I got these tips in email, without any attribution. These seemed interesting, so am posting them here; if you have further feedback or more tips, please let me know through comments.

Fish Emulsion (5-0-0) is incapable of damaging roses even if you use too much. If you have a fisherman in the family or as a neighbor? You could safely add 1 or 2 fish heads to each rosebush per year, buried 6 inches deep below dripline.

Epsom salts (Magnesium sulfate) help roses to have good basal growth. Use after soil has warmed, frost is over. 2-3 oz per established tender roses, up to 1/2 cup per hardy shrubs.

Banana Skins: Tomatoes as well as roses love bananas…buried just below surface of soil they provide potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, phosphate, sodium and silica, all of them useful stuff.

Alfalfa: Meal (2 cups) pellets (1 cup) per plant gives N, Ca, Mg, Cu, Zn, P, K, Fe, Mn and Boron. If you have rabbits - use their pellets to enrich soil.

Egg shells: Crushed eggs shells…Lilacs and Tomatoes love calcium….During the fall and winter my crushed egg shells go to my lilacs and during the vegetable growing months they are carried out to my vegetable garden and scattered around the base of my tomato plants.

Coffee For Your Flowers: After your morning coffee, remove the filter and grounds and set them aside to dry. When the grounds are thoroughly dried, scatter them around the garden as an organic plant food. Don’t use too much in one area because coffee grounds tend to raise the acidity of the soil. Use the filter to line the bottom of flowerpots to keep the soil from falling through the drainage holes. I have used them for my rhododendrons, evergreens and some to my roses.

Mulch: Add organic matter to soil- Hay or leaves, straw, or corn cobs ground up, pulverized tree bark, old or rotten sawdust. Add 3″ deep mulch by first of June if summer warm.

There are 25 different rose scents. The healthier your rose is, the more fragrant it will be. As a rule, darker colored roses have more fragrance than lighter ones except that the more petals a rose has the stronger the scent. Heavy petals with velvety sheen are more fragrant than thin ones. There is a connection between color and scent. Red and pink have typical rose scent, Yellow and white have scents of lemon, violet, nasturtium, Orange colored-fruity or clove scents. Some of the most fragrant varieties-Angel Face, Sunsprite, French Lace, Tiffany, Double Delight, Tropicana and Puppy Love.

More and more people these days are composting, and for good reason. Composting is a simple process which offers many benefits. When you turn your garden refuse and kitchen scraps into compost, you are creating fertilizer for your plants and conserving landfill space. Compost will improve your soil, giving it the ability to hold moisture and drain well. Even hard soils will be improved by adding compost.
Composting can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. Compost bins and tumblers can be purchased or you can make your own, or simply leave your compost materials in a pile without a bin.
To make compost, you’ll need a good mix of “brown” and “green” material. Brown materials are things like dried leaves, coffee grounds, shredded paper and straw. Green materials are grass clippings, fresh garden refuse and kitchen scraps. Add the brown and green ingredients in layers,. Avoid adding bones, meat scraps or dairy products to your compost. These items decompose slowly and will attract animals to your compost pile.
Manure is also a good addition to compost, but manure from meat-eating animals should be avoided. Manure contains a great deal of nitrogen and also beneficial microbes that will help the composting process. Manure makes a great fertilizer, but it
should be composted before adding it to the garden because fresh manure is so strong or “hot” that it will burn tender plants.
A compost pile will heat up and cook more quickly if it is kept moist. Compost should be as moist as a sponge that has been wrung out. Too much or too little moisture will slow the decomposition process. A compost pile that is cooking properly will feel warm or hot inside the pile. If the temperature inside the pile is no warmer than the air temperature, the pile needs more green material and perhaps more moisture.
Air circulation is also important for a compost pile. A compost pile that is regularly mixed or turned will decompose much faster than one that is never turned. But given enough time, even a compost pile that is never turned will eventually decompose.
Concerned about the smell of a compost pile or worried that it will attract rodents? Simply bury fresh materials in the middle of the pile or cover the smelly material with some soil. Burying the material in the pile will add some needed air circulation, and the addition of soil will also include some helpful microbes.
Finished compost will look like good black soil and can be added liberally to your garden. Make your own compost for your garden and you will soon understand why it is called black gold.

1. How do you keep potatoes and sweet potatoes from one season to the next
so they can be used as seed stock?

Keep them some place where they are kept cool, dry, and in the Dark. I have used old onion bags and hung them in a dark corner of the basement.

2. Sprays for mildew

My Recipe for Baking soda, is Two Heaping Table spoons of Baking Soda to One heaping Gallon of Water. I like to use a milk jug myself because I can vigorously shake it up and then pour it through a strainer to get all the undisolved chunks out into your sprayer and go for it.
Spray it on during the evening hours so that it doesn’t burn the leaves. Then about 4 days later give them another shot. Oh yeah, spray the bottom of the leaves as well as the tops and the soil around them since the mildew is a spore they Hide everywhere just looking for and opportunity to invade and take over.

