What’s in it?

The ingredients are commonly found around the home. The combination doesn’t sound especially appetizing, but then that’s the whole idea!

3 eggs
8 oz (1 cup) Hot Pepper Sauce *
4 oz (½ cup) Murphy’s Oil Soap
1 gallon of water

* I use the cheapest “store brand” of hot sauce I can find. That has been as low as $1.59 per quart, but lately the best buys have been smaller bottles – $0.99/12 oz

In a bowl, beat the eggs, completely blend in all of the hot pepper sauce, and slowly add the oil soap with continued stirring. Please Note: It is very important that the beaten eggs be mixed thoroughly with the hot pepper sauce before the Murphy’s Oil soap is added. Otherwise this mixture, becomes very thick, and the emulsion “breaks” leading to a “cottage cheese consistency that is difficult to dilute and can subsequently clog your sprayer.

Put 1 gallon of water in your garden sprayer.

Pour mixed ingredients from bowl into water. Close sprayer. Pressurize and spray plants to “run off”. That is, to the point where the foliage is completely wet, as the spray just begins to “run off” the leaves.

In my yard, there’s enough “salad” that I usually put out two or three sprayers full. There is no need to clean the equipment between batches, but it is very important to thoroughly clean up your sprayer, including the hose – (I use warm, soapy water) – after your finished for the day. If you should “forget” to clean up your equipment, I suspect you’ll be reminded the next time you use your sprayer and are greeted with the aroma of aged eggs!

Will it work? Why should it work? How often should the spray be applied?

Whenever you get one of these home recipes, it never comes with a guarantee. I don’t know if it will work for you. I do know it’s not expensive to use or difficult to apply, and it does help keep the deer away from my plants.

All cooks, whether in the kitchen or the garden, understand that in any recipe the ingredients and their ratios are seldom absolute. In this case, each of the ingredients does provide a specific function. The “hot sauce” provides short-term protection. The sharp smell of the cayenne on the leaves and in the ground around the plants keeps the deer away for a couple of days. The “eggs” provide two functions – the first is as a “sticker” to help the spay solution adhere to the plant surface. The more important contribution develops over the next few days as the eggs “age”. The sulfide smell from the rotting eggs persists for 2 – 3 weeks and is sufficiently unpleasant to a deer’s sensitive nose the desired result is achieved. [Note: There is no odor detectable by humans from the spray on the plants.]

Feel free to vary the basic formulation to fit your “taste”. For example, I often add a dash of hot Chinese cooking oil when I feel especially vindictive! I’m considering adding some Miracle Gro (30-30-30) to the cocktail in the future. The presence of the fertilizer shouldn’t interfere with the effectiveness of the repellent, and the plants should get a boost from the foliar feeding.

Jerry Murphy
Hudson Valley Iris & Daylily Society

A simple way to ensure a larger number of picture-perfect tomatoes is to keep the fruit and foliage up off the ground. Tomato plants are susceptible to fungal diseases that are transmitted when infected soil splashes up onto the foliage during a rainfall. The fruit is more susceptible to slug and insect damage or rot if it is allowed to rest on or near the ground. This problem can be easily remedied by trellising your tomato plants to keep them up off the ground.

You can either purchase a ready-made tomato trellis or cage, or you can make your own. Ready made tomato cages can be purchased at garden centers, from gardening catalogs and sometimes at hardware stores. Styles vary, but the most common tomato cages are made of heavy wire and are either round, square or triangular. I have found that the round cages are often too small to support a mature tomato plant that is loaded with heavy fruit. I prefer the square or triangular cages because they can be folded flat for storage over winter, they tend to be roomy enough for large plants, and two cages can be linked together to support one very large plant or two plants together.

You can easily make your own tomato cages with materials found at any hardware store. Woven or welded wire fencing makes great tomato cages. Choose fencing that has gaps between the wires large enough to reach through to pick your tomatoes. Use a wire cutter to cut the fencing to a length of about six feet, bend it into a tube shape and use a pliers to bend the horizontal wires on one end around the vertical wires on the other end so the cage holds its shape.

Square or triangular cages can also be built with lumber. Start with four upright pieces, roughly three feet high. Nail crosspieces on the outside of the upright boards on all sides, one set all around the top and attach another set about 18 inches below the top boards to make a 4-sided enclosure with two rungs on each side.

If you’re growing a large number of tomato plants in rows, you may wish to create a large-scale trellising system, much like what is used to support berry canes. You’ll need some heavy gauge wire and metal fence posts, often referred to as T-posts. These can be purchased from farm supply stores. At both ends of the row of plants, sink two posts into the ground, placing the posts about two feet apart, one on either side of your plants. Then attach the wire at two or three levels between the posts. As your tomato plants grow, they will be supported by the wires. If you have a particularly long row of tomato plants, you will want to add more posts along the length of the row so the wire doesn’t sag under the weight of the heavy plants.

To avoid damaging the plants, it is best to place your tomato cages or trellis around the plants while they are still small. As the plants grow taller, you may have to help them support themselves by gently moving their large branches in position over the wires or crosspieces of their cages. Particularly unruly plants can be loosely tied to the trellis or cage with twine.

Tomato plants are susceptible to a number of diseases that readily spread in humid conditions. You can help your plants avoid disease, thereby increasing your crop, by giving your plants plenty of room and allowing for adequate airflow in and amongst the plants. Keeping them trellised so they’re not sprawling on the ground will help, but you may also want to do a bit of pruning on the plants too. Keep in mind that only indeterminate tomato varieties should be pruned.

As your tomato plants grow, you’ll notice that they send out new shoots above every leaf stem where it attaches to the main stem. These new shoots are called suckers, and each sucker is capable of growing into another stem on the plant and setting its own blossoms and fruit. Eventually the suckers will even grow their own suckers, making for a very full plant.

The first suckers that appear will be very low on the plant, generally from above the first sets of true leaves. Since they are so low on the plant, the fruit produced on these suckers will hang low to the ground and will be the most susceptible to slug damage or rot from contact with the soil. These first tomatoes are also the most likely to suffer from cat facing which is a type of scarring found on tomatoes that have formed while temperatures are cooler than tomatoes like.

