Berks County Horticulture Club

flowersGardening Advice

Feel free to call a Master Gardener at 610-378-1327 with any questions you may have. Send us an email if you would like to see a particular topic addressed in this section.

1. Recycling Plastics

Are you looking for a place to recycle horticultural plastics? Here is a list of companies in Pennsylvania (and also other states) that accept various horticultural plastics for recycling. It includes the PA Department of Agriculture’s contact for pesticide container recycling and many locations that recycle other types of plastic. You can view the list at http://www.plasticharvest.psu.edu/activitieselsewhere.pdf

2. Rain Gardens

Interested in planting a rain garden? Here's a handy native plant list to get started.

3. Organic vs. Conventional Foods - which should you buy?

Cleanest 14 *

Dirty Dozen - buy organic *
Onion Eggplant Apples Grapes (imported)
Sweet Corn Cantaloupe Celery Sweet Bell Peppers
Pineapples Kiwi Strawberries Potatoes
Avocado Cabbage Peaches Blueberries (domestic)
Asparagus Watermelon Spinach Lettuce
Sweet Peas Sweet Potatoes Nectarines (imported) Kale/Collard Greens
Mangoes Grapefruit    

* Updated for 2011 – Other foods to buy organic include: dairy, meat, coffee (purchase shade-grown, Fair Trade if possible). For additional information, visit: Environmental Working Group

4. Composting Tips –   from Planet Green

75 Things You Can Compost, But Thought You Couldn't

Some highlights include:

  • Cellophane bags (be sure it's really Cellophane and not just clear plastic—there's a difference.)
  • Bamboo skewers
  • Dryer lint
  • Old/used cotton clothing - ripped up
  • Contents of your vacuum cleaner bag or canister
  • Dead houseplants and their soil
  • Ashes from the fireplace, barbecue grill, or outdoor fire pit
  • Crepe paper streamers
  • Fur from the dog or cat brush
  • Latex balloons

For a printable list, click here   

5. Twenty Five Uses for Coffee Filters

They're not just for coffee anymore. Check out this list for some creative ways you can use coffee filters.    

Garden woes?

If your tomato or potato crop is affected by late blight, you can check for updates on the situation on the Penn State Department of Plant Pathology web site: http://www.ppath.cas.psu.edu.

Helpful Hints

When cleaning fruits and vegetables, special soaps or washes are not needed and could be harmful to you, depending on their ingredients. Read the label carefully or use plain water and a scrub brush!

Never refrigerate tomatoes (unless they have been cut) and never ripen a tomato on the patio in full sun (tomatoes actually ripen at night-- they are members of the nightshade family). Set them on the kitchen counter where they will be very happy.

Potatoes should never be refrigerated-- their starch turns to sugar when kept at cold temperatures.

When it is time to de-ice your sidewalk, steps, and driveways that have plants close-by, look for alternatives to salt, such as coarse sand. If you opt for a chemical deicer, find one that is potassium or calcium based.

A reader of Garden Gate magazine suggests planting Gladiolus at 3 different times, 2 weeks apart. She spray paints clothes pins to match the color of the glad and attaches it low on the foliage where it's not noticeable. When she digs them up in the fall, she attaches the clothes pin to the stub, dries the bulbs for about 10 days, then sorts the bulbs by color, wraps them in newspaper and places them in mesh bags (like the onions come in). Last of all she closes the bags with the right color of clothes pin so she'll know which color of glad she plants in the Spring. – (Thanks to Karen Gmitter)

 

 

 

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