View Full Version : Frugal gardening
A couple of years ago when we had some construction on our property I had the soil that would have otherwise been hauled away dumped in a pile in a shady, little-used area that is not visible from the front of the house. It's been really handy. Little did I know how convenient it would be to have a ready source of soil for...
- shoring up areas that were low, next to the house, to improve drainage
- potting plants to give away to friends
- amending soil in other parts of the yard that was not as nice
- filling raised beds
Last year I began re-doing out front landscape bed, adjacent to the house. It was created about 25 years ago and 'mulched' with landscape rocks. I have a LOT of rocks to use elsewhere... I'd estimate 5 to 8 tons. So far, I've used them to:
- thicken the same rock type elsewhere in the yard to prevent weeds
- make some hardscape surfaces, both with rocks underneath pavers and with rocks surrounding stepping stones
- make houseplant pots heavier (by placing in the bottom of the pot) so top-heavy plants don't tip them
(give me more ideas! I have a lot of rocks left! the re-landscaped area will be mulched with mulch)
I've been giving away lots of plants and receiving many in return! It's a great way to diversify within the garden. Now that I have both sun and shade beds that are maturing since I originally planted them, when I take a new area back from the lawn I can go dig plants and move them to the new space. I have been buying particular plants that I want but filling in around them this way, with things like daffodils, strawberries, penstemon and other perennials, herbs, etc. Most gardeners I know love to share, so if you like a plant you see in someone's yard, ask!
How do you save money in the garden?
This year we didn't go to frugal--we wound up buying a lot of topsoil and peat, unfortunately because we put in a couple of raised beds and an herb garden.
The only frugal thing we did was ask the nursery owner if we could have the rocks that were in his garbage pile as opposed to buying a bag/pallet of them, and he told us to take whatever we wanted. We installed an herb/Zen garden with a deer chaser and a small pond, and I LOVE it. It's worth the $40 we spent on it, for sure!
awakenedsoul
6-30-14, 11:10pm
The birds save me a lot of money in my garden. They plant all kinds of flowers for me. They even planted a locust tree next to my mailbox! I save seeds for zucchini, watermelon, pumpkins, and sunflowers. I use straw mulch to cut down on water. I let my hollyhocks and poppies reseed in the front garden. They look beautiful, and there's no work. I also make compost tea and have a thriving compost pile. My neighbor gives me free horse manure. That mixed with my regular compost does a great job fertilizing my fruit trees.
Fun thread!
We were lucky to get some wood chips earlier in the year from a tree company that was taking a tree out a few houses down and chipping it up on site. I was about a million weeks pregnant and waddled my butt down there to ask if they would mind dumping them on our alley parking area. They did! In fact they went out and did more work at another house and THEN emptied their hopper. I even had time to run to Whole Foods and buy them some brownies for their trouble. :) We're still using the chips. Saved us from having a muddy doggy every day this wet spring. I think we'll use the rest in the front yard to suppress weeds and preserve moisture.
One other time we did the same thing at our old house. Other times it hasn't worked out. So it's a hit or miss strategy, but great when it pays off.
iris lilies
7-1-14, 10:45pm
We were lucky to get some wood chips earlier in the year from a tree company that was taking a tree out a few houses down and chipping it up on site. I was about a million weeks pregnant and waddled my butt down there to ask if they would mind dumping them on our alley parking area. They did! In fact they went out and did more work at another house and THEN emptied their hopper. I even had time to run to Whole Foods and buy them some brownies for their trouble. :) We're still using the chips. Saved us from having a muddy doggy every day this wet spring. I think we'll use the rest in the front yard to suppress weeds and preserve moisture.
One other time we did the same thing at our old house. Other times it hasn't worked out. So it's a hit or miss strategy, but great when it pays off.
Free wood chips piled right where you need them are the best thing in the world! Well, unless it's compost, free, a big load of it, piled right where you need it.
DH worked for a tree company and they often had to dump in the landfill so it is a win/win when they can find someone who wants chips.
I've worked with wood chips for years, but I still dream about one particular load from DH's company. It was all oak chips. Super hard, cut up in little squares and very dry, it was like lifting bags of poker chips and they clicked together like that. The best freaking mulch EVER! It took years for that stuff to fully break down.
Can you tell that I love wood mulch?
This past year we moved to this little cabin by the lake, which doesn't really need any flowers or plantings due to the beauty of the surrounding nature, and we have a much smaller veggie/fruit raised bed garden here than we did at our old place. Saved us quite a bit to just go smaller, plus I know how much went to waste last year despite canning alot of it and giving the rest away to anyone that would take it. Smaller, thus less garden bounty will be better for us here...
