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Share Your Breakfast |
Leftover tea in the teapot? Don't pour it down the sink, let it go cold and then water indoor plants with it or spray it over seedlings. The plants respond to the tannic acid so make sure you don't give to lime loving plants.
The honey and vegemite you put on your taast can also be put to good use in the garden. Honey works well as a rooting hormone, simply dip the end of cuttings in a drop of honey before planting. Connifers love a spoon of vegemite stirred into some water for a feed.
Your banana peels can be used to wipe over and shine clean the leaves of plants, and then cut into pieces to be placed around plants. The plants love the potash which will help flowering.
Crushed eggs shells are great additions to worm farms, or can be scattered around tender plants to keep snails and slugs at bay, or used to add trace elements and improve drainage in pot plants or other soils. |
Quick Smart, Quick Sharp |
| Need to quickly sharpen a pair of secateurs? Make some quick cuts on a piece of fine sandpaper. Or BETTER STILL, recycle by stacking together your old egg shells and cutting them into small pieces which can then be added to your worm farm, sprinkled around plants like basil to keep snails at bay, or sprinkled around roses to add calcium and trace elements. |
Cheap Recycled Plant Labels |
| To create a weatherproof plant label cut some old drink cans into strips, bend over an end and punch a hold in it (a small nail hole works well). Insert a tie through the end (old fishing line, a freezer tie or something that will weather well). Using a ballpoint pen that doesn't work anymore write/emboss on you label. For those of you in more of a hurry simply cut stips and write on them and then poke them into the ground or the sides of pots -- leaving the natural curve of the can in the label will help stop it bending when you push it in. Be careful of sharp edges. |
Make Your Own Pots |
Ever wanted to give a few plants or cuttings to friends, or wanted to start a few seeds but didn't have any pots? Why not make you own.
Simply take a smallish round object (a glass, a jar, a tin, or another small pot) and roll a strip of newspaper around it, making sure the paper is wide enough to fold over the base of the object. Roll the paper a few times around the glass and fold over the bottom; slide out the glass and pinch the fold at the bottom so that it's tight and doesn't unfold. Fill the pot and water in the seeds, cuttings or plant. The pot should last six to eight weeks. By making a few slits in the side, taking care not the damage the roots, you can plant the whole thing in the ground where the paper will rot away. To keep track of what is what you can easily write on the paper, not just plant names but growing tips for friends. |
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