Remove those first suckers that appear by pinching them off with your fingers before they get more than an inch or two long. If the suckers have grown longer before you can remove them, they can still be snapped off by hand, or you can use your favorite garden shears to snip them off. Be sure to disinfect your garden shears before moving on to another plant, to avoid spreading any diseases amongst your plants.

Removing the first suckers on your plants will encourage the plant to send out even more suckers. You’ll want to leave most of these suckers on the plants so they can produce more tomatoes for you. But if your plants are becoming full to the point where you cannot see through to the center of the plant, you may want to remove a few suckers to promote better air circulation throughout the plant. Your tomato plants can expend their energy making lots of smaller tomatoes, but if they are limited to producing fewer tomatoes, those tomatoes will generally be larger.

As the growing season nears its end, your tomato plants will still be setting blossoms and growing fruit. But the fruit that is setting near the end of the season won’t have time to ripen before the first killing frost. Four weeks before the first frost date for your area you can start pinching off any new suckers and blossom sets that appear on your plants. Any fruit they may have produced wouldn’t have time to ripen before being killed by frost. This will allow your plants to put more of their energy into growing and ripening their existing fruit, rather than spending that energy on making more vegetative growth and blossoms that will never get a chance to develop into ripe fruit.

In addition to pruning and trellising your tomato plants, always apply a layer of mulch beneath the plants in early summer after the soil has warmed. The mulch will help hold moisture in the soil, discourage slugs and keep soil from splashing up onto your plants.

Kathy Anderson has been an avid gardener for many years and has grown tomatoes by the acre, along with many other vegetables, flowers and landscape plants. Kathy recommends http://www.freeplants.com as a great place to learn more about gardening. Article provided by http://gardening-articles.com.

You may have heard old timers say that potatoes should always be planted on Good Friday. This old wives’ tale is absolutely absurd. Good Friday does not fall on the same calendar date each year and can fall anywhere from early March to mid April. If folks in New England or the upper Midwest tried to plant potatoes on Good Friday, many years they’d be digging through rock-hard soil that was still frozen solid.

Do not plant potatoes too early, while the ground is still icy. If the ground is too cold and wet, the seed potatoes will delay sprouting until the growing conditions are more favorable. This is usually in early March to late April, depending on the climate. Potatoes do tolerate cool soil and a light frost, but not much growth will take place until the soil warms up a bit.

You won’t find potato seedlings or packets of potato seeds for sale at your local garden center. Instead, potatoes are grown from seed potatoes. A seed potato is nothing more than an ordinary potato, with at least one “eye”.

Back in the day before supermarkets, when gardens supplied most of the food put on the table, the last of the potatoes in the storage bin come spring were used for seed potatoes.  Wise gardeners set aside their blemish-free, healthiest potatoes for seed. Seed potatoes can be planted whole, or they may be cut into pieces with at least one eye per piece. Seed potatoes with more eyes will grow to produce a larger quantity of potatoes but the potatoes will generally be smaller. Seed potatoes with fewer eyes will produce fewer potatoes, but those potatoes will tend to be larger.

If you choose to cut your seed potatoes into smaller pieces, divide them a day prior to planting. This allows the cuts to heal over slightly, which helps to prevent soil-borne diseases from infecting your potato crop. Always choose seed potatoes that are free from blemishes.

Plant your whole or cut seed potatoes two to three inches deep in good, rich soil. Rows of potatoes should be about three feet apart and the potatoes within the row should be planted twelve inches apart. If your potato crop has suffered from scab in the past, toss a small handful of dry pine needles in the holes beneath your seed potatoes. Along with moving your potatoes to a different section of the garden each year, this will help prevent further scab infection. Potato scab appears as rough patches on the skin of the potatoes.

Depending on the warmth of the soil, potato plants will begin to emerge from the soil anywhere from one to three weeks after planting. When the plants are about a foot tall, use your hoe to mound six to eight inches of soil continuously along the entire row of plants. This is called hilling.  Hilling ensures that the potatoes will grow deeply under the soil, away from sunlight which would cause them to become green. Potatoes that suffer from greening will be bitter and the inedible green parts must be discarded.

Keep the potato plants evenly watered while they are growing. A dry period followed by a rainy spell will cause some potato varieties to develop a hollow core. Yukon Gold potatoes seem to be especially prone to this problem.

Another potential problem with potatoes is the potato beetle. The larvae and adult beetles will feed on the potato foliage, and a heavy infestation can damage the foliage enough to reduce your harvest considerably. Watch for the beetle’s yellow eggs on the undersides of leaves and crush the clusters whenever you see them.  Larvae are a deep orange color with a row of black spots on both sides, while the adults are a paler orange with black stripes on the body and black spots on the head. The larvae and adults can be picked off the leaves and crushed if there are only a few. An infestation can also be controlled with Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt. Bt is an organic control that is very safe to use. Look for Bt that is specifically for potato beetles. It is sold in many garden catalogs and garden centers.

Once your potato plants have bloomed, you can begin to harvest small “new” potatoes.  Depending on the variety of potatoes you’re growing, this is about eight weeks after planting. In the fall, after the foliage has begun to dry and die back, the entire crop can be dug. Before storing them in a cool, dry and dark place, make sure the surface of your freshly dug spuds has dried a bit. Spread them out in a dry spot out of direct sun, such as a garage or shed, for a day or two before putting them in storage.

Freshly dug, crisp potatoes taste better than any you’ll buy at a grocery store. Grow some yourself and discover how easy and fun it is to produce a staple crop of delicious potatoes for your family.

Kathy Anderson has been an avid gardener for many years and has grown tomatoes by the acre, along with many other vegetables, flowers and landscape plants. Kathy recommends http://www.freeplants.com as a great place to learn more about gardening. Article provided by http://gardening-articles.com.

