Frugal Tips

Moneysaving Tips for Gardeners

June 25, 2018 by Ilona Erwin

Dirt Cheap Garden Ideas

Not everyone can afford a bath size water garden kit, but what about using an old tub that was cast off from a remodeling project? What about old teacups turned into bird feeders? Or signs made out of old lumber, or the newest trend… making stuff out of wooden pallets?

In the following sections: learn how to save money in the garden.

Dividing your plants will make more, for free.
Growing from seed and making your own pots.
Making compost for healthy plants through scrap recycling.
Measuring soil amendments correctly for no waste.
Buying used: Re-purposing and how to shop Flea Markets
Avoiding costly mistakes

Re-purpose for Inexpensive Garden Ornaments

Making New Plants by Division

frugal planting tips — Lift older plants, cut them apart and plant each piece as a new plant. Many perennials are multiplied this way.

Lift older plants, cut them apart and plant each piece as a new plant. Many perennials are multiplied this way.

Divide Your Plants and Multiply!

An easy, cheap way to make the most of your purchases

Just take a sharp tool of the appropriate size for the plant and slice into it. Take part of the plant and a good bit of root and you are the new owner of a number of new plants.

Perennials

Perennials usually have to be divided at some point, although there are a few that you only divide when you want more plants, but did you think about the possibility of having many plants of one you just purchased? I did this with moss phlox, Phlox subulata, which I had planted on a hillside in my yard.

I took the plant out of its container and simply pulled it into a number of pieces with roots, then planted each piece. Keeping the new plants moist while they settled in was work that would have been done,regardless. For the money of one plant I had several that soon grew into larger sized plants that covered much more ground. There are plants such as moss phlox ( indeed all types of phlox) that like to be cultivated like that

A Shrub Can Be Divided

Hydrangea shrubs are easy to divide.

People are afraid of dividing shrubs because they are woody, but many types of of shrubs are easy to multiply trough division. Simply divide off a small start from the side of a shrub such as a Weigela or a Spirea, and plant it just like any new little shrub.

Plants that have multiple stems and fibrous roots are most likely able to be divided into many new plants, those with tap roots and single trunk are least likely to be successfully divided.

Need help in figuring out “tap roots, stems, etc? Try some Plant Science for Laymen.

Easy Dividing and Garden Tips

American Horticultural Society Plant Propagation: The Fully Illustrated Plant-by-Plant Manual of Practical Techniques

Whether you are a new gardener or an expert master gardener, it is always cheaper to grow your own plants if you need a number of them. This book is one of best to have on your gardening bookshelf for learning all about making more plants successfully.

Another way to garden cheaply is to know which books you really and which are less than you hoped. This is one of the few books which will be very useful over and over.

Plants For Pennies

plants for sale — The art of knowing where and when to look

Grow From Seed

One of the least expensive ways to fill your garden with flowers,vegetables, and plants is to grow them from seed.

Plant Propagation – Growing Plants from Seed is Frugal

Growing from seed can be the single most economical way to have lots of plants in a short time. They often are inexpensive, and the materials used to start them can be homemade ( pots or growing trays from household castoffs).

For many crops you don’t even need to start the seeds inside. They can be directly sown into the garden. Carrots, lettuce, spinach and other food items are grown this way.

Besides dividing and growing from seeds, there are other means to propagate plants- even expensive ones like named rare evergreens.

Get a resource book that will guide you to expertise. Learn to multiply plants through softwood and hardwood cuttings, leaf cuttings, etc.

Cheap Ideas and Seed Starting Tips

Paper Pot Maker

Using a simple tool can turn old newspapers into seed starting pots.

Toilet Roll Pots

Inexpensive Means to a Luxurious Garden

Everyone wants to save a little cash, don’t they? well, more than that we are all getting much more aware of being environmentally responsible. It is time for frugal gardening tips!

Recycling, Being Green, and Smart Budgeting

We have entered an economic new era, one in which frugality plays a major role. The garden is one place where we can have the luxury of a beautiful surrounding with lush plantings for a limited budget, if need be.

