Spring Shrub Shopping

January may kick off the new year for most folks, but March is really where it’s at if you’re a die-hard gardener. From under your feet to high above your head, blooms will soon be bursting out all over! And one of the best spring activities if you’ve got a green thumb is visiting your local garden center to pick up some new plants. It’s an especially great time to buy early-flowering shrubs because you can see exactly what color their flowers are. Here are some other points to ponder as you shop:

• Look for leaves that are healthy and free of dark spots or yellow patches.
• Check that the potting soil is firm and free of weeds.
• Avoid plants with visible pests, like aphids or scale.
• Make sure the pot has a readable plant tag, so you know exactly what you’re buying!

Once you’ve made your selections and placed your new shrubs in the yard, give ‘em a dose of this homemade elixir: Mix 1 tablespoon of baby shampoo, 1 teaspoon of hydrated lime, and 1 teaspoon of iron sulfate in a bucket with 1 gallon of water. Then spray the elixir on all of your flowering shrubs to the point of run-off. It’ll give them the energy them need to produce as many flowers as possible.

For more tips on getting your spring garden off to a great start, check out our bestselling book, Green Thumb Magic. You can even try it absolutely FREE for a full 21 days with our Free Preview!

Deadheading Dos and Don’ts

This time of summer is a terrific time to clip off the heads of your early-blooming annuals, perennials, and flowering shrubs. The practice of deadheading will make your yard look neater and help the young plants send much-needed energy to the newer buds growing further down on the stems. Snipping off spent blossoms also keeps the plants strong, makes future blooms more spectacular, and prevents the plants from making any unwanted seedlings.

And if you’re worried that summer’s heat and humidity have gotten the best of your annual flowers, don’t give up on them yet. You can still enjoy several more weeks of blooms if you treat ‘em right—right now! Cut them back by about half, water them thoroughly, and then douse them with a shot of this Annual Pick-Me-Up Tonic. They’ll be back in bloom before you know it!

Here’s how to whip up a batch: 

• Mix ¼ cup of beer, 1 tablespoon of clear corn syrup, 1 tablespoon of baby shampoo, 1 tablespoon of 15-30-15 plant food, and 1 gallon of water in a watering can.
• Slowly dribble the solution onto the soil around all of your annuals.
• Within two weeks, they’ll be real comeback kids—and you’ll get to enjoy their lush leaves and beautiful blooms right up until old Jack Frost makes a return appearance in mid-fall.

Looking for more ways to grow the most gorgeous garden in town? Just check out our bestselling book, Terrific Garden Tonics. It’s got all the motions, potions, and lotions you’ll need for the beautiful blooms you’ve been dreaming of. And, you can try it out FREE for 21 days!

Turn Your Garden into Butterfly Heaven

Study after study has shown that communing with nature improves folks’ mental and physical health—and even increases their productivity at work. But you don’t have to trek off on a photographic safari to enjoy these benefits.

Something as simple as watching butterflies flit around your backyard works just as well. They’ll show up in droves if you plant a wide assortment of nectar-rich flowers, but you’ll entice them even more quickly (and get a close-up view, besides) if you install a nectar feeder or two near your house.

You can buy special butterfly feeders, but my advice is, don’t waste your money! The reason: Nearly all of these devices come equipped with a moat that you fill with water, which is supposed to keep crawling insects out of the sweet syrup. But a lot of small butterflies also get trapped in the water, often with fatal results. 

Fortunately, there’s a simple—and safer—way to serve refreshments. Just get a thin, green, plastic-fiber scrubbing pad in the Laundry & Cleaning Products aisle, and saturate it with sugar water (1 part water to 4 parts white sugar is good). Set the pad on a plastic plate that you’ve screwed to a post or other flat surface.

Then sit back and wait for the show to begin!

Deputize a Pest-Control Posse

If you’re using chemical pesticides in your yard because you’re afraid that insects will destroy your lawn and gardens, I have one word to say to that notion: Hogwash! If you quit cold turkey, throngs of beneficial insects will show up and start devouring the plant trashers.

Here are some of your most prolific allies:

Assassin bugs go gunnin’ for aphids, armyworms, beetles, mole crickets, and sod webworms.

Big-eyed bugs hanker for aphids, armyworms, chinch bugs, and sod webworms.

Ground beetles gobble up ants, aphids, armyworms, cutworms, grubs, mites, and mole crickets.

Ladybugs love aphids, chinch bug larvae, mites, and scale.

Spined soldier beetles go bonkers for sod webworms.

These pest-control workers will quickly find their way to any flowers that are rich in pollen and nectar. But the secret to keeping them on the job is to follow this three-point plan:

1. Provide water. Just sink plant saucers into the ground, set some pebbles inside (letting some of the stones show above the surface), and pour in the H₂O.

2. Mix it up. The more kinds of plants you have, and the more menu and shelter options you provide, the more kinds of helpers you’ll attract — and the more kinds of pests they’ll polish off. It’s especially important to plant a mixture of flowers so that something is in bloom throughout the growing season.

3. Go native. To enlist a first-class dream team, look for plants (especially trees and shrubs) that are native to your area. Local heroes will flock to your doorstep!