For many people, tomatoes are the most challenging, yet desirable, vegetable crop to grow. But a ripe, juicy homegrown tomato is so delicious and nutritious, people will go to great lengths to produce as many as they possibly can in their gardens. One look at the pale, hard, orange baseballs that grocery stores pass off as tomatoes will also explain why so many gardeners eagerly await the first ripe tomato from their gardens.

Considering that tomatoes are a tropical fruit native to South America, it’s amazing that we can grow them at all in northern climates. Yes, the tomato is technically a fruit since it grows on a vine. There are literally hundreds of tomato varieties out there to choose from but there are only two types of tomato vines; determinate and indeterminate.

Determinate tomato varieties grow more as a bush, growing only to a certain height and producing most of their fruit all at once. Determinate varieties are most suitable for gardeners who are interested in canning tomatoes since the crop will ripen over a relatively short period of time. Determinate tomato varieties are also a good choice for gardeners with limited space available, and some determinate varieties are well suited to container growing and are an excellent choice for the patio garden.

Determinate tomato plants should never be pruned, as this will severely limit the number of blossom sets the plant can produce, thus reducing the number of tomatoes on the plant.

However, an indeterminate variety will continue to grow and will keep producing fruit for the entire life of the plant, or up until frost. Each new set of blossoms will grow farther up the vine as the plant grows. Indeterminate tomato plants also require a bit more care to keep the plants manageable in the garden.

In order to keep these big plants from sprawling all over the ground and creating an impenetrable mass of foliage, indeterminate tomato varieties should be pruned and trellised. A tomato plant that is restricted to producing on only two to four main stems will still produce plenty of fruit and the tomatoes will tend to grow larger than those on an unpruned plant.

To prune an indeterminate tomato plant, simply pinch off the little shoots, or “suckers” that grow out from the main stem in the crotch between the stem and each leaf branch. Each one of these suckers can grow to become another big stem and would grow its own tomatoes and eventually grow its own suckers. But you don’t want your tomato plant to waste time and energy by growing all those suckers. By pruning off most of them, the plant will devote more energy to producing ripe, juicy tomatoes.

Since you’ll want more than one main stem for tomato production, allow the suckers nearest the bottom of the plant to grow. These will have more blossoms and will be easier to trellis than suckers that sprout higher up on the plant. Pruning will also improve air circulation through the plant which can help prevent disease problems, especially in humid weather.

Once you decide whether to grow determinate or indeterminate tomato varieties, it’s time to peruse the garden centers or seed catalogs to find the seeds or plants that will produce your prized fruit. Although a few of the more enlightened garden centers are now selling a wider variety of tomato plants, many still offer only a few of the old standby hybrid varieties such as “Big Boy” and “Early Girl”.

You’ll have more varieties to choose from if you decide to start your tomato plants indoors from seed. Imagine growing tomatoes with names like “Cherokee Purple” or “Mortgage Lifter”. Add more color to your favorite tomato salsa recipe with yellow “Garden Peach” tomatoes, “German Pink” or “Green Zebra”. For stuffing tomatoes, try “Striped Cavern”, and for salads grow some “Christmas Grape” tomatoes.

If you plan on preserving tomatoes to enjoy over winter, you will want a meatier tomato such as “Martino’s Roma” or “Amish Paste” for sauces. “Wisconsin 55” and “Ace” are two varieties that are especially good for canning or freezing. There are even varieties that have a lower acid content for the folks who can’t eat a high-acid tomato, and varieties that have more Vitamin C than oranges.

Tomatoes are one of the most versatile garden vegetables. There are as many ways to prepare tomatoes as there are tomato varieties. Whether you like to eat them fresh out of the garden like an apple, or you make your own spaghetti sauce or tomato salsa, whether the variety you grow is red, orange, yellow, purple, white or striped, tomatoes are the most useful and tasty garden vegetable.

Kathy Anderson has been an avid gardener for many years and has grown tomatoes by the acre, along with many other vegetables, flowers and landscape plants.  Kathy recommends http://www.freeplants.com as a great place to learn more about gardening.  Article provided by http://gardening-articles.com.

Tomatoes require a fairly long growing season, and for this reason the seeds are typically planted indoors about six to eight weeks before they can be planted in the garden. The seeds can be sown 1/4″ deep in small pots or flats in a soil less potting mix or sterilized potting soil. It takes 7-14 days at a temperature of 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit for the seeds to germinate. Keep the soil moist but not soggy. Placing plastic wrap loosely over the pots or flats will help maintain the humidity necessary for germination, but the plastic wrap must be removed once the seedlings sprout.

Bottom heat helps to speed the germination process. Garden centers and catalogs sell heating cables made just for this purpose, but you may also set the pots or flats on top of your water heater to take advantage of its warmth for germination.

As soon as the seedlings emerge, they should be moved to an area with full light, such as a sunny window or under grow lights. They should have light on them for about 12 hours a day and should be kept at a temperature of 70-80 degrees. Fertilize the seedlings with a water-soluble fertilizer when they’re about 3-4 weeks old, but dilute the fertilizer to about half the strength recommended on the label.

The little tomato plants will be accustomed to fairly steady and warm temperatures indoors, and planting them directly outside could come as quite a shock to them, especially when nighttime temperatures are still cool. About a week before it’s time to plant them in the garden, begin to gradually introduce them to outdoor conditions. This is called hardening off, and it simply involves moving the plants gradually to conditions more like what they’ll experience in the garden.

Start hardening them off by moving the plants to an enclosed porch for a day or two, then to a sunny spot outdoors that is protected from the wind. If the temperature threatens to take a drastic downward dip, bring the plants back indoors until it warms up outside again.

Tomatoes were originally found only in very warm climates. They don’t like to be cold and should not be planted outside until the danger of frost has passed and the soil has warmed up. That’s typically late May or even early June here in northern Ohio.

The sooner tomatoes are planted outside, the sooner they will begin to produce ripe fruit, and there are a few tricks that make it possible to plant tomatoes in the garden a bit earlier.

