Good tips Al...

Well these aren't really astonishing new tips, but...
1) When I was planting 60 tulips last fall, I found that the easiest way is to take a regular trowel, stab into the ground, yank towards you, and drop the tulip bulb down the resulting hole. Then take the trowel out and the hole pretty much fills itself. If your soil is too hard to do this, you are either planting in turf (with which I have had no success), or you should see Tip #2 ;0)

2) I have rock hard, heavy clay soil and have to constantly amend with organic matter to keep it workable. Of course compost is wonderful but who ever has enough of that? If you just want an easy, bulky organic fill, bales of peat moss and bags of mushroom manure are cheap and easy to work with, even if you don't have a dump truck. People don't seem to know what mushroom manure is, and last year it sold so poorly at my local Walmart that I picked up 15 bags for $1 each at the end of fall. Plus, I always keep a bale of peat moss and just add some whenever I am working the soil. I have great soil after doing this for a few years. Disclaimer: peat moss is not right for every soil type.

I have heavy clay too, and was just worrying about the daffodils i'd planted in a woodland-ish area on the front lawn. None have poked through yet. I was trying to leave that area looking woodland-ish and not amending it, but if all these daffodils don't come up :( i just may have to. Rats - that was when i'd hurt my knee and i ended up dragging myself around to plant all those bulbs (English bluebells and muscari as well)!

Well, this isn't a tried and true tip, but one that I think will work well. Last year, I put the 1 1/2" PVC pipe down the center of my containers. I had a couple of things I didn't like about it.

a) It sent TOO much water to the bottom of the container without getting the middle of the container moist.
b) I had about 1" of white pipe sticking out of my containers all year. Yes, the plants cover it but I still didn't think it looked too nice.

I decided this year to do something different. I am putting a large slurpee cup into the center of the container, complete with lid. I've drilled holes in the bottom and sides and put the lid on. It has a convex lid with a hole in the center. The cup can be buried so that just the top 1/2 of the clear lid is exposed and still allows for deep watering.

What does everyone think. Will it work?

Shauna

I think it would work Shauna. I'm thinking that maybe to get the middle of the container watered well, would be to only have a few small holes on the bottom of the cup and to drill larger and/or bigger holes on the sides.

I've also used 2 liter pop bottles for deep watering my roses that are on the south side of the house. I bury them at the same time I planted the rose and only leave the small opening of the bottle showing above ground. By the time you add mulch around the plant, you can barely even see the bottle.

Laurie

That's exactly what I did for the holes, Laurie. I've put my mina lobata into a 20" pot with a tomato cage and the slurpee cup in the center.
When I watered it, it looked like I had success.

Shauna

Keep your Visa at home if you plan on visiting a reputable nursery like Holes Greenhouse!

Do some stretches especially on your first day or two before working out in the garden, seriously you will feel like your 100 years old if you don't ;)

Happy Gardening!
Sharon

Mulch is a wonderful thing! It really reduces watering and weeding, and protects plants through winter. I use chopped up straw, thanks to DH the farmer. The main disadvantage is sometimes getting grain in my flowerbeds and gardens, and the self-seeders don't come up very well through thick straw.

To maximize the enjoyment of the summer gardening season, clean the house once every month with a sweeping glance.
Jan

Jan, that's the best tip yet. I'm going to try it.

Love that tip Jan! I'll be sure to use it this summer!

Gil, I love that bulb planting tip too. I tried it with an old anemone bulb already. Sure works good. I don't I have much hope of seeing that bulb come up but hey, worth a try!

When I make hard boiled eggs I let that water cool down and then use that to water my tomatoes. Not sure how fast acting that is but I did have good tomatoes! LOL (maybe that was more from consistent watering though?! LOL).

Also when I do water changes in the fish tank (fresh water planted tank) I use that water for the plants/flowers. I make sure I water different plants each time and so far its looking good!

~Ang~

The only tip I can think of is I use a small pickle type fork for pricking out seedling that are sown close together..works great..It only has 2 small tines close together and can get between seedlings with ease..it is especially good at dividing small clumps of lobelia etc..savona

Can we keep this one going? I thought since we're in the swing of things outside it would be good.

Here's my tip, and it's dedicated to all the farmers out there, or neighbors of farmers...use broken hay rake teeth (I know you save them too!) for plant markers or for running your string line for your veggie rows in the garden. I mark my perennials every fall and any newly sown stuff with them so that in my frenzy to start digging in the spring I don't wreck any plants or new shoots. If you are creative you could attach some kind of label where the tip bends over, but I haven't done it yet. Anyhoo, they last forever, no matter where you throw them when you pull them out.

Also, if you ever come across old dump rake teeth they make great decorative edging for a flower bed with the ends stuck in the ground along the edge of the bed so you have overlapping arches and you can easily attach floating covers to them with clothes pins. My MIL did this and it looks neat and is easy to cover up quick in an emergency.

Happy Planting!
Tootsie

Another thing that you can use for plant markers is the plastic strips from venetian blinds. I cut them up into whatever length I need and write on them with a Sharpie, sharpen the end and put where I need it.

Another use for dump rake teeth (I hope that I can describe this so everyone can understand) is to weld the ends of the teeth 90 degrees from each other, so that they curve outward from the end of a 6-8ft. piece of 2-4" pipe, paint it up, put the pipe in the ground so the welded teeth are up and then use it to hang 4 hanging baskets.

Cheers Al

Neat idea, Al. Are you a farmer?

Tootsie, I used to farm about 20 years ago and I live in farming community and I am very familiar with most farm machinery. I now live in a house in town on a 60x120ft lot.

Cheers Al