Collection of Tips and Techniques.

I'm always fascinated by "over the fence gardening tips" that I get from people. You know...the kind of old fashioned/thrifty tips that your grandmother told you and still works better than stuff you buy in the store.  Not all of these are tried and tested so use with your own description.

Here are some I have found.

1. Soak cigarette tobacco in water (5 cigs to a gallon of water) to kill fungus and bugs on all non-food plants. Wear gloves, and wash your hands after use. Re-apply after each rain on outdoor plants.
2. Some tips from my Mother are using egg shells and coffee grounds in the garden. Beer to trap slugs and drown them. Broken terracotta pots mixed in the soil for azaleas And pickle juice for gardenias
3. baking soda can be made into a spray at the rate of 1-5 tablespoons per quart [depending on the plant you sprayed]  baking soda and milk with a dash of natural soap makes an excellent fungal control.
4. If you grow carrots leave a few in ground to over winter so that they will bloom the following Spring. Carrot flowers are similar to Queen Anne's Lace
5. (cousins) are just the right type to attract beneficial insects to the garden such as parasitic wasps and soldier beetles.
6. Empty your tea pot around the Rose Bed, it works for me and is cheap too.
7. Keep you Chrysanthemums knee high till the 4th of July.
8. I use chamomile tea with the water I use on my seedlings in the greenhouse.
9. I put it in a mister and spray on the seedlings and the soil. It really cuts down on damping off disease on those little seedlings.
10. Growing alum and garlic chives as a border for my roses. No Japanese beetles.
11. Prune mature hybrid teas roses to your knees. They should be 18 inches tall, your knees that is.
12. pour pan grease at the foot of trees
13. slate in the soil makes hydrangeas grow bluer than blue toss out into the ground the bottom leftover from cabbage head and it will grow into a flowering cabbage stalk
14. Back to the dried chamomile. I buy it by the bag and crush it fine and then use a fine dusting of it on the surface of my seedlings. This way I don't have to keep reapplying.
15. One more. Never had the privilege of grandparents or gardening relatives, but I am intrigued with using newspaper to garden, to smother new beds and to make paper cups for new seedlings that can then be planted directly into the soil without being removed. And they are cheap, cheap, cheap!
16. Tip from my Grandfather: Put a cinder block over tomato transplants (plant goes through the hole). Block shades the soil at base of plant, cutting watering needs in half. Provides some wind protection and releases heat at night to keep maters toasty on cool spring evenings. Really makes a difference.
17. My mom used to put ashes from the fireplace in our roses. Also used banana peels on Stag horn ferns. Keeps them nourished and healthy.
18. Put wood ashes around your fruit trees in the fall & winter. The fruit will be sweeter and you won't have worms in your fruit. No spraying! Yippee!
19.  
20. My mother-in-law (who is amazing with veggies and fruit) told me to plant food-bearing plants when the moon is waxing (increasing to a full moon) and ornamentals when the moon is waning (decreasing). It's an old superstition but if her garden has anything to say about it I would hazard to say it can't hurt!! ;)
21. My late mother-in-law always planted her veggies by the moon. It was always a full garden too. You can still find the Farmers Almanac she used at some stores.
22. As for the coffee grounds as mulch, that's a lot of coffee, huh? :-) I have been using egg shells & coffee grounds mixed into the soil around my roses.
23. They've grown beautifully (this is the 2nd year), but my climbing peace still has black spot. I'm having to spray all the time. But I know it doesn't have enough sun. Also, I've always poured pickle juice around gardenias, ferns and my cleyera...all acid loving plants.
24. For acid loving plants, you can't get a better fertilizer than cottonseed meal. It has an NPK of 6.5/2/1.5...It is also high in minor elements. Roses and azaleas really love it. It wont burn, no matter how much you use. Just apply it to the soil and scratch it in. It is very slow release. Buy it at your farm or feed store. It's not sold locally as fertilizer, but as animal feed.
25. Plant some Marigolds around the vegetable garden and they will keep bad bugs away....
26. Marigolds - depends on variety. Go with the French marigolds. Shared this tidbit with my grandpa many years ago, and he said it was the worst bug year for his tomatoes in his 60 years of gardening. He used the yellow lemon variety. All my books say the French variety is the deterrent.
27. Use the permanent type of Elmer's white glue to seal pruning cuts on roses and shrubs that are prone to cane borers. The borers can't get through the stuff. No more holes at the ends of canes and subsequent dieback. Much easier than smearing the black stuff on. Cap twists shut and you can keep a small bottle in your pocket.
28. Compost banana peels at base of rose bushes to prevent aphids.
29. Paint handles of gardening utensils with neon paint so you can find them in the garden.
30. Soak cuttings in willow water overnight; it improves chances of rooting.
31. Paint the trunk of young peach/apricot trees, from just above roots up to first limbs, with water base ceiling white paint. Serves two ways....prevents caterpillars from laying their eggs just below soil level (no borers), and cuts sunscald in winter.
