A Dozen Garden Hacks That Save Money and Time

 

Watering Flowers When on Vacation

For example, what happens if you go on vacation and can't find anyone to water the garden for you?  All you have to do is fill an empty bottle with water, drill a hole in the cork or cap, and stick it in the ground. The water will slowly seep out and keep the soil moist.

Sweet Tomatoes

If you grow tomatoes, there is an age-old trick that could help. Take a small bag of baking soda and sprinkle it on the soil around the tomatoes for a bigger, sweeter yield.

Cookie Cutter Tomato Shaper

Tomatoes are naturally round, but what if you could change that?  As the tomatoes grow, place cookie cutters around the fruit.  As they continue to grow, the tomatoes take on the same shape, creating hearts, stars, and everything in between!

Glow-in-the-dark Planters

When summer comes around, garden lighting can be a nice way to enhance the atmosphere, but getting creative can often mean spending a lot of money. In fact, the solution to a chic outdoor space might actually be a coat or two of paint. Simply paint the pots and planters with the color and watch your garden come to life at night!

Empty Cans

They can be a very valuable - and totally free - resource for the garden.  Placing a few old Coca-Cola cans at the bottom of a planter before filling it with soil will act as a drainage aid and ensure your plants don't wither.  A thick layer of newspaper will keep the soil separate from the cans.

Eggshell Seed Starter

Eggshells provide the perfect safe, warm place for seeds to start.  All you have to do is carefully place soil and seeds in the tray and wait for the magic to happen.  The box itself can serve as a stand. 

Potato Rose Bushes

Wash them, put the rose bush section in the top part of the potato, and plant it in the ground.  The potato not only keeps the cuttings in place but also supposedly makes wonderful bushes grow.

Muffin Tin as a Plant Spacer

Creating perfectly spaced plants can be time-consuming. If you use the tin to push off the soil, you'll have a perfect guide to where to plant.

Vinegar Weed Killer

It's easy to be seduced by the big (extremely toxic) weed-killer brands when we want to keep our driveway or garden paths looking perfect.  Take a 2-liter bottle of White Vinegar and pour it directly on the growing green nuisance.  The vinegar works just as well as any commercial weed killer - but is not harmful to the environment or to you.

Hanging Strainer baskets

Not only does it look good, but it has perfect drainage built in.  Just add chains, line the screen with a little bit of floss or moss, add your compost and plants, and you're done.  It's a great way to reuse something that would otherwise end up in the landfill.  As the tomatoes grow, place cookie cutters around the fruit. As they continue to grow, the tomatoes take on the same shape, creating hearts, stars, and everything in between!

Mirrors Enlarge the Garden

All you need are two retired old window frames, preferably with rustic accents like peeling paint.  You'll also need two mirrors cut to fit inside the window frame.  Then hang them on the sides of your shed or fence.  This will create an illusion of space as they reflect the forest or your garden.

Grow Green Onions

Materials needed: leftover green onions.  Thanks to this trick, you'll never have to buy green onions at the store again, because they're easy to replant over and over again.  All you need are leftover green bulbs, a sunny spot in your garden, and potting soil (or just good soil).  Place the scraps in a pot or raised bed in the garden.  Make sure the roots and bulb are completely covered.  Water the plant scraps regularly, at least three to five times a week.  They will grow quickly, and the next time you need them for a recipe, just go outside and cut off the parts you need.  Repeat this process to grow them again.

Growing Corn From Popcorn Kernels

There are always a few kernels in the popcorn bag that don't pop, even when the microwave is beeping.  Perhaps you can grow corn from these kernels.  Place the kernels between two damp paper towels to let them germinate.  You can tell when a seed has germinated because it will form a tiny root and a stalk with leaves.  After the seeds have germinated, plant them in the ground in blocks of three (corn is wind pollinated).  Each short row should be spaced half a meter apart.  Keep the corn watered during dry periods as it grows.  Leave the ears on the corn until the leaves of the corn have turned brown.

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Winter Sowing in Six Easy Steps

 

Compulsive gardeners can get quite morose in the dead of winter. It’s one thing to pour over the new seed catalogs, dreaming about how those perfect flowers will look in your garden. But what gardeners really want is to DO something. Create, grow, nurture. We are just itching to get out there. 

In all my years of gardening, I had never heard of winter sowing until last fall. A friend bequeathed me with a garbage bag full of recycled jugs, bottles, clamshells, and jars. She said I could use them like mini-greenhouses for germinating my seedlings. What? How?

