The 30-Mile Gardening Rule

Landscape designer, horticulturist and author Maureen Gilmer encourages gardeners to embrace their inner tightwad in her new book, “The Small Budget Gardener: All the Dirt on Saving Money in Your Garden.

Maureen Gilmer would n’t require to do any arm twist around here when it comes to garden on the cheap . I ’ve always looked for the least expensive way of life to garden ever since I started .

But even I learned a few frugal tricks in her fresh book , “ The Small Budget Gardener : All the Dirt on Saving Money in Your Garden . ” This book is loaded with ideas for bump cheap or spare alternatives for soil amendments , tools , seeds , industrial plant and garden structures .

It ’s only fitting the Word is budget priced at $ 16.95 .

The landscape interior decorator and plantsman writes from her own experience for pinching pennies and recommends that all gardeners pretend they be 30 miles from town , as she once did . That means every tripper to the stock is carefully considered before hopping in the auto and drive to the store .

“ Think of budget gardening as a elephantine scavenger hunt where you’re able to break concealed gem in the least likely places , ” she write .

Gardeners can repair before interchange , repurpose before purchasing or expend their imagination to create a suitable option from a pile of branches , twig and sticks . The goal is to spend as little money as possible .

I like Maureen ’s glide slope and the fact she cheerfully announces she ’s a gardening tightwad . She starts with a list of canonic script cock and gives guidelines for bribe them and idea for how to feel instrument hoarded wealth at estate cut-rate sale . dispose alloy prick are turned into garden art .

She has frugal or destitute options for fertilizers and cheap option for making homemade pesticides and weed killers .

I opine it would be fun to go with her on a manure safari to encounter free sources of bulk manure . I ’d take my bucketful into dairy and stockyard , farm , ranches , Equus caballus stalls , fairs , agricultural college , rooftop pigeon coops and petting zoos .

The book include a practiced department on soil solutions and one of the most concise instructions I ’ve show on how to make compost and leafage mulch . Another splendid section for veggie nurseryman on propagating free plants makes germ sowing levelheaded mere , especially for beginning gardeners .

“ The key to a low - cost veg or kitchen garden is to avoid fall for all the smaller intersection for sales agreement everywhere from the grocery store to the garden center . ”

Instead of an expensive tool footlocker , use an older ice chest . Plant fingerling potatoes in a durable weave plastic cup of tea that once hold beast provender . make bread and butter structures for climbing plants from long sticks collected from pruning . Recycle a Christmas tree diagram into a cone-shaped pea plant column . Tap school cafeterias for heavy - duty charge plate jugs , restaurant - size cans or other reusable containers to apply in the garden .

Maureen understands how easy it is for gardener to make the mistake of expend more on growing food than they would if they just buy it . All of her tightwad horticulture tip and small budget steal are aimed at aid gardeners eat for free or at least on a reduced budget .

Fine Gardening Recommended product

Razor - Back Potato / Refuse Hook

Corona ® Multi - Purpose Metal Mini Garden Shovel

SHOWA Atlas 370B Nitrile Palm Coating Gloves , Black , Medium ( Pack of 12 Pairs )

Get our recent tips , how - to articles , and instructional video sent to your inbox .

Signing you up …

Gardening and Geeks Go Together

Front Yard Vegetable Gardening

Gardening for Beginners

Small-Space Gardening Book Review

Join ok Gardening for a free engaging live webinar featuring Dr. Janna Beckerman , a renowned plant pathologist as well as professor emerita at Purdue University and the ornamentals technical coach …

When I spotted a particular gumption one dollar bill cactus ( Astrophytum asterias ) at the Philadelphia Flower Show a few month ago , I knew I was in trouble . With a delicious coloring material pattern …

When we only prioritize flora we want over plants our landscape needs , each time of year is sate with a never - end inclination of chores : pruning , pinching , watering , treating , amending , and fertilizing , with …

You’ll never toss away another stick after reading “The Small Budget Gardener.” Here sticks are used to create a free tepee as a trellis for vining vegetables.Photo/Illustration: Jodi Torpey

Video

Touring an Eco-friendly, Shady Backyard Retreat

You must be careful when you enter the backyard of garden designer Jeff Epping — not because you ’re potential to trip on something , but because you might be dive - flush it by a brace …