BUT it can be a great way to do things.
Things can get very costly out there if you have to buy everything new so I asked
a few friends and had a few ideas of my own I thought I would share with you.
Be a scrounger! Containers and plant starting trays can cost a bundle. I found 4 huge plant containers in someones big trash! They now house many of my herbs. Need to start seedlings? Save your egg containers. The cardboard ones are great and will decompose.All those plastic tubs your strawberries and cherry tomatoes come in, perfect mini greenhouses! (wash well first)
We had a lovely gazebo, then we had a snow storm, we no longer have a gazebo. We collected the poles and they will now become extra poles for my pole beans. The netting? It will be used to cover my plants like broccoli and cabbage to keep the moths out of them. Awesome!
What about an old pool that has been well used but no longer any good. We cut it up into flat pieces and used it to cover our wood pile and the raised boxes to keep weeds down between seasons.
Have an old wheelbarrow and fireplace liner? We did so it now keeps our wood stove ash nicely housed and covered through the winter until they can be used!
I also got some great ideas from my gardening group friends!
Gardening Jones offered these suggestions! Reuse cardboard boxes and corn
stalks to cut down on weeds, use an old garden shovel for your house numbers,
glass bottles work as mini cloches to get a jump in the season, her garden gate
is the foot board from an old metal bed, a broken windmill lawn ornament
supports vining crops, plastic milk jugs painted black help hold the heat in
the mini greenhouse.
You can check out her blog here, It's great! Gardening Jones Blog
And my friend Jack Sisler offered these,
Use three or four layers of old newspapers with straw on top between their rows
of sweetcorn and other vegetables to keep the weeds down. Can be tilled in
prior to the next growing season. Toilet paper and paper roll tubes are used by
many for seed starting.
I hope these suggestions help or inspire you to try some of your own. Happy Gardening!!
I love love love this post! Great ideas!
ReplyDeleteThank you Christina! It is a subject close to my heart! =)
DeleteHmmm. You got even more practical than my post on finding solutions in waste. Great job. Awesome ideas!
ReplyDeleteThank you!We have to budget well and some of these saved me buying a lot of growing items I cannot afford at the time.
DeleteFabulous ideas. I always like to look at things with a fresh eye. Waste not want not.
ReplyDeleteCheers Sarah : o )
Great idea about the egg cartons. I always have so many of them around because people give them to me for my chickens.
ReplyDeleteThey just need watered frequently because they are so shallow but it was a good inexpensive solution for me =)
DeleteGreat ideas! So practical for anyone to use!
ReplyDeleteWe saved the plastic cookie and lettuce containers to use as mini-greenhouses for our seed starts this year. The strawberry-boxes you mentioned are our go-to for squashes and other big seeds. They're just the right size for my kids' hands.
ReplyDeleteI even saved the ones from cakes etc, they make great little green houses with the hinged lids on them. I bet I had 100 or more stored for use =)
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