32. Old timers would burn a brush pile to warm/sterilize soil and prevent weeds so they could start late garden plants. Works equally well to prepare a spot for wildflowers.
33. Every Spring put some wood ashes around your lilacs. I had lilacs that I planted and it was going on 7 years no flowers I put the ashes around them and I had flowers that year!
34. In the fall, I plant garlic around the outside edges of the garden areas.
35. It seems to keep quite a few of the "negative bugs" out of the area.
36. Doesn't stop 'em all, but it helps a LOT!
37. Marigolds, Pyrethrum, and Basil help too. (Especially near the tomatoes....didn't have ONE tomato hornworm last year and had over 20 tomato plants.)
38. Mix a tbsp. of Epsom salts in a spray bottle of water & spray tomatoes & peppers. After hearing about this a few months ago. I tried it on our very sad looking peppers & bam!!! They took off like crazy! Had more peppers than ever before.
39. My mother used to use Epsom salts on Dogwood trees. It's supposed to make them flower more.
40. An old-timer told me to take a little Epsom salts, mixed in water, to strengthen plants with weak stems. She also used it on all her seedlings, once they were a few weeks old. She had a beautiful garden and a real green thumb!
41. Epsom salts, Ivory soap and FLAT beer seems to keep the crawlies away and I swear makes plants bloom better. The beer must be flat or the foam between the beer and the soap is too much.
42. Instead of wood ashes, just put palletized lime around your lilacs in the fall so that it is dissolved and into your soil by spring. These plants like alkaline soil and will often not bloom if the soil is too acidic.
43. Ammonia = nitrogen.
44. Drier lint is probably mostly cotton = compost OR nesting material for birds. Birds also love animal fur and human hair.
45. Sweeper bag dirt is great soil additive ( in fact bury the whole bag ).
46. Soapy wash water (dishes,clothes,etc..) is great to water houseplants (fights bugs ).
47. A few drops of oil-any kind- applied to standing water will kill skeeter larva. (they come to surface for air and get oiled = dead )
48. Warning - The drier lint only works if you don't wear a lot of clothes with synthetic fibers.
49. You don't have to drink coffee to get the grounds. Most star bucks give them away if you ask nicely. I also snatch up all the grounds from coffee at work.
50. I always put Epsom salt with tomatoes and peppers at planting time also water all my flowers with it they bloom like crazy. sprinkle cornmeal on your roses for black spots.  soak bananas in a quart jar sealed leave outside a couple of days to ferment then pour at base of roses they will really thrive, eggshells crushed around tomatoes for calcium to prevent blossom rot. I plant all my tomatoes and peppers in coffee cans just cut out bottom and push in to garden dirt right after planting, makes it easier to water and protects the plant.
51. Please use caution when using coffee grounds, they can be a bane around alkaline loving plants. Coffee grounds are great around Azaleas. Dry banana peels on screens during the winter months. In the spring grind them in a blender, or food chopper, then use them as mulch.
52. When seeding, I use a pencil dipped into water to pick up the seeds and place them onto my growing medium.
53. pouring boiling water on parsley seeds after they are planted helps germination,
54. Just pour the coffee after you have perked it around the plants after it cools. Left over coffee and the grounds never see the garbage disposal at our home. I perk coffee to use as a spry adding other things such as molasses, Extra virgin olive oil and a letter castrated dish detergent. It is a good foliar spry and prevents lots of disease.
55. If you take a sharp spade or shovel and cut a 12" deep perimeter in the soil around your wisteria (cutting through the root system) you can cause it to flower. Be your own judge as to how far away from the trunk you should cut. Just don't cut too close.
56. When the ground is parched, and the water just runs away from plants, up-end a wine bottle of water in a hole next to the plant. When water seeps into the ground, another bubble of air gets in, releasing another glut of water. Or, put any bottle over a short supporting stake, in a little depression for the regulating puddle. ( Something like the old self-tending chicken waterers.)
57. Put ribbons of surveyor's flagging tape, orange mason's twine, or fluorescent cloth on garden tools and pruners; helps spot them when dropped by kids or you in the tall grass, the "what weeds?", leaf piles, or evening dusk. Tie or tape on where it's not in the way of your grip.
58. Or spray with fluorescent orange - over white paint for added brightness.
59. Even glows thru a little snow! I put it at the balance point of heavy pry bars.
60. Teach the kids - and yourself - to Always leave the snow shovels standing up; but Never stick the garden fork or crowbar in the ground when freeze-up is near.
