Ripen the Tomatoes
My neighbor wanted her green tomatoes to ripen. She used fertilizer, which game them enormous vines, not ripening yet. Man-made nitrogen will put too much growth into the green part, short-changing the fruit somewhat.
I gave her two tomatoes in a plastic bag with a banana. An apple or a banana in a bag will speed up ripening, because they give off a natural gas that ripens fruit.
Bananas are picked green and ripened with that gas.
KnockOuts - Big Chop for Growth
Every time I reduce my KnockOut roses by 50%, after their big bloom, our helper says, "Are you sure?"
When everyone was content to let their KOs alone, I watered mine after cutting all the blooms off and cutting back the bushes. They reponded by going into a new set of growth and blooms.
The Creation Gardener:
- Mulches and leaves the soil alone.
- Encourages and even adds earthworms.
- Prunes aggressively, which usually means cutting roses for vases and spotting dead wood to remove.
- Waters with stored rainwater when possible.
New roses get watered daily to help the roots get established.
Flies on My Daisies
I keep spotting flies in my garden. The astute realize that houseflies are not in the garden. The flies are tachinids, which are great at killing pests. Shasta Daiseys are good at attracting beneficial bugs, but these are cone flowers - which are also good.
Do not swat the garden flies. They are friends from the Creator.
Bury the Weeds - Voila! - Compost
I have a rich and growing supply of weeds, thanks to rich soil and watering. Of course, weeds will grow anywhere but thrive with water and dominate with plenty of rain.
When we have a thick patch of weeds in the mulch, we cover that area with newspapers or cardboard, then weigh down the sunblocker with wood mulch or various weights, like gallon jars of water. We use the jars in the Wild Garden before we get enough leaves to weigh down the easy-fly pieces.
Weeds make great compost when denied sunlight.