Hooray—Foiled Again!

You may think of aluminum foil as simply a handy kitchen aid. But its strength and light-reflecting texture make it one of the most potent tools you can have in your pest-control arsenal. Here’s how to put it to work outside:

Make your garden cat-free. Fill empty 2-liter pop bottles halfway with water, and add a few drops of bleach to keep algae from growing. Then drop two or three long, thin strips of aluminum foil into each bottle, and set the containers every few feet around the area you want to protect. The constantly changing reflections from the foil and water will make cats think twice before they venture closer.

Erect a flashing fence. To keep birds and four-legged critters like rabbits and raccoons away from your garden, pound stakes into the soil at 3- to 4-foot intervals all around the plot, and run twine between the stakes. Then cut aluminum foil into strips about 1 inch wide and 5 inches long, and tape them every foot or so to the twine.

Foil cutworms. All seedlings are vulnerable to these pests. To bar the “door,” wrap foil loosely around the stem of each tender young plant. The foil should extend about 2 inches below the ground and 3 inches above. You can remove the wrapping when the stalk is about ½ inch in diameter and too thick for the cutworms to damage.

Fend off slugs. These slimy villains will sink their jaws into just about any kind of plant under the sun. But the good news is that they can’t get through a coat of metallic armor. To protect single-stemmed plants, wrap a 1-inch-high band of crinkled aluminum foil around the bottom of the stem. For multi-stemmed plants, make a foil ring that’s long enough to encircle the whole base of the slugs’ target.

Deter flying insects. When placed on the soil around plants, aluminum foil will deter aphids, moths, thrips, whiteflies, and other destructive and disease-spreading insects. How? The light reflecting off the foil confuses the bugs so much that they can’t land. When you use this trick, it’s important to poke holes a few inches apart in the foil so that water can get down to the plants’ roots. Also, check on it periodically to see if the shiny covering is reflecting too much hot sun onto the foliage. If the plants’ lower leaves appear dry or crinkled, remove the foil immediately and give your plants a nice, cool drink of water.

Stop 2 Tiny Garden Terrors in Their Tracks!

No gardener likes to hear this, but regardless of what kind of plants you’re growing or how well you take care of them, it’s almost inevitable that some pest or disease will start dishing out trouble. Spider mites and thrips are so small that you can’t even see them without a strong magnifying glass, but they can cause major damage to every green, growing thing in your yard.

Spider mites. When mites go on a sucking spree, plants look dull and unhealthy and lose their get-up-and-grow power. You’ll see what looks like angel hair clinging to leaves and stems, and foliage will appear pale, wilted, or covered with yellowish specks. Once these bad guys get a toehold, they can be the dickens to get rid of. So don’t waste any time — go get ‘em!

• At the first sign of trouble, blast ‘em with your garden hose.
• In later stages, mix 2 teaspoons of ammonia and 1 teaspoon of dishwashing liquid in 2 gallons of water. Pour the solution into a handheld sprayer bottle, and spray your plants from top to bottom every five days for three weeks.
• During dry spells, sprinkle water on bare ground to keep dust at a minimum. There’s nothing spider mites like more than dry, dusty soil!

Thrips. These thugs scrape away a plant’s tissue and then suck sap from the wound. Damaged leaves take on a silvery sheen. Afflicted flower buds either never open or unfold covered with odd-colored streaks and speckles. Severe infestations weaken plants and stunt their growth. As thrips feed, some of them also spread viruses. Take action by:

• Clipping off the thrip-infested plant parts and dunking them in soapy water to kill the little suckers. Send any lingerers flying with a good blast from the garden hose.
• Filling blue margarine or chip-dip containers with soapy water, and setting them on the ground among your plants. The color blue draws thrips like a magnet, so they’ll fly right in and drown.

Once you’ve thrown out the thrips, prevent a virus outbreak by spraying your plants with a “flu shot” made from 2 cups of leaves from a healthy, sweet green pepper plant, 2 cups of water, and ½ teaspoon of dishwashing liquid. Liquefy the leaves and water in a blender, dilute the mixture with an equal amount of water, and add the dishwashing liquid. Pour the potion into a handheld sprayer bottle, and have at it! 

Bring on the Thunder for the Greenest Garden in Town!

Have you ever noticed how your lawn and garden seem to suddenly green up after a storm? That’s because the electricity in the air joins oxygen with nitrogen to make nitric oxide (the chemical compound that delivers nitrogen to your plants). But you don’t have to just sit around praying for storm clouds to appear — you can create the same atmosphere yourself, as farmers and gardeners have been doing for centuries. They call it electroculture, and it can actually improve the health of your plants and increase the size of your harvest. Try it yourself, using these three techniques:

• Grow cucumbers, indeterminate tomatoes, and other vine crops on metal trellises or fences.
• Use only metal poles for staking.
• Tie up your plants with strips cut from nylon garments, like slips or old panty hose. (If you don’t know how that could attract electricity, just ask any woman about “static cling”!)

Oh, yes, there is one more thing to remember. Once you’ve made your garden an electrical magnet, make sure you get out of it the minute you hear thunder!