Q. I have a question about controlling weeds in my garden. Unfortunately, I live 45 miles away from my garden, so it gets weedy very quickly. I was thinking about putting straw on top of the soil to keep the weeds down. Have any of you used this before? Any
other suggestions?
I need to keep it low maintenance because I sometimes go one to two weeks without weeding. I heard woods chips will rob the soil of nitrogen, so I’m avoiding that type of mulch. I’ve also heard about Preen, but I don’t want to use that near my vegetables.

Ans:

The down side of weeding is that there is about a 25 year supply of weed seeds in the soil so when you pull/ hoe the visible weeds away you are bringing fresh weed seeds into the grow zone. Preen is a Petro chemical seed inhibitor and it travels in the soil and hence into the water table. I would suggest Corn Gluten instead it provides the same activity as the Preen and as it wanes converts into a low grade nitrogen fertilizer. So that in combination with Oat straw should help you considerably. Do not use wheat or Alfalfa Straw as it contains weed seeds in it for it is made from a third or forth cutting and the seeds of the previous 2 or 3 cuttings along with the weed seeds are incorporated into the bales. They are designed for Bedding of livestock and shouldn’t be in the garden unless they have been composted at a high temp exceeding 180 degrees to kill the seeds.

Question: I live in Ontario, so we have very cold winters. I palnted a hydrangea this past spring; how should I be pruning it? The bush is only 2 years old and gets pretty big in summer–about 3 ft high–but the tops get so heavy and they end up bending over. Is there any way to cure that?

Answer: You must be referring to Hydrangea arborescens (Smooth Hydrangea). Many other species of hydrangeas would not be hardy in your region. In your region it is best to treat this plant as an “herbaceous perennial”; that is, one that essentially dies back to the crown and regrows each year.

In late winter, cut back the plant right to the ground and fertilize lightly Although cutting back like this should produce a sturdy stem, there is really nothing you can do to keep the flowers from weighting down the branches. You can, however, use them as cut flowers, or dry them for use in dried bouquets. To dry them, simply cut the flowers at the base when they are fully open and just beginning to fade, strip off the leaves, tie them in a bunch, and hang them in a cool, dry place.

Q. Do you run the risk of club root with soaker hoses?

Ans: Soaker hoses are made from recycled tires and are quite safe for organic used as they leave no residue of of any kind. There are many people who have used them for many years without a problem; in addition you can also use a black plastic fabric mulch to block weeds, as well as keep in moisture for the soil. If you have a big garden and are planning to use them everywhere, one way is to take them to the different areas of the garden by short lenghts of regular garden hose and plastic two way valves, which allow controlling and fine tuning the amont of water each will drip to each area. One of the users does this: Every year, I set these hoses down before the plants or seeds go in. I event have an under ground hose that carries the garden water out further to my garden, and has in ground fittings nearby my faucet and at the opposite end of the gardent where there is another faucet where the soakers are connected to. This removes the unsighly garden hoses running across my lawn.

I found a great site that explains all about grafting, and is good information for a newbie who really wants to learn, but does not know enough. The site is available at this link. An extract from the site:
“The major methods of asexual propagation are cuttings, layering, division, and budding grafting. Cuttings involve rooting a severed piece of the parent plant; layering involves rooting a part of the parent and then severing it; and budding and grafting is joining two plant parts from different varieties.”
The site explains in detail about what cutting is, basically a small section of the original plant cut in order to grow into a new plant. And then it explains about how to prepare cuttings, including cleaning, inserting into a medium, and then explains about the various types of cuttings such as stem cuttings, tip cuttings, medial cuttings, cane cuttings, single eye, double eye, heel cutting, leaf cuttings, root cuttings.
The site also explains about layering, (which is basically using a section of stem that can grow new roots), about grafting, budding.

Question: Do I need to prune my Joe Pye weed back this fall? I read somewhere that the plants require a light pruning in late fall, but I’ve been told that with our cold winters, the plants will die back to the ground and regrow next spring.

Ans: This is not a woody plant or shrub but rather an herbaceous perennial, meaning it dies back to the ground each winter. The old stems should be removed at some point once they have been frozen back, it can be done in either fall or spring, for
sanitation purposes. Trimming off just the spent flowers (deadheading)promptly in fall will prevent the plant from reseeding; however some gardeners feel they add winter interest and so leave them until spring. Next spring, be very patient in waiting for the plant to come up–it usually gets a late start and you won’t see new shoots until long after your other perennials have begun growing. You might want to mark its location to avoid stepping on it or planting something else on top of it by accident while you are waiting.

This native of Asia and India was introduced to the U.S. In 1790. Hardy in USDA Zones 5 through 8, rose of Sharon thrives in full sun and isn’t too fussy about soil, as long as it’s not sodden or very dry. The vase-shaped shrub grows 8 to 12 feet tall and to 6 to 10 feet across, but can be pruned to a smaller stature. Many books suggest using rose of Sharon in a shrub border rather than as a specimen plant in the yard, but I’ve noticed that those grown alone develop a much better shape than those crammed in a shrub border.