The garden soil may be warmed up by covering it with clear or white plastic for a few days. The little tomato plants will be much happier with their roots in warm soil. Once the plants are in the garden, the foliage can be protected from a light frost by covering the plants with plastic gallon jugs that have their bottoms removed, or with plastic or
fabric sheets placed over the plants. Suspend this over the plants using wire hoops so the plastic or fabric doesn’t touch the foliage.

When you are ready to transplant your tomato seedlings into the garden, be sure to choose a spot for them that gets full sun for at least 8 hours a day. Dig a hole for each plant that is large enough to easily accommodate all of the roots. Before transplanting, water the plants
while they are still in the pot. This not only helps prevent transplant shock, but it also makes it easier to slip the plant from the pot.

Tomato plants will grow roots from any part of the stem that is buried beneath the soil, so the plants will benefit from being planted deeply, up to the first set of leaves. If the plants have spent too much time in pots and have become leggy, they may be planted in furrows with their too-long stems laid in the furrow and gently buried with soil. This will
help the plants develop a strong root system while preventing the long stem from breaking.

Fill in the planting hole with soil, pressing the soil in firmly to eliminate air pockets. Then give the plants a good drink of water, thoroughly soaking the soil around them.

If you plan on staking or trellising your tomato plants, they can be planted about 2-3 feet apart. Plants that will be allowed to sprawl on the ground will need more room and should be planted 4-6 feet apart.

If the soil is still a bit cool, your white or clear plastic may be placed on the ground beneath the plants to warm the soil. Once warmer temperatures have settled in, this plastic should be removed to avoid burning the foliage with reflective heat.

It is important to keep tomato leaves up off the soil to help prevent soil-borne diseases from attacking the plants. This can easily be done by applying straw mulch around the plants. But straw mulch should only be applied once the soil has warmed up above 70 degrees. If the mulch is laid down while the soil is still cool, it will keep the soil from
warming up as it should, your tomato plants will suffer from cold feet and won’t produce as well as they could.

Planting your tomatoes properly is an important step toward a bountiful harvest of sweet, juicy fruit. In another article we’ll discuss how to trellis and prune tomato plants to increase your harvest.

Kathy Anderson has been an avid gardener for many years and has grown tomatoes by the acre, along with many other vegetables, flowers and landscape plants. Kathy recommends http://www.freeplants.com as a great place to learn more about gardening. Article provided by http://gardening-articles.com.

The weed dabber is a tool used for spot treating weeds without getting the herbicide on other plants. 

Start by going to your hardware store and buying a piece of 1- ½” PVC pipe. You only need a piece 30” long, but they might make you buy a 10′ section. It’s pretty cheap though. You’ll need a plastic PVC cap for one end of the pipe, and on the other end you’ll need an adapter to convert the PVC pipe to a standard pipe thread. You’ll have to let the clerk at the hardware store help you find the best combination of fittings to use. What you need to do is to get the PVC pipe reduced down to a male garden hose type fitting. Hardware stores sell brass fittings that convert standard pipe thread to the same thread used on garden hoses. 

Probably what you’ll end up with is an adapter that will convert the 1-½” PVC to 3/4” male pipe. Then an adapter to convert the 3/4” male pipe to a male garden house fitting. They also make a cap that you can install on the end of a garden hose, you’ll need one of those. This cap must have a rubber garden hose washer in it so it seals properly.

The PVC fittings have to be glued on so you’ll have to pick up some PVC pipe glue and cleaner. You have to use the cleaner to remove the film and gloss from the PVC pipe and fittings before you glue them. Once you have them cleaned, just apply a coating of glue to both the pipe and the fitting, slide the fitting on and twist it at the same time. Hold the fitting tight for 60 seconds and it will be glued tightly.

 Cut a piece of pipe 30” long and glue the pipe cap on one end, and the PVC to the pipe thread adapter on the other end. Apply a small amount of pipe dope or Teflon tape to the threads of the adapter, and screw the male garden house fitting onto the adapter. Screw the garden hose cap to the male garden hose fitting. 

Now back to the end of the pipe that you glued the pipe cap to. Drill a very small hole right in the middle of the pipe cap. You might have to experiment a little with the size of the hole you need, but make sure you start with a very small hole. I’d start with 1/16”. Cut a piece of regular household sponge in a square about 1-½” square. What you are going to do is place this sponge over the small hole you drilled in the pipe cap, and secure it there by covering it with a piece of light weight screen or mesh cloth. Maybe even a piece of an onion bag. You can secure the mesh to the PVC pipe with a hose clamp or electrical tape. 

Remove the garden hose cap from the other end of the PVC pipe, and fill the pipe with pre-mixed (ready to use) RoundUp. Replace the garden hose cap and you have yourself a weed dabber. The RoundUp will seep out the hole in the end of pipe cap and be absorbed by the sponge. As long as the garden hose cap is tight the vacuum in the pipe will keep the herbicide from running out too fast. Once the sponge is damp, you can start dabbing weeds. Remember, you only want the weeds damp and not dripping wet.  As long as you are leaving some RoundUp on the weeds as you dab them, the herbicide should kill them. 

Depending on the temperatures, it could take a week or so before you can see the effects of the herbicide. If the sponge gets too dry you can loosen the cap a little to release the vacuum and more herbicide will be released onto the sponge. Or you can simply turn the tool upside down and that should let some air into the chamber, thus releasing the vacuum. As always, read the label and follow the directions on the herbicide package.

Michael J. McGroarty is the author of this article.  Visit his most interesting website, http://www.freeplants.com and sign up for his excellent gardening newsletter.  Article provided by  http://gardening-articles.com.

Basically weeds grow either from seed, or they reproduce from their roots. As the roots grow outward from the parent plant, new plants sprout up from the lateral roots, creating more parent plants and the process continues and the weeds thrive. Weeds that tend to reproduce from the root are usually more difficult to control. 

Weed controls facts?  Weeds are plants, and they function just like the desirable plants in your yard. They need water, sunlight, and nutrition to survive. Of these three key survival needs, the easiest one for a gardener to eliminate is sunlight. Through proper mulching you can eliminate the sunlight. 

