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I want a garden that looks like a million dollars but wasn't. I don't ask for much in life. :) I paid $3 for a bag of potting soil with fertiliser in it this morning and it only filled three pots. At this rate I'll be broke before anything blooms LOL. Help me out here please. I'll trade you a tip! :) Put your used coffee grounds on the soil and dig them in before planting. You can put more on the top too. The grounds are good for the plants.
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I can add a tip too, I forgot! I buy those cheap narrow plastic blinds that eventually get damaged and lose a slat or the string breaks. Hang on to the slats for planting season. Cut them into six inch strips and use them as plant markers for seeds. Write what you planted on it in permanent waterproof marker and stick it in the row or pot, leaving the last inch blank that goes in the soil. That saves you the cost of buying the plastic or wooden plant label sticks you get in the garden centers. They won't rot like a popsicle stick or seed packet.
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I planted six violas and six pansies last weekend. The grand total was $3.75 for 12 plants. I never buy the well established big display pots. Those are lovely with already being full and blooming and you pay through the nose for them at $5 upwards. It only takes a few months for the small ones to become just as nice.
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I kill mine far too easily. I forget to water them and they get baked to death in the sun. But irrigation systems cost a fortune! I scouted around for a cheap method and I'm saving up big soda bottles to do this drip system this year.
www.yougrowgirl.com/garden/dripsystem.php
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Bringmeroses, you must have bought the potting soil with feed in it. That's far more expensive than the plain vanilla kind. Have a look again for it in a store like Walmart, Target or the dollar store and ask one of the garden shop staff to help. If you have any left mix it in with your new bag. Cheapest of all is to dig up the soil in your garden and plant them in that. ;)
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My local paper's got gardening club and social club fundraising event notices that are coming up. Those can be great for picking up cheap plants. It's much better than going to a garden center. :)
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Save gas and get a new pushmower. Don't laugh! I read an article about them and the old fashioned style is no more. The kind I remember my dad having that were hard to use are now lighter and much easier to operate. Especially if you have a teenager. You won't feel like you're lifting a finger as you watch them from the porch LOL.
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You won't feel like you're lifting a finger as you watch them from the porch LOL.
LOL, I knew there had to be some pluses to being an adult. I spent a lot of summers pushing one of them things and it was hard work They didn't cut the grass. They decimated the turf! Ours was ancient and I don't think the blades were ever sharpened. It tore chunks out of the ground.
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I don't care how modern they are, purplerain, I'll never go back to a pushmower. I'd trim it with kitchen scissors first. ;)
Anyone tried composting? It's supposed to make the best fertiliser of all.
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Nope, never tried the composting, frazzledmom. Aren't they hard to maintain? I have enough to do without having something else to look after, even worms LOL.
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My neighbor and I have been swopping seeds. I never use a packful and neither does she. We're trading them and then we'll see whose does best. We plan to have a little friendly competition going on. :)
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My neighbor and I have been swopping seeds. I never use a packful and neither does she. We're trading them and then we'll see whose does best. We plan to have a little friendly competition going on. :)
There's no such thing as friendly competition amongst gardeners. There's tomato envy and more tomato envy LOL. Just remember if your plants turn out better to be generous and hand some over the fence. ;)
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I got a tip from a gardening friend she asked me to share when I told her about this thread. She uses old muffin tins to start off her seedlings and lines them with trimmed down coffee filters. You need to leave an overlapping edge for each section to get them out easily. You just lift the whole thing, filter, soil, plant and all.
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I got a tip from a gardening friend she asked me to share when I told her about this thread. She uses old muffin tins to start off her seedlings and lines them with trimmed down coffee filters. You need to leave an overlapping edge for each section to get them out easily. You just lift the whole thing, filter, soil, plant and all.
