Posted on 01/30/2009 6:49:17 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
With the economy as it is, many are talking about being thrifty. These frugal gardening tips may help save some "green."
Make a list of what you'd like to see in your garden and stick to it. A list will help your self-control when you are tempted to purchase something on impulse.
Start a compost pile
Soil is the key to a wonderful garden. Making compost is a low-cost way to improve soil.
If you're not already composting, look for a sunny, out-of-the-way spot in your yard to put a compost bin. Bins can be made of scrap lumber, chicken wire and even hay bales.
Look for free material to add to your compost pile. What can you put in the pile at no cost? Grass clippings (yours and your neighbors'), coffee grounds from local cafes and shredded newspaper. Also, watch for bags of leaves set at the curb for disposal. Toss in your vegetable scraps, egg shells and garden waste (spent annuals, shrub prunings, etc.).
Turn the pile every few weeks, and soon you will have rich compost to add to your soil.
Recycle
Many expenditures for containers and equipment can be eliminated by reusing items already on hand. Egg cartons, margarine tubs and yogurt and cottage cheese containers are fantastic for seed starting.
Discarded windows can be converted into cold frames. Plastic milk jugs can be used to make mini-greenhouses. Cut a jug horizontally around the container, leaving it "hinged" under the handle. Punch holes in the bottom for drainage. Large soda bottles, cut in half, can be used to cover plants when a freeze is predicted.
Maximize resources
Grow vertically -- tomatoes, climbing peas and beans are great options -- to make the most of your square footage.
Plants such as yellow squash, zucchini and peppers are notorious for their ample yields. Trade with neighbors for vegetables you didn't grow.
Grow your seeds
Many plants reseed themselves. My flower beds are full of seedlings from the old-fashioned petunias I planted last spring. Batchelor buttons, alyssum, poppies, violas, toadflax and larkspur also need to be planted only once. (In zones warmer than 4/5)
Members of the sedum family are some of the easiest plants to propagate. Break off a piece of the mother plant and bury the stem in the soil with some foliage exposed. You'll have new plants in no time.
Find a friend
Share the costs of gardening with a friend. If a packet of seeds is more than you need, divide it and its cost with a fellow gardener. Or trade seeds for a new variety you want to try.
Combine other purchases with a gardening partner, too. For instance, you can usually save by buying mulch and potting mix in bulk rather than in small bags.
Swapping bulbs and plants with friends, neighbors and family is a great way to garden with little or no expense. Cuttings for propagating plants, such as roses, and divisions of overgrown perennials can be traded to increase the variety in your landscape.
Garden art
Homemade items or found "treasures" make unique yard art.
Steppingstones are an easy do-it-yourself project. For molds, use old cake pans or plastic storage containers. Embellish your steppingstones with marbles, old jewelry or leaf impressions.
Add more fun to your garden with wind chimes made of vintage forks, knives and spoons.
Wooden chairs, ladders, tricycles or wagons can serve as interesting garden accents.
Container gardening
Repurpose containers instead of spending money on planters.
Anything that can hold soil can become a planter. Old gardening boots, wheelbarrows and toolboxes make whimsical substitutes for expensive outdoor containers.
Discarded sinks, washtubs, water troughs and wagons make excellent planters. Drill holes for drainage, fill the vessel with potting mix and plant your favorite posies.
Save water
Significant savings are possible with these techniques:
* Check the soil before you water. If it's still damp, don't water.
* Cover the soil with a 3- to 4-inch layer of mulch. It keeps the soil moist longer.
* When possible, use drip watering systems to deliver water exactly where it is needed.
* Water your landscape and lawn in the morning, when less will evaporate.
* Group plants with the same water needs so you are not watering plants that don't need it.
* Capture and store rainwater for landscape watering. Plant a rain garden to capture runoff and keep the water in your yard, off the street and out of the storm drain.
* If you have an automatic watering system, make sure all parts are operating properly.
Take a look at this folks!!!!!11
I am sorry this took so long, but no one posted to the Abuse Reports where the moderators look most of the time. You are more than welcome to post recipes as you have been doing. I am sorry you were warned on a thread clearly about this sort of material.
9,371 posted on Friday, January 30, 2009 11:26:14 PM by Admin Moderator
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1990507/posts?q=1&;page=9371
Seems like good news to me
I would never feel comfortable clicking 'report abuse' when I might happen to question an Admin. Moderator's decision, post or FReepmail.
