting a can
down the hollow handle (make a hole in the top). Or to use as holder
ordinary plantpots can be put inside. From the bit left over labels
can be made or with the top screwed on it makes a good disposable 'pooper-scooper'.
Vicki
Morris
Use
a shallow wooden box or plastic tub to use for vermicomposting. Some
newspaper bedding and a few brandling worms can turn your kitchen waste
into valuable compost for the garden and you reduce the amount of domestic
rubbish going to landfill.
Debbie
Scholfield
Cut
lemonade or cola bottles in half and use the tops over plants with &
without the lid as little windowsill propagators and the bottoms to
start of runner beens in.
Tracy
Cook
To
prevent camellia flowers from becoming browned by the frost, my Gran
says that you should nip out in the mornings and wash the frost off
of the blooms with a little warm water, before the sun shines upon them.
My Gran insists that it isn't the frost itself that causes the browning,
but the effect of the sun shining through the frost and becoming magnified.
Her camellia blooms always outdo her neighbours for colour and never
brown.
Donna Banthorpe
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