Tips and Tricks

Raise the germination rate for okra by putting seeds on ice!

• Drop one seed into each compartment of an ice-cube tray, and fill it half full of hot water; freeze the tray for a day (figure A).
• In the garden, just drop the seed-filled ice cubes into individual planting holes and cover with soil.

Remember those word problems in math class? Here's one to help determine how much topsoil or mulch to use for a given area of your garden.

• First determine the area needed to be filled by multiplying its length by its width in feet.
• Now divide the square footage by 6 (figure B), and you'll get the cubic feet needed to spread a two-inch-thick layer of mulch, topsoil or compost. (Bagged products are sold in cubic feet.)

Straighten the tines of a pitchfork, using an embedded pipe.

• Drive a three-foot-long one-inch galvanized pipe into the ground close to your tool-storage area. Leave roughly one foot of the pipe above ground.
• The next time you have a bent tine, stick it in the pipe and bend it back until it's straight (figure C).
• Cover the protruding pipe with a five-gallon bucket for safety's sake.

Be a buddy to the birds by providing nesting materials.

1. Fill a berry basket with short pieces of string or yarn, some pet hair, dried grass, twigs and straw. Hang the basket in a tree, where it will be accessible to nesting birds (figure D).
2. To hold all those materials together, provide the birds with the "mortar" (mud) they need to hold their nests together. Dig a shallow hole roughly two feet across and four inches deep in the center; slope the sides to create shallow edges.
3. Soak the area well, then use a hand-held cultivator to mix the mud and water into a slurry. Mist the hole lightly, and water it every day or so.
4. It won't take long for the birds, as well as the butterflies, to start hanging out at the local mud hole.