61. Stack 1 to 4 tires ( can be over sod or weeds.) Fill with dirt and compost or leaves. Plant even leggy tomatoes or sprouted potatoes as you fill the tires. Sun warms tires before ground is warm; simplifies (may require) watering. Keeps tomatoes off ground. Sharp sand or ashes on ground around outside might keep slugs from climbing. Push in stakes, when you get around to it, without a piledriver. Let the Super sweet 100s grow down as well as up.
62. Keep adding to compost, as pile settles.
63. In fall, help kids knock over the pile to "dig" the potatoes.
64. Leaves a rich weed-free spot for next year's whatever.
65. And there was less mosquito water.
66. If you have a problem with raccoons getting your sweet corn and you're tired of putting up the electric fence, plant your sweet corn 2 weeks later than everyone else does. You won't get to brag about being the first to eat sweet corn, but you won't have raccoons. The raccoons are spending all their time searching out the early stuff. My dad did the electric fence every year because the coons were terrible. When he started waiting, he hasn't had to put up an electric fence in 15 years.
67. Water from the old fish tank helps plants grow faster especially on indoor plants and tropical's. It always worked for me.
68. Sort of strange but it really works. An older farmer that I ran into while I was buying mole repellant at the feed store said the best thing to use was Ex-lax. Just drop a little piece in any mole holes and you will get rid of them. I tried it and sure enough it worked great!!
69. Ammonia about a quarter cup in a 20 gallon hose end sprayer, mix it with about the same amount of baby shampoo or dish soap and fill the rest with water. Spray your lawn and plants to the point of run-off. The ammonia is a ready source of nitrogen for green leafy growth. The baby shampoo or dish soap rinses the pollution, dirt etc from leaves so photosynthesis can occur better.
70. Sticking a nail into the soil next to a gardenia bush, helps reduce yellow.
71. Misting the ground before you water makes soil more porous which helps with run off. Black pepper sprinkled in pot (for houseplants and outdoor containers) keeps cats from digging (repeat frequently). Small hand-held vacuum for cleaning electronics (computer keyboards etc) to suck up mealies and other bugs (this is quite fun and I didn't learn it from grandma :).
72. For cut flowers, use luke warm to warm water, never cold, in vases and let it sit for awhile to reduce air bubbles which clog stems.
73. Dryer softener sheets, tied around stakes at each corner of you garden (or around the base of targeted plants) will totally repulse munching critters. Haven't seen them in years!
74. My pest control spray: capful each, brown Listerine, lemon dish soap, household ammonia, ordinary brown tea and plant food 1\2 strength.
75. Kills/repulses undesirable insects while boosting plants.
76. Someone mentioned cigarette butts in water. As cigarettes contain a gazillion other things besides tobacco, I would strongly suggest using REAL tobacco leaves, 2 or 3 of them soaked in a 5-gallon jug. Most farmers still grow some or know someone who does.
77. To ward off skunks who have chosen under your porch or shed as a condo, simply light up the area with a strong light source for a few days. Skunks like only dark areas to nestle into.
78. A little baking soda in a spray bottle works wonders against mildew and white spots on flowering plants.
79. To get rid of moles, put a clump of human hair (from any reliable --i.e understanding!-- hairdresser mixed with a Tablespoon of cooking oil at the entrance of a couple of their entrance/exit holes. The gooey hair clings to their body and drives them away.
80. Got an aphid infestation? Two solutions. #1 Give the affected plant a good strong shower with the garden hose. Most of the aphids will be blown away.
81. Will not harm plants. #2 Ladybugs ladybugs ladybugs. Nowadays, you can even BUY a bunch of them at your local garden centre or nursery.
82. As suggested, willows have a natural rooting hormone. Cut up trimmings (about pencil thickness) into 1" lengths, smash with a hammer or mallet (in a bag, of course) then dump them into a pot of boiling water. Let cool. Use water for rooting cutting or for transplants.
83. I keep a plastic juice bottle with rusty nails and water in it, I call it my rusty nail bottle. Plants need iron, so the rusty nail water is the cheapest way to get it to them. I just go grab it and water all the plants with the water and just keep filling it up over and over again!
84. Got this tip from a sweet English woman, who knows gardening better than the Brits? She also gave me the tips about crushed egg shells (calcium) and banana peels (potassium).
85. I also use my aquarium water when I do a water change to water the plants and potted garden plants. Aquarium water usually has a ton of phosphates in it as well as some nitrogen.
86. For planting trees and shrubs:
87. First year it sleeps
88. Second year it creeps
89. Third year it leaps
90. My family were subsistence farmers. They had excess space for growing food and fuel but being in a remote location had limited opportunity to work for money or sell many food products for money. We were cash poor, no money for chemicals etc.
91. So. They grew an excesses of everything. They grew ten times as many potatoes as needed. If bugs got 90% of them they broke even. If the excess survived and thrived it was fed to the pigs which were easier to sell for money.
