NUTRITIOUS MIXTURE FOR VEGETABLES REMINDER OF POTPOURRI OF FOLKLORE

When G.H. Creglow spoke to the Men's Garden Club of Jackson recently, he shared a recipe for successfully foliar feeding of the bountiful vegetable crops which he produces.

Mr. Creglow uses:

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon Epsom salts

1 teaspoon saltpeter (Potassium nitrate)

1/2 teaspoon household ammonia

Mix togehter with 1 gallon water. Do not use more than once each month.

In discussing his success with this formula, which he came upon in some of his garden reading, Mr. Creglow said that his tomatoes climbed beyond the top of their cages, and by frost time they had reached the outside and were producing tomatoes on the ground.

This information brought on a potpourri of garden tips and floklore of "this" and "that" from "here" and "there"---

Carrots are good to grow with tomatoes, also with leaf lettuce, chives, onions, leeks, radishes, rosemary and sage.

Tomatoes other friends include chives, onions, parsley, asparagus, marigolds and nasturtiums. However, they do not like potatoes, kohlrabi or cabbage.

Castor beans are poisonous, especially the seed, but in the garden they are said to repel moles and also mosquitoes.

Spearmint repels ants and for that reason controls aphids while possibly repelling rodents.

Sunflowers are good companions to cucumbers, but not to potatoes or pole beans.

Tancy once used as a culinary herb in place of pepper. It was widely used in churches in medieval times as a "strewing herb" and was one of the plants associated with the Virgin Mary.

Mountain laurel has also been called spoonwood because American Indians used its wood to fashion eating utensils.

Although poke's name is not polk, some followers of President Polk wore twigs of it during his campaign, thinking it was named in his honor.

Apache Indians delighted in eating dandelions, and sent hunting parties out to find them growing.

Gardenias like coffee grounds. Both are members of the Rudiaceae family, so why shouldn't they like their relatives?

Azaleas love left-over tea and tea leaves. So do ferns, philodendrons, and rubber plants.

Crushed egg shells mixed into soil around cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower will help provide the extra calcium which they need.

Herbs like lime and gritty soil. Ground oyster shells are an excellent source.

To provide magnesium for faster development of tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, mix two tablespoons of Epsom salts to one gallon of water, and apply one pint to each plant just as blooms begin.

Before mulching for the first time, add extra nitrogen to the soil. As soil organisms decompose the bottom layer of mulch, they use the nearest available nitrogen, robbing it from the soil if necessary.

Attach an old rake head to the wall of a garden shed and use it as a hanger for tools.

Sage came to America with a century old reputation for benefitting human health and conferring long life. Old materia medicas noted sage tea's value for a gargle for sore throat, oil in the leaves being the medical factor.

Grow catnip for your cat. And if the cat claws the furniture, break this habit by rubbing crushed rue on the furniture and the cat will leave it alone.

Feverfew is great for a border planting, with its bushy growth and button like blossoms. Old timers believed that the flowers repel insects.

Daffodils herald spring with their bright yellow blooms. They also are said to discourage moles in the yard.

If you want to grow popcorn and sweet corn on the same plot, plant a row of sunflowers between them and there will be no problem with cross pollination.

Did you know that you can force a bromelaid to bloom by covering it for five days with a plastic bag with an apple inside?

The oil of evening primrose is said to be one of the world's richest source of natural, unsaturated, fatty acids reputed to be helped in the case of obesity, mental illness, heart disease and for the relief of post-drinking depression.