7 Insanely Useful Gardening Tips
If you are one for having organic solutions to the pestering garden problems then everything you need is available right in your home and kitchen. All it takes is understanding the problem, be it fungus, bugs, pests or diseases, you can easily concoct the right solution with the following tips.
Newspaper to Stop Weeds
If you are planning on mulching your trees or garden, first lay a layer of newspapers and lay your mulch on top of it. This prevents the weeds from being able to get their roots into the ground. The newspapers will take around 18 months to disintegrate and any weed or grass seeds in the mulch will die by that time.
Cornmeal for Ants
If you are pestered by ants in your garden, or even in your home, try sprinkling or leaving small piles of cornmeal where the ants are. Ants cannot digest cornmeal and will die without you needing to use chemicals or pesticides to kill them. Cornmeal also helps stop weed seeds and grass seeds from germinating and can be sprinkled in your garden to prevent them. However, it doesn’t work on already grown weeds or weeds with roots still intact.
Baking Soda
Baking soda is being used for so many things and with such success that it is impossible not to call it a wonder. You can use baking soda in your garden to sweeten your tomatoes, fight funguses, works on powdery mildew and to make your rose bushes grow better. You can also use baking soda to test the pH of your soil. If you add water and baking soda to your soil and it fizzes up then the soil is acidic.
Vinegar
Vinegar is a wonderful antidote for weeds. Just mix one liter of vinegar with a spoon of salt and two to three drops of liquid dish soap. Fill a spray bottle with this and spray on the weeds. Try not to spray on the plants that you have planted. Vinegar can also be used to test the pH of the soil. If the soil fizzes when you add vinegar it means the soil is alkaline.
Garlic
Garlic can do wonders for the health of your plants and in repelling insects and unwanted bugs. Just blend two or three cloves of garlic, add water and blend for a few minutes. Strain the mixture and add a few drops of liquid soap and store. When you need to use it mix it with water in one to ten ratio and spray on the diseased or affected parts of the plant.
Bait the Snails and Slugs
You can leave fresh pieces of grapefruit or melon every night in the shady moist parts of your garden that are slug infested. This will lure the snails and slugs which you can get rid of in the morning. Using little pieces of copper around the plants and trees will also repel them. Crushed egg shells, pine needles and coffee grounds also provide a bad surface for them to slide on.
Sticky Traps for Insects
Plant sticky traps such as two sided tapes or small objects with sticky surfaces on sticks near the plants. This traps the insects every time they land on them while getting near the plants.
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