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Welcome to our Budget101 Challenge Question!The Challenge Question is :
what is the most interesting (or money saving) gardening tip you’ve ever heard? this is a 2 part challenge- the winner will not be randomly drawn, the winner will be selected based on the popularity of the answer given. (specifically, how many thanks it receives)
wondering how to play? hit the reply button and answer the challenge question! (seriously, that’s it)
what is the goodie giveaway for this challenge?
we know how anxious you are to get started planting your garden this year, so we’re giving away a
Learn More about Budget101 Challenges Here! – Reminder: This is a 2 part challenge- the winner will not be randomly drawn, the winner will be selected based on the popularity of the answer given. (specifically, how many thanks it receives)
good luck!The best tip I ever received was from my father years ago. He told me if you water a tree deep enough then the roots will not grow at the soil level and tear up yards, driveways, sidewalks, etc. I had bought a root feeder and watered my trees without fertilizer once a week for about 5 years.
The trees grew beautifully and never had root problems from them. I’ve seen where you can make about a 2′ hole, drill some small holes in pvc pipe, fill with pea gravel and put that in the ground, then run water slowly into the pipe to water the roots. This actually does save water because you only water the trees once a week and the water never evaporates.
After about 5 years you can water about once a month, but the roots are by now in the water table and getting their own water.
Patti, the gal that keeps my roots covered
is an amazing gardener! She not only grows most of her fruits, herbs, and veggies that she and her family consumes, she also tends probably the most magnificent yard with flowers, shrubs, trees, etc. Year-round, her property is alive with color…this gal does her research!Something that she shared with me two years ago — she also gives me bulbs that she digs up to transplant elsewhere on her two acres or seeds that she’s collected and prepared for planting — was hay planting! I know that sounds strange, but she has surrounded her sizeable deck with bales of hay. She plants strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, green beans, sugar peas, cantaloupe, and watermelon.
For the plants that need vertical climbing, she pushes chicken wire into the bales for the vines. For horizontal growth, she just makes sure that there’s enough space for the vines to spread and ‘guides’ them as necessary. I’ve been the beneficiary of her hay garden and the fruits and veggies have been exceptional.
Patti has an ‘encased’ bay on her deck just for herbs. She has the bale in a tub so that it doesn’t breakdown on her deck and she just steps outside the door to snip fresh herbs. Come the fall, she sort of chops up the bales and works them into her regular garden enriching the soil for the next year.
I swear, this gal must not sleep during the spring and summer! LOL!
Growing Potatoes in a barrel, bag or large flower pot etc…….No making rows and rows of mounded dirt. Ok here we go drill holes in the bottom of container for drainage then put about 2 inches of soil or compost in the bottom of container then place potatoe starters(you can find them in most stores that sell seeds I found mine last year at Aldi) about an inch apart cover with soil or compost and water. When you see green foliage and it gets about an inch or so cover with soil repeat untill the container is full.
When you have filled the container let them flower once that happens you should have a container of potatoes at the end of the growing season. Happy Gardening.
I never till ground. It saves gas, tiller rental, and my muscles thanks me. I gather cardboard from local grocers.
That’s free. Then I gather manure or fill dirt for free from local farms or community piles. Farmers will often let you take manure for free if you offer to muck it out on your own.
This is still less stress on my back than a tiller. I lay the cardboard down right on top of existing lawn in the shape of my new garden. I pile the dirt on the cardboard and spread it evenly with a slight slant toward the outside edges.
If I have stray rocks from other garden plots, I lay those around the edges of my new garden plot. Then I let it sit for one to three months, depending on what I want to plant. I water it if it gets dry, though; this helps the cardboard decompose.
Any grass or weeds are gone in three months. If I only plant shallow-rooted crops, I can start the garden within a few weeks. If I want to start a garden over extreme clay or a gravel driveway, I lay down the cardboard, pile peat and compost about two feet high, and then cover it with the manure and dirt.
This really works and it save my back as well as my pocket book!
oooooodles of cucumbers ! last year, i had a very limited space in a back yard when i moved and had to dig up the grass where i wanted a garden (which was a lot of work without a roto tiller. i chose a sunny spot along one side of the fence and screwed into the wooden fence, the little metal hooks that one might use to hang up coffee cups in the kitchen.
i wove thick string up and down and around, to essentially make a very inexpensive trellis. planted my cucumber seeds at the bottom of the fence, and as the vines began to grow, i would weave them around the string. i had more cucumbers than i knew what to do with that started all summer long.
i was giving cucumbers away because i wasn’t prepared to do relish, but i’ll be ready this year!!!
