Let's Get Ready To Garden!

Are we sick of winter yet?  In Oklahoma, onions and other cooler weather plants go into the ground in February and potatoes follow closely behind, so it's time to turn our thoughts to the garden.

Here are a few quick and easy tips to make your gardening experience a little easier this year....

1.  Put a bar of soap into a little mesh bag and tie it around the outdoor faucet.  After gardening, use it to wash the dirt off your hands.

2.  Take a clothespin along when you are cutting or trimming roses and grasp the thorny stem with the pin, not your fingers.

3.  Save a pair of old pantyhose, cut them up and use them to tie your tomatoes and other plants that need to be staked.  They make great ties, and they don't injure the plants.

4.  Want a natural weed-killer that won't hurt your plants?  Here's the recipe:  1 oz. of inexpensive gin, 1 oz. of vinegar and 8 oz. of water.  Give the weeds a nice dose of this and they'll wilt and die.

Now if someone can just come up with a remedy to keep squirrels away from my mom's apricot trees, things would be perfect.