Grow Money In Your Garden By Saving On Stuff You Bury In There
Some find gardening to be a relaxing activity, but it's not so calming if digging around in soil ends up burying you in out-of-control costs.
The San Jose Mercury News is
Here are five tips from the story:
-Plant perennials instead of annuals. Annuals are short-lived, use excessive water and must be replaced, while there is a large selection of drought-tolerant perennials that can live for many years and offer plenty of beautiful color.
-Eliminate lawn where you are not using it. Lawns are one of the most intensive maintenance and water-consuming plantings in a landscape, requiring weekly mowing, edging and recurrent irrigation.
-Leave lawn clippings - don't bag. Many lawn mowers have a recycling feature which allows you to mow without bagging the clippings. Lawn clippings contain water and nutrients that can benefit your lawn. The result is a need for less water and fertilizer.
-Prune naturally. When you prune for the natural growth habit of the plant, you will reduce the amount of pruning needed per year, resulting in decreased costs.
-Cut back on water. Reduce your watering schedule to the bare minimum required to keep the yard and garden healthy. Overwatering can cause excessive growth, requiring even more maintenance, a higher water bill and a greater instance of disease that will require further intervention.
Check out the story for more along those lines. A bonus tip from us: Chia Pets and Venus Fly Traps always seem like good ideas at the time but always end up disappointing you in the end, mocking you for your inadequacies until their dying breaths.
Action Line: Money-saving gardening tips for tough economic times [San Jose Mercury News]
(Photo: ianjacobs)
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Comments:
I have literally never watered my back lawn. Never. And I live in Colorado.
I was sort of hoping it'd just die off and then I'd figure out something to do with it, because I think grass lawns are dumb. But it didn't. It has gone dormant a few times during droughts, but the grass always springs right back as soon as it gets a little rain.
Based on that experience, I stopped watering my front lawn, too, during an expecially bad drought a while back, and now it's the same.
I also highly recommend a manual mower. Mine is great. It's quiet, easy to use and maintain, and as long as the grass doesn't get too long, it cuts just as well as our powered mower.
Rain barrels, about $30-40 in materials and you have free irrigation for your garden from now on. Mine took me 45 minutes at most to install.
We haven't watered our lawn once this year and it looks fine. It probably helps that we're within 3 miles of a river (good water table) and we've got lots of rain this year.
@spanky: Stressing your grass like that actually makes it more healthy. Overwatered grass has a weak root system and won't survive a dry spell without excessive watering.
You should wait to water your grass until it starts to look a little brown.
Did you know: You can use your old motor oil to fertilize your lawn!
Save $$ by using compost or another organic fertilizer instead of commercial products. Once you use a commercial product, you need to keep it up and that is costly. Also, dish detergent will kill aphids just as good as chemicals
Maybe my dad should look at this - he waters his garden for about 45 minutes every day, sometimes with Miracle Grow. The tomato plants last year were almost as tall as him, and he's 6'4". He has pictures too.
Of course, they never used all of those tomatoes either - it's hard to do when each plant has like 20-25+ tomatoes on it.
"Many lawn mowers have a recycling feature which allows you to mow without bagging the clippings."
Hahah
That "recycling feature" is called "not purchasing the optional collection bag". For Pete's sake... greenwashing, anyone?
@DoubleEcho: I hope the tomatoes aren't going to waste. If he runs out of ideas, put them out front w a sign that says FREE.
@The_Gas_Man: actually the recycling feature spreads the clippings evenly among the area you're mowing rather then spitting them out the side
@WarOtter: I prefer slow-moving oldsters myself. Luckily, there's a busy crosswalk within hauling distance whose Don't Walk light flashes for 2 seconds before changing to red.
@DoubleEcho: Your dad is a counter-example. He just needs to get more friends or learn how to can tomato sauce.
@The_Gas_Man: But if you're trying to avoid use of herbicides, the "recycle" feature also recycles the weed seeds that have sprouted too. So it's not necessarily a good thing under all circumstances.
