ktlight
10th August 2011, 21:26
As gardeners we tend to spend a fortune on our gardens and so therefore discovering hints and tips than can not only save us money but protect our monetary and hard work investment is a must. These hints and tips will achieve all of this and more.
1. Plan your vegetable garden according to what your neighbors are planting so you can share your vegetables when they’re ready for eating. Avoid having too many of one kind of vegetable. Use diversity.
2. When planting bulbs, either wrap chicken wire around them or steel wire wool before planting them as this prevents animals from digging them up and eating them.
3. Compost your kitchen scraps, as well as your coffee grounds. The end result is much better than any potting soil you can ever get buy from a nursery or hardware store. The price is right, and this is definitely recycling!
4. Instead of buying expensive insecticides to treat such things as roses for green fly, use a mild solution of washing up liquid instead. Just fill a spray bottle with room temperature water and add a small dash of washing up liquid. It is cheap, saves you money and works a treat. Any washing up liquid works, even the cheap ones.
5.Instead of using mulch, try pebbles or small rocks in your garden as ground cover. This will save you lots of cash since you won’t need to buy mulch in the spring and fall of every year.
6. Select perennials rather than annuals for your flowerbeds. As they multiply each year, cut them back and exchange with your friends so you both have lovely gardens and save money at the same time.
7. When cutting fresh flowers stems always cut them at an angle. This creates a larger surface area in which the stem can draw up water. Also it is a must to remember to put your flowers into fresh water immediately; if you don’t do this then air pockets will form in the stems and cause them to droop.
8. Rather than putting fresh flowers into tap water, use either distilled water or purified water. Also make sure the water is at room temperature as putting flowers into cold water can send them into shock and cause them to droop.
9. A little trick in order to prolong the life of freshly cut flowers is to put them in a vase of lemonade or drop a couple of teaspoons of sugar into the water.
10. When planting shrubs or trees, use some old garden hose or ½ inch pipe and bury it with the shrubs or trees and leave one end sticking out of the ground. This enables you to water the roots directly and also helps the shrubs or tress become established quicker too.
11. During the winter months try using bubble wrap to line the pots of container grown plants as it will keep them warm. Also using old sacking wrapped around the outside of plant containers and pots can keep them warm too.
12. If you live in a country that tends to have sever cold climate during the winter and you have extremely large exotic container plants then wrapping the container in an old boiler jacket works a treat in keeping them at just the right temperature in order to help them survive the winter months.
13. We all know that if you are growing or have planted such exotic plants as palms in your garden and the country you live in is not native to these plants and the winters tend to be too cold in which to sustain them and keep them alive, then coming up with ideas to do so is a must. So here’s a hot tip, wrap the palms or exotic plants and trees with straw, then place sacking or plastic liner around the straw and tie with gardening string. . It keeps them warm and snug until summer comes around again.
14. Spend more money now by purchasing better quality gardening tools and you will save in the long run. They will last for years, saving you dollars because you don’t need to replace them every planting season. Same goes for gardening gloves- make sure you buy the best you can afford so they last all season.
1. Plan your vegetable garden according to what your neighbors are planting so you can share your vegetables when they’re ready for eating. Avoid having too many of one kind of vegetable. Use diversity.
2. When planting bulbs, either wrap chicken wire around them or steel wire wool before planting them as this prevents animals from digging them up and eating them.
3. Compost your kitchen scraps, as well as your coffee grounds. The end result is much better than any potting soil you can ever get buy from a nursery or hardware store. The price is right, and this is definitely recycling!
4. Instead of buying expensive insecticides to treat such things as roses for green fly, use a mild solution of washing up liquid instead. Just fill a spray bottle with room temperature water and add a small dash of washing up liquid. It is cheap, saves you money and works a treat. Any washing up liquid works, even the cheap ones.
5.Instead of using mulch, try pebbles or small rocks in your garden as ground cover. This will save you lots of cash since you won’t need to buy mulch in the spring and fall of every year.
6. Select perennials rather than annuals for your flowerbeds. As they multiply each year, cut them back and exchange with your friends so you both have lovely gardens and save money at the same time.
7. When cutting fresh flowers stems always cut them at an angle. This creates a larger surface area in which the stem can draw up water. Also it is a must to remember to put your flowers into fresh water immediately; if you don’t do this then air pockets will form in the stems and cause them to droop.
8. Rather than putting fresh flowers into tap water, use either distilled water or purified water. Also make sure the water is at room temperature as putting flowers into cold water can send them into shock and cause them to droop.
9. A little trick in order to prolong the life of freshly cut flowers is to put them in a vase of lemonade or drop a couple of teaspoons of sugar into the water.
10. When planting shrubs or trees, use some old garden hose or ½ inch pipe and bury it with the shrubs or trees and leave one end sticking out of the ground. This enables you to water the roots directly and also helps the shrubs or tress become established quicker too.
11. During the winter months try using bubble wrap to line the pots of container grown plants as it will keep them warm. Also using old sacking wrapped around the outside of plant containers and pots can keep them warm too.
12. If you live in a country that tends to have sever cold climate during the winter and you have extremely large exotic container plants then wrapping the container in an old boiler jacket works a treat in keeping them at just the right temperature in order to help them survive the winter months.
13. We all know that if you are growing or have planted such exotic plants as palms in your garden and the country you live in is not native to these plants and the winters tend to be too cold in which to sustain them and keep them alive, then coming up with ideas to do so is a must. So here’s a hot tip, wrap the palms or exotic plants and trees with straw, then place sacking or plastic liner around the straw and tie with gardening string. . It keeps them warm and snug until summer comes around again.
14. Spend more money now by purchasing better quality gardening tools and you will save in the long run. They will last for years, saving you dollars because you don’t need to replace them every planting season. Same goes for gardening gloves- make sure you buy the best you can afford so they last all season.