Garden Tips - Using Household Leftovers
Previously in another article (frugal living tip #32), I posted some common sense and money saving tips for the garden. This is a follow-up with more everyday common sense ways to save money while getting your garden started. These are tips I found on Vocalpoint.com. I hope you enjoy them and can find something useful here for your garden.
"Plants cost enough. Why pay hundreds of dollars more for gardening equipment when you have some garden tools just waiting to be discovered around your house? You might even be about to put potential garden tools into your trash or recycling bin. Before you hit the garden stores or place an order from any catalogs, try these creative tool tips from some ingenious gardeners we know."
"A recipe file. It's easy to lose track of seed packets, especially if you save them from season to season or buy from several different companies. But if you have an old recipe-card box or one of those floppy-disk holders with the clear plastic top lying around, you can recycle it into the perfect seed-packet storage system. File your packets either alphabetically or by sowing date, from earliest to latest-whichever works best for you."
"A screwdriver. You can spend a bundle on a seed-sowing device called a dibble that basically opens a hole in the ground so you can drop in a seed. Or you can use your trusty screwdriver to perform the same function for free."
"An old umbrella. You can turn that tattered umbrella you haven't managed to throw out into a cloche or mini-greenhouse. First, cut the fabric away. Then open the umbrella completely and stick the handle in the soil of your garden bed. (The umbrella frame will form a big "bowl" shape over the ground.) Plant your transplant(s) in the soil inside the spokes, and wrap a sheet of clear plastic (or even successive spirals of plastic wrap) around the outside where the fabric used to be. Secure it at ground level with a bungee cord. This will also give direct-seeded baby greens a jump start in spring." (I find this tip very helpful!)
"A shop light and a rolling cart. You probably have one of those ugly metal fluorescent light fixtures hanging around in the garage or basement. Give it a second life as a grow light. Ready-made grow-light setups cost hundreds of dollars, but yours can work as well for free. If you have a rolling cart, attach the shop light so it hangs under the top shelf and lights the shelf below. It's a smart idea to attach the shop light with chains so you can raise it up as the seedlings grow. Use full-spectrum daylight bulbs or one warm and one cool bulb, roll your cart in front of a bright window, put houseplants on that top shelf, and you're good to go!" (I've done this and it works well. You do need to keep the light about 4" above your seedlings at all times.)
"An egg carton. Plastic or Styrofoam egg cartons make great seed-starting setups. Punch a hole in the bottom of each egg cup for drainage. Cut off the top of the carton, and use it as a water-catching tray under the bottom."
"Twist ties. Don't we all have a bazillion of these in our kitchen junk drawer? Turn them into plant ties to secure leggy stems of tomatoes, pole beans, peas, and other climbing veggies to their poles, trellises, or stakes. Yes, they'll rot away, but they should do the trick for a single season, and with vegetables, that's all you need. Just make sure you don't twist them too tight-you want to support the stem gently, not strangle it." (If you use the all plastic ones, they won't fall apart with the weather.)
Source: Vocalpoint.com
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Comments: 21
Thanks for the great ideas!
Thanks for the garden tips.
Great garden tips!
I miss having a garden, what wonderful tips.
Great ideas and I love the pic.
Thank you for the great ideas
Some good ideas - doubt I'd use the umbrella, but you never know:)
Timely tips. I will be using the shop light, recipe box file for seed packets, umbrella greenhouse, egg carton seed starters, and the twisty tie advice for sure. Thanks for the web site.
yes this is good!
There are some good hints there, thanks for sharing. My seeds certainly need better organized.
Great list Beverly. Please consider sharing this with us at Go Green.
Great tips, thanks for sharing!
Love the tips. I did the egg carton starter tray idea this year. It works really well. but I found that some of the larger seeds do better if started in the plastic cream cheese cartons. We saved a bunch of those before we stopped getting the cream cheese in the plastic cartons.
My mother used the egg carton process for starting seeds; if it was good enough for Mom, it's good enough for me, too. It's best to use the carboard containers ~ you can plant your sprouts directly into the garden without disturbing the plant. You can't do this with Styro-foam cartons.
I tie up stray rose branches and tomatoes with twine. When the plant is exhausted, the twine pieces go right into the compost bin. The wire/plastic tie strips take too long to decompose.
Last year I harvested seed from sweet peas, poppys and wildflowers. I stored them in plain white letter envelopes and filed them in an empty shoebox. (By the way, empty shoeboxes make great seeding boxes, too.)
I can't wait to try the umbrella form!
I wish I could have a garden, except it's probably too much work for me.
I always enjoy your frugal suggestions. The umbrella one is terrific.
Great tips Beverly~The photo is very pretty.
awesome tips, thanks especially the one about using a screwdrivder to make the holes for seeds.....we have terrible soil here , very clay-eee and since I bought seeds and most of them didnt need to be seeded I was trying to figure out how to get these going, thanks !
Great tips. Thanks for sharing them. I think I'll start packing away our empty egg cartons for next year.
<a href="http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977679070&nav=MyGather" target="_blank">Butterfly House</a>
Keren, I'm putting your link on the html editor. That will make it clickable.
Butterfly HouseThere. That should do it!
I buy salad greens and baby spinach from Sam's in the big clear plastic boxes--once I've eaten all the greens, I wash the containers and use them as mini-greenhouses for starting my own baby greens.
Also, you can make your own seed starting mix ('recipes' on any gardening website) and make your own seedling pellets....take a sheet of newspaper and roll it tightly around a can and then mash the paper into a crumple by pressing the can against the ground. Pull the newspaper 'cup' off the can and fill it with your seed starting mix, plant...and you have a biodegradable pot that you can plant in the ground.
I have started saving the cans from vegetables, soups, etc. and using an awl and wedge to poke holes in the bottoms--using them as seed-starting pots. (If anyone hasn't noticed, newspapers are starting to fail right and left since most people with Internet access are getting their news from the Web. You can still save the ad circulars that come in the mail and use them, as long as it's not the slick paper--it's been treated in a different way and is not as safe to use.)