I am indebted to so many gardeners who have shared their collective wisdom and experience with me over the years. They are family members, neighbors, Master Gardeners, garden writers, bloggers and gardeners on social media. Sharing this knowledge was an initial motivator for beginning my blog, 13 years ago and now over 1600 posts later.

Here are some additional garden hacks I’ve used recently. Some garden hacks I’ve learned from others. Some I’ve developed to solve a problem.

Once my seeds have germinated indoors, most are moved outside at least during the day. Ravens were taking an interest in them this spring so I brought out my pop-up mesh food covers which are devoted to garden uses.

These are also useful with my brassica starts to protect them from cabbage moths. They come in various sizes. These are 17 x 17 inches. A friend uses a larger size. All fold up and store easily between uses.

One disadvantage: the covers exclude beneficials like hover flies and I had a small infestation of white flies. I removed the covers and lightly sprayed the seedlings to remove the pests. Earlier, I noted a hover fly trying to gain entry to the zinnia seedlings which had white flies.

Plastic garden trays protect direct sown seeds in my raised beds.

The trays protect seedlings from birds that would pluck up seedlings and critters that would disturb the soil. The trays with smaller openings offer some shade and disperse water from the hose sprayer.

Necessity is the mother of invention, my grandmother would say.