Do you have any good gardening tips/hints/shortcuts to share?

For Example:

1. Put sand down around your plants to keep the slugs away.

2. Get Free used grounds from starbucks for your compost pile or use to amend soil.

Please share your tips . . .

Old baby gates make great trellis to support cucumbers or other heavy squash. Hammer two 1×2 posts into the ground and stretch the gate between. Use zip ties to attach. At the end of the season it all goes back into storage.
Old front bicycle wheels on top of pole trellis. This requires a pipe, slightly larger in diameter than the wheel hub's axle (the place the skewer goes through). Drill holes in the pipe 1 inch down. Place the wheel across the end of the pipe. Lash with zip ties. Insert the pipe's other end well into the ground. Run string down to the ground from all around the rim of the wheel. The string attaches to tent pegs or soil staples. The string will stabilize the wheel on top of the pole and support green beans or other vine.

Use old mini-blind slats for plant labels.

Put cotton balls in the tips of garden gloves to protect your nail. It also keeps the gloves from wearing out at the tips.

Old white sheer window curtains can drape plants to keep out insects or light frosts.

Disposable chops sticks from the last take out make stir sticks for mixing in the garden shed. They also make seed dibbles for sowing or for pricking out seedlings when transplanting.

Old window screen cut to fit the bottom of flower pots keeps soil in. Also used coffee filters will work.

Tuna or cat food cans with ends removed make cut worm barriers. place over the transplants and press into the ground to prevent cutworms from chewing the seedling.

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I'm a novice gardener and I'm interested in starting a vegetable garden next year, but would need to do it in containers. Do you have any book recommendations for container gardening? I'm also looking for suggestions on how to get started and what would be easy to grow in containers. Thanks!

Lowe's sells a great book on container gardening published by Sunset and that is how I got started. Although now I live on about an acre, I started gardening in containers on an enclosed condo patio. I still have over 200 plants growing in containers in my yard, including herbs, citrus and veggies. Tomatoes, peppers and herbs are great to grow in containers. I grow 5 different varieties of tomatoes, 3 pepper varieties and a host of herbs like thyme, sage, chives, basil, 2 kinds of oregano, tarragon, dill, mint, chamomile…and some others I don't remember right now. I found growing vine plants like cucumber, pumpkin and squash is a little tricky in containers, but they do show you how in the Sunset book. For free advice on gardening in containers in your zone, you can contact a master gardener or the county agricultural extension.

I planted blackberry in my garden in Feb. It gave lots of blackberries for several months, then with all the Gulf Coast hurricane season rain, it died off. It is coming back, so I pruned most of the tall dead looking branches. Any tips?
Do I need to re-stake it?
Its thorny : )

Blackberries grow on the canes that came up last year. The canes only put out fruit for one season.

Cut off at the ground any canes that produced berries this year. For the new canes, you need to tie them to a trellis. They will have berries next spring.

Good Luck!!

I live in the New England area and am relatively new to gardening, if that makes any difference. Thanks in advance!

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/neweng/

I am looking for a good website with tips on what are some good flowers to plant in my area and some care instructions. I have never planted a thing before in my life so I want to start out with something easy to take care of.

http://www.gardening.com/

Is there any difference between flower arrangement and gardening?There are various types of gardening these days-gardening, terrace gardening & indoor gardening? Does indoor gardening differ from flower arrangement?

Yes, there is a difference.

Gardening has to do with growing living plants (flowering or not) - and the venue doesn't much matter. traditional (outside in the ground), in containers, terrace, indoor…it can all be called "gardening".

Flower arrangement has to do with assembling cut flowers into pleasing displays. They are not growing - they've been cut.

I am starting an allotment and would like to be purely organic. Got any experience or tips for a newbie that I can use on my vegetable plots? General tips or growong tips, or just general ideas all welcome
Organic fertilizer, compost, mulch and of course, no pesticides.

When it comes to making some dirt properly for a vegetable bed, start by mixing 2 parts steer or horse manure, 1 part peat moss, 1 part sifted dirt from your yard or 1 part topsoil and 1/2 part perlite. I prefer to mix mine in a wheelbarrow, but hell, you can mix it directly in a vegetable or flower bed. Just be sure to till the soil a bit at the bottom of your bed before mixing in your prepared soil.

Also when planting either plants, flowers, vegetables, etc… Make a mixture of 1 - 2 tablespoons of fish emulsion (it comes in a 1 gallon jug) and 1 - 2 tablespoons of seaweed emulsion (it comes in a quart up to a 1 gal jug) with about a gallon or two of water in a watering can. Just water your plants or vegetables like you normally would at least once every 2 to 3 weeks. This will help to produce bigger yields and helps to promote stronger root growth.

Next when it comes to your flower beds or the bare soil around trees and somewhat later on when your vegetables begin to be more established, if it is possible, try using cedar bark as mulch. The finer the better. This helps alot with water retention in the soil, but cedar also helps as a natural pesticide that has no chemicals. And after a while the cedar bark will breakdown and become compost.

Next is composting. Dirt, organic matter, water aerating the compost regularly and watering. I prefer to compost in the ground as opposed to using a bin, or anything else. I dug two 4ft wide by 3 ft deep holes in my back yard, almost side by side. This allows me to have a constant supply of compost year in and year out. Plan on it taking anywhere from several months up to 18 months to make compost. You can add grass clippings, clean paper, apple cores, orange peels, etc… Just whatever you do, dont add anything that has come in contact with any meat products, or fish. As this will attract animals. I like to add a cheap bag of steer manure to the mix which helps with the breakdown of material….

Hit me up if you need any more advice….

I have an old tree in front of my home. I like to add a flower bed around the tree, but I am new to planting and gardening. Also, my lawn needs a lot of care. Last year my husband tilled part of our lawn and we replanted new grass, but our lawn looks very unhealty with a lot of try, burned like spots. What can I do to have a healthy lawn, and how do I go about creating my flower bed around the tree. I like to put a border around the tree like a small wall maybe. I want the flower bed be higher than the actual lawn. We have mostly clay dirt. Can you give me some advice and/or help. Thanks.

Two words: Container Gardening.

i want to start gardening because there are some really cool flowers and i live up in the mountains in colorado. we have a beatiful 3 story house and a view of the continential divide on one side and estes park on the other but we are missin one thing… COLOR so i want to start gardening. can neone tell me some easy flowers to grow to begin and can you tell me some tips and tricks for gardening??? i would also like to trade seeds via snail mail with people in other states so if u r interested please send me an email at skate.fairy@yahoo.com

the key to successful gardening is good soil. without it, you won't grow much. adding things like compost, manure, peat moss, grass clippings and such, then turn the soil and work the organic materials in to at least 15 inches down. if you like, you can take a soil sample to your local ag extension and they will test it and tell you exactly what you need. good luck!! gardening is awesome and addictive and keeps me sane. i'm not sure about what flowere advice to give you for your part of the country. but here's a hint- most garden centers sell the plants that do the best in a given locale. even if you don't purchase the plants, you have an idea.

Every time I buy a houseplant or look something up that's related to any kind of gardening I get completely lost in all the terminology, latin names, etc.

I'd like to get better at gardening and growing things without having to get my degree in horticulture. Are there any sources (websites/books) for beginners who don't understand all the "big words" ?

What I did was to go to the local library, and grab a large stack of books on gardening. Ones with pictures are more inspiring. Out of a stack of 10 or so, there would be at least a couple that seemed to "speak" to me. Reading was not over my head, good visuals, and I actually learned things, or at least got ideas.

It's a great way to spend a winter, when there's not much going on outside.