Besides the beauty of a garden, it is one place where you can do something about that high food bill and actually have more gourmet quality food! It all depends on the effort you want to put into garnering the skills, creating the long term environment for a fertile growing place, and learning a few tricks of the trade.

Cheap Gardening is Chic

I suppose besides that, you might have that frugal gene that gets unexplainable glee at being as cheap as possible on what can be the extreme challenge of a trip to the plant store. Once you’ve caught the gardening bug, you may find it takes your wit and will to outsmart the wily, winsome plants displayed.It is a huge act of willpower to not bust the budget with impulse purchases.

Thankfully, plants like to reproduce readily for the most part. That can make them inexpensive, when you learn how to propagate them and find the best deals for new ones.

Of course there are some caveats along the way- that is what challenges your wits and makes it more fun.

“Passalong” Plants

The cheapest way to save money is to get something free.

Passalong plants are what some call them, friendship plants by others, but they are the plants that other gardeners wish to bless you with. While it is good to not kick a gift horse in the mouth, you still need to know how to avoid problems from this act of kindness.

Some plants are invasive and you will hate yourself for planting them. They are sometimes something you bought unaware of its thuggery, but often they just grow SO well that others have lots to share with you. Understand the nature of the gift plant before you make it comfortable in your garden. Other than that, if you are given a nice healthy plant that is loved by others… it will be a great addition for your garden and you can start the next prime way to gain many inexpensive plants.

No plant is a good deal if it takes over the garden and creates endless hours of weeding

Buying from yard, tag sales, and benefit sales, buying at the end of the season- these are all ways to save money on your plant purchases.

Thuggery List – Plants to Avoid

Some plants act badly in the garden, they don’t make good neighbors. You can help them move in, but you may regret it in the future. This list is to help you decide whether you want to do that. Remember that dandelions were once someone’s favorite salad vegetable.

If your free plants crowd out more valuable plantings, if they require lots of work to control, if they are detrimental to the environment (compete with native plants, poor nutrition for wildlife), then they are no longer a bargain.

Garden Thugs

Bishops Weed, Aegopodium podagraria
Vinca major
many bamboos
many mints (Mentha ssp.)
Garlic mustard, Alliara petiolata
Purple loosestrife, Lythrum salicaria

Turn Garbage into Gold

Compost Those Leaves

They turn into black gold for your soil.

Compost added to soil — Compost is pure gold for a gardener. Make your own and add to the flower beds and veggie patch.

Collect Kitchen Scraps

Thought the first tip would be about which plants to buy? No plant is a bargain when the soil is so poor it doesn’t grow well or -horrors- quickly dies. Your soil can be improved and there are cheap ways to do that.

Top #1 Frugal Garden Tip

Make your own compost pile. Your own bin or one that is purchased will collect all your green waste, vegetable peelings from the kitchen, coffee grounds, tea leaves, etc. And it should reduce your garbage that would need to be collected to some degree, too!

I used to hear stories about gardeners who would not find it beneath them to follow the horse trail to gather good horse manure. If you have a source of manure from a horse, cow, or chickens, that is ideal to age for some months and then fertilize your soils. Forget about waste that comes from you, your cats, or your dogs, which aren’t healthy wastes to use.

All those leaves you either have hauled away or burn? Save them! Compost them! Create leaf mould which is one of the best soil conditioners- and they are free!

Counter Convenience

Top Rated Epica Stainless Steel Compost Bin 1.3 Gallon-Includes Charcoal Filter

Convenience and charcoal liner make this one gallon compost container a simple, attractive way to recycle your kitchen scraps.

What You Can Use – and NOT Use in a Compost Pile

To some, compost making is a high art form. I take the lazy way and just pile and leave it to decay, but it is still important to know what to use (or not) to make the compost a healthy addition to the soil and for your property. You do not want to attract pests, or spread plant disease, which is why some materials are not added.

You wouldn’t believe all the things that can be recycled into the earth.

If you make, or buy, a compost bin it won’t take long before you have rich brown crumbly humus to add to your own pots and garden beds.