But first, let’s look at the steps you should go through before you mulch, then we’ll discuss the best mulching techniques to use. In order for your weed control efforts to be truly effective, you should do everything in your power to make your gardens as weed free as possible before you plant or mulch. There are a couple of ways you can go about this, either organically or with chemicals. I don’t like using chemicals, but I do use them for weed control, and I use them for pest control when necessary. 

I’ll discuss organic control first. The first thing you should do is remove all unwanted vegetation from your planting area. Using a hoe, spade or other digging device, undercut the roots and remove the undesirable plants, roots
and all. Then you should work the soil by rototilling or turning the soil by hand. 

Once worked, let the soil sit for four days or so, and work it again. Keep doing this over and over as long as time permits. This process serves two purposes. It brings the roots that were left in the soil close to the surface so they can be dried by the sun, which will make them non viable, and it disturbs the weed seeds that have started to germinate, which makes them non viable as well. The longer you continue this process the more weeds you are eliminating from your garden. 

Weed control facts?  Depending on the time of the year, there are a few billion weed seeds drifting through the air at any given time, so to think that you can eventually rid a garden of weed seed is false thinking, but at least this process is effective for the remaining roots, which are the most difficult to control. 

With that process complete, go ahead and plant your garden. When you’re done planting you can either mulch the bed, or keep turning the soil on a weekly basis to keep it free of weeds. Most people opt to mulch. Not only does mulch help to control the weeds, but if you select a natural mulch it also adds organic matter to the soil which makes for better gardening results down the road. 

Before mulching you can spread newspaper (7-9 layers thick) over the soil and place the mulch over top of that. The newspaper will block the sunlight from reaching the surface of the soil and help to keep weed growth to a minimum. The newspaper will eventually decompose, and not permanently alter the make up of your garden. Paper grocery bags also work well, so the next time you hear, “Paper or Plastic?”, you’ll know how to answer. 

What about black plastic, or the weed barrier fabric sold at garden centers? I don’t like either and I’ll tell you why. For one, neither one of them ever go away, and the make up of your garden is forever altered until you physically remove them, which is a real pain in the butt. 

Weed Control facts?  Plastic is no good for the soil because soil needs to breath. Plastic blocks the transfer of water and oxygen, and eventually your soil will suffer as will your garden. It’s all right to use plastic in a vegetable garden as long as you remove it at the end of the season and give the soil a chance to breathe. 

Weed barrier fabrics allow the soil to breathe, but what happens is that when you mulch over top of the fabric, which you should because the fabric is ugly, the mulch decomposes and becomes topsoil. Weeds love topsoil, and they will grow like crazy in it. Only problem is, they are growing on top of the fabric, and you are stuck with a ton of problems, like a weedy garden, and a major job of trying to remove the fabric that is now firmly anchored in place because the weeds have rooted through it. 

Weed fabric is also porous enough that if an area becomes exposed to the sunlight, enough light will peek through and weeds below the fabric will grow, pushing their way through the fabric. I don’t like the stuff, I’ve removed miles of it from landscapes for other people because it did not work as they had expected. 

Weed control facts?  Controlling weeds with chemicals is fairly easy, and very effective if done properly. I know that many people don’t approve of chemical weed controls, but millions of people use them, so I might as well tell you how to get the most effect using them. 

There are two types of chemical weed controls, post-emergent, and pre-emergent. In a nutshell, a post-emergent herbicide kills weeds that are actively growing. A pre-emergent prevents weed seeds from germinating. Of the post- emergent herbicides there are both selective and non-selective herbicides. A selective herbicide is like the herbicides that are in weed and feed type lawn fertilizers. The herbicide will kill broad leaf weeds in your lawn, but it doesn’t harm the grass. 

One of the most popular non-selective herbicides is Round-up®, it pretty much kills any plant it touches. Rule number one. Read the labels and follow the safety precautions!!! Round-up® is very effective if used properly, but first you must understand how it works.

Round-up® must be sprayed on the foliage of the plant, where it is absorbed, then translocated to the root system where it then kills the plant. It takes about 72 hours for the translocation process to completely take place, so you don’t want to disturb the plant at all for at least 72 hours after it has been sprayed. 

After 72 hours you can dig, chop, rototill, and pretty much do as you please because the herbicide has been translocated through out the plant. The manufacturer claims that Round-up® does not have any residual effect, which means that you can safely plant in an area where Round-up® has been used. However, I would not use it in vegetable garden without researching further. 

No residual effect also means that Round-up® has no effect whatsoever on weed seeds, so there is absolutely no benefit to spraying the soil. Only spray the foliage of the weeds you want to kill. Be careful of over spray drifting to your desirable plants. To prevent spray drift I adjust the nozzle of my sprayer so that the spray droplets are larger and heavier, and less likely to be carried by the wind. I also keep the pressure in the tank lower, by only pumping the tank a minimum number of strokes. Just enough to deliver the spray. 

Buy a sprayer that you can use as a dedicated sprayer for Round-up® only. Never use a sprayer that you have used for herbicides for any other purpose. Once you have sprayed the weeds, waited 72 hours and then removed them, you can go ahead and plant. Mulching is recommended as described above. To keep weed seeds from germinating you can apply a pre-emergent herbicide. 

Depending on the brand, some of them are applied over top of the mulch, and some are applied to the soil before the mulch is applied. A pre-emergent herbicide creates a vapor barrier at the soil level that stops weed seed germination, and can be very effective at keeping your gardens weed free. They usually only last about 5 or 6 months and need to be re-applied. 

Visit a full service garden center and seek the advice of a qualified professional to select the pre-emergent herbicide that will best meet your needs. Never use a pre-emergent herbicide in your vegetable garden, and be careful around areas where you intend to sow grass seed. If you spill a little in an area where you intend to plant grass, the grass will not grow, they really do work. 

That’s what I know about weed control. Read this article several times, your success depends on getting the sequence of events correct.

Michael J. McGroarty is the author of this article. Visit his most interesting website, http://www.freeplants.com and sign up for his excellent gardening newsletter. Article provided by  http://gardening-articles.com.

