Tips for the garden

[perchy]

Mellonia has posted regarding is it cheaper or worth it to grow your own own veg etc this has made me think about the tips we all have tucked away in the grey matter, so lets have your tips for making and making do in the garden

Mine:

Empty compost bags, use for lining pots or baskets or use to grow potatoes in

Make labels from yoghurt pots

Grape/strawberry packaging can be used for raising seedings as it is like a mini greenhouse

Swap seeds

[LittleBrownFrog]

Save seeds from plants you've grown yourself.

Grow things that you really like, but that are expensive in the shops - for me, watercress is a real treat, and really easy to grow.

Compost as much of your kitchen waste as you can.

Use deep mulch to save on watering - good if you're on a water meter (or are a lazybones like me)

[Steve valentine]

Compost bags also make great rubbish bags, we also use them to line pots to help with water retention.

[Lillia]

[center]Grow Rosemary

-It is easy to grow
-Offers the appearance of a bush
-Used for cooking
-used for medicinal purposes
-Has pretty purple flowers in the spring
-Will thrive without much water
-Smells wonderful[/center]

[Stef]

If you buy it, like it and it has seeds, try growing it! You never know and the next season you will be able to grow more! Some just make great looking plants.

Bury a whole tomato to start off new plants rather than fiddling round with scraping and drying. I had a weird tomato from a farmers market, hopefully it will grow!

Oh! Watercress. If you buy it in those containers so it has roots, re-grow it, just ad water! I found a site that did this with spring onions too - cut and come again! I shall try that this year. http://mybyrdhouse.blogspot.co.uk/2008/05/onion-recycling-tutorial.html

Seed swaps. Get organised, here or in RL.
Plant swaps. I take mine into work and we usually come to some sort of arrangement.
Fruit and veg swaps. I take my glut in and take someone elses.

Keep any plastic container. Plant labels, seed containers, mini cloches or just for keeping things in. I grow mini stuff in tins. Mustard, cress, mini basil etc. Half fill the tin with stones, top up with compost (used will be fine, basil will prefer it).

Keep any container and plant it.

Jeyes fluid (concentrate). Great for cleaning everything: chicken coops, greenhouses, pots, paths and drains. One cleaner for all jobs, you just dilute it to suit.

Plastic dustbin. Cheaper than a rainbutt. I have two, one for water and one for drowning nasty perennials - then use the liquid as feed, for free!

Vinegar: clears paths of grass and weeds, kills weeds as well as bought stuff, just takes a little longer (keep spraying/painting n until it dies) and increases soils acidity and deters ants (just spray around orrs windows where you wee them).

Throw live yoghurt into an unsuccesful compost heap... can't remember where I heard that but it definitely hurried up one of ours!

Banana peel buried under roses.... potassium!
Coffee grounds for nitrogen loving plants or to turn pink hydrangeas blue
Tea bags will help retain water

Erm.... I've run out. But I a sure there are loads more!

[perchy]

Wow Steff and everyone thank you, some good tips, but I am sure there are more

[Spreckly]

What a great post Perchy. I have nothing to add, apart from using a kettle full of boiling water to kill the weeds on our gravel drive and in cracks in the concrete. Didn't know about using vinegar for this.

[silverback]

Cheap table salt for killing weeds on paths/patios etc, dissolve in warm water and pour

Nip over the neighbours fence during the night and pinch their veg!

only kidding.....

[lancashire lass]

Improve the soil It's actually a valuable part of the garden so it makes sense to learn how to make it work for you. Soil is not just dirt but full of micoorganisms, fungi, worms and a plethora of other living things that are vital for its health. When you dig in compost, earthworms multiply and tunnel through the soil - this aerates the soil which is good for roots, compost rots down to release nutrients that can be taken up by the plants.

Commercially produced compost can get expensive so make your own - not just from your own kitchen and garden waste, but start a collection at work or among friends/neighbours ... I have a compostable bin at work where people put their tea bags, coffee grains and fruit peelings and is a valuable souce which would otherwise have gone to landfill.

Freeze potato peelings before adding to the compost bin to stop them growing. You can put over ripened tomatoes in compost bins but be prepared for a generation of tomato seedlings sprouting in the garden when you dig the compost into the soil - you can easily pull them up and add the greens to the bin.

Nettle leaves and comfrey leaves are valuable to a compost bin (don't add the roots otherwise you will cultivate weeds) You can also make "tea"/feed from the leaves but beware this brew has to stew for weeks and the stench can be overwhelming. Use comfrey/nettle leaves to line potato trenches. Make a comfrey bed so that you always have a source of leaves to crop throughout the year.

Add some manure to a compost heap (any herbivore poo - chicken, rabbit, goat, sheep, horse, cow) as you build it up and it will help to speed up decomposition as well as rot down manure so that it can be dug into the soil earlier than direct from a manure pile.

If you have clay soil, you may want to dig in some builders SHARP sand - this helps break up the clods. If you have sandy soil, vermicullite is water retentive (it's actually baked clay) Vermicullite is an excellent absorbent in the packing of liquids for delivery - if you know someone who works in a stores, they may be able to save it for you rather than throw away and you won't need to buy any.

Mulching reduces surface water loss - very handy during