10 Low Cost Gardening Strategies To Enable You To Economize All Year Long
Whether you are an ardent vegetable gardener, a beginning herb gardener or just like to have a pretty yard, these frugal tips may aid you in saving a little money!
1. Rancid coffee and coffee grounds make great organic fertilizer. They provide many trace minerals and low, light levels of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous. Some people even operate their own home based business providing this exact service.
2. Remember that a good soaking of water more infrequently is better than a light sprinkling every day — for veggies and for your grass.
3. If your neighbor has a plant you particularly like, ask for a cutting, instead of going to the nursery and purchasing one. Perhaps you could trade a cutting from one of your own plants.
4. To simply water a tomato plant, bury a bottomless coffee can next to the plant and decant the water into the can. This allows the water to go directly to the roots.
5. Plant marigolds in your vegetable garden. They can attract insects that eat aphids and other pests.
6. My man purchased some used carpet at a garage sale, cut it into wide strips and laid it down between the rows in our garden. Now we will pick peas with getting our shoes muddy.
7. Use grass clippings as mulch around your vegetable plants to keep moisture in and weeds out. Just don’t use the clippings right once you have fertilized your grass or given treatment for weed control.
8. If you have got access to them, pine needles make excellent mulch.
9. A natural, frugal garden pest spray: mix one large spoon of liquid dishwashing soap and one cup of cooking oil. Use 3 tablespoons of this mixture to one quart of water and spray on plants.
10. In the herb garden, to keep plants like mint from taking over too large an area, put it in a clay pot and simply plant the entire pot! “He who plants a garden, plants happiness.”