Gardening & Outdoor

Safe Solutions to Your Gardening Woes

Organic Mulch

• Mix used coffee grounds with dead leaves, straw, and grass clippings to make your own organic mulch. You can use any or all of these items together for an all natural mulch to use in your flower beds.
• Use the empty hulls of any in shell nuts you may have to make a clean, safe, and eco-friendly mulch for flower beds. Simply crush the shells a bit and put them around your flowers. 

For the Sake of the Roses

This section will be dedicated to my favorite flower in the world...the rose. While absolutely beautiful, they are far from easy to care for. They are very finicky plants and are plagued by all sorts of unpleasant pests and diseases. Here I will focus on the all natural, organic, eco-friendly solutions to the most common roses problems.

Pest Control

Aphids can be kept at bay with a mixture of onion, dish soap and water. Simply blend 1 medium, diced onion with 1 quart water. Strain off the liquid. Mix 2 tablespoons of the onion juice to 1 gallon water and 1 teaspoon dish soap in a hand held sprayer and apply to your roses to prevent those pesky bugs.

• If you have an outdoor ant problem then sprinkle grits generously on the ant mound. The grits will expand in the ants stomach and well, you get the idea. This one I know for sure works very well. I have used it for years!