Jump Start Your Compost Pile

Espoma Organic Traditions Compost Starter- 4 lb Bag

List of Additions for Composting (and 3 No-No’s)

Grass Clipping +
Mulched leaves +
Vegetable peels, old fruit, rotten vegetables +
Coffee grounds and tea leaves +
Chicken, cow, or horse manure +
Lint and household dust +
Hair from you and your pets +
toilet paper rolls and used napkins +
163 things you can add to your compost pile

What are the Composting “No-No’s”?

NO dog or cat waste –
NO meat leftovers or products –
NO diseased plant matter –

Compost Sacks?

Bag up tree leaves to decompose over winter.

Helpful Infographic

Inside Nature ~ Infographic: How-To Compost | Blog | Nature | PBS

Create An Organic Garden

It isn’t difficult or complicated to learn to garden organically- just change some of your methods and lifestyle to become greener and you might love learning to take care of your world.

Products to jump-start the garden might seem like frills until you realize that when growing food, the earlier you harvest, the earlier you save on the groceries.

Growing organically may not be as simple, there are things to learn and time needed to build up the soils. In the long run, it is more frugal. It is also healthier.

Soil amendments are the number one way to create better soil. The video on how to measure them saves waste.

More Gardening Tips For Saving Money

How and when to get supplies takes a small bit of effort for better gardens.

Making good compost for healthy vegetables.
Near a quarry? See if you can get some rockdust. Might be cheap, might be free.
Need to buy fertilizer or conditioners? The end of season (fall time) stores usually discount their lawn and garden supplies.
Green manure is the use of plants that can be turned under to add nitrogen to the soil, almost as good as the brown stuff.

How Much Soil Amendment? -Compute the Amount Needed

One way to save money is to buy just the amount of something that you need. Use this formula in the video above to compute your garden math.

Compute The Right Amount, No Waste

Another way to save money – books from moneysaving experts.
It is so popular to save money rather than make money that people write books about it.

The Frugal Gardener

This book is for you to keep the gardening budget trim and have fun doing it. Ideas for choosing amendments, making more plants, making garden structures for less cost. More detail on many of the topics brought up in my article.

Make A Plan

One of the easiest ways to control costs is to stick with a garden plan.

…Where and When to Buy Garden Supplies

Cheapest Time

Like everything else garden plants and supplies have an off-season.

This usually falls in July if you live in the USA. Many garden centers hold sales in July, but the problem with buying their bargains is that this is the hardest time to keep new plantings alive. The hot dry weather of continental USA is taxing for plants. Drought can mean death to new trees and shrubs even if they are planted in the spring. So weigh your choices, and if you can give your plants attention and enough water, by all means buy the bargains.

Supplies suffer no such problems -so stock up on pots, tools, hoses, or whatever you find on sale.

Autumn is an excellent time to buy sale plants for a cheap price, and as long as the ground is not frozen you can plant them. Cover them with some mulch and they should be an excellent investment. I guarantee nothing- but have had GREAT results from autumn planted bargains.

Buy Used

Buy used tools either through auctions or at tag sales. There are some very good tools at garage sales!

Garden Finds

garden ornament find — Find treasures at tag sales and flea markets

Remember

To save money sometimes you have to spend some of it. To save time, sometimes you have to put a little effort in at the beginning. To reap, you have to sow.

Reuse, Repurpose

Reusing material to make a cottage garden hideaway.

My favorite way to save money in the garden

Old shoes or old chairs? New pots and new potstands.
Old fence boards? New raised bed frames.
Old windows? New coldframe.

There are all sort of ways to make a new part of the garden from old sources of materials.

The main thing you need is ingenuity, so put on your thinking cap.

Flea Market Gardening

Garden Treasure — An old idea gives a fresh face to the patio.

People are looking to flea markets, tag sales, and good old garage sales to re use and repurpose things for their garden. Some great finds are available, and it is a way to find statues and other types of garden ornaments, or cobbling together various architectural elements to create a little Victorian garden shed like this one, pictured above.

Flea Marketing

In the spirit of repurposing comes the marriage of flea market visits and gardening, with its own site and magazine to promote the concept. Tips like these from Anna Looper:
“[She] has her own essentials list. She says, “When I go junking-

I take a hat,
gloves,
water,
- apron with the pockets stuffed with little scissors,
- tissues,
- chapstick,
- permanent Marker and string.

