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Published on 05/26/02

Seed Packet Lessons on 'Gardening in Georgia'


Photo: UGA CAES

Walter Reeves

Host Walter Reeves reveals how much you can learn from the back of a little seed packet on "Gardening in Georgia" June 1 on Georgia Public Television.

"Gardening in Georgia" is co-produced by GPTV and the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. The Saturday show airs at noon and again at 7 p.m.

With the few square inches on the back of a seed packet, Reeves shows how to understand the recommended hardiness zones, planting dates and days to maturity.

He defines determinate and indeterminate tomatoes, too. (The former bear their fruit all at once and are best for canning. The latter bear fruit all summer and are best for fresh eating.)

Gardening Tools

Reeves takes a look at garden tools, too. He shows how to use self-propelled tillers, front-tine tillers and handy two-cycle models.

Some simple tools are helpful in a drought:

  • Use plastic cups to measure the water your sprinkler applies. Be sure your system irrigates uniformly. And measure the time it takes to apply an inch of water.
  • A ruler helps check the height of your lawn mower blade. Each lawn grass has a preferred mowing height, which helps it conserve moisture.
  • Heavy fertilizing can make drought damage worse, so be sure to calibrate your spreader properly. Consider halving half your application rate when drought is in the forecast.
Finally, Hank Bruno, the trails manager at Callaway Gardens, shows Reeves how to double rhododendrons blooms next year. He shows how to twist the faded blooms from the branch tips, causing up to four new buds to grow in that spot. Each new tip can bear a flower next spring.

Dan Rahn is a news editor with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.