Sherri's Helpful Hints

Home Gardening Recipes

All-Purpose Tree Fertilizer
3 parts cottonseed meal, soy meal or blood meal
2 parts finely ground raw phosphate rock or steamed bone meal
3 parts wood ashes, granite rock or greens
1 part colomitic limestone

Mix all materials. Apply 1 pound of fertilizer for each foot of the drip line diameter of the tree (3 feet = 12 pounds).

Fresh Flower Preservative
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons cane sugar
1 quart water

Mix well. Cut stems of flowers on a diagonal. Use this solution instead of water for fresh flowers. The vinegar inhibits the growth of organisms and the sugar serves as food.

Houseplant Mix
1 quart finely sifted topsoil
2 quarts finely sifted compost or high-quality leaf mold
1 quart coarse builder's sand, perlite or vermiculite or
pre-moistened peat or sphagnum moss
1/2 cup dehydrated cow manure or 1/4 cup dehydrated poultry manure

Put 1 inch of loose gravel at the bottom of the container for better drainage. Apply Manure Tea according to needs of the particular plant.

Seed-Starting Mix
1 part finely sifted topsoil
1 part finely sifted compost or high-quality leaf mold
1 1/2 to 2 parts vermiculite, perlite or coarse builder's sand