Gardening Advice for Summer

Winning tip: Keep those doors open

My work - shed doors are spring loaded to help keep them close . The problem was keep them open when I was travel a mower or cultivator in and out . I bury a 24 - in duration of 1½-inch - diameter PVC pipe next to each side of the ramp . Now all I do is drop a 1 - inch - square stake into one of the pipes and the threshold persist open . When I ’m done , I pull the stake and the threshold shuts .

— Tom Porter , Belchertown , Massachusetts

From damaged lantern to hanging planter

I offer at my local Habitat for Humanity ReStore , which send off any alloy that ca n’t be sold to a recycling center . One day as I was go in the back doorway , I spotted an detailed copper lantern sitting on top of the recycling container . One of the storage employee say me that it had come in with many other things and been accepted with them as a spate . The damaged lantern had obviously fall from where it had hang . I pulled it out and bought it . After straightening the bent areas , I buy a strand and a mandevilla plant . With the aid of a Velcro hanger — so no damage is done to the tree — it now hangs from a tree branch on a cherry tree diagram .

— Paul Brothe , Newburgh , New York

Potted plants, rise up!

You make love those risers that are made of tough plastic that parents grease one’s palms for their kids ’ dorm beds to give a little extra elevation for repositing underneath ? They also make great risers in large cachepots for dummy planting . I have plants that live in very nice plastic ocean liner pots because their cachepots are simply too arduous and I would never be able to move them . For example , I use an antique crock for an indoor potted palm . But I like to give the palm a shower once in a while during the winter , and have the lining raised defecate lifting it out of the lampblack much promiscuous .

— Carla Z. Mudry , Malvern , Pennsylvania

Enjoy now, move later

Orange 1 - inch flagging tape has become a utile tool when I relocate herbaceous perennial in the fall . I have a mixture and teemingness of day lily . When they blossom in leap and summer , I see that some would calculate expert in other place in my garden due to color , size , fragrance , and magical spell . But because they are bloom , I do n’t require to disturb them . I tag them with the magnetic tape , noting with a lasting marking where they would seem good in my garden . I love their beautiful summer blossom undisturbed and then safely move them in the spill . This way I do n’t have to swear on my computer memory to get it right .

— Pam Morgan , Monroe , North Carolina

Efficient container watering

I am from Maine , where water was abundant , but now I live in Georgia , where recent droughts have reinforced the motive for piddle - pull through recitation . Now when I irrigate my many containers , hanging or fixed , I place them on top of a 5 - Imperial gallon bucket . I give the plants a good crapulence , and any excess water drain into the pail . It ’s amazing how much of this precious imagination can be pile up this way and reused on another needy plant life . Every cliff counts !

— Kate Coker , McDonough , Georgia

FromFine Gardening#201

Photos : courtesy of the contributors

o.k. Gardening urge ware

Corona High Performance Orchard Loppers

Fine Gardening receives a commission for particular purchased through links on this site , including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs .

Lee Valley Large Gardener ’s Wash Basket

Johnny ’s Selected Seeds Connecta ® Cultivation Kit

Get our tardy tips , how - to article , and instructional videos sent to your inbox .

Signing you up …

Exciting Container Plants for Summer

Garden Advice for Summer

Design Advice for a Wild, Informal Garden

Sage Gardening Advice from the Past

Join Fine horticulture for a free engaging alive webinar featuring Dr. Janna Beckerman , a renowned plant life pathologist as well as professor emerita at Purdue University and the ornamentals technical manager …

When I blot a fussy sand dollar cactus ( Astrophytum asterias ) at the Philadelphia Flower Show a few month ago , I knew I was in problem . With a delicious colour pattern …

When we only prioritise plants we want over plants our landscape painting needs , each time of year is occupy with a never - terminate list of chores : pruning , sneak , tearing , treating , improve , and fertilizing , with …

Video

Touring an Eco-friendly, Shady Backyard Retreat

You must be careful when you enter the backyard of garden designer Jeff Epping — not because you ’re likely to trip on something , but because you might be dive - bombed by a pair …