Gardening:

We are inching toward the growing season, and its time to develop some strategies to make getting the gardening work done quickly and easily. Here are some garden hacks to try out this year.

Don’t be too quick to throw out old seeds. Most are viable for several years if kept dry and cool. Test them for viability by placing 10-20 seeds on a damp paper towel. Fold the towel over and place it in a sealed container or plastic bag and leave on the counter for five to seven days. Open the towel and count the number of germinated seeds you find. Anything above a 50% germination rate means the seeds can be used. Just plant extra seed to make up for a deficiency.

Got cats, mice, quail or rabbits? Save up twiggy prunings and stick them upright into the soil around plants. The critters can’t or don’t want to walk over them. Closely spaced plastic picnic forks inserted in the soil tines up can also be effective in your contest with the critters.

Is your seed box always a mess? Try using an old picture or CD album case to store the seeds. Just insert the seed pack into the plastic sleeve and set the book on a cool, dry shelf.

Tools are easy to lose in the garden. To brighten them up, spray paint the handles orange or yellow that will make them easier to find in the debris.

Collect your small hand tool in a 5-gallon bucket when you go into the garden. Get into a habit of putting them back in the bucket as you use them. It’s easy to bury a trowel or hand rake when you are digging.

Tired of carrying tools out to the garden every time you go out? Repurpose an old mail box on a post to store hand tools, markers, twine, glove and plastic bags for harvesting. The tools stay dry and the box looks like a quirky piece of garden art. Let the kids decorate it with paint for fun.

Plastic 1- and 2-liter plastic soda bottles can be made into a poor-man’s drip irrigation system. Cut the bottom off the bottle and remove the cap. Insert the bottle top down in the soil close to the plant and to the depth of the roots. Fill the bottle with water and let it drain slowly into the soil. The water goes right to the roots. This is quick and easy for keeping containers watered.

To avoid dragging hoses across beds and through your tender plants, drive some stakes in the ground at corners and top them with pieces of plastic pipe 6-8 inches long. The pipe will turn as you pull the hose around it making it easier to move.

Damp dirt is easier to pull weeds from than dry, hard dirt. Set a sprinkler in the area you need to weed and let the water soak in for a few hours. Then go after the weeds.