Also in my car are plastic bags and bungi cords.
Handi-wipes and sanitizers are must.
I bring a cooler full of drinks, fruit, and cheeses for snacks.”

More Money Saving Tips

Arrive as early as possible and get the best merchandise at a premium price, or arrive late and get good merchandise at clearance prices but fewer choices.”

The Flea Marketer’s List

take along…

hat
gloves
water
apron with the pockets
little scissors
tissues
chapstick
permanent marker
string
plastic bags
bungi cords
Handi-wipes
sanitizers

That’s a serious shopper!

Reuse Old Stuff in the Garden

Waste Not, Want Not

Time to recall that famous old adage.

Ingenious ideas for everyone to try

Repurpose and Keep Green

Handmade Home: Simple Ways to Repurpose Old Materials into New Family Treasures

Sometimes we wish we could be more frugal, more green, and ingeniously repurpose, but we need a little help. A book with great ideas and the how-to comes to the rescue!

Money Saving Garden Tips Redux

Old windows make a coldframe

Old windows top a simple raised bed for an instant coldframe.

The lowdown on frugal garden tips:

Reuse plastic or clay pots from nursery plants
Repurpose old household things in the garden
OLD PLASTIC MILK JUGS OR LITER SODA BOTTLES AS WINTER CLOCHE FOR NEW PLANTS
Make your own compost
Buy used tools
Make seed pots from toilet rolls or newspaper
LEARN TO PROPAGATE YOUR OWN PLANTS

Make a DIY Bath Tub Pond

Have Any Tips for Us?

I would love to hear how you save money in your gardens. Or how your gardens save money for you.

Visit An Arboretum And Save Dollars On Your Landscape

July 6, 2016 by Ilona Erwin

What if you could see which shrubs and trees grow well in your landscape? Or learn of plants mature sizes without waiting for years? An Arboretum can show and tell.

What Is An Arboretum?

An Arboretum is a place where trees are grown, but not only trees. Many are places to find shrubs, perennials, and wildflowers – many plants that you may wish to have in your garden. It is mostly a showcase for woody plants, however.

Purposes for Arboretums are not simply as places where there is a collection of interesting and beautiful plants are grown, although they are that;. The purpose for these landscapes is to gain scientific strides in horticulture, with education of the public in mind.

Arboretums are grown with an educational mission. To help visitors become familiar with the kinds of plantings that are grown within the collection, to learn how to combine plantings, to aid with conservation. One expert calls such a place a “Museum of trees”.

How will that well praised tree of the garden center look after twenty years? Will it need to be moved or cut down? How about the shrubs you planned to put at the front of the house? Will your planting spaces prove too crowded in just a couple years? Arboretums provide a visual answer.

These are also places that explain the uses of plantings, important growing information is offered, even discovered. They are a place where endangered botanicals can be protected, propagated. Where one can learn of the possibilities of a landscape.

FREE BOTANY EDUCATION

A place to see rare trees
Learn the proper names of the woody plantings
Learn about conservation

Ornamental Trees for Your Garden

Dogwood trees bloom in spring, ornamental trees with graceful branching structure — They are ornamental trees with graceful branching structure

Dogwood trees bloom in spring. They are ornamental trees with graceful branching structure

How Does Plant Knowledge Save Money?

On of the best investments in improving your home is spent on the outside, creating an attractive yard. Many people either neglect that fact, or hire someone to do all the planning and work for them -or they move into a home where the choices have been made. But learning a bit about the plants that will work best to form a useful and pleasing garden area will enable you to work with a professional more efficiently, or maintain valuable landscaping.

An Arboretum is the place to go to find new, improved landscape selections, or how to care for older ones. One you have your yard’s plan in hand, a visit gives a first hand look at the actual plants ( quite different from a simple description or blobs on graph paper).

There are ideas for gardens and an array of many different cultivars, all arranged so they may be seen growing in a real garden where their attributes are best displayed.

A crabapple walk at Dawes Arboretum was one of those. Many people think of planting crabapple trees, especially when they see the gorgeous spring bloom. But how do you pick the one for you, of the hundreds of choices? How do you know that you would like one beside your own driveway? Seeing which have tiny fruits (that are almost no nuisance at all), and which ones have fat squishy fruits that are great for jellies, (but not so wonderful when dropped on the walk to the house) can make the choice for you.

