Henny Penny Farmette

Today’s blog is filled with miscellaneous tips and tricks that benefit the garden and also the environment.

1.  Grow a cover crop–also known as green manure crop, planting a cover crop such as grasses or legumes after you’ve harvested your summer bounty can stop weeds from claiming the bed and also prevent soil erosion.

2. Mulch your garden paths–use pine needles, leaves, or old black-and-white newspapers, which are now often printed with soy ink.

3. Save empty jugs of tea, juice, milk–rinse and cut out the bottoms to use the jugs as hot-cap environments for tender seedlings.

Pomegranates don’t need much water once established and gray water works just fine

4. Recycle gently used gray water–pour it on fruit trees and ornamental plants; but do not pour it on acid loving plants (gray water is naturally alkaline) so do not use it on leafy vegetables and root crops that are to be consumed uncooked.

5. Thin vegetable seedlings and hanging fruit–abundance has a down side since crowded plants don’t thrive as well or bulb as big (like onions). When fruit on fruit trees is thinned, the remaining fruit tends to grow larger.

Onions benefit from thinning; the remaining onion heads then have ample room to grow large

6. Recycle plastic tubs–whether they once held yogurt, margarine, or soup from the health food store, turn them upside down in the garden to keep melons off the ground (prevents them from rotting)

Tags: acid loving plants, alkaline, grasses, gray water, green manure, hot-cap, leafy vegetables, leaves, legumes, newspapers, orenamental, pine needles, seedlings, soil erosion, thinning, weeds