Cindy's Recipes and Writings
*Photo courtesy of Tesslaar Plants
Earth Day is just around the corner. Here are a few tips we can follow to help be Earth-friendly gardeners.
- Use manure from plant or insect eating animals instead of synthetic fertilizers. Horse, chicken or bat (guano) manure breaks down easily. Horse manure needs to be composted to kill weed seeds and leach excess nitrogen that would burn plants. Use manure that has been composted for at least 2 years. If you live near a stable or horse farm you can ask and most likely get it for free. Free fertilizer! Chicken, rabbit and bat waste can be added directly to your garden.
- Buy plants that are naturally disease resistant. You will not only have healthier plants but you will also do not need as many insecticides or fungicides.
- Use rain water whenever possible. Install a rainbarrel or collect in a bucket covered with mesh to keep out mosquitoes.
- Repurpose old containers into useful objects. Reuse smaller containers to start seeds or cuttings. Larger containers can house a small bulb grouping.
- Join a community garden. Having friends help with the chores and share in the harvest can be very rewarding!
*Tesselaar Plants searches the world and introduces new plants for the home garden, landscape and home décor markets, undertaking extensive research and development of its varieties. The Tesselaar philosophy is to introduce exceptional plants while “making gardening easy” for everyone, so it makes its products as widely available as possible. Tesselaar believes the more gardeners there are, the better it is for everyone.
