#garden hack

[hometoursandotherstuff]

[gardeningabc]

Simple Gardening Hack.

Source

16 Smart Gardening Hacks to Make Your Life Easier

[balkanradfem]

Seeds you can get for free, by picking them out of the grocery-store produce!

Tomatoes

Peppers 

Eggplants

Garlic (separate the cloves and plant in the fall)

Winter Squash (Butternut, Hokkaido, Pumpkins) 

Potatoes (potato is a seed)

Beans (any dry bean you buy is a seed!)

Dry Lentils, chickpeas, dried peas

Flowers (after they dry up, crush the flowers! seeds will fall out)

Berries (any fresh or frozen berry has viable seed, even strawberry!)

Watermelons and Cantaloupes

Avocado

Apples, Pears, Plums, Cherries, Peaches

Lemon, Orange, Grapefruit (you have to plant these right away)

Ginger (can be cut into pieces and planted)

Nuts that are still in the shell (peanuts, chestnuts, walnuts)

The only disadvantage to planting grocery-store-picked-out seeds, is that it likely won’t grow the exactly same variety of food, and you will get something to the left of the produce you just had, it could be a bit of different shape, or different taste, but in most cases, it will be edible and taste good! If you’re just starting to get interested in growing, don’t have a budget, and you just wanna put a bit of soil in a cup and experiment, these are great free resources!

Only situations where a store-bought seed wouldn’t work is when it was crushed or subjected to boiling heat, so anything that was fried, cooked or baked, will not germinate. Frozen seeds are still good! Unripe seeds are also non-viable, which is why zucchini, cucumbers, frozen peas or green beans won’t work, we eat this produce way before the seeds are ripe.

[turtlesandfrogs]

Starting plants from the grocery store: tomatoes, basil, green onions, and more

I think one of the first things to realize, is that there are several ways you can start (re)growing from grocery store scraps. You can save seeds and plant them, you can take stem cuttings, you can propagate from roots, tubers, and bulbs. Let's break it down and get a little more detail for each category.

For seeds, the fruit must be botanically mature for the seeds to be fully mature. See, some fruits (and veggies we call fruits) are picked before the the fruit is ripe from the plant's perspective, so the seeds haven't fully developed. Examples of this include summer squash, cucumbers, and corn on the cob (popcorn, however, is fully mature, so you would be able to grow that). Seeds from these won't be fully mature, and won't grow. However, seeds from winter squash, tomatoes, melons, etc, are going to work. Just, pick the seeds out of the fruit- you DO NOT need to plant the whole half tomato like I've seen on some of those terrible viral videos- and plant.

Stem cuttings are a great way to start many common culinary herbs! Especially basil! I've had great success with basil, rosemary, sage, Vietnamese coriander (Persicaria odorata), and more. What I typically do is strip off almost all the leaves, leaving the top half inch or so. That way, you get to use the fresh herbs, and it's actually better for the cutting too, because they need a root system to support those leaves. Stripping off the leaves gives them a chance to grow a root system without needing to support all that lush foliage. Stick them in water and pot up once they've got roots about half an inch long- OR, and this is my preference, stick them straight into soil and keep moist.

Some tubers to consider starting from are sweet potatoes and actual potatoes. For potatoes, you can cut each potato into multiple chunks- just make sure each piece has an eye or two. Also, look up what the signs of virus in potato tubers are, and make sure to avoid infected potatoes. Also be aware that non-organic potatoes are often sprayed with a sprout inhibitor.

Ginger is a rhizome, and needs warmth, but needs so much light and gets big enough that I personally think it's best to grow out doors. I think the same goes for turmeric.

And then of course, the bulbs! Green onions and garlic are your best bets! For garlic, break apart the head, and plant the biggest cloves in fall. For green onions, save the bottom half inch to inch. You can sprout them in water, but I prefer to grow them in soil. I get better growth that way, and you can still do them indoors.

Key Factors to keep in mind for indoor growing:

Moisture, light, and warmth.

These are outdoor plants and thus are somewhat fussy about their indoor conditions. Do not overwater them (eg, letting them sit in a tray of water for days) nor let them dry out completely. Try to keep them evenly moist, with thorough waterings that then pour out the bottom of the pot unimpeded. Once they've drained, they can go back to their spot.

Given that they are outdoor plants, a south-facing window or grow lights are your best bet. If they don’t get enough light, they will turn pale and stretch towards their light source. They won’t grow as quickly or as healthfully as they would with sufficient light.

Some of these are going to want to be warm, never cooler than 50*, and some are going to be fine with cool temperatures, even overwintering outdoors. Basil is the most particular about temperature in my experience- I've had some go brown because they were in a window and got too cold. Tomatoes will also grow best when kept above 50 degrees. For crops like these, you can start them indoors, and then plant out in summer, or you can grow them as indoor plants full time- though in my experience, that works best with basil and other herbs.

Other crops either need the cool period (garlic), or are too big to reasonably grow indoors (winter squash). You can still save the seeds of things that need to grow outdoors and plant them at the appropriate time of year (aka, outdoors after your lost frost).

More thoughts:

Lettuce, carrots, beets: you get the tops, but often they’ll try to bolt (which means they put all their energy into flowering, and will taste bitter). Lettuce & beets are both pretty easy for beginners, and their seed is pretty cheap. Carrots are a bit more tricky.

