*** Gardening Tips From Eddie ***

Read Eddie's latest article about garden tools at "Garden Widgets - Just Tooling Around" in the Writings section!

Learn the Following:

• Your climate zone __________________

• Annual rainfall ____________________

• Your altitude ______________________

• Which way is East and West in your garden

• Average last and first frost dates ________________ ________________

 

Tips and Suggestions

• Neatness counts - At the end of the day or whenever you finish a project clean up the mess.

• Put everything back where it goes and it will look so much better.

• Define gardening - what does it mean to you? This will help solidify a vision of your garden.

• Narrow your focus - Don't try to have one of everything or your garden will soon be a botanical nightmare.

• Learn what you like and specialize.

• Beware of invasive plants - Be advised that good Nurseries sometimes sell bad plants. Get a list of the plants to avoid from the GA Native Plant Society: www.gnps.org.

• Learn the difference between pruning and shearing. Do large cuts first, detail work last.

• Visit public gardens - And better neighborhoods. Take notes, pictures, and borrow ideas that you see.

• Don't skimp - Buy nice plants and accessories for your garden.

• Name your garden - Put up a sign that says 'Bigger Chigger Ranch' or 'Rainbow Glen' anything.

• Have at least one unusual specimen plant.

• Mix vegetables with your flowers, they will look great and be practical.

• Plant Edibles that don't have to be sprayed - Seedless American persimmons, pawpaw, pineapple guava, kiwi, fig, blueberries and English walnuts.

• Prepare individual bags of soil amendments in advance and stockpile for use on single plantings.

• Place your buglight over the goldfish pond.

• Source For Water Polymers: www.watersorb.com

Pete Moss says: "Hello, fellow gardeners! The secret to a successful garden lies in amending the soil and Sphagnum Peat is a top rated product for lightening clay soil and adding organic matter to sandy soil. It is a replenishable product much the same as pine trees grown for paper. Go to www.peatmoss.com for more information on Peat Moss.