But have you ever wondered where your great-grandparents acquired the seeds for their gardens, before there were seed catalogs and fancy garden centers?

They saved seeds for the next year from their own gardens!

Saving seeds from your own flowers or vegetables is a wonderful way to fully experience the cycle of plant growth. It’s also much less expensive than buying seeds each spring, and seeds saved from your plants will be well suited to the peculiarities of your own garden’s growing conditions. Not only that, it’s also quite a simple process.

Save seeds only from vigorous, healthy plants. Some plant diseases may be harbored in the seed where it will then be passed on to the next generation of plants. So don’t save seeds from a plant that is obviously diseased or has struggled all season. Collect seeds from the plants that have the characteristics you desire, such as height, hardiness, early or late ripening, flavor or vigor.

It is not recommended to save seeds from hybrid plants. Hybrids are the result of crossing two genetically different parent plants, both of which have been severely inbred to concentrate the desirable characteristics. The first generation, referred to as an F1 hybrid, is superior to the parents. But succeeding generations of plants grown from seed saved from an F1 plant tend to randomly revert to the characteristics of the original inbred ancestor plants.

Plants that are not hybrids are referred to as open pollinated. Many seed catalogs will identify which of their seeds are hybrids or open pollinated. If you intend to save your own seed, always start with open pollinated seeds. Some of these may also be identified as heirloom seeds. These heirloom varieties have been passed down for generations, often saved within one family for many years before becoming available to the general public.

Cross pollination is another concern for the seed-saving gardener. Cross pollination often results in seeds which have a different genetic makeup than that of the parent plant. Pumpkins, squash and small gourds may cross pollinate with each other, resulting in seeds that will grow to produce rather picturesque fruit. Sweet corn will cross pollinate with field corn or popcorn, and your 6-inch marigolds will cross with your neighbor’s 18-inch pompon marigolds. However, crossing will only occur within a species. Cucumbers won’t cross with squash, and cosmos won’t cross with pansies.

To avoid cross pollination, keep two varieties of the same species separated by as much space as possible. Some species, such as corn, are wind-pollinated and the pollen can travel great distances. These plants must be pollinated by hand and kept isolated from other varieties of their species. This can be done with corn, for example, by tying a small paper bag over selected ears before the silk emerges, then once the silk has appeared it is hand pollinated with pollen from the same plant or its healthy neighbors.

Seeds should be collected on a dry, sunny day. Frost doesn’t hurt most seed as long as the seed remains dry. Vegetables such as cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes should be allowed to become slightly overripe before their seeds are collected. Flower seeds and vegetable seed such as lettuce should be collected after the seedheads have become dry, but don’t wait too long, as many will shatter, meaning they’ll be dropped from the seedpod or seedhead if they remain on the plant too long.

Cucumber, squash and tomato seeds need an additional step before they are ready for storage. First the seeds must be separated from the pulp, then dried. Scoop the seeds from these vegetables, pulp and all. Place the whole mess in a container of water and give it a good stir, then let it settle a bit. The pulp will rise to the top while the seeds will sink to the bottom. Carefully pour off the pulp, and repeat the process until most of the pulp has been poured off. Then strain out the seeds and set them on newspapers to dry.

Seeds should go into storage as dry as possible. Give all seed a post-harvest drying period of at least a week, just to be sure they’re dry. Spread them out on a paper plate or newspapers in a warm area out of the sun while they dry.

It’s very important to keep the seed dry during storage. Store your dry seeds in tightly sealed jars, metal film containers, or old vitamin bottles. To save space, smaller quantities of several varieties of seeds can be stored in separate envelopes inside a jar. A cool, but never freezing, garage, closed-off spare room or cool basement can all be good places for storing seeds. Or simply keep your sealed jars of seeds in the refrigerator. Temperatures between 32 and 41 degrees Fahrenheit are ideal.

Be sure to label your jars and envelopes so when spring comes around again you’ll know which flower seeds and vegetable seeds you’re planting, and include the date the seeds were collected. Some seeds will remain viable for several years, but most will grow best if planted right away the following spring.

Try saving some vegetable or flower seeds from your garden this year and grow them next season. This endless cycle can allow you to realize the endless joy of gardening through all the seasons and all the stages of a plant’s life.

Kathy Anderson has been an avid gardener for many years and has grown tomatoes by the acre, along with many other vegetables, flowers and landscape plants.  Kathy recommends http://www.freeplants.com as a great place to learn more about gardening.  Article provided by http://gardening-articles.com.

“Timing and technique”

When you do your cuttings is every bit as important as how you do them. So if you do the right thing, at the right time of the year, your efforts are sure to bring success. Through this article you will learn both.

“Rooting Hardwood Cuttings of Deciduous Plants”

Hardwood cuttings are much more durable than softwood cuttings which is why hardwoods are the best technique for the home gardener. A deciduous plant is a plant that loses it’s leaves during the winter. All plants go dormant during the winter, but evergreens keep their foliage. Many people don’t consider Rhododendrons, Azaleas, and and Mountain Laurel evergreens, but they are. They are known as broad leaf evergreens. Any plant that completely loses it’s leaves is a deciduous plant.

There are three different techniques for rooting cuttings of deciduous plants. Two methods for hardwood cuttings, and one for softwood cuttings. In this article we are only going to discuss rooting cuttings using the hardwood methods. If you are interested in softwood cuttings, you’ll find a very informative article at http://www.freeplants.com

Of the two hardwood techniques is one better than the other? It depends on exactly what you are rooting, what the soil conditions are at your house, and what Mother Nature has up her sleeve for the coming winter.

I have experienced both success and failure using each method. Only experimentation will determine what works best for you. Try some cuttings using each method.

When doing hardwood cuttings of deciduous plants, you should wait until the parent plants are completely dormant. This does not happen until you’ve experienced a good hard freeze where the temperature dips down below 32 degrees F. for a period of several hours. Here in northeastern Ohio this usually occurs around mid November.