Such illustrations save costly mistakes, and help with the best landscape choices for shading, protecting, and complementing a home.

Walking Through Dawes Arboretum Evergreen Glen

Know How, Isn’t That What I Pay A Professional For?

WHY DO I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MY LANDSCAPING?

You do pay an expert for their knowledge and help. The best professionals will consult with the client’s opinions, goals, and desires, however. Even if leaving the yard to others, the initial choices and continued oversight will benefit from knowing the facts. You help them to help you, in other words.

Besides, a place where the facts of plants are pleasantly presented in glades, dells, and flower gardens is probably the most enjoyable way you will ever experience in getting an horticulture education!

HOW TO GAIN FROM YOUR VISIT:

Explore, take a walking or driving tour and get around the place to see what is growing there.
Take advantage of educational opportunities, there are often special events, lectures, plant sales.
Take notes. If you see a shrub or tree you like, write down the name, they are labeled.
Find out how trees and shrubs can save energy by cooling or protecting the home, buffering winds, or provide privacy. Get information and ideas about how the plants are used in the landscape.

One thing I have learned about growing things is the huge difference between reading and hearing about plants and gardens and the actual experience of them. This is what an Arboretum provides: an up close, in person learning experience with growing trees and other woody plants in a way that incorporates the health of the plant and environment and creating a beautiful place.

Latin Name Labels

All the plantings are labeled. Take notes with your phone!

How many spruces are there?

Rare evergreen shrubs are interesting. Some may be ordered through specialist catalogs

A Water Saving Homescape

Methods	Plantings	Education
Terracing	Plants for a terrace	Water harvesting
Xeriscaping	Native plants	Choosing right plants for your climate
Zone planting	Plants with differing water needs	Garden examples

Live in the southwest?

View of Mature Landscape Evergreens

The Evergreen Glen was highly educational, and it was a pleasant afternoon walk.

Your Opinion

Seeing Trees: Discover the Extraordinary Secrets of Everyday Trees

An Arboretum In Ohio

Dawes is a place I visit regularly. The pictures in this article come from those visits at different times of year, although spring and fall are my favorites.

My soil conditions may be different, but just as I found invaluable information that led me to plant shrubs and trees which were later found on sale in the nurseries, you can too. I had seen the specimens growing at the Arboretum, and knew them to survive our winters. I could see the space they occupied before putting the shrubs into places that would require constant pruning. And it was all for free.

This place has always been a top day trip for my family through the years.

For young children, it is not only a day out in nature, but their children’s discovery are in the visitors building is full of interesting activities, books and things to see.
For us as homeowners, it was a chance to see what particular trees and varieties look like, stroll through gardens that had great design ideas, enjoy beauty of the Japanese garden ( even if I had no intention of attempting to create one of my own).
For the elderly, the drive thru tour saves energy and one’s legs while affording the wonder of the park setting and the beautiful grounds.

If I had not seen the Northernmost planting of Bald Cypress I may not have known such plantings were possible. It inspired me to plant one in my own front yard, which has been a source of interest and beauty as a tree specimen.

There are plantings I made, like the Chinese Chestnut trees, which did not benefit from such expert example. I tried them in my yard and promptly lost them to a particularly cold winter. I might have been saved the trouble if I had noticed they don’t grow them in the arboretum. As it was, I lost two valuable trees- time and money wasted through ignorance.

That type of result is what a visit to these wonderful plant places can give you: an accurate idea of what will grow best in your climate and conditions.

Resource

The Chinese Chestnut tree

WHAT CAN BE FOUND AT DAWES?

Some popular features are the Japanese Garden>, The Cypress Swamp, and The Azalea Glen.

Elegant Japanese Garden Is Serene

Japanese Garden Tree

Bloodgood Japanese Maple – 4-5 ft.

Crabapple Lane

The effect of blooming crabapples is breathtaking.

Cost of An Arboretum, Fees

THE COST TO YOU IS MINIMAL

Many times such places are free.