92. Beans, peas, corn and potatoes were often grown in ridiculous excess. Pigs loved them all.
93. Osage oranges in corners of your house will keep spiders away Coffee grounds always went by roses. They also look very pretty and smell fresh too
94. Old farm guy told me how to keep grass from growing over stepping stones in garden. I was cutting it away which is not only hard, but over the years the stones will sink as plant roots (and ants etc) pull nutrients from under the stones. Instead insert a shovel under one edge of the stone. Step on the shovel to lift the stone up on one side, and then drop it. The lifted edge will fall on top of the overgrowth. Do this all around. The stone will be on top of the weeds instead of buried by them, it won't sink, and it only took your body weight. I never forget his look at that dang fool city person trying to cut weeds off stepping stones by hand!
95. Likewise when planting shrubs or seedling trees if you clear the area, and dig a big hole for it. the plant won't fare as well as if you just a slit trench. To use a slit trench put shovel into sod where you want to plant.
96. Step down on the shovel until it goes in deep enough for your bush. Then grab shovel handle with both hands, step up onto the shovel with both feet if needed, and lean your weight back until the slit opens wide enough to insert the shrub. Slide the plant into the opening, and remove the shovel to close the slit.
97. Every bush I planted by clearing and digging a big hole either got choked with weeds that moved into the cleared soil, or got dried out by having bare soil around it. The slit trench plants have done much better and needed less watering. Of course that is the way the old guy would do it.
98. They didn't have time to fool around with fancy mulches and do dads on the farm
99. To make harvesting blackberries, cherry tomatoes, green beans or other small things you have a lot of, easier and faster, I use a gallon milk bottle. Slip the handle through your belt so it hangs from your waist. It leaves both hands free for picking, and you don't have to make trips back to some container on the ground. Speeds up harvesting considerably. Oh, enlarge the opening a bit to make it easier to drop things in.
100. To virtually eliminate "transplant shock," simply cover transplants with a cardboard box- open on too to let hot air out. Keep them covered from 3 to
101. 5 days, depending on the weather. Transplant shock is virtually entirely due to the destruction of microscopic root hairs, the only parts of roots that absorb water. They begin to regenerate right after transplanting, but for a few days the plant can't absorb all the water it needs. Shading it with the box significantly reduces transpiration- plant "sweating"- and your transplants won't even wilt.
102. And finally, many gardeners have trouble getting carrot seeds to sprout.
103. The basic problem is they are so small, so you can't put them very deep in the soil. That in turn means you'd have to water them 3 to 5 times a day, like you have to lawn seed. Most working people can't do that. But if you cover the seeds with some clear plastic- like the "trays" chocolate chip cookies come in!- you create a kind of "terrarium." The soil will stay much moister under there, letting you water only twice a day, morning and evening. It greatly increases germination rates.
104. When I am trimming my lavender back after it has flowered, I use the clippings as mulch, helps keep the bugs out. Also, I take last years bunches of dried lavender that I have hanging in the house, crumble it all over the carpet and then vacuumed. The vacuumed will smell great every time you use it after that. I know that isn't really a garden tip, but a good way to reuse the lavender.
105. Plant marigolds (normal looking French kind-nothing too fancy) by your tomatoes, better to plant them before and turn them under, this gets the nematodes which are bad in FL soil.
106. Water fresh cut roses and X-mass trees with boiling water (maybe only 1" of boiling water for the roses and then cool on top). Seems to open em up or something. Works great for X-mass trees, just add boiling water every time.
107. Dryer lint would have been great in the 60's, so old fashioned tips can go out of style, back then fabrics were mostly natural (ok except for double knit polyester ugh), nowadays, we wear a lot of synthetics.
108. Can't get much older than native American three sisters planting: corn, pole beans, squash together. The pole beans grow up the corn stalk and the beans give nitrogen to the corn and the shade of the squash helped trap moisture for the crop.
109. My grandmother used cucumber peels to deter ants. She would peel, then scatter around the doors (outside).
110. Some of these posts are great and some I know better than to ever try.
111. About the willow tree, you could just as well use aspirin to put on cut flowers or new seedling transplants, might even help to soak seeds in before planting.
112. My grandmother had the most beautiful hydrangeas I have ever seen. When asked by people what she did to achieve such beautiful blooms she said she used nails in the soil. Whenever she had a stray nail she'd just toss it in the soil by her hydrangea bushes. When she died and the ground was dug up where her hydrangeas had been we found gobs of rusty nails, there were quite allot, but apparently it was a perfect recipe for gorgeous blooms.
113. Sticking a long nail or twig into the ground along the stem of a plant tomato when planting it will prevent damage from cut worms and picking off the 'suckers' those little branches that pop up between the main tomato plant body and the strong off shoot branches ) will improve fruit production .