Unlike softwood cuttings of deciduous plants, where you only take tip cuttings from the ends of the branches, that rule does not apply to hardwood cuttings of deciduous plants. For instance, a plant such as Forsythia can grow as much as four feet in one season. In that case, you can use all of the current year’s growth to make hardwood cuttings.

You might be able to get six or eight cuttings from one branch. Grapes are extremely vigorous. A grape vine can grow up to ten feet or more in one season. That entire vine can be used for hardwood cuttings. Of course with grape vines, there is considerable space between the buds, so the cuttings have to be much longer than most other deciduous plants. The average length of a hardwood grape vine cutting is about 12” and still only has 3 or 4 buds. The bud spacing on most other deciduous plants is much closer, so the cuttings only need to be about 6- 8” in length.

Making a deciduous hardwood cutting is quite easy. Just collect some branches (known as canes) from the parent plants. Clip these canes into cuttings about 6” long. Of course these canes will not have any leaves on them because the plant is dormant, but if you examine the canes closely you will see little bumps along the cane. These bumps are bud unions. They are next year’s leaf buds or nodes, as they are often called.

When making a hardwood cutting of a deciduous plant it is best to make the cut at the bottom, or the butt end of the cutting just below a node, and make the cut at the top of the cutting about 3/4” above a node. This technique serves two purposes. One, it makes it easier for you to distinguish the top of the cutting from the bottom of the cutting as you handle them. It also aids the cutting in two different ways. Any time you cut a plant above a node, the section of stem left above that node will die back to the top node. So if you were to leave 1/2” of stem below the bottom node, it would just die back anyway. Having that section of dead wood underground is not a good idea. It is only a place for insects and disease to hide.

It is also helpful to actually injure a plant slightly when trying to force it to develop roots. When a plant is injured, it develops a callous over the wound as protection. This callous build up is necessary before roots will develop. Cutting just below a node on the bottom of a cutting causes the plant to develop callous and eventually, roots.

Making the cut on the top of the cutting 3/4” above the node is done so that the 3/4” section of stem above the node will provide protection for the top node. This keeps the buds from being damaged or knocked off during handling and planting. You can press down on the cutting without harming the buds.

When rooting cuttings this way it helps to make the cut at the top of the cutting at an angle. This sheds water away from the cut end of the cutting and helps to reduce the chance of disease. Once you have all of your cuttings made, dip the bottom of the cutting in a rooting compound. Make sure you have the right strength rooting compound (available at most garden stores) for hardwood cuttings. Line them up so the butt ends are even and tie them into bundles.

Select a spot in your garden that is in full sun. Dig a hole about 12” deep and large enough to hold all of the bundles of cuttings. Place the bundles of cuttings in the hole upside down. The butt ends of the cuttings should be up. The butt ends of the cuttings should be about 6” below the surface. Cover the cuttings completely with soil and mark the location with a stake, so you can find them again in the spring.

I know this sounds crazy, but rooting cuttings this way does work. To increase your chances of success you can cover the butt ends of the cuttings with moist peat moss before filling in the hole. Make sure you wet the peat moss thoroughly, then just pack it on the butt ends of the cuttings.

Over the winter the cuttings will develop callous and possibly some roots. Placing them in the hole upside down puts the butt ends closest to the surface, so they can be warmed by the sun, creating favorable conditions for root development. Being upside down also discourages top growth. Leave them alone until about mid spring after the danger of frost has passed.

Over the winter the buds will begin to develop and will be quite tender when you dig them up. Frost could do considerable damage if you dig them and plant them out too early. That’s why it is best to leave them buried until the danger of frost has passed.

Dig them up very carefully, so as not to damage them. Cut open the bundles and examine the butt ends. Hopefully, you will see some callous build up. Even if there is no callous, plant them out anyway. You don’t need a bed of sand or anything special when you plant the cuttings out. Just put them in a sunny location in your garden. Of course the area you chose should be well drained, with good rich topsoil.

To plant the cuttings, just dig a very narrow trench, or using a spade, make a slice by prying open the ground. Place the cuttings in the trench with the butt ends down. Bury about one half of the cutting leaving a few buds above ground. Back fill around the cuttings with loose soil making sure there are no air pockets. Tamp them in lightly, then water thoroughly to eliminate any air pockets.

Water them on a regular basis, but don’t make the soil so wet that they rot. Within a few weeks the cuttings will start to leaf out. Some will more than likely collapse because there are not enough roots to support the plant. The others will develop roots as they leaf out. By fall, the cuttings that survived should be pretty well rooted. You can transplant them once they are dormant, or you can wait until spring. If you wait until spring, make sure you transplant them before they break dormancy.

There really is no exact science when it comes to rooting cuttings, so now I am going to present you with a variation of the above method. This method still applies to hardwood cuttings of deciduous plants. With this variation you do everything exactly the same as you do with the method you just learned, up to the point where you bury them for the winter.

With method number two you don’t bury them at all. Instead, you plant the cuttings out as soon as you make them in the late fall, or anytime during the winter when the ground is not frozen. In other words, you just completely skip the step where you bury the cuttings underground for the winter. Plant them exactly the same way as described for method number one. As with all cuttings, treating them with a rooting compound prior to planting will help induce root growth.

Hardwood cuttings work fairly well for most of the deciduous shrubs. However, they are not likely to work for some of the more refined varieties of deciduous ornamentals like Weeping Cherries or other ornamental trees. Rooting cuttings of ornamental trees is possible, but only using softwood cutting techniques.

Now let’s discuss rooting cuttings of evergreens, using hardwood techniques

Hardwood cuttings of evergreens are usually done after you have experienced two heavy frosts in the late fall, around mid November or so. However, I have obtained good results with some plants doing them as early as mid September, taking advantage of the warmth of the fall sun. When doing them is early, they need to be watered everyday.

Try some cuttings early and if they do poorly, just do some more in November. Hardwood cuttings of many evergreens can be done at home in a simple frame filled with coarse sand.

To make such a frame, just make a square or rectangular frame using 2” by 6” boards. Nail the four corners together as if to make a large picture frame. This frame should sit on top of the ground in an area that is well drained. An area of partial shade is preferred.

