Lawn & Garden
1. Use Ziploc bags as mini-greenhouses to germinate your
seeds. Just add seeds to moist soil, inflate the bag by blowing into it,
and then seal it up. Put it on the top of your refrigerator to keep the
bags warm.
2. To revitalize your ferns, water it with weak tea or plant a soggy tea
bag beside it.
3. Stick 4-6 matches with the suphur end down into the soil of a worm
infested fern.
4. Crush some eggshells and mix it into your soil. The nutrients are good
for your plants.
5. Water your lawn early in the morning to decrease evaporation.
6. One inch of water each week is plenty for your lawn. It is better to
water deeply to encourage deep healthy roots, rather than giving it a
quick shower everyday.
7. Use slow nitrogen release fertilizer (organic or insoluble nitrogen)
for your lawn which is a bit more expensive, but it lasts for months rather
than days or weeks for some lower cost formulas.
8. Use landscape cloth over your beds to keep weeds out. Slits can be
cut to let your plants grow. Put mulch or rocks on the cloth to keep it
down and reduce the amount of water needed for the plants.
9. Pour vinegar and salt directly over offensive weeds.
10. To keep grass from growing in between bricks or sidewalk blocks, sprinkle
the spaces with salt.
11. Rhubarb leaves can be used as a natural insecticide. Cut up and boil
the leaves for about an hour. Once it is cooled and strained, spray it
on your plants. If you use it on your vegetables, be sure to wash your
vegetables first before eating since rhubarb leaves are POISONOUS.
12. To keep cats and dogs from urinating on your plants, put a few garlic
buds and red hot papers in the blender. Mix with a few drops of dishwashing
liquid in a bucket of water and sprinkle around the edge of the garden.
13. Wipe the blades of the lawn mower with vegetable oil before you mow
so that grass doesn't stick to them.
14. Keep garden tools free of rust by pushing them into a bucket of
sand mixed with 1/4 cup (60 mL) vegetable oil. It will scrape off the
soil, coat the tools, and keep the edges sharp.