Some are free to members who pay annual fees; some are open to all, but require an entrance fee. Check in advance whether there is an entry fee or not. The costs are usually minimal in my experience.

Such places give an education that benefits all of us collectively, and it is worthy of support. Donations or memberships are premier ways to support their work, and if there is an entrance fee it is usually minimal. All to a good cause.

But most of us freely enjoy and learn! It is a very frugal way to get entertainment, and as a daytrip to explore when we travel.

This is a Snowbell Tree

An unusual flowering tree

Use Native Plants

Prairie Plants of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum: Including Horsetails, Ferns, Rushes, Sedges, Grasses, Shrubs, Vines, Weeds, and Wildflowers

DIY Saves Money

Arboretums are a great resource for the D-I-Y home landscaper. Nothing saves money like doing something yourself, and with plantings the important measure of success is not just looking good at the initial installation, but growing well over time. Seeing full grown plants in growing conditions like your own will be the best way to wisely choose, and perhaps see plants as they are tested for the home market.

The brochures, the classes, and websites that are produced by these organizations will also provide invaluable information. Visiting these parks and gardened collections provide not just time in the outdoors, but a chance to pick up valuable materials, perhaps view library materials about trees and plants, and learn how to landscape localized to your own area. This can bring added success to the diy home landscaper.

Ways Trees Can Save Us

The Global Forest: Forty Ways Trees Can Save Us

UCF Arboretum Research
Description of Arboretum research and links to educational opportunities. California.

Will This Save You Landscaping Money?

More Than Pretty

March 16, 2012 by Ilona Erwin

It’s true, and that was something I wrote about in these garden thoughts. But pretty can make some of life’s all too real tragedy bearable. It is that fine balance, really, that the making of art revolves around. There is a time for photo documentary and there is a time for photoshop… to put it in familiar terms.

One thing that often bothered me about the art world was the restrictive elitism of all that angst which was supposed to mean you were a “real artist”; and one thing that I loved, conversely, about gardening was the way a garden was an expression of whatever you feel is wonderful or beautiful or ….yes, just plain pretty. The problem with mere prettiness in life is when it becomes a consuming editor of all our aims and thoughts.

Sometimes I don’t want my garden, or my writing, or my communication to be only the merely pretty. But I do want beauty, which is sometimes wild, and sometimes quite trained and tamed.

I guess my point is that as soon as we make these odd sorts of “rules” we miss out on the wide spectrum of experience that life is supposed to contain.

Nothing is wrong with “pretty” or “pleasant” until it becomes a petty bureaucratic taskmaster. You know, the politically correct syndrome. Much of life’s real beauty is about freedom is another way I would phrase it. Freedom is beautiful. Freedom flourishes with ideas and guidelines, and suffers terribly with too many rules, and martinets to enforce them. And nothing like art points that out half so well.

Which brings me to something I believe about gardening. Gardens at their best are an art expression. They are man’s hand upon nature, sometimes so subtle that it is an illusion of no manipulation at all to the extremes of control and imagination, but they are most definitely an outcome of the mind, will, sweat, sometimes blood, and finances of the maker.

So yes, a garden is more than merely pretty, but pretty certainly is part of it.

Wall Street Guru Gives Gardening Advice

October 7, 2010 by Ilona Erwin

Swiss Chard Not Swiss Banks

There is an awful lot of speculation about the economy and where the financial shape of the world (and our future) is going and proffered advice on how we can protect ourselves from hard times.

Jim Rogers, Well Known Investment Guru

Jim Rogers, an expert investor, has good advice for the wise (at least some feel it is wise), but gardeners and garden bloggers have been way ahead on one point of the recommendations given: “You should become a farmer – farming is going to be a great, great profession.” As he opines on the value of agricultural commodities and the good sense of investing in “real” assets, many of us on the grass roots level, far from the frenzy of Wall Street are quietly building our gardens and our knowledge of food gardening.