@mos 451142 wrote:
Patti, the gal that keeps my roots covered
is an amazing gardener! She not only grows most of her fruits, herbs, and veggies that she and her family consumes, she also tends probably the most magnificent yard with flowers, shrubs, trees, etc. Year-round, her property is alive with color…this gal does her research!Something that she shared with me two years ago — she also gives me bulbs that she digs up to transplant elsewhere on her two acres or seeds that she’s collected and prepared for planting — was hay planting! I know that sounds strange, but she has surrounded her sizeable deck with bales of hay. She plants strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, green beans, sugar peas, cantaloupe, and watermelon.
For the plants that need vertical climbing, she pushes chicken wire into the bales for the vines. For horizontal growth, she just makes sure that there’s enough space for the vines to spread and ‘guides’ them as necessary. I’ve been the beneficiary of her hay garden and the fruits and veggies have been exceptional.
Patti has an ‘encased’ bay on her deck just for herbs. She has the bale in a tub so that it doesn’t breakdown on her deck and she just steps outside the door to snip fresh herbs. Come the fall, she sort of chops up the bales and works them into her regular garden enriching the soil for the next year.
I swear, this gal must not sleep during the spring and summer! lol!
wow now that is a great slew of tips. thanks
I had a beautiful White Oak in my yard that had gotten infested with Grub worms. I was told there was nothing I could do, the tree was dying and must come down. I remembered my Grandmother talking about cleaning a “wound” inside a tree by digging out the soft rot in the trunk and washing the wound, inside and out with Turpentine. After I removed all the worms I could find and washed vigorously with turpentine and a scrub brush I let it dry.
Then, painted the entire wound with tar. Over the years the tree closed the wound and continues to grow today…23 years later. Never give up on a tree, it furnishes the very air you breathe.
this one is for people who have a bad back like i do. it is hard for me to be on ground on bend over for long periods of time so this is how i grow potatoes. I had some extra tires laying around.
i pile 2 tires and fill with dirt then plant my potato starters and then add another tire. when you are ready to harvest just take the tires off one at a time and you don’t have to dig them out.
My grandfather, my father’s father, lived to be 96. He always had the biggest garden and sold extra veggies at a roadside stand until the year before he passed away. He taught me that the secret to growing huge tomatoes and peppers was to spray the plants every six weeks with a gallon of water mixed with one teaspoon of Epsom salts.
The plants and their fruit benefit so much from this little bit of extra care and yield the largest tomatoes and peppers ever! He also taught me to extend the tomatoes after the frost to pick green ones just before the first frost and wrap them in newspaper (just the black and white paper) and place them in cardboard boxes in single layers and store them in the coldest room of the house. They will ripen very slowly.
We have fresh garden grown tomatoes every year until at least February by using his methods.
To keep deer, rabbits, etc out of the garden, simply hang bars of very fragrant bath soap such as Zest around your garden. You will need to scrape the bars about once a week to bring more fragrance out of them due to wind, sun, rain etc. These are very cheap at the dollar store and can be hung using just about anything for stakes with string or even old pantyhose.
With Spring around the corner here in MN, the spiders will start to invade my home. I finally figured out how to rid those nasty 8 legged varmints. I put 10-20 drops of peppermint essential oil in a spray bottle filled with water.
On the inside of the house I spray all around baseboard, ceilings and any nooks and crannies they may want to rest. On the outside I spray around all doorways and windows. Amazingly it worked so much better than all the pesticides I’ve used. Now if I see a baby spider in my house, I will spray again.
Honestly, that isn’t very often.
Re: B101 Challenge: Share a Gardening Tip, Enter2Win a Hydrofarm Grow System!
I live in Manitoba Canada where growing large watermelons can be a challenge. After many attempts and ending up with half the size the melon I decided to try something different. I covered the section where the watermelon would be planted with heavy duty black plastic.I cut a hole to plant the seed and inserted a pvc pipe with holes into the ground to send water down to the roots. My watermelon literally went crazy. I only weighed one, it was 38 pounds, ripe and very juicy.
Because I used heavy duty black plastic I could save it for the next growing season.
So while living in an apartment in the city I only had a small balcony to satisfy my urge to garden. I planted a container garden using anything that caught my eye at the yard sales, mixing bowls or plastic shoe boxes. I started my seeds indoors on top of the fridge but once they sprouted I placed them inside a lrg.
cardboard box and covered the top with plastic wrap, this made a tiny greenhouse that I could put on my balcony. I hardly had to water because of the condensation and at night when it got cold I just covered them with a towel and the cardboard insulated them really well. Once the seedling were big enough I just took them out of the box and placed them around the balcony.
I read a posting last week on Facebook from a gardener that had a challenge. No outgoing money on anything. So she had to come up with a way to start her seedlings without buying any trays like she normally did.
She came up with of course the egg cartons. But also egg shell halves, poked a hole on the bottom for drainage and was then going to just plan them in the ground with the shell also. They she decided to use citrus fruit shell halves.
She scooped out the fruit, them put dirt & the seed & grew her seedling. When ready, she planted the whole thing. In summary, she discovered she didn’t have to spend a penny to accomplish the same thing!
@MickieM69 451903 wrote:
To keep deer, rabbits, etc out of the garden, simply hang bars of very fragrant bath soap such as Zest around your garden. You will need to scrape the bars about once a week to bring more fragrance out of them due to wind, sun, rain etc. These are very cheap at the dollar store and can be hung using just about anything for stakes with string or even old pantyhose.
Does this work for squirrels too?
We have a neighbour who feeds squirrels peanuts and walnuts at least 10 times a day; as much as all of the neighbours love animals, they are killing all of our gardens and hard with all of their digging when burying the nuts. No one has been able to find an answer as to how to stop them. The squirrels chew up everything in my garden; ripe or green tomatoes, peppers, beans, cukes…everything.
Frustrating. Thanks
The most interesting money saving and gardening tip I’ve heard and use every year are epsom salts. One bag for $.99 at Walmart has lasted me 4 years. To increase the size and yield of your garden tomatoes simply mix 1 cup of epsom salts into a Gallon of Purified Warm Water.
Mix thoroughly by shaking until dissolved. As Tomatoes and other acidic plants begin to grow twice a season water the ground at the base of the plant with the mixture. ***do not water the leaves or greenery of the plant*** several years ago my tomatoes looked pitiful and was doubtful i would have enough for even slicing.
a local farmer shared this tip and within 3 weeks are tomatoes tripled in yield and size and was a terrfic crop. Every year since our tomatoes are the best on the block. (Square Foot Gardener here!) Winning this would be a wonderful addition to our modest garden.
Best money-saving and useful gardening tip is to use dental floss…to tie or train vines and in many other ways!!! not only is floss inexpensive, plentiful (yardage per roll), and easily obtained, but, most importantly, it stands up to all weather conditions!! floss can be used to tie or train the vines of veggies, flowering plants, ornamentals, and house plants, as well as for a multitude of other gardening uses (such as marking rows or as plant support when staking non-vining stemmed plants, like orchids).
(tying dental floss is also a very kid-friendly gardening task.) two other benefits: floss can often be obtained free (yay!) at dental visits and, if desiring to live really ‘green,’ it can be repurposed in the garden after initial daily use (ewww…but it works) and leaves no waste. if, over time, you end up with a stockpile of floss containers, just donate the extras to local community gardens, public or private schools with active gardens, or share with other gardeners. note: to use on vines, tie floss gently in a bow or knot.
using dental floss for gardening is the best all-time, all-around money saving tip i’ve received.
I am not a gardener by any means, do not even really like it, my thumbs are jet black…however, I saw just yesterday (good timing, huh?) that if you use an old milk (or other if you like) jug and put small holes in the lid, fill it up with water and put the cover back on you have a handmade watering container for around the house. I am a myo-diy kind of person and this was in one of my lists. I thought it was a pretty cool idea but not useful to me.
I unfortunately kill any kind of plant-like thing that enters my home. I am just no good at it. Hope this helps someone out there.
I’ve always enjoyed gardening and feeding my family with the produce. It’s a bit depressing in the summer when the spring crops bolt, and in the fall as the first frost approaches.
In northern Michigan, my grandfather employed a variety of tricks to extend the growing season. Here is one for “fresh-from-the-garden” carrots in January or February: after Labor Day, plant an area (row or square, whatever your style) with your favorite carrot seed (shade with cheesecloth or old window screens, if you are still having warm weather). Once the seeds sprout, cover the area with a light layer of straw.
As the seedlings grow, add another light layer of straw. When you are expecting the first hard frost, add another light layer of straw. By the time of the first snowfall you should have a layer of straw foot or more thick.
Be sure to mark the area, so you can find it when the snow piles up. Harvest by clearing the snow only over the few carrots you want to dig. Gently move aside the straw, and dig the carrots with a potato fork.
Replace the straw and cover again with snow.
I have many memories of bundling up and going out to the garden with grandpa, potato fork in hand and “bringing in the harvest” of various root crops. I suppose this is a second tip: let your garden produce more than fruits and vegetables. Garden with someone and let your garden produce memories.
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