- Newspaper protection for young trees
If you have planted out tree saplings that look a bit spindly, wrap the trunks in newspaper to protect them from the elements. Secure this newspaper sleeve with garden twine. Or make a foil sleeve, to prevent rabbit damage. Remove the newspaper or foil within a month to prevent insects from collecting inside the sleeve.
- Lichens: love them or hate them?
Lichens are the ruffled, fungus-like organisms that grow on stones, brick walls and tree trunks. Many gardeners love the natural look that lichens lend to trees and paths — but if you’re not among them, this is a simple way to make lichens disappear: scrub them with a stiff brush dipped in a solution of 2 tablespoons household bleach and 1 litre water. Be very careful that none of the run-off comes into contact with other garden plants.
- Warm sleeve for standard stem roses
Standard roses are ordinary rosebushes grafted onto long rootstock trunks. To protect the graft in cold winter areas, cut the sleeve off an old jumper or sweatshirt. Prune back the bush’s top growth in late autumn, then slit the sleeve and wrap it around the graft scar, tying it at top and bottom. Stuff the sleeve with coconut fibre peat or clean straw for insulation, then tie a split plastic bag around the stuffed sleeve for protection against severe frost. When you remove the sleeve in spring, your rose should grow more vigorously.
- Speed rose-blooming with foil
In mid-spring, place sheets of aluminium foil on the ground beneath your rosebushes and anchor the foil with stones. Sunlight reflecting off the foil will speed up blooming.
- Feed bananas to roses
Most gardeners know that banana skins make a good fertilizer for tomatoes, peppers and their solanaceous cousins, but roses love them, too. Chop banana skins (up to three) into small pieces and dig them into the soil beneath a rosebush. The banana skins provide both phosphorus and potassium — important plant nutrients that spur the growth of sturdier stems and prettier blooms.
- A grassy boost for azaleas
After mowing the lawn, lay some of the grass clippings out to dry. Then spread a thin layer of clippings around the base of azalea plants. As the grass decays it leaches nitrogen into the soil, supplementing regular feeds. Many gardeners find this ‘something extra’ speeds the growth of azaleas and darkens the leaves. Be careful, though: piling the grass clippings too thickly may make them slimy and, in turn, expose the plant’s stems to disease.
- Cola and tea for gardenias and azaleas
Occasionally watering a gardenia or azalea bush with a can of cola will increase the acidity of the soil, while the sugar will feed micro-organisms and help organic matter to break down. And tea? Place tea bags around the base of a gardenia or azalea plant and then cover with mulch. Whenever you water the plants, the ascorbic acid, manganese and potassium present in the tea leaves will trickle down to the shrubs’ hungry roots.
- Cleaning sap off pruning tools
Taking a saw or shears to tree branches usually leaves sticky sap on the tool. Use a clean cloth to rub any of the following substances onto the blade(s), and say ‘goodbye’ to sap:
- Nail polish remover
- Baby oil
- Olive oil cooking spray
- Suntan oil
- Margarine
- Lubricate pruning shears
Rubbing petroleum jelly or spraying WD-40 onto the pivot joint of a pair of shears will have you snipping away at shrubs so smoothly that you will feel like a professional pruner.
Credit: Reader’s Digest
Picture Credit: Google