Use leftover water from boiling potatoes or old fish aquarium water on your houseplants. Both are full of nutrients.
Making mashed potatoes tonight? When you finish boiling those potatoes and you are about to drain them, be sure to save that water. Let the water cool then give your houseplants a drink. It’s loaded with nutrients that will let your plants grow.
[image id="23316" title="Bill and Martelle Luedecke" linkto="file" ] Bill Luedecke and his daughter, Martelle, offer gardening advice for the Highland Lakes.For another drink, when you change the water in your fish aquarium, use it for watering your houseplants. That water has an abundance of ammonia, fish waste, algae, and beneficial bacteria. Your plants will thank you profusely.
COMPOST PILES
As the trees turn, gather the leaves as they fall for your composting activities. Keep in mind there are things other than kitchen scraps (vegetables, etc. — no animal products). Are you a coffee or tea drinker? Add the grounds and leftover tea bags (minus the staples) to your composting. Bananas are great source of potassium and should be added as well.
ANTS IN THE HOUSE
If you have young children or grandchildren or you just leave food around, chances are you’re a prime target for an ant invasion. First of all, remove the food source then clean the surface with either apple cider vinegar or orange oil or a combination. Now that you have mixed the two ingredients, spray baseboards and remember the outside of the house and doorways. Once you are outside, a dusting around the foundation of your house with diatomaceous earth is an excellent idea. You can also spray around your home with 20 percent vinegar.
BANISH WEEDS
Getting ready for company this fall for the holiday gatherings? Here is how to remove weeds from your walkways, driveways, patios, and garden paths. There are several products that will kill those weeds and clean up the look of the areas infested.
The least expensive thing you can do is, on a hot sunny day (since we seem to have hot and cold alternating, just wait a day or two), take vegetable oil and water in a 50-50 mixture, shake well, and spray on the weeds. The sun will help fry the weeds using the oil as a magnifying glass. The oil also blocks how the plant is able to breathe, and it is friendly to the environment.
The next product you can use is 20 percent white vinegar. Use it carefully at full strength; it will kill any plant it touches. This product can be purchased at feed stores and garden and nursery centers. Or, you can use Gardenville Weed Killer. It is an even more powerful product. It can be purchased at any good organic garden center or nursery.
The solutions are more effective if you cut the weeds just before you spray, eradicating the weed inside and out. It will still work without cutting; it is just more effective with cutting.
EGGSHELLS
Here are some uses for eggshells:
- Soaking them in water overnight makes a great liquid fertilizer.
- Drying and crushing the shells and adding them to your planter boxes or raised beds supercharges the soil.
- Add them to your compost pile.
- Sweeten up acidic soil by adding crushed eggshells to it.
- Place crushed eggshells around your plants that are being eaten by caterpillars or hornworms.
FIRE ANTS
Here is the No. 1 formula for a safe remedy (for you and the environment). This is a remedy from Malcom Beck:
- Mix equal parts of orange oil, liquid humate (compost tea), and molasses (livestock molasses will work).
- Add 6 ounces of this mixture to 1 gallon of water.
- Pour liberally on each of your fire ant beds and really soak them.
Park keepers have used this formula very successfully.
Another formula is one from John Renfro (the “Bee Man”). It is a mixture of equal parts 20 Mule Team borax and sugar. Sprinkle the mixture on the mounds. This is particularly effective if your neighbors do it at the same time. This is a bait, not a wash.
If you don’t like formulas and want products that you buy and apply, here are two that we have used: Auntie Fuego and Results. Both of these are available at local nurseries and some feed stores.
If any of you have successful formulas and remedies, email us. We would all like to know more ways.
Greenlight’s product Fire Ant Control with conserve is Organic Materials Review Institute-approved for organic production. According to the manufacturer, one container is good for 22 mounds and 10,000 square feet of area. This is a bait-type application and does not have to be watered into the ground. You just shake it on the fire ant mound. If you first stir up the mound with a LONG stick, this will increase chances that all the bait is taken under ground. Even though it is OMRI-approved, it still says “keep out of reach of children and wash after using.” So be very careful when using it. The directions are on the container.
Contact Bill Luedecke at The Luedecke Group Realtors at (512) 577-1463 or email bill@texasland.net. Contact Martelle Luedecke at (512) 769-3179 or luedeckephotography@gmail.com.