Can you tell that I love wood mulch?
Great! Since I have the mulch expert here, I need your opinion. DH and I installed a small herb garden, as I stated above. We have a spot in the corner of our yard with two conifers and between the two bushes there's always been a depression. The rest of our yard is flat (my MIL always said that the previous owners must have buried someone back there). So it really is only about 6-7 feet between the trees, and about 3 feet wide.
Well, we're just of the end of this pretty harmonious practice, and we got to the mulch. I was busy yesterday, so DH went to buy it and when he got it on the ground it was NOT what I expected. Instead of a nice quiet mulch, this is big pine bark nuggets.
He likes it because it looks more "natural." I think it ruins the visual of the garden, and you miss the delicate thyme and moss because your visual sense is overwhelmed by these big chunks of wood.
What say you? He told me he'd pick it up and get something different, but I told him not to do anything for a few days because it might grow on me. (click on the pic to make it bigger.. also note that I'm not done finalizing placement of rocks, and doing other fine-tuning.)
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iris lilies
7-2-14, 9:42am
Great! Since I have the mulch expert here, I need your opinion...
I am not a fan of those big chunks for aesthetics so I agree with you, but since they are down I would leave them. Big chunks like that will take 2 - 3 years to break down. In the long run, it's not a big deal.
They will break down and I kind of like the look in your lovely garden!
Top it up with the smaller pieces next year....
You are so far ahead of me in this your picture made me think I need to get outside
and do some more work....lol
I like it a lot and the large chunks will be more difficult for critters to knock into your wee pond.
Thanks, iris lilies, danna, and Jilly. It's kind of growing on me and I know that the plants will get much larger and diffuse the visual impact of the pine nuggets. Plus, as you said, they will break down eventually--just like getting a hair cut you don't like and consoling yourself that it will grow back.
I concur on leaving the mulch. Here, things are covered with snow for 6 months anyway, so that's how I console myself to wait to change things that I don't particularly like!
I agree --leave the big nuggets. Remember, your plants are also going to get bigger so soon it will balance out and you'll likely be happy with the larger chips for the various other reasons already stated!
One of our more recent frugals on the gardening front was the change we made to our flowering pots. We have an enormous deck that looks out on a pretty spectacular vista. One might think that anything additional might be unnecessary, but the deck is so expansive that it ends up looking weirdly empty. We used to plant about 20 pots of various sizes with various annuals for color and interest. Talk about expensive! Sure, I could have grown a bunch of those annuals from seed, but I was never that organized, nor did I really have suitable space to do so. About three years ago we decided to make a change. We bought a collection of pots that all go together (not identical, but matching). I took cuttings of succulents from a friend and my mom mailed me more succulents, and now I have this beautiful collection of pots with various succulents. I bring them inside for the winter so we get to enjoy them all year long. No more huge outlay of cash for loads of annuals every spring. What a relief!!!
Cdttmm: +1 on the containers. I think containers have a disproportionate visual impact relative to their size, but also account for a disproportionate share of one's annual gardening expenditures. Here are three things I did to keep my costs under control this year:
Used much less pricey Dracaena for an accent rather than Purple Fountain grass
Planted a couple of pots with succulent offsets from my garden
Planted a pot with an envelope of free lettuce seeds that we got in the mail as part of some marketing mail. It looks really cute, and is also potentially edible!
I also resisted the allure of flowers and planted all foliage plants in my containers. This has been my intention for the past few years, and I always succumb to the allure of something or other at the garden center. So my large containers have Licorice plant, Kong Coleus varieties and Dracaena. I am very pleased with the way they look.
I created a little wicker-like fence using the prunings from my hedge. I thought it looked quite cute around the new garden that I had created - until I came back today and found that in the couple of months since I last looked the prunings have actually sprouted. Oh no, I just wanted a wee edging, not a new hedge. I think I will have to pull them out before they roots take too strongly. So much for frugality.
Gardenarian
7-14-14, 12:11pm
Aroha - I'm planning on doing a little wicker fence this winter, and I'm hoping it will sprout into a hedge - what do you bet it won't?
I've learned to use my pine needles as mulch. Silly, I have a ton of pine needles but never knew that they were good as mulch. I'm using the pine cones on top of the needles around my roses - looks very pretty. And free :)
awakenedsoul
7-14-14, 5:25pm
I leave my pine needles on the ground as mulch. Sometimes I use them in my chicken's nest box, too. I gather up the pinecones, (they are huge!) and use them as borders in my front garden. I like the look, too.
Gardenarian, I hope your hedge sprouts where you want it to.
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