Save Your Back - Make Your Own Watering Wand!

There are a couple of reasons why it's best to water plants at the base, around the soil and roots rather than from the top.

1. If you have made wells around your plants, overhead watering can wash them away.

2. Some plants don't like to get their foliage wet, and watering from above, can make them susceptible to moisture-loving fungal diseases.

For some people, however, reaching down that far, especially if you have a lot of watering to do, can be hard on your back. The perfect answer is to make your own watering wand.

To make a watering wand: simply use some sturdy tape, like duct tape, and attach a 4-foot (1.2 m) length of broom stick or old mop handle along the end of your garden hose.

Now you can direct the water precisely around the base of plants, without bending your back and physically challenged gardeners can also use this trick to give them a longer reach.

For more Gardening Tips and Gardening Advice visit our main gardening website at Weekend Gardener Monthly Web Magazine - www.weekendgardener.net

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Super Easy Summer Cuttings

Propagating your own plants was never easier! Here are a few warm weather plants that will root from cuttings stuck directly in the ground:

Ageratum
Coleus
Fuchsia
Dahlia
Impatiens
Wax begonia
Geranium
Iceplant
Felicias

All you have to do is take a 2 to 4 inch (5 - 10 cm) cutting, strip any flowers and most of the foliage off, leaving just a few leaves on top.

Then insert them directly into loose soil where they are to grow.

Keep them moist until they establish. Moist, not soaked, otherwise you will rot them!

That's it.

For more Gardening Tips and Gardening Advice visit our main gardening website at Weekend Gardener Monthly Web Magazine - www.weekendgardener.net

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Grow & Make Your Own Luffa Sponge!

Luffas sponges are probably best known for use in the shower to exfoliate your skin, but they can also be used for washing dishes or windows.

If you have never done this, here is an opportunity to grow and make your own luffa sponge!

There are several species of Luffa plants that you can do this project with, and they are:

Luffa cylindrica
Luffa acutangula
Luffa aegyptiaca Mill

They are all in the Cucurbitaceae family. Most seed catalogs offer luffa seeds, so they are not hard to find.

Growing the plants:

1. The plants are very easy to grow with no insect problems, but frost will kill these plants so be careful to make sure either it is warm enough out, or you give them some frost protection until all threat of frost is over.

2. They need around 4 to 5 months to grow and produce sponges that you will be able to use, so sowing your seeds now, in the spring or early summer is the best time.

3. Like many gourd and squash plants, they like full sun, regular water, and they are natural climbers so you can train the vines up a trellis or fence, or up the side of a wall or your house.

4. The fruit is edible when young, but will get very tough to eat if allowed to get too big.

5. They can get about 15 feet (4.6 m) tall.


Making the sponge:

1. Harvest mature sponges in the fall; you can pick the fruit just after the first frost kills the vine, and then peel off the outer skin.

2. Cut of the ends, and then squeeze the fruit repeatedly from the middle towards the ends to remove the pulp and seeds that are inside. Some people call this “milking” the squash.

3. If seeds do come out, make sure you set some aside for next year!

4. Next, if the sponge is discolored, soak it for 5 minutes in warm water with a little bit of bleach.

5. Allow the sponge to dry thoroughly by hanging them up or placing them on a drying rack.

6. Last, make sure to clean your luffas throughout the year in the washing machine. Most luffa sponges will last for years!

Note: It is also possible to dye the luffas if you want your sponge to be a different color than it’s natural tan.

For more Gardening Tips and Gardening Advice visit our main gardening website at Weekend Gardener Monthly Web Magazine - www.weekendgardener.net

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How to Rotate Your Crops For Healthy Plants and Soil

Last week we talked about how much easier it is to plan your vegetable garden, and figure out how you'll rotate your crops, when using sticky note pads.

This week we'll finish up with why it is important to rotate your crops, and give you a sample four-year plan to help.

Crop rotation is when you plant your annual crops in different areas of your garden every year to avoid the buildup of soil-borne diseases and pests like potato scab, or nematodes.

When you grow different plants on the same site every year, pests and diseases won't have the host plant that they prefer, so their populations tend not to build up to critical and damaging levels.

The most important thing about crop rotation is to have a plan on paper, so you can remember what you planted, and where you are going to move plants the following year.

One easy way is to separate your crops into 3 types: root, leafy, and fruit crops. Even better, is to group your crops by botanical family (like in the Solanaceae family you have tomatoes and peppers, in the Leguminosae family you have peas and beans etc.).

Following is a sample rotation with 4 growing seasons. Each year includes tomatoes, and a soil improving crop (buckwheat, clovers, oats, rye, vetches, and wheat). You can add other crops as space permits in your garden.



For more Gardening Tips and Gardening Advice visit our main gardening website at Weekend Gardener Monthly Web Magazine - www.weekendgardener.net

Talk to you next week!