(Editor’s note: We are pleased to introduce a new monthly gardening column authored by Poway resident Clarence Schmidt.)
As gardeners we sometimes see our experiments fall apart before our eyes. However, we know that experiments with unsuccessful results are failures only when you haven’t learned anything along the way. The details of our disasters might just help other gardeners.
You can make your own fertilizers and pesticides, put diapers at the bottom of your pots or, good golly, use beer for purposes other than it was intended. Old ideas. Some work. Some really stink.
That old toilet you’ve tossed into the backyard makes an excellent planter for your petunias. Same with the old set of tires from your’ 49 Volvo. Both totally functional ideas. Both as unattractive as a naked mole rat.
Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way…
I have two small orchards. One is an in-ground plot for my dozen mid-sized trees. On our patio is a collection of 24-inch pots on easy-to-maneuver rolling caddies. They contain dwarf Golden Delicious apple, Royal apricot, Meyer Improved lemon, Bearss lime, Gold Nugget Mandarin, Lamb Haas avocado and Bing cherry trees. All doing well. The Bing cherry might not get enough chill hours in Poway, so I stuck it in the fridge. Just kidding. Nevertheless, a potted orchard might work if you have little available space.
When I crack eggs, the shells are obliterated beyond recognition. So using the egg shell as a tiny planter doesn’t work for me. However, those eggshells are still useful because they contain calcium. Crush them up really well and sprinkle them around your plants as a fertilizer. Plus, their sharp edges are abrasive and repel snails, slugs and most aardvarks. Caution: rodents love eggs.
The federal EPA says baking soda is a safe fungicide that reduces powdery mildew and fungal spores. Sprinkle some around your tomato plants to treat fungus and produce sweeter fruit. Or feed your roaches. They will eat the baking soda, dehydrate and die.
Applying a homemade mixture of bleach-based soaps can cause a plant to cease all of its vital functions. Before using a do-it-yourself concoction, test it out in your neighbor’s yard. If they threaten to sue, then try it on a small portion of your plants to make sure that it will not cause any harm.
Slimy, creepy and wiggly earthworms are our friends. They aerate the soil with their tunneling. They also snack on delicious decomposing leaves and excrete potassium and nitrogen into the soil. According to the National Wildlife Federation, there are 180 earthworm species in the U.S. and 6,000 species worldwide. Did you know that they have no eyes, ears or bones? Did you also know that an earthworm is both male and female, producing both eggs and sperm? OK, I’ve dug deep enough into earthworms.
Bury newspapers as mulch. Lay down six layers of full page sheets and cover them with soil. It holds moisture, eliminates weeds and provides a barrier to pests. Plus, the bugs love the comics section.
To keep rabbits out of the garden, plant foxgloves, garlic or onions. Or sprinkle cayenne pepper or wood ashes. Dogs, coyotes, owls, hawks, raccoons, snakes, mountain lions and your pet monitor lizard will also do the job.
If you don’t have a wheelbarrow, use a tarp to move heavy bags of soil. It will save your back. It will also impress your neighbors so much so that they will ask you to come over and move stuff for them.
Some of my efforts have been hits. Some of my strike-outs have provided fodder for my peers en route to them winning the Nobel Prize in gardening.
A Poway resident, Schmidt has 40 years of gardening experience. He is a member of the American Rose Society, yearly rose entrant in the Poway Valley Garden Association and Walter Anderson Nursery Rose Shows, loving caregiver to 50 hybrid tea roses and dedicated researcher for all of the problems his plants encounter.