She grabbed a clear clamshell (plastic packaging) that once held a sandwich and instructed me to get some potting soil and some seeds. She cut some holes in the bottom and poked holes in the top. She wet the soil and filled the clamshell half full. I sprinkled some sunflower seeds on top, added a bit more soil, and sprayed it with water. We set it in a large planter on the deck. And that’s it. She said that come spring, the seeds will sprout at their own pace with virtually no effort on my part.

Well…. let me tell you that I suddenly envisioned the possibilities. No overloaded window sills, no seedling rotations to ensure they all get some sun. No angst about who gets to be planted in February… or March… or April. No dilemma about whether or not to lay out the bucks for lighting, heat mats, trays, and pots.

Could it be true?
So I dove right in and started to research. The term, “winter sowing” was coined by Trudi Davidoff in the early '2000s. She was looking for a solution to a problem. Too many seeds, too little space. It occurred to her that Mother Nature sows her seeds outside in winter, so perhaps she could do the same.

The idea of winter sowing is not new.
Seed packets will sometimes instruct you to direct sow outdoors in the fall. These plants are adapted to winter conditions and have evolved to lay in wait in the cold before germinating in the spring. But the life of these seeds is precarious. Many are fated to fail due to, for example, predation or heavy spring rains.

Winter sowing changes the game. By sowing the seeds in a confined environment, they are protected from the vagaries of nature. Will it work with all seeds? No. It will NOT work for plants that come from tropical areas where they would never be exposed to cold. It WILL work especially well for seeds that require a period of cold stratification to come out of dormancy.

Read the six steps of winter sowing in an article by seed expert Barbara Schaefer:  https://gardensbybarby.ca/winter-sowing-in-six-easy-steps/

Spring Bulbs to Plant This Fall

Plant these classic bulbs in autumn 

for a glorious flower show next spring.

While it is still early fall and warm outside, the garden centers and nurseries are already fully stocked with spring bulbs for a marvelous, colorful spring garden.

Planting bulbs this fall will reward you with a sea of flowers next spring. While your garden is cold and dreary, the bulbs will be forming roots and preparing to bloom when the weather warms up again.  Popular varieties sell out fast, so buy or order your favorites ahead of time.

If You Have Already Spring Bulbs in Your Garden:

See how you can divide your bulbs and plant them - and also plant new spring bulbs:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd9cBEx2SC0

The Greatest Garden Hose Ever - NEW PRICE

Only USD39.99 for a 100ft Expanding Garden Hose

Last month I helped a friend during her month-long trip to Europe to keep the garden in shape - which meant to water it almost daily during this heat wave...  I expected to haul heavy garden hoses through her extensive property.  But no: She had a wonderful lightweight garden hose that looked like crinkled fabric and expanded from one end of the garden, around the house, and all the way to the other side of the property fence. 

She showed me how to use this amazing garden hose: 

• First, you roll the hose completely from the holder
• Only then, you open the faucet
• Once the water runs through the hose, it expands to its full length

It works like a charm! The hose is so light and so easy to use, it's suddenly a total pleasure to water the garden, and so much faster. No twisting and kinking and forth and back running, like it used to be with the old, heavy garden hoses. 

I wrote this article two summers ago, and now the prices

for this wonderful garden device dropped to less than half:

Order here:

• Expands 3 times its length when water pressure is on
• Contracts to its original length when pressure is off
• Weights 5 times less than traditional garden hose
• Self-drains itself when not in use
• Never tangles, twists or kinks
• Easy to store in very small places

Check out their whole collection of great watering tools with free shipping!

★LIGHTWEIGHT WILL NOT TWIST TANGLE OR KINK. This hose does everything the other hoses claim only better. Don't waste your hard earned money on products that work for a couple days or weeks then fall apart.

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★INDESTRUCTIBLE DOUBLE LAYER LATEX CORE. We talked to our engineers after hearing about all the other hoses leaking and came up with a product that will hold water at pressures that are out of this world.

★12 Month Warranty for Manufacturing

Watering Your Garden:

Never water your yard in the heat of the day. First, you waste a lot of water due to evaporation and second it CAN burn your grass or plant leaves. Best time to water is from 5am until no later than about 8am.

You are doing fine to water two or three times a week, soaking the soil thoroughly. Those people who water every single day and over-water are creating lawns that develop short shallow roots and are susceptible to dying in the winter if there is a bad freeze. 

In the summer their grass requires MORE water as the roots are not digging down deep looking for a water source either nor are they able to retain the moisture being that close to the surface. The deeper the roots the better your grass will survive a long hot and dry summer and a freezing cold winter. 

In flower beds, Mulch is your best friend to help retain water/moisture in those areas and keep them from drying out.

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