Hort Shorts
- Keep a good all-purpose insecticide-fungicide mixture handy to control insects and diseases of tomatoes, beans, cucumbers and other crops.
- Check shrubs for freeze damage; delay pruning until new growth appears. Then cut back to live wood.
- Sprinkle coffee grounds to attract earthworms and repel other pests. Earthworms are excellent for soil conditioning.
- Keep your vegetables producing with a high-nitrogen mix fertilizer such as 16-8-8 or 20-10-5 for a side dressing. One application every two-to-three weeks after planting is usually sufficient. Long season crops like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and okra need side dressing every two-to-three weeks during growing season.
- The best and easiest to grow of the flowering perennial vines include: hybrid clematis, autumn clematis, silver-lace vine, honeysuckle, wisteria and trumpet creeper.
- Side dressing is an application of fertilizer, usually one containing nitrogen only, alongside the rows or in a circle around growing plants. This ensures a nitrogen supply as plants grow and develop. Side dressing is particularly beneficial in sandy soils or in seasons of abundant rainfall as nitrogen has a bad habit of being washed or leached out of the root zone.