If you plant rose of Sharon in fall, don’t be dismayed in springtime if it looks dead while surrounding plants are busily sprouting away. The three-lobed leaves emerge quite late. I, for one, am willing to accept this quirk because of the shrub’s contribution to the summer garden. There is nothing to equal its stately presence amidst the daylilies, coneflowers,
reblooming clematis, and sweet peas, with butterflies and hummingbirds all around it. Not bad for a low-maintenance, workhorse of a shrub!

While some gardeners find its persistent, woody seed pods an asset in the winter landscape, many gardeners shun rose of Sharon - at least the old fashioned type - for the prolific, weedy offspring. This group will be won over by recent introductions, including triploid and tetraploid varieties, that set little if any seed.

As for pest problems, there are few. Japanese beetles love rose of Sharon, so be prepared with your favorite means of beetle avoidance, be it traps, repellents, or grub control.

Luscious Bloom
Breeders have developed some lovely flower colors - white, pink, red, violet and lavender-blue - available in single or double forms. Rose of Sharon sports her blossoms, which resemble those of other members of the mallow family, from mid- to late summer. I especially like the blue ones, such as Blue Satin’ (although to my eye they are still more blue-violet than true
blue, except in soft early morning light). Many of the double-flowered types seem almost more like oversized rose trees, with eye-stopping, multi-layered crepe paper flowers. The white-flowered cultivars are perfect for an all white summer “moon garden,” and the many pinks and purples work well among the pastels of English-style gardens.

Also, the U. S. National Arboretum has introduced new cultivars in recent years that are triploids. The flowers are large, but they don’t set seeds, so blooms are produced over a long period. ‘Diana’ is among the best of these introductions, with pure white flowers that remain open at night. The foliage is a waxy and dark green. ‘Aphrodite’ has rose-pink petals that are
red at the base. ‘Helene’ has white flowers with deep red centers with streaks forming many-pointed stars. ‘Minerva’ has lavender-pink flowers with a red center.

To Prune or Not to Prune?
Beyond a fresh layer of mulch in spring, routine care includes pruning (if desired) in late winter or very early spring. Some gardeners cut their shrubs back very hard - to 3 or 4 buds per shoot — to control overall size and encourage larger blooms. Others simply take the laissez faire route and let their shrubs grow into their natural shape. This latter approach
encourages more, smaller blossoms. The plant blooms on the new wood of the current season — summer trimming means that you’ll lose out on flowers.

She’s a hardy plant with gorgeous blossoms that needs little care - what’s not to love?

Save the Seeds!

Add another element to gardening-and reap the rewards next year.
For many of us, fall signals the end of backyard gardening as temperatures drop and colorful flowers lose their luster.
But for some gardeners, fall marks the exciting start of yet another gardening cycle-saving seeds produced by the plants they nurtured all season
Seeds used to be a very valuable commodity for trading; they were among the important possessions that pioneers brought with them as they headed west. Seed saving is a rewarding legacy we should try to keep alive.
To rekindle this ancient art, however, you may have to change a few of your gardening habits. For instance, you’ll have to stop deadheading your fading flowers late in the season because cutting off the spent blooms usually removes the seedpods.
Also, you shouldn’t plant hybrid varieties of flowers. Seeds from hybrid plants won’t produce the exact same plant. Instead, in a sort of genetic grab-bag effect, the seeds will produce plants with a wild mix of traits from the parent plants.
Moreover, don’t save seeds if you planted different-colored blooms of the same variety in one area (like a bed of various-colored geraniums). After a few seasons of saving seeds from those flowers, they’ll eventually produce plants with unattractive, muddy-colored blooms, thanks to cross-pollination.
“This will happen even if, for example, you save just the seeds from lavender-colored blooms in a bed of multicolored zinnias,” Jan notes. Eventually, you’ll have plant varieties with the same-colored blooms.
One other thing to consider: If you have more than one variety of the same flower in your yard, don’t expect to save the seeds and grow the exact same plants next year. The varieties will likely cross-pollinate each other. Even if you grow only one variety of, say, petunias, a different variety grown by a neighbor could still cross-pollinate with yours. Be alert!

Handpick Your Favorites
From which plants should you harvest seeds? Select plants whose characteristics you like—maybe some bloom early, are more resistant to disease, have longer-lasting blooms or bloom later in the season.
Almost all flowers produce seedpods after their flowers fade. The pods usually form at the base of the flower.
Flowers disperse these seeds in a variety of ways. Some flowers such as California poppies and pansies have seedpods that burst open. Others, like dandelions, have little “umbrellas” that float away in the wind. Plants in the allium family simply open their seed pockets and let the wind shake out the seeds. Read gardening books and pay attention to your flowers to learn what method they use.
When harvesting seeds, be certain they’re fully mature. Each variety is different, so watch the pods closely. Usually, they’ll become brown and brittle as the seeds reach maturity.
But this isn’t always true. In varieties with seedpods that spring open, collect the seeds just before the pods burst. The seeds may seem immature, but they’ll continue to mature after harvesting.