Gardening Tips 'n Tricks

GQnE will provide you with gardening tips 'n tricks to help you do things quickly and easily in your garden areas. Most of what can be found here has been experienced first hand. Also, feel free to let GQnE know what's worked for YOU, too!

Flowers are not made by singing
"Oh, how beautiful,"
and sitting in the shade.
~ Rudyard Kipling

It's quite easy to maintain a beautiful healthy garden for years to come simply by remembering to do these two very important things:

• each spring, spread a 1" layer of compost over all of your garden areas (no need to dig it into your soil) and
• water your garden three times a week using a soaker hose or a drip irrigation system

Oops ... now which of these iris was the one I wanted to move to the other bed? This little gardening tip will help you easily remember which plant it was that you were going to move: while the flower is still in bloom, simple tag/label it so you'll move the correct one when you get ready to do so.

When gardening season ends, leave perennial seed heads for winter interest and to produce more flowers in your garden areas for next year.

To encourage your perennials to produce more flowers for the season, deadhead the flower blossoms as soon as they fade or wilt.

To remember where seeds may have self-sown, peg down a stalk where you want more plants to sprout. In early spring it should be easier to recognize possible new plants from weeds.

Love the look of chameleon plant but heard it can be invasive? Cut out the bottom of a plastic pot and sink the pot in the ground to its rim. Fill the pot with soil and put the chameleon plant in the pot. This will help contain the plant to this smaller area.

Would you like to attract butterflies to your garden? Provide a water source like a shallow bowl filled with a few stones for the butterflies to land and grab a drink.

Speaking of butterflies ... be sure to plant a butterfly bush for them. You'll want to give your butterfly bush plenty of space. They grow quickly and will need at least three to four feet of space on every side.

Use perennials for cut flower bouquets? Sure! Simply cut the flowers soon before or just after they open to extend the life of your display. You could even make an interesting display using just foliage from some of the variegated, larger leafed Hosta.

When gathering flowers for your cut bouquets, take along a container of water to put your flowers in as soon as you cut them. Adding an aspirin or a few drops of bleach to the water in your vases will help keep the flowers looking fresh longer also.

Use a posthole digger to make planting quick 'n easy. Place your soil amendment on the planting area before planting. Use the posthole digger to mix the soil without needing to get down on your knees.

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Gardening Quick 'n Easy readers ... and if you'd like,
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Tip submitted by YourFirstName

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