5 Tips on Backyard Gardening ...

Tomato plants, green beans, and many other types of vegetables like egg shells, old banana peels, and coffee grounds. You can dump these on the ground around your veggies or grind each of these items up together and then place these grounds around each plant.

I have a hard time finding rocks that are the perfect size for the bottom of my planters. If I don’t get them just the right size, all the dirt washes out the holes the first time I water the plant. Used tea bags can be placed over the holes in a planter to keep the dirt from washing out. I use these often when planting veggies in containers for the patio.

You can go to the trouble of shredding newspaper and then dumping the shredded bits around your plants or you can lay down sheets of newspaper in layers as well. I find that layering a few sheets of newspaper is plenty to keep weeds down around the plants. This technique also makes the rows much easier to walk down since there won’t be any weeds popping up.

Garlic repels aphids, Japanese beetles, spider mites, and squash vine borers. Marigolds repel leaf hoppers, squash bugs, rabbits, and tomato heartworms. Wormwood repels slugs. Nasturtiums repel Colorado potato beetles. And lavender repels rabbits, ticks, mosquitoes, mice, and moths.

Most gardeners find that a mixture of dish soap and water work for most garden pests. You can also grind up 3 onions, 3 hot peppers, and a head of garlic then mix these with water. Let the mix set over night and be sure to cover it. The smell can be noxious! Spray this mix on your plants plagued with pests and watch how quickly the bugs leave.

These are some of the most common gardening tips that I like to pass on to new gardeners. What are some tips that you’d like to share? How did you come across these specific gardening tips?

Top Photo Credit: 69ecilpse