We Are Way Ahead

It isn’t something you do overnight, as many who are entering into their gardens in a whole new way are coming to find out (front yard food gardens, allotment gardening in cities-and all sorts of variations wherever a bit of soil and a green thumb can connect) . With the impetus of financial concerns there are many more people who are discovering the enjoyment of the outdoors, and fresh additions to their tables. Through making a patch of a kitchen garden in their yard to save money on the food bills, more are interested in gardening than I’ve seen in a long time. It might not save you money this year, or the next, but as you become more skilled in growing food, and adding to your toolsheds, it will eventually accumulate into what many know to be a satisfying lifetime passion. We might even save substantially on our grocery bill if we keep at it.

We are the future garden gurus…. and just might make a difference in the community, too, while learning to encourage the earth to give of her bounty.

But whether we have abundant crops, make a few mistakes, or suffer some of nature’s vagaries…. along the way we will enjoy some fruits of our labors, and share some with our neighbors. That is the golden rule worth investing in!

There are more farmers in the making… we are just marching to a different drummer, or hoeing a different row, and on a more local scale than the big farm business that engines the trades in commodities. We are certainly very real, nevertheless.

Want to start your own addition to the ground swell of green and growing gardening?

A Starter Vegetable Garden
Basics of vegetable gardening
Your Own French Potager
Learn To Grow Your Own Food
A Kitchen Garden

If you’d like to see a good example of how it is done… check out Marie Simon Gowan’s photos at the Facebook Page for Ilona’s Garden Journal

If you would like to follow more of my adventures…

April 8, 2010 by Ilona Erwin

Sometimes too many blogs in the fire are too much of a good thing, I know… for reading and writing. However (you knew that was coming, right?) I had decided to break up the topics that I write on into separate blogs some time ago (before blogging, actually, when making that first Geocities website).

ANYWAY – you might be interested in following the d-i-yourself tales and the back and forth banter between my husband (aka Handyman) and I who are the two writers, and apparently the two readers, of that blog on fixing up the old house. I am also writing in the garden file with my little plans and projects for the garden. It sort of keep track of how accountable I am to my dreams and plans, etc.

Garden Beds and Your Marriage get covered in the old house. Oh the double entendres that inspires!

Garden tasks and plans for this week, in the Garden File.

Gardening, Greening, and Saving Society

January 12, 2010 by Ilona Erwin

Survivor, America is a financial oriented article/video from Yahoo Finance, today. It centers around a point of view that many of us have become familiar with- but I wanted to look at it from the Gardener’s perspective.

In short, Gerald Celente, director of the Trends Research Institute, predicts that things are going to become much worse in our economy. As Aaron Task, the interviewer, drew out, that prediction is on the dire side of somewhere between the warm sweater days of the seventies and the breadlines of the thirties.

Personally, I’m not of the opinion that it looks as though it will go to that low of a level, but it could, and it certainly looks like we must make long term changes in the way we choose to live. So… how does Celente picture how that looks, and how do I believe that will look, and how does this impact gardeners?

Before you read on: I think gardeners are a step ahead of the game and can impact the situation in important ways.

Celente says

we’re going back to basics, making do with less and adopting the following mantra: “Waste not, want not. Use it up, wear it out. Make it do, or do without.”
at the same time the demand will be for quality, low end products are not going to be where people want to put their money.
beauty, elegance, and “good things” are going to be what matters to people.
get rid of lawns and grow food
D-I-Y efforts and skills
Getting back to basics, frugality, energy consciousness.
Politically, more activism

You don’t have to be a garden writer guru to know how many people are jumping on the bandwagon of growing your own food, organic gardening, and interest in survival (or what I used to call “homesteading”) skills. There are new internet sites and blogs every day popping up with that theme, thick as a newly sown row of radishes. Some thinning needs to be done… and that is by you, the reader.

This will impact what is left of garden magazines, what is available in garden centers, and a long tail of other parts of media and the general economy. OK, most of you know that already.

Here is what often gets overlooked:
Not all garden advice is equal.
and
Once burned, twice learned
That is, the trendmakers of media are going to highly promote that everyone can and should grow their own food in the garden, or in pots, or somehow or other… and that it is as easy as pie…. and that you will save money, get healthy wealthy and wise by following their 1-2-3 plan.

Because that is what garden writing has been accustomed to saying for a couple of decades now.