That's a very good idea! The hardest thing about doing it in egg cartons is getting them out in one piece. You can chop the box up and plant them in the carton if it's the cardboard kind. That can be tricky to do if your fingers are all (green) thumbs. ;) Your friend's way is better because it'll have more soil to root into as well. Thank her for me please frazzledmom. :)
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I was looking at my neighbor's expensive hanging baskets this morning. They have shrivelled up to nothing and my cheap impatiens are coming along beautifully. I got six for $1.75. Saving money in the garden means tending to what you have too. You don't need to replace things as much then and you get the best out of them.
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I was looking at my neighbor's expensive hanging baskets this morning. They have shrivelled up to nothing and my cheap impatiens are coming along beautifully. I got six for $1.75. Saving money in the garden means tending to what you have too. You don't need to replace things as much then and you get the best out of them.
Good point there and what a shame about the baskets! I managed to kill some of my new plants just last week. I couldn't fathom why they were all brown and unhappy when plants from the same batch were fine. It wasn't the plants. It was ME! I hadn't punched out the holes in two of my new flowerpots and the roots had rotted away because the pots weren't draining. Stupid, stupid, stupid. So yes, I'm guilty as charged of the lack of care and attention there Zoey. :) In my defense, the four other pansies are lovely. I must have got distracted mid-potting.
I wonder if your neighbor did something like that and has too much lining perhaps.
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My neighbor and I have been swopping seeds. I never use a packful and neither does she. We're trading them and then we'll see whose does best. We plan to have a little friendly competition going on. :)
There's no such thing as friendly competition amongst gardeners. There's tomato envy and more tomato envy LOL. Just remember if your plants turn out better to be generous and hand some over the fence. ;)
LOL Jewel. Yes and spread that generosity to the rest of us via the mailman too, Savannah! I love garden fresh tomatoes. Pack 'em green. I don't want them dripping out my mailbox. ;)
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We compost just about everything that is not nailed down. Our garden is not much, but it is well fed. Everything from coffee grounds to left over salad goes into the "compost can" and when it gets filled up, the contents get buried somewhere in the back 40.
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We compost just about everything that is not nailed down. Our garden is not much, but it is well fed. Everything from coffee grounds to left over salad goes into the "compost can" and when it gets filled up, the contents get buried somewhere in the back 40.
Micharch, could you explain that some more please? So you just fill up a can then bury it in the yard? The whole can or just the contents?
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This tip is for when the season's passed. Dig over the garden and roughen up the soil for the snows coming if you get them. There's nitrogen in that and you want as much of it to be absorbed into the soil as possible.The looser the soil, the more ways it can find its way into all the crevasses and holes.
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Depending on how big your garden is (a backyard or some flower pots), you could rent a chipper to create the flower beds. This way you won't have to buy it anymore and i am sure you will have more fun making it too. You can use various wood types, so the colors would differ, giving your garden a fresh look.
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Depending on how big your garden is (a backyard or some flower pots), you could rent a chipper to create the flower beds. This way you won't have to buy it anymore and i am sure you will have more fun making it too. You can use various wood types, so the colors would differ, giving your garden a fresh look.
I like the chipper idea! Don't you have to be a professional to rent them? I thought they were a dangerous piece of equipment and didn't know the average joe was allowed to use them.
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Depending on how big your garden is (a backyard or some flower pots), you could rent a chipper to create the flower beds. This way you won't have to buy it anymore and i am sure you will have more fun making it too. You can use various wood types, so the colors would differ, giving your garden a fresh look.
I like the chipper idea! Don't you have to be a professional to rent them? I thought they were a dangerous piece of equipment and didn't know the average joe was allowed to use them.
What kind of professional do you mean, like a builder or carpenter? I sure wouldn't want my husband within fifty feet of one because he's not mechanically minded. I don't think you need to have a license of any kind to operate them.
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Hi bringmeroses. I think you paid far too much for your potting soil for a start. I get a big bag at Walmart every year and it fills more than that for less. The bags with fertilizer included are expensive. Did you get that at a garden center?