Article submitted by Keith

I have found from the past that if you place some marigold plants by your tomatoes it keeps the pests away. Also if you make a mixture of washing up liquid, fresh peppermint leaves, lavender oil and dilute with water add to a spray bottle then spray all over ( including under the leaves) of plants it kills off those horrible pesky black and greenfly. You are probably aware of this, but 2 litre plastic bottles are great for making mini propogators and storage of rain water collected, in fact i use them for all sorts of things. I.E. If you remove base and cut 2/3rds of remaining bottle away you have yourself a very handy soil and sand scoop.

A little tip you may like to use is one that an old neighbour gave me some years ago and that is to mix unscented cat litter mixed with your seed soil mixture, i have used this method for several years it adds oomph to the soil mixture and helps retain the moisture for longer, this is especially useful if you are using your home made newspaper pots which tend to dry out very quickly.

On the subject of newspaper pots i'd advise not to pay the ridiculous price for the wooden ones available. Just using a cut down bottle with an open end do the job perfectly. If you have an aspirin container and remove the lid you will find these make a perfect size newspaper pot for sowing individual seeds, these pots will sit comfortably at 45 to 60 individual sections in standard seed trays. Have a great growing year everone and i'm enjoying the tips and advice i have been reading on the site.