Sweet potatoes: Get them in the fall, it takes months for them to start growing (at least here). They will sprout, and what you'll want to do is take slips to plant in spring once the soil has warmed.

Just for fun:

Mango, avocado, citrus. These take years and a warm climate to fruit. If you're in a climate that freezes often, it's probably not worth it from a food growing perspective, but it sure can be fun. Also, citrus really don't come true to seed, avocados have some weird stuff going on with their pollination, and mangos get huge. I still kinda want to bonsai a mango.

Apples, pears: take years, and don’t come true to type. They'd still work for cider though.

Plums, peaches, apricots: take years, often do come true from seed, but peaches and nectarines are very susceptible to peach leaf curl, so may just die depending on where you are/if you get lucky and get a resistant type. Apricots can be tricky because late frosts kill their blossoms.

A note on hybrids: there are many tomatoes, squash, and such that are hybrids instead of open pollinated or heirloom. A hybrid tomato seed will still grow into a tomato plant, but it might not do well in your climate or resemble the tomato you took the seed from. It will still be edible though.

One thing to keep in mind is that squash are sometimes cross pollinated or pollinated by wild cucurbits, and may end up having extra cucurbitacins, which are poisons. If your squash tastes bitter, don't eat it. If you're curious look up "bitter squash syndrome" if you want to do more.

[knithacker]

Make an Oval-Shaped Garden Mat Using Old Rubber Hoses and Zip Ties - Looks Terrific! 👉 https://buff.ly/3eLDSrc

[gardeningabc]

[0h-s0-sarah]

such a great idea for herbs too

[sageinthegarden]

A new snapshot from https://sagesacre.com/2021/03/12/garden-hack-the-easy-way-to-get-rid-of-small-trees/

Garden Hack: The easy way to get rid of small trees

Here’s an easy, no dig method for removing small trees from your garden

A rogue palm tree that needs removal

No matter where you live, you’ve undoubtedly run across a tree that “volunteered” itself to grow in an inconvenient location in your garden. While the species vary (here in the west it’s a combination of native oaks and willows and non-native eucalyptus, palms and pepper trees), the problem is the same — trees that easily seed just about anywhere.

A lot of times a new tree might be just fine (who doesn’t like a good, sturdy oak?), but other times they’re pests that lift sidewalks, invade sewer lines, crowd out other plants, and even create life threatening hazards (the eucalyptus is basically a roman candle in a wildfire).

If you catch a seedling early it’s easy enough to remove, but if you let it go a while that seedling becomes a sapling and it gets problematic. Chop it to the ground and it will regrow from side shoots that are even tougher than the original plant. Try and dig it out and you can end up trenching half your yard and still not get the whole root system — assuming digging is even an option. Volunteer trees have a tendency to grow along fences, cracks in hardscape, on steep slopes and other hard-to-reach places.

Fortunately, I’ve got a pretty cool garden hack that removes unwanted saplings completely and permanently without digging, chopping, using chemicals, hiring the kid next door, or any special equipment whatsoever — all features that make this solution a winner in this lazy (but inventive) yardsman’s book. Here’s how to do it:

What you need:

Basic supplies – an empty coffee can and some charcoal

Empty coffee can with both ends removed

Charcoal briquettes (enough to fill the coffee can)

A large clay pot, metal bucket/pan or similar fireproof container to transport hot coals

Garden shears, pruners, or small saw

Trowel or similar small shovel

A few rocks, pieces of broken pottery or similar fireproof material

Instructions

Remove all the branches and root suckers from the tree with your shears and /or saw. Then cut the trunk down to about 1 inch (2.5 CM) above the soil line.

Palm with the fronds removed

Using your trowel, make a shallow trench in the soil the size of your coffee can all the way around the trunk stump.

Place a few rocks or pieces of broken pottery in the trench around the stump. You don’t need a whole lot, just enough to keep the coffee can about ½-inch (1.25 cm) off the ground. Then place an open end of the coffee can on the rocks/pottery and center the tree stump in the opening. Make sure the can is balanced so it doesn’t tip and there’s plenty of air gap between the soil and the bottom of the can.

Coffee can over the palm’s trunk

Use your barbeque, a charcoal starter or something similar to get about a half a dozen pieces of charcoal burning. Once the coals are hot, transfer them to your clay pot / bucket or pan and take them over to your can and stump setup.

Dump the burning charcoal into the coffee can making sure the coals are spread evenly all the way around the stump. Let them sit for a few minutes to make sure they’re burning nice and hot. The air gap at the bottom of the can should act like a chimney, pulling air from below to keep the coals burning. Once you’re sure the coals are burning well, fill the can to the top with the remainder of your (non-burning) charcoal.

The coffee can loaded with hot coals

Now wait. Over the next several hours the charcoal will burn from the bottom up basically turning the stump itself into charcoal. The ash will settle over the stump and it will continue to smolder until there’s nothing left to burn. I generally like to wait 24 hours just to make sure that everything is completely cool.

Coals burned down to ash

Once it’s all finished and the can is cool to the touch, you can remove it. You can remove the ash pile and what remains of the stump too, or simply bury it in place like I do.

What remains of the palm tree 24 hours later

Tada! No more tree!

It really doesn’t get any simpler or easier than this. Next time you’ve got a tree you need to remove, try it out.

Watch the tree removal video