10 Great Gardening Hacks & Tips!

KSAdamN
by KSAdamN
Spring will be here soon, and for many that means getting their gardens and lawns back into shape. This seems like a lot of work for some people, but we at Tamate Landscaping have created a great list of gardening tips and tricks for anyone interesting is gardening!
Determine What You Want to Do Before Getting Started


Mentioning this as your first tip might sound like a bit of a cheat, but it's too important not to mention. Before you get started with your garden or your lawn, try to decide what you want to do with it. By sketching your landscape design on paper, you can know exactly what you need and save a lot of money
2. Plant Seedlings in Eggshells


Eggshells make great eco-friendly planters for growing your seedlings before they go in your garden. Just clean out your eggshells after using them, fill them with soil, plant your seeds and let them grow in a carton. Once your seedlings get big enough, crack the bottoms of the shells, remove the shards and place the plant and shell in your garden. The eggshells will dissolve in the soil and add some much-needed nutrients to your garden
Save Your Rice Water
3. Save Your Rice Water


The next time you cook rice, save the water you used to wash the rice instead of pouring down the drain. It makes a great all-natural fertilizer for your plants.
4. Introduce Ladybugs Into Your Garden


If you have a problem with aphids destroying your plants, introduce some ladybugs into your garden to kill the destructive pests. Ladybugs are natural predators of aphids, and releasing them into your yard is a good way to protect your garden without using insecticides.
5. Add Some Coffee Grounds


Coffee grounds are not only great at keeping slugs at bay, but they can also hinder mold and mildew growth. They're also rich in nutrients, so they make a great fertilizer. If you drink a lot of coffee in your home, you no doubt have some wet coffee grounds that go into the trash every day, but they should be going into your garden instead.
6. Save Your Store-Bought Cuttings


Leftover basil, celery and onions that you buy from the grocery store can usually be replanted and grown, making a trip to the gardening store for more seeds unnecessary. In fact, even the waste that cannot be replanted can still be added to a compost pile, so feel free to save your organic waste if you want an effective fertilizer.
7. Adding Milk to Your Garden


Much like coffee grounds, milk can add nutrients to your soil and act as an anti-fungal resource. If you have some milk in your refrigerator that you aren't going to use before its expiration date, pour it in your garden instead of down the drain.
8. Pinching Plants


Splitting the center of a plant's stem - a practice known as "pinching" - can be a good way to encourage new leaves to grow and can even save a plant from dying (source: hobbyfarms.com).
9. Get Rid Of Weeds With Sugar


To get rid of a weed, all you need is a tablespoon of sugar. Just apply it to a damp weed, and it will fizzle down to the root. Sugar works best when dealing with broadleaf and annual leaves as opposed to grasses and perennials
10. Keep Tools in Good Shape with Builder's Sand


Nobody likes to work with rusty gardening tools, but you can keep your equipment rust-free by storing them in builder's sand and some mineral oil. Builder's sand can be purchased at hardware stores, and all you need to do is fill a pot full of the stuff along with some mineral oil to keep it slightly damp. If you store your tools in the sand, the mixture will clean them and keep the metal from rusting.
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