It is throw-away gardening, because if you get fifteen or twenty credulous newbies and they try it, finding gardening “too much work”, or have disappointing results, or just the bad luck of hitting a bad year (it happens), then of those who aren’t hooked by natures seductive charms, or thrilled by the life miracles and awakening of their senses, will just walk away and get replaced by another twenty or so soon enough. It doesn’t need to be that way, and society benefits from frugal and skillful citizens who take responsibility for themselves and their dependents. We all benefit from growing good food, from wise stewardship of the earth, and from being in touch with basic elements of life.

But those unprepared ‘walkaways’ are going to be burned and much harder to engage in something that could help them, and their society. A few things are wrong with this system in the new scenario of a longterm tougher economic environment.

It will make the garden oriented sector of the economy harder to market to a more fiscally frugal society. Junk science loses trust for all science. So this trend for quality? I think those in [garden] media should be at the forefront of giving quality information and cutting the hype from their habits. This isn’t the poetical or enthusiastic waxing of delight in growing things, but in the honesty about the fact that there is a set of skills to learn and more than a bit of sweat manufactured in the cultivating of horticulture. We could help create success from the outset, rather than guarantee disappointment or disbelief in their own abilities.

We could clarify our information by defining vague adjectives like “easy”. Easy as in “most anyone can learn how” rather than easy implying “it won’t break a sweat” or “demands minimal time”.
Be up-front about the need to develop skill sets and the timeframes involved in that (creating soil of good tilth and fertility doesn’t happen with a wave of a spray fertilizer).
A great part of the appreciation of something is our exposure to its virtues. Feature genuine alternatives in attractive ways.

Garden writing and garden advice needs to get away from the glossy magazine image and into the real nitty gritty. It can have elegance and grace in doing so, but at its core it needs to be real. Real science, real experience, real expectations. I suppose I could include real color and real presentation… but that is a sidepath that comes along with a general focus on everyman’s gardening.

That Old Yankee Know-How

And what about the frugality, and the “Waste not, want not. Use it up, wear it out. Make it do, or do without”?

“For wealthy individuals, the recession has presented an ideal opportunity for a strategic analysis of their current lifestyle,” said Steve Pappaterra, senior vice president and managing director of wealth planning for PNC Wealth Management. “It is time to strip away the clutter, discern what is most important, and develop tangible action steps to ensure that key goals and dreams are accomplished and important values are passed on.” -culled from a newswire

Even the very wealthy are considering.

I come from Yankee roots, the “Yankee Doodle”, not just “North of the Mason Dixon line” type, and that means Yankee frugality was just the right way to do things on one side of my family.

To foreigners, a Yankee is an American.
To Americans, a Yankee is a Northerner.
To Northerners, a Yankee is an Easterner.
To Easterners, a Yankee is a New Englander.
To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter.
And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast.

Penny-pincher was a compliment, ingenious ways to make do were an intellectual exercise, and getting a bargain on an item that won the “necessary” status was an occasion for glee. It is an essentially “green” way to live. Discipline and skill helps.

In the dual trends of such frugality and desire for quality I think gardeners are ahead.

We already are convinced of the good of recycling and not wasting perfectly good things such as coffee grounds and banana skins. We already compete to produce quality and flavor in our food, we already value design and beauty, and we already have many fine value efforts at sharing and conserving. And every good gardener worth his/her salt likes to share: their expertise, their extra produce, and their enthusiasm. Sometimes even their brawn and their sweat equity.

Everyone benefits from seeing good examples, and hands-on training; everyone can use time spent learning a skill rather getting a one-time handout. Gardeners are great at giving both. Maybe people don’t know what else to do with impractical expanses of lawn, we can give alternatives. Perhaps fall leaves just seem like another landfill destined bag of trash, we can show them the joys of leaf mold. It’s more than just juicy, delicious tomatoes, as good as those are.

We can be gruff and grouchy, but one thing is sure: we are positive influences for a future which needs salt of the earth people. Let’s just not be hoodwinked into giving fluff when substance is what is needed.

Garden writing should give good value to readers. We should inspire and encourage, strengthen and educate, share skill secrets, and document what gives local success. All the things that we tend to do.

It could make a great difference in the quality of life for more than just our own backyards.