You know there are even mowers that do not use gasoline (gasp!) Wow, I have never watered my lawn and never will. If it dies or goes dormant then I don't have to mow as often. This article is way too obvious.
what i really need is a good way to kill my lawn but leave the clover. it's about half clover and half lawn, all interspersed. i bought the house with the intention to kill the lawn, which will no doubt horrify my neighbor, who i have discovered is kind of addicted to riding his mower around and around for hours on the weekends.
but i can't do anything outside in this heat so i will just leave it alone until the weather cools and either tear up the turf or mulch it over to have it ready to put in drought tolerant, fast spreading, self replicating portulaca next year.
Most of my flower beds are perennials but I also have annuals that self seed. Or, you can save the seed and plant them wherever. Flowers like marigolds, echinacea, zinnias are great for this. But, if you're into instant gratification, this isn't for you. Your flower bed won't be filled in in one afternoon.
@spanky: We don't water either -- and we also have a reel mower. (But we're in Illinois where grass will do its grassy thing without intervention; it'll just look browny in the heat of summer.)
We're slowly removing lawn in favor of native plants that look fabulous when it goes drought/monsoon/drought/monsoon because they're used to that.
We tore up our front lawn (the back was too shady) and put in a vegetable garden. It's awesome. Grass doesn't make food, look nice or smell nice, so there was no way I was going to spend time, money or energy taking care of it. 22 different varieties of tomatoes, four kinds of melon, squash, beans, cucumbers, okra, peppers? Now we're talking!
@catastrophegirl - just add kittens: I'd love it if I could get my garden to be 100% tall grasses, violets and clovers, but those just grow in patches. More clovers and tall grasses means more bunnies in my backyard. :)
@spanky:
I have a manual mower. I also have a big back yard. I only use the reel mower when my other one is out of gas, because my yard is LUMPY.
@xnihilx:
Ha ha, that's why I don't water the lawn. I only water the flowers. In August, when it's 400 degrees outside, I don't have to mow as often. It might be crunchy, but it's short.
I hear that if you mix water and urine 20 parts to one- it's the same as miracle grow. Have not tried it though.
If you break open a cigar and put it in a water bottle filled with water and spray your plants - it's a natural pesticide from leaf eating bugs!
@HIV 2 Elway: So long as they're legal where you are, of course. I still think it's weird that there are places where they're not (seems a little early in the water cycle to claim ownership to me).
@catastrophegirl - just add kittens: I don't know where you are, but even out here in the Midwest I really love High Country Gardens ([www.highcountrygardens.com]), and they've got a lot of information about xeric lawn alternatives.
Another water-saving tip: mulch. In some places the power company will even provide wood chips free from their tree-clearing. The less moisture you lose in the first place, the less water you'll need to add.
@JanetCarol: I spray my plants with a mixture of water, dish soap, tabasco, and vegetable oil to keep the bugs at bay.
@floraposte: Seriously??!!! Rain Barrels are illegal in some places?? How on earth do they justify this? I'm horrified at the implications here....
@unobservant: Actually, I think it's a water rights issue--the runoff is part of what's owned by the people (or companies) that own the water rights to the runoff's destination.
@floraposte: So the same groups that will dam up a river, divert most of its water to some city (that would never have grown so unsustainability big if left to its own water sources...,) and charge a fortune for whats left claim ownership of the rain that falls on our roofs? Ridiculous.
@The_Gas_Man: Some mowers can chop the grass extra fine and/or distribute it better so it doesn't just pileup in the yard and block sunlight to the uncut grass.
@esc27: The "recycling" feature is actually a mulching blade. Like esc27 says, it chops up the clipping superfine. The fine clippings decompose really quickly and return nitrogen to your soil. I've used a mulching mower for years, and never have to fertilize. Weed seeds aren't an issue because I don't care if there are a few weeds in my lawn.
Hire neighborhood kids to do the work for you. It's a lot cheaper than a real lawn service and it probably teaches them a lesson about finance or something.