| Garden Gizmos |
From "Ask DIY"
episode ADI-211 |
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Q: I'm a beginner gardener. Can Jessie show me what tools are available to get me started? A: (Jessie Mack Burns, Ask DIY Gardening expert) There is probably a gadget out there for any gardening task you could think of. For example, there are these little two-part wooden gizmos you can use to make biodegradable containers for seedlings. You wrap a strip of newspaper three or four times around the column of the top piece (figure A), which looks like a bedpost. Next, you fold the excess paper in to the center of the bottom of the post (figure B) so the paper is shaped like an open cylinder. So it will hold its shape, you mash the paper-covered post into the coaster-shaped bottom piece (figure C), twisting it back and forth. Take the post out of the coaster and the paper off the post and you have a newspaper pot, ready for young seedlings. Best of all, you can plant the pot and all when you're ready to move the plant into the garden. Speaking of seeds, there's another great gadget known as a "seed placer." It's shaped sort of like a snail and has a bulb to build up air pressure and a little point to pick up seeds. What's it for? To place just a few seeds precisely where you want them, so you don't waste seed and also so you won't have to thin as much later. To operate the seed placer, squeeze the bulb. It will work up enough suction so the pointed drinking-straw-like piece will pick up a single seed (figure D). Transport the seed where you want it, and release the bulb to release the seed. So you'll remember what you planted where, label a used Popsicle stick and jab it in the soil near the seed -- but not so near that it will get in the seedling's way. If you like, put the date on the stick too. If you don't like the Popsicle stick idea, consider spraying green chalkboard paint on terra-cotta pots (figure E). That way you can use chalk to label the pots, or write any fun or romantic messages. More Questions for Jessie:
Q: We killed the wild onions in our yard and now they've returned. How do we get rid of them for good?
A: You could use a broad-band herbicide, but apply it only on the areas where you're willing to kill everything that's growing, because that's what the broad-band herbicides do.
Q: I have little white gnats flying around my potato bushes and annuals. What can I use to get rid of them?
A: That sounds like white fly. Spray an insecticidal soap on the plants..
Q: Is it possible to grown and maintain a magnolia inside? If so, what conditions are necessary?
A: You can if you really want to, but you'll need a lot of light. Web site resources for Gardening: Garden Gizmos: Gadgets and Gizmos from HGTV.com A Check on Some of the Latest Gardening Tools from TV.CBC Inspect Your Gadgets from ABC/Met/Ai Book: Great Garden Gadgets: Make-It-Yourself Gizmos And Gadgets
Fern Marshall Bradley, Editor
ISBN: 0875969984 (2001)
Rodale Press
Customer Service
33 E. Minor St.
Emmaus, PA 18090
Phone: 800-914-9363
Fax: 610-967-5171
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