Wisconsin Garden Club Federation » Gardening Tips

Prevent Algae in your Bird Bath

WGCF Administrator — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:04:04 +0000

To prevent algae in your bird bath, drop a few penny’s in dated before 1982. The copper prevents algae.

– S. Nelson

Burdocks

WGCF Administrator — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:34:43 +0000

Burdocks are biennials so if you saw off those plumes of burs and pile them up to rot, they die.
Use a light Japanese woodworking saw to cut the stalks of the Burdocks.

N. Collier

Spraying Weeds

WGCF Administrator — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:37:52 +0000

I attach a driveway marker stick to the handle of a gallon milk jug. I cut out the bottom and 2 sides of the jug. This makes a great plant protector when spraying weeds in a flower bed.

Fran, Lakeshore Garden Club

Don’t Let Water Go Down The Drain

WGCF Administrator — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:25:27 +0000

Put a basin in the sink to catch water when you wash your hands. Use it to water your garden, shrubs, and houseplants. Gray water is fine. Use dishwater to water shrubs. One way to filter food particles and other garbage from the dishwater is to fill a trash bag 1/3 full of pine needles. Poke several holes in the bottom of the bag, and pour the dishwater through it directly onto the ground around the plants. Pine needles clean the water enough so that there won’t be food odor to attract animals.

Salem, N. H. Garden Club

How to Kill Thistles

WGCF Administrator — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 04:23:40 +0000

Pour a small amount of Roundup in a metal or glass container. Set aside. Put on a rubber glove and then pull on a cotton glove over the rubber. Dip the gloved hand in Roundup and wipe your hand over the thistle.

Diane, Sun Prairie Garden Club

Secrets of Great Soil

WGCF Administrator — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 04:21:39 +0000

Bonnie Ownley, University of Tennessee plant pathologist, recommends that gardeners should do a balancing act for good soil.

Feed the soil:add organic matter in the form of grass clippings, leaves, compost, or old crop material.
Seed a cover crop: legumes like clover or hairy vetch may produce as much as 60 pounds of nitrogen per acre. Leave some of the residue of the cover crop on the soil surface. The residue will decay and feed the soil microbes.
Encourage earthworms.
Rotate crops from one year to another.

Soil is a world of heterotrophs that break down organic compounds, phototrophs that live on light, and chemotrophs that oxidize inorganic compounds like nitrite, sulfur, and ammonium. Soil breathes, it’s alive.