Once you have the frame constructed remove any weeds or grass inside the frame so this vegetation does not grow up through your propagation bed. Fill this frame with a very coarse grade of sand. The sand used in swimming pool filters usually works. Mason’s sand is a little too fine. If you have a sand and gravel yard in your area visit the site and inspect the sand piles. Find a grade that is a little more coarse than masons sand. But keep in mind that most any sand will work, so just pick one that you think is coarse enough. If water runs through it easily, it’s coarse enough.

Make sure you place your frame in area where the water can drain through the sand, and out of the frame. In other words, don’t select a soggy area for your cutting bed. Standing water is sure to seriously hamper your results.

Making the evergreen cuttings is easy. Just clip a cutting 4-5 inches in length from the parent plant. Make tip cuttings only. (Only one cutting from each branch.) Strip the needles or leaves from the bottom one half to two thirds of the cutting. Wounding evergreen cuttings isn’t usually necessary because removing the leaves or needles causes enough injury for callous build up and root development.

Dip the butt ends of the cuttings in a powder or liquid rooting compound and stick them in the sand about 3/4” to 1” apart. Keep them watered throughout the fall until cool temperatures set in. If you have some warm dry days over the winter, make sure you water your cuttings. Keep in mind that sand in a raised bed will dry out very quickly. Don’t worry about snow. Snow covering your cuttings is just fine, it will actually keep them moist, and protect them from harsh winter winds.

Start watering again in the spring and throughout the summer. They don’t need a lot of water, but be careful not to let them dry out, and at the same time making sure they are not soaking wet.

This method of rooting cuttings of evergreens actually works very well, but it does take some time. You should leave them in the frame for a period of twelve months. You can leave them longer if you like. Leaving them until the following spring would be just fine. They should develop more roots over the winter.

Rooting cuttings of the following plants is very easy using this method. variegated Euonymus varieties, Taxus, Juniper, Arborvitae, Japanese Holly, Boxwood, and English Holly. Rhododendrons and Azaleas prefer to have their bottoms warmed before they root.

Michael J. McGroarty is the author of this article. Visit his most interesting website, http://www.freeplants.com and sign up for his excellent gardening newsletter. Article provided by, http://gardening-articles.com.

The old rule of thumb was to start doing hardwood cuttings of evergreens after you have experienced at at least two hard freezes. After two hard freezes the plants are completely dormant.

However, based on my experience it is beneficial to start doing your evergreen cuttings earlier than that. So instead of doing “by the book” hardwood cuttings you’re actually working with semi-hardwood cuttings. The down side to starting your cuttings early is that they will have to be watered daily unless you experience rain showers. The up side is that they will start rooting sooner, and therefore are better rooted when you pull them out to transplant them. 

To prepare an area in which to root cuttings you must first select a site. An area that is about 50% shaded will work great. Full sun will work, it just requires that you tend to the cuttings more often. Clear all grass or other vegetation from the area that you have selected. The size of the area is up to you. Realistically, you can fit about one cutting per square inch of bed area. You might need a little more area per cutting, it depends on how close you stick the cuttings in the sand. 

Once you have an area cleared off all you have to do is build a wooden frame and lay it on the ground in the area that you cleared. Your frame is a simple as four 2 by 4’s or four 2 by 6’s nailed together at each corner. It will be open on the top and open on the bottom. Just lay it on the ground in the cleared area, and fill it with a coarse grade of sand. 

This sand should be clean (no mud or weed seed), and much coarser than the sand used in play box. Visit your local builders supply center and view each sand pile they have. They should have different grades varying from very fine to very coarse. You don’t want either. You want something a little more coarse than their medium grade. But then again it’s not rocket science, so don’t get all worked up trying to find just the right grade. Actually, bagged swimming pool filter sand also works and should be available at discount home centers.

Once your wooden frame is on the ground and filled with sand, you’re ready to start sticking cuttings. Wet the sand the day before you start, that will make it possible for you to make a slit in the sand that won’t fill right in. In this propagation box you can do all kinds of cuttings, but I would start with the evergreens first. Taxus, Junipers, and Arborvitae. 

Make the cuttings about 4” long and remove the needles from the bottom two thirds of the cuttings. Dip them in a rooting compound and stick them in the sand about an inch or so.  Most garden centers sell rooting compounds.  Just tell them that you are rooting hardwood cuttings of evergreens.

When you make the Arborvitae cuttings you can actually remove large branches from an Arborvitae and just tear them apart and get hundreds of cuttings from one branch. When you tear them apart that leaves a small heel on the bottom of the cutting. Leave this heel on. It represents a wounded area, and the cutting will produce more roots because of this wound.

Once the weather gets colder and you have experienced at least one good hard freeze, the deciduous plants should be dormant and will have dropped their leaves, and you can now propagate them. Just make cuttings about 4” long, dip them in a rooting compound and stick them in the bed of sand. Not everything will root this way, but a lot of things will, and it takes little effort to find out what will work and what won’t. 

This is a short list of just some of the things that root fine this way. Taxus, Juniper, Arborvitae, Japanese Holly, Blue Boy/Girl Holly, Boxwood, Cypress, Forsythia, Rose of Sharon, Sandcherry, Weigela, Red Twig Dogwood, Variegated Euonymus, Cotoneaster, Privet, and Viburnum. 

Immediately after sticking the cuttings thoroughly soak the sand to make sure there are no air pockets around the cuttings. Keep the cuttings watered once or twice daily as long as the weather is warm. Once winter sets it you can stop watering, but if you get a warm dry spell, water during that time. 

Start watering again in the spring and throughout out the summer. The cuttings should be rooted by late spring and you can cut back on the water, but don’t let them dry out to the point that they burn up. 

By fall you can transplant them to a bed and grow them on for a year or two, or you can plant them in their permanent location. This technique takes 12 months, but it is simple and easy.

Michael J. McGroarty is the author of this article. Visit his most interesting website, http://www.freeplants.com and sign up for his excellent gardening newsletter.  Article provided by, http://gardening-articles.com.