Sorry - I meant to ping you on my last post.
Every one of them can see the Abuse Reports. This is the best way to get a quick response.
Also when logged in as Admin Moderator they do not see the pings to Admin Moderator.
-
One of the best salad greens I’ve recently re-found is nasturtium leaves and flowers. Spicy, and delicious, as well as very ornamental and easy.
My dad had cantaloupe take over his garden last year from his composting, too. They were the sweetest cantaloupe I had ever tasted!
Thanks for the ping. I really need to clean my compost bin this weekend. I use a (50 gallon) trash bin someone had thrown away. I cut a square hole in the bottom and made a door so I can turn and remove the compost. I also drilled a number of holes in each side.
I usually start my tomato seedlings the first week of Feb, so I’ll be doing that this weekend. Same for bell peppers. The wife mail ordered some heirloom tomatoes last year. Talk about a bust, we never got on decent tomato from those plants. That was a waste of money.
As the other reply said, lettuce and winter veggies should work. Try turnips, radishes, and even bell peppers in the shade. My best crop of peppers were in the shade where some seeds fell by mistake.
You may also try an asparagus bed. We used to cover our plants in the warmer time of the year to keep them from turning into ferns too early.
We’ve had local ‘wars’ like that, too. Usually its the Hippies in-town that are too lazy to mow their lawns. They claim they’re turning it back to its original ‘prairie’ condition. *Rolleyes*
Soil testing is good, though I’ve never done it. We are blessed with good dirt in my area. I just keep adding manure and mulch every year, and fertilize individual plants with Manure or Compost Tea.
“Q: Should I compost orange and grapefruit peels?”
I always have. The thing to remember (and you can find basic composting info all over the web) is to remember “Green” and “Brown.” (And water when it’s dry and adequate sunlight.)
Green is the fresh stuff you’re putting in, and brown is the dead stuff like small twigs, dead leaves, coffee grounds, etc.
Balance and variety of ingredients is the key.
My compost is made up of these things:
coffee grounds (& unbleached paper filters)
crushed egg shells
Fruit & veggie peelings
grass clippings
leaves
dead plant material (don’t put in anything you’ve yanked due to disease!)
chicken poop
old potting soil from last years pots
fresh corn shucks
Anything but meat can go in there, and if you have a big enough and hot enough pile, you CAN compost meat if you have to.
I don’t have a compost pile to brag on these days. My hens eat every scrap of veggie peelings I have, and I also crush and feed their shells back to them. Sounds barbaric, but it keeps their calcium levels up for hard egg shells...and I don’t need to buy oyster shells for them to munch on.
This is kind of gross, but a goat farmer I know composts the odd dead goat he has. They decompose rather quickly, but he has a HUGE compost pile. A dairy farmer I know says that’s pretty standard practice for animals on a farm.
I’ve yet to add a chicken to the compost pile, LOL!
Moderation is the key. A compost with too much of either ‘green’ or ‘brown’ in it won’t do a thing for anyone. :)
We can carry on her tradition. Her computer died, she didn’t! :)
What Lizvetta said... :)
I did a quick google on “High Altitude Gardening”
Try looking under that subject; there are lots of sites out there!
http://gardening.coloradohighaltitude.com/index.php
http://www.highcountrygardens.com/library/view/article/78/
http://www.echters.com/Altitude.htm
“I have saved couple of old sliding glass doors for this purpose.”
When we first moved ot our farm 15 years ago, it was a barren wasteland. Hardly any trees, no lilacs fer Pete’s Sake, not even a stand of rhubarb! And this was a Wisconsin, German-settled farm from 1906!
My first “greenhouse” was a bunch of sliding glass doors I found in the barn. I used pallets on the ground, then leaned the doors at an angle against a south-facing wall.
It worked well in the very early spring...but then I roasted a lot of plants to death after June 1st, LOL! It was also nice in the fall and I kept lettuces and other greens going well into the winter.
Learning curve...LOL!
A farm house and land sound awesome, I am on only 3 acres. And the house was not designed to garden much inside, so I am limited in space for inside seed planting. I would love to have a cellar with a greenhouse on top. And of course a 'hot tub' in the center of the greenhouse... and since I have hit dream mode I would want these two along side a brand new kitchen...haha
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