A garden can be a great addition to your outdoor living space. Although many homeowners do love the idea, the time and financial resources needed to maintain a garden can be too much. But you don’t need to have a lot of money to maintain your garden. There are a number of cheap and creative ways that can be used to ensure your garden remains fresh without the extra efforts and money.
Related: Planting in the Fall for the Perfect Spring Garden
Here are some tips to keep in mind:
Use Water and Newspaper to Stop Weeds from Growing
We know that weed is the enemy of any gardener. There are many effective modern means that you can explore to get rid of weed but if you don’t have the budget, try to use water and newspapers. Start by covering the entire garden bed with newspapers. Once the garden bed is covered sprinkle water on the papers until they are wet. This is a creative and inexpensive way of keeping the weeds out and it truly works.
Use Crushed Eggshells to Protect Plants from Pests
Instead of throwing away the eggshells at home, you can put them to good use for your garden. Crushed eggshells can act as pesticides. They can also provide important nutrients for the plants. All you need to do is to gather as many shells as you can. Place the shells on a hard surface and crash them into small pieces. Sprinkle the pieces in various parts of the garden and that’s it. Other ways to naturally protect against insects include:
- Mulch
- Baking soda
- Burlap sheets
- Cayenne pepper
- Certain natural plants
Soak Your Seeds in Warm Water for 24 Hours before Sowing
It takes a few days before seeds take hold in the soil, and you will need to put in the work before this happens. However, you can save yourself the hassle by simply soaking the seeds into warm water 24 hours before sowing. This will make it easier and faster for the seed to take root, saving you hours of gardening and care in the process.
Add Baking Soda to the Soil to Sweeten Tomato Plants
Most gardeners will want to see that the effort they are putting has some reward in the end. In case you want to harvest sweet and succulent tomatoes, you can add baking soda to the garden soil. There are some fertilizers that can help with this but they are more expensive than baking soda. In any case, both solutions will work as expected.
Grow Mushrooms in Your Laundry Basket
Finding enough room to plant everything you want is never easy. The home garden is usually small but you can use the laundry basket to create that extra space. Just put in some solid and organic fertilizer to start. Although mushrooms are often recommended for the laundry basket, you can plant a wide range of plants there.
Repurpose a Shoe Organizer
If you are still pressed for space, you can use additional creative tips to get the job done. Repurposing a shoe organizer will help you leverage extra space to grow whatever you want. The great thing about a shoe organizer is that it helps you to grow vertically. This means that you can explore space way above the ground to maximize your harvest. You will need to add plant pots though to the shoe organizers. Make sure the shoe organizer is strongly built on a firm foundation before you start.
Use Broken Pots to Make Plant Markers
Plant markers are needed to identify the various crops in the garden. If you have a broken pot you can use it to create the markers. The pieces of the broken pot are marked and placed next to the crop they represent. You can use a dark mark pen to write on the pots or any other tool that creates a permanent marking.
Gardening can be an expensive and time-consuming task. However, if you learn a few creative ways to use common household items for gardening, you may end up saving a lot of money. The simple ideas above should provide a good start for anyone but there are many others out there.
