Here are some of my best tips: .

#1 - Use as many free materials in your landscape as you can. Every part of the world has at least one thing in abundance that you can use for free, be it gravel, rocks or stones; wood,pallets or pine needles; dumpsters, landfill sites or Craig's List and Freecycling networks as cheap sources for repurposed items. Find out what's in your own neighbourhood or town and use it! I've used my local freecycling network to find plants and shrubs for free. I got a whole lilac hedge that way, it really works!!

#2 - Beg for plant divisions or cuttings from family, friends and neighbours. Anyone who has perennials , bulbs or tubers will have to be dividing them up every so often and will be happy to let you have the extras.

#3 - Look for local gardening clubs, they usually have plant sales once or twice a year to raise money for the club and you can get beautiful plants for much less than gardening centers sell them. Plus you know they will survive in your climate because the local gardeners have grown them.

#4 - Watch for end-of-season sales. You can pick up loads of plants at a discount from department stores that have seasonal garden centers. That's where you can pick up your trees and shrubs for less and save big!

#5 - Grow your own plants from seed. Some plants are super simple to grow, you can even just toss the seeds out in your garden at the right time and they'll grow well. Hardy geraniums,sunflowers and pansies are easy to start from seed. Poppies and cosmos are good examples of seeds you can just sow directly in the garden. Opium poppies can even be sown while there is still snow on the garden

#6 - Grow plants that self-seed or spread easily. Examples are creeping thyme, culinary thyme, Johnny Jump-ups, Ladies' Mantle, campanula, euphorbia, lamium, bugleweed, poppies and bee balm. I don't quite understand the desire for growing borderline plants in the garden. I personally don't want to drag some plant kicking and screaming into my garden, I'd much rather have ones that are happily growing and flowering and self-seeding all over.

The best part about rampant growers and self-seeders is that every year, you can dig up the extras and sell them at a yard sale to make some extra cash for the landscaping items that you can't get for free.

Hope I've been able to give you at least one tip you can use. Happy gardening!

#landscaping #gardening #Maygarden

No thyme to wait for herbs to dangle about drying? Or maybe you live in a humid climate like we do? Try these simple steps to quickly preserve every last leaf in your herb garden.

Jenn

www.GardenStamp.com

#summerstyle

Start with compost, add peat, perlite and fertilizer and mix well.

You can buy a big bale of compressed peat and large bag of perlite, depending on how much you need, these could last you quite a few seasons.

The fertilizer could be a slow release formula or a generic all purpose. I add more fertilizer depending on application ( hanging baskets for instance would get a handful more at planting time.

I just get in there with my garden gloved hands and give it a good mixing pulling out any large pieces that need more time to cook in the compost.

Your ratio should be about:

Compost= 60%

Peat= 30%

Perlite=10%

+ a few handfuls or more of fertilizer pending on size of mix.

For more info on composting visit: http://www.sowanddipity.com/the-dirt-on-comp...

Compost is THE key in adding healthy nutrients to your soil naturally! It's full of life and teeming with beneficial bacteria and organisms that can help keep your soil productive.

But what is the best way to use it once you have it? Here are 5 ways we use compost to keep our plants growing strong and healthy - and keep our soil fertile:

1. When You Plant

Using compost in your planting holes can get your vegetable plants off to a great startThis is number 1 on the list - and for good reason! There is simply no better way to get your plants off to a great start than working in compost at the time of planting. No matter what we are planting - flowers, annuals, perennials, shrubs or vegetables in the garden - we mix in generous amounts of compost to the hole!

For our tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and other vegetable plants - we fill each hole with a good shovel-full of compost before we drop in the plants. With our apple trees and grapes - we use a 50 / 50 mix of soil and compost to go back in the hole. It is the single best way to give added nutrients to your new plants. The compost helps hold in moisture, and gives valuable nutrients to the to roots of developing plants.

2. To Make Your Own Incredible Potting Soil

Make your own incredible potting soil from your compost!

If you want to save money and have your hanging baskets and potted plants go crazy with growth - use compost! We make all of our own potting soil with a mix of 4 parts compost, 4 parts topsoil and 1 part sand. It becomes the perfect medium for growing all of your potted planters, hanging baskets. and containers. The best part of all - it can save you loads of money!

What about those commercial bags that contain slow release fertilizers to help? You simply don't need them with good soil. With the added nutrients of the compost in the mix - your plants will grow strong. And when you do want to give a little boost of all natural fertilizer - try the next tip!

3. To Make Compost Tea - The Amazing All-Natural Liquid Fertilizer

You can make your own organic fertilizer "compost tea" - simply by steeping water in fresh compost!

Compost tea or "black liquid gold" is an all organic "miracle-growing" solution to fertilizing the garden – minus the chemicals and high salt content that commercial fertilizers add to your soil. It works its magic in two ways – feeding your plants through the roots (soil zones around plants) and the leaves (foliar zones). Unlike synthetic fertilizers, it won't build up chemicals and salt levels that can slowly destroy your soil structure. Instead, adding nutrients that build it! You can see how we make our's here : Making Compost Tea.

We apply with a watering can or a simple garden sprayer – soaking the area around the root base and the leaves of each plant with the solution. The minerals and nutrients are then absorbed through the leaves (foliar absorption) as well as through the root zone – doubling the effect. As with watering, it is best to apply early in the day before the sun is too hot and the tea can burn the leaves of plants.

4. As A Mulch

1 to 2" of compost as a much around your garden plants can pay huge dividends

Compost is simply incredible to use as a mulch around your plantings!

We mulch all of our annual plantings with an inch or two layer of compost about 6" in diameter around each and every plant. Not only does the compost act as the perfect mulch, keeping moisture in and weeds out - but it also adds valuable nutrients as it breaks down in the soil.

Another benefit - every time it rains or you water - those nutrients are leached out of the compost and into the soil around your plants - feeding them even more. It's the ultimate win-win of composting and mulching.

5. As A Fall Or Spring Top Dressing:

We incorporate 3" of compost into each bed in late fall or early spring each season - keeping our beds productive.

If you make enough compost - you can use it as an excellent top-dressing for your garden beds each year. Every fall or spring, (or both if you have enough) we like to add a 2 to 3" top-dressing of compost to all of our raised row beds. We then will work it in easily with a pitchfork or shovel and incorporate it into the top 6 inches of soil.

Each and every year, our soil becomes easier to work and more fertile with the added compost. Even if you can only make enough to put an inch or so on top of your beds to work in - it will pay huge dividends over time to increase your soil's fertility and vitality.

There you have it - 5 ways to use compost in your garden and landscape this year! Time to get composting! You can find more tips on how to compost here - Composting 101

Happy Gardening - Jim and Mary

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This past weekend I pulled out one of my Flavo-Rich metal milk crates and filled it with a mini herb garden. I love it-and it adds some fun character to a hole I had in the garden. Nestled right in with the ballerina roses and gardenia.

#OutdoorProject #diy #Gardening #Repurposeingandupcycling #BeforeandAfter

For the how-to and details head on over here: