"A weed is but an unloved flower.” ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, author and poet, 1850 - 1919
When you are spraying those pesky wasp nests that are up under the eaves or on the ceilings of your porches, some of the spray invariably ends up running down the can and onto your hand. I use the disposable nitrile gloves doctors and dentists use, and I only need to use one on the hand that's spraying. When you're finished, just peel it off so that the poison is on the inside of the glove. Then simply throw the glove away.
I sit here writing this on 1/28/14 while we await abnormal winter weather to strike this evening. Here in the south our perennials are showing signs of tender new spring growth, but the weather is predicted to give us a beating for the next 2 days in the form of unseasonable ice pellets and mixed winter precipitation, to include snow or sleet.
Instead of throwing out that Christmas Tree, lay it down underneath your bird feeder. It will provide cover for those birds that don't migrate and feed at the feeders throughout the winter. They can make a quick dash into the tree for cover when hungry hawks fly overhead.
When I go around pruning plants, I make my own mulch by cutting the prunings into smaller pieces with a few quick snips and I drop them wherever I need mulch. Plants of the pine family, junipers, evergreens... just about anything. This saves me time by not having to haul the prunings somewhere else, plus it mulches. If it's a bit unsightly, that's okay because when I get my bagged mulch, it will go on top and all will be pretty again, but I will need less bagged mulch to do the job. It saves time, work, and money. It's a triple-win situation!
When you get stung by a bee, hornet, wasp, yellow jacket, or stinging caterpillar, you can relieve the pain almost instantly and greatly lessen the effects of swelling by pouring ammonia on the sting. The ammonia breaks down the protein in the poison. You can pour ammonia into small containers, such as plastic lemon squeezers, and keep them handy in your gardening areas so that you can get to them quickly. The sooner you use the ammonia, the less pain, heat, and swelling you will experience.
To keep algae growth down and your bird bath clean, add 1 capful of apple cider vinegar or 1 teaspoon per gallon of water to the bird bath. The apple cider vinegar also provides vitamins & minerals to the birds.
When you look for kneeling pads, think outside the box. Now that summer is on its way, take a look in the water fun/swimming section. You can often utilize kiddie rafts and paddle floats as kneeling pads. At the end of summer, you can find them dirt cheap when they go on sale. I got this kiddie float raft, and it gives me more room plus extra padding at a fraction of the cost of conventional kneeling pads.
Use ordinary old fashioned hairpins (not bobby pins) to secure things like iris & daylily seedlings until they can stand on their own.
To keep squirrels out of your bird feeders you can hang the feeder using strong mono-filament line from a limb which is 6 feet off the ground. You must be sure to keep the feeder 6 feet from the trunk of the tree as well as 6 feet from any other branches. The squirrels can not hold onto the fishing line to get to the feeder & they (almost always) can't jump the distance to the feeder.
If you have an especially invasive plant that is large and you want to get rid of it, you can cut it back to 3 or 4 feet. Drill holes 2 or 3 inches straight down into the cut stems, then pour Roundup into the holes. The plant will take the poison internally and it will kill any suckers as well. You may wish to refill the holes after about 12 hours. Please be sure to cover each filled stem with tin foil secured with a twist tie, so our lizard and insect friends don't get into the poison. I had a Shooting Star Clerodendrum that I had to treat this way. It was sending suckers out 30 feet away!
Be sure to take a container of water with you when taking cuttings for rooting. Throw the cuttings in the water to keep them from getting dehydrated.
The best time of day to take cuttings for propagation is early, early in the morning. The plants' natural rooting hormones are highest up in the tips of the plants in the morning, so you stand a better chance of propagation by taking your cuttings as early as you can. This applies even if you apply a rooting hormone to your cuttings.
Use exterior paint for plastics & decorate those rain barrels with flowers or whimsy! People will see them in a whole new light.
I save & use containers like this to start seeds in. They are deep enough, they have drain holes in the bottom and vent holes in the top, the top snaps shut, and when the seedlings get large enough, you can leave the top open so they can grow higher. I use a single layer of a piece of paper towel in the bottom to keep the soil from going out the drain holes. By the time it's time to transplant the seedlings, the paper towel has broken down into almost nothing. AND you can write the name & date right on the top with a magic marker!
Looking for waterproof garden boots? They can be mighty expensive. But you don't have to stick to the normal "labels" such as "garden boots." Think outside the box. They are called "cement boots" and they're worn by construction workers who work with cement & plaster products.
To keep algae growth from your bird bath drop some pre-1982 copper pennies in. I have what I would call a normal size bird bath & I use 7 pennies. The reason for the pennies being pre-1982 is that before that year, the pennies contained copper, a natural algicide. You could also use a small length of copper pipe or tubing, or any other copper coin. I have found this to work extremely well with the exception of those times when the temperatures stay above 90 for extended periods. Copper is not safe for fish so this would not be a good thing to use in a fish aquarium or a pond that has fish in it.
Don't worry that rain barrels will become mosquito breeders. Just toss a mosquito dunk in the barrel. EPA approved in 50 states, biological control of mosquito larvae.
If you are like me, you get a rash from working with junipers. They prick your skin and it's not always possible to wear long sleeves heavy enough to protect your skin. Wash your arms well with soap and dry them. Then hold them over the sink and literally drench them with Witch Hazel. Let it dry naturally. You may have to repeat the Witch Hazel again in an hour or so but I find that after doing this I do not suffer with the rash for days on end.