Top 10 Gardening tips
Wash Lettuce in the garden.
Lettuce can be excetionally dirty in the garden. Do your initial wash with the water you will water your plants with!! This keeps the dirt IN your garden beds. AND it is a total time saver… Wash your produce right after you harvest them to save you from taking dirty fruits and veggies into the kitchen. This tub and colander (affiliate) combo is the perfect tool.
Clean veggies with Vinegar
Use a mixture of two parts water and one part of vinegar (here is a recipe/instructions). The vinegar will kill the bacteria on the produce… AND if you let the vegetables soak in vinegar it will remove the pesticides as well (but it can effect the flavor – with strawberries and some fruit this will sweeten the fruit, with other veggies you may taste an after taste). We suggest using Apple Cider Vinegar.
Gardening Tricks: Pair plants to Help them Grow
Pair your garden plants together. Plants can have soul-mates just like people! And they can compliment each other so well. Research the plants you are putting into your garden and pair or group them together so they help each other. Like Corn and Beans! They love each other and promote each others growth… but dont plant them beside beets or they will stunt each others growth. Research your plants and pair them with their soulmates.
When starting seedlings use spices to prevent damping off disease.
One of the good gardening tricks is to use cooking spices instead of commercial anti-fungals. Spices are powerful antioxidants. They contain antifungal, and antibacterial properties. Cinnamon, tumeric, clove, and mustard have strong antifungal properties. I sprinkle the spice on top of the soil when I plant my seeds in pots, in the house to prevent damping off, and to prevent mold growth on houseplants. I reapply the spices periodically after watering.
Use The Right Sized Containers
All containers and pots used for your indoor gardening should be big enough to allow your plant’s roots to grow. You’ll generally want to give greener vegetables such as kale, spinach, and lettuce, at least five inches of room to develop properly. Other vegetables, such as beans, peas, peppers, and cucumbers, need to have at least seven inches of space. Carrots, beets, potatoes, and turnips require plant containers that can provide 12 inches of room.
When watering indoor plants add 1 tsp. hydrogen peroxide per 1 litre of water to inhibit fungal disease in the plants.
Hydrogen peroxide increase the oxygen going to the soil, which inhibits fungal and bacterial soil diseases that thrive in anaerobic conditions.
Don’t buy fresh seed every year — pre-germinate your seed and plant it.
Buying seed is expensive. Most of us have older packages of seed in storage, and buy new seed, just in case. Instead pre – germinate your seed and only plant the seed that germinates. 100% germination rate. Large seeds like peas, beans and corn can easily be soaked overnight like sprouts, then rinsed and drained for a few days until the seed coat splits and a tiny root appears. Plant immediately. Smaller seed can be germinated on a damp paper towel, inside a plastic sandwich bag and planted into pots, one seed per pot, to grow until the soil warms up. While it seems like a bit of extra work, it allows you to plant for proper spacing and you don’t lose time to unnecessary thinning. The key for this to work is to make sure soil temperatures are adequate before planting outside. As one of the simplest gardening tricks, it is especially relevant if you are planting expensive seed. General germination testing will also help you determine what less-expensive seed you need to replace.
Choose The Right Plants For Your Indoor Garden
Because some vegetables and fruits need considerable space to grow, not all are suitable for growing indoors. Some examples of these plants are okra, corn, and some tomatoes, which can reach a height of up to 10 feet. It’s best to select smaller variants, such as peppers and low-growing fruits like figs and strawberries.
Get the slugs drunk
Don’t ignore slug damage. Deal with them as soon as you see one. Slugs have a two year lifespan and lay eggs in their second year. They are most active in the early morning and during the night. One slug can totally destroy may weeks of work. The beer cure will help you to rid your garden quickly of slugs. Place a shallow dish in a depression in your garden, pour a small amount of beer into the dish and go out twice a day and pick out the drunks and drown them in a bucket of soapy water. Ducks love slugs and if you have a few you get let them patrol your garden. But be aware that they may also eat your seedlings and munch at the leaves of lettuce and kale. We’ve had the best success by handpicking the slugs and feeding them to the ducks. None get away.
Cover plants to prevent insect damage
By covering your growing beds with a light row cover, plants can be protected from marauders like the cabbage butterfly, that lays her eggs on all Kole plants. The eggs hatch into cabbage caterpillars that decimate your crop. Carrot rust fly can be blocked out of your carrot plants in the same way. Gardening tricks to protect your harvest are better than using poisons to control plant predators.