Garden Tips -
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With the ever increasing price of food our ideas will help. If you have space or if you are able to rent an allotment and grow a few vegetables, this is the way to beat inflation.
Alternatively, can you offer to cultivate part of a neighbour's garden, offering them half of the produce as 'rent'?
You will doubtless be spraying your crops with less chemicals than commercial growers, which is another bonus.
It is said home-grown vegetables provide more vitamins, minerals and nutrients than supermarket equivalents - so 'growing your own' is a big step towards a healthier lifestyle, as well as helping to cut the cost of your food bills!
There's no excuse not to grow your own. You don't need a large garden or an allotment, just a few pots, a grow-bag or two - the patio will suffice if space is limited.
1. Even if you do not have space outside, the youngest child could manage growing cress in a small dish with a piece of damp, soft cloth in which to root the cress seeds.
They will love to do this, as the results are very quick. This tip will give you a useful addition to your salads and sandwiches.
2. Sprouting vegetables grown in jars are another suggestion. Your local health food store will give you instructions.
It is not necessary to buy a special kit – a large jam jar, a piece of thin cloth and an elastic band are all you need – plus the appropriate seeds.
These sprouted vegetables are good for Chinese recipes. The bought ones often look a little jaded on the Supermarket shelves. These will be fresh and will save money. Can't be bad - and a fantastic gardening idea!
Once you have kindled an interest in growing plants you could well change the course of a child's life. It will probably promote an interest in eating their produce and may provide them with a life-long interest. The author speaks from her own personal experience here - gardening at school and I was hooked for life!
3. Marrows and courgettes are plants that the children will also like to grow. They need very little looking after except plenty of watering and harvesting. A great winner because of the short time these plants take to grow and the fantastic looking results.
You could also try pumpkins in readiness for Halloween. The children, and probably your friends will thank you for this clever gardening idea.
Always grow plants that are quick, easy, spectacular and useful if you want to retain the interest of the children.
Runner beans just keep on coming and are really sweet when they are picked when small and eaten raw - the kids will love them - almost like taking a forbidden fruit! They are also spectacular to look at particularly when they are grown 'wig-wam' style. Think Jack and the Beanstalk here. The children will be helping your budget as well as learning about growing vegetables. They will also learn that there are other ways to spend their time apart from watching TV.
4. Another good gardening tip is growing herbs in pots outside the kitchen door in readiness for giving plain meals a tasty ‘lift’. If you have an unusual container, i.e., an old wheelbarrow with holes drilled for drainage, make a feature herb garden. If you include mint in this herb garden, plant it in a pot submerged in the soil, otherwise it will run riot amongst the other herbs.
Mint, parsley and chives are particularly useful and very easy to grow. A cheese and chive omelette is a winner as a quick supper dish. Don't let the chives flower and run to seed otherwise you will have chive plants everywhere next season.
Rosemary is a lovely shrubby herb and the small, pointed leaves give a special taste to roast or sauté potatoes etc. but this plant will need a very large pot or otherwise planting in open ground.
Probably the gardening tip that beats all others on how to save money is the following:
5. After potatoes have been peeled, if they have produced any 'eyes' save the peel in a dark bag or container. When enough have been collected, dig a line trench in the garden, sprinkle the peelings in, cover with soil and wait.
It is amazing to get so much from so little. Just think how amazed the children and you will be at the results. Lovely new potatoes from nothing! Thanks to Jane Rice-Oxley of Denmead, Hampshire for this superb money saving tip. Well done!
6. This tip has a bonus attached. If you are planting a new hedge try including prickly items such as hawthorn, blackthorn, brambles etc. Such a hedge will be a deterrent to burglars, intruders etc and will definitely save money. The added bonus is it will be appreciated by birds and wildlife.
7. To keep slugs and other creeping invaders away from your veggies or prize plants such as hostas, find a hawthorn bush and snip off 1" or 2" cuttings, making sure you have a thorn on each piece. Let your collection drop into a bucket. Spread these cuttings around your prize plants. With thanks to Graham from Norfolk for this timely tip.
8. To kill weeds under and around conifers and shrubs instead of using a spray or watering can - both of which could cause damage to the plants, use an old long-handled ceiling roller and tray. This will apply the weed killer exactly where you want it, and is also very economical. Thanks to Guy from Suffolk for this tip.
9. The following suggestions on alternative weed killers for paths and paved areas have not all been tested, but all certainly seem feasible:
Take all the usual precautions regarding your skin, children and pets. Use on paths only and do not use on soil where you intend growing a crop/plants next year just in case any residue lurks in the soil. Fine for paths as lurking residue here is an advantage.
10. Start a compost heap. Somewhere out of sight in the garden make a small space to contain a compost bin. In best money saving tradition this can be home made with scrap wood. Ideally it should have no gaps in the sides, be situated directly on the soil and covered by an old piece of carpet to keep in the heat that will be generated as the material rots down.
Make thin, alternating layers of the following:
grass cuttings, young weeds, vegetable waste from the kitchen, animal manure such as waste from guinea pig cages, poultry manure.
It is also possible to incorporate small quantities of:
Sawdust and wood shavings. Fallen leaves are best placed in a separate pile until they become degraded into leaf mould,
Not only will you be finding an easy way of disposing of your waste you will be producing a good plus a free source of manure for the garden. To accelerate the rotting process you could try the old country tip of adding urine to your heap as a way of keeping it damp. Otherwise, an occasional sprinkling with water is fine. If you use urine as part of the rotting process, wait for a year before using the compost on the garden.
Do not compost meat, fish, cooked food, coal and coke ash, cat litter and dog poo and disposable nappies.
For details of how to construct another type of compost heap take a look at April. 2009. on our Gardeners Diary.
11. When re-potting a pot plant instead of the usual stones in the bottom of the pot for drainage, use a few large leaves to make a single layer covering the drainage holes. The water will drain freely but the soil will be contained. The leaves will eventually rot, giving your pot plant the advantage in the process. When it is necessary to re-pot the plant just use the process all over again.
12. When planting a shrub or tree, make sure there are no unwanted weeds etc. around the shrub. Place a thick layer of newspaper closely around the main stem and thoroughly soak the newspaper with water. Add a layer of compost. The wet newspaper will stop weed growth and the compost will encourage the newspaper to rot, making a good compost sandwich for the shrub. This should give it a really good start. Don't forget to keep the plant well watered until it is well established.
13. Kill ants by sprinkling any cheap talcum powder on them. The cheapest one found at the moment is Tesco's own brand 'My Baby's Powder' at £1.31 for 400g. Failing this, unwanted presents spring to mind.
Talcum powder is safer and cheaper than proprietary brands of ant-killer. This tip is also useful if you find ants in the house, particularly in the kitchen where there is food. It also has the advantage that when the ants return to their nest, the talcum on their bodies will help to kill off the rest of the ants.
Carpenter ants are found in the United States and love to make their home in moist, rotting wood. You will probably be able to hear them rustling around and see the piles of sawdust that they 'excavate' when tunneling into the wood. Try baitng the ants with small amounts of honey diluted with water in small, shallow containers (jam jar lids are OK) placed where you suspect activity. Check your bait after sunset and see of you are able to track the ants back to their 'home' (maybe your home). Probe around with a screwdriver and find their nest. You may need to drill some holes in the rotting wood so that you can puff boric acid into these holes. If this method fails to work, then it will probably be necessary to call in a professional exterminator.
14. To kill off tree stumps such as willow, drill large holes in the remaining stump, fill with salt, cover with a sheet of plastic to prevent rain diluting or washing away the salt. Another method is to fill the holes with creosote.
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15. For persistent weeds such as nettles, docks, ground elder and bindweed there are two approaches - the 'softly, softly' method and the 'kill all' method. For 'softly softly' dig the weeds out individually.
Nettles are easy, but wear gloves and a long sleeved jacket as they pack a hefty sting. Loosen the soil with a fork and the clumps should pull out very easily.
If you are out-numbered by large numbers of docks - they have a tendency to congregate - cut the flowering heads off, collecting them in a carrier bag and dispose of them safely where they can do no more damage until you can deal with the plant itself. This weed has a long tap root which is sometimes difficult to remove and comes into the 'kill-all' category.
Ground elder is easy to manage by digging out and the pure white roots are very easy to identify.
Bindweed must really be allocated to the 'kill all' section as the roots can travel for up to 15ft, which would amount to an awful lot of digging! For the 'kill all' method it will be necessary to resort to a weed killer containing glyphosate.
The other weed in the 'kill all' category is couch grass . This particular enemy is called by various names in different parts of the country - twitch and scutch being two variations. Contrary to popular belief this grass will not die off completely if dug and turned, it needs every last bit of remaining root to be removed.
16. Don't buy hanging basket liners when you are making your baskets for the summer. Instead line the basket with an old knitted type sweater. It is easy to cut holes in these and insert the plants around the sides, and the knitted texture of the sweater retains the moisture.
17. If you place a saucer or shallow dish in the base of the hanging-basket after you have fitted the old sweater lining, this saucer will help retain moisture when the basket is watered. This will make your plants happier and last longer.
18. Don’t buy sprayers for the greenhouse, just wash out one of your empty domestic cleaning sprayers and re-use. Free!
19. Collect all the fallen autumn leaves, put them in a bin liner bag, add a small amount of water to keep the leaves damp and in rotting mode, securely tie and leave in a secluded part of the garden. Give the bag a good shake occasionally. When rotted down the resultant 'compost' can be put around shrubs and trees or added in layers to your compost bin.
20. If you have an Aloe Vera pot plant, make sure you make good use of the healing properties. If you burn yourself or get stung by an insect, quickly break one of the long Aloe Vera leaves in half and and either rub the broken edge on the injury or squeeze the Aloe juice on to it. The liquid is very cooling and is reputed to have healing properties.
21. You may be lucky in having a gardening club in your area. These clubs are exceedingly well organised and buy fertilizers, seeds, etc. in bulk giving members the opportunity of saving even more money. Some have an arrangement with local shops prepared to give members a discount on purchases.
22. To protect your strawberries use old mouse mats with a round hole cut near to one side. Those in the picture (which shows strawberries growing in a raised bed) had a slit cut about 1" long, which then developed into a round shape (outlined first by using the base of a tumbler). The circle was removed leaving a mat with a 1" slit. The mat was then easily inserted under the plant. Place the shiny side of the mat on to the soil with the rubberised side uppermost to protect the fruit. Remove the mat at the end of the picking season, wash and store away for use next year. As the plants become larger in subsequent years, it may be necessary to widen the slit to cope with the increased growth. These mats help to suppress weed growth but do not affect watering.
If you can't find enough mouse mats call in at your local carpeting shop and ask for an old out-of-date book of vinyl flooring samples. You will probably find they are given away FREE.
23. Do you have an unidentified plant in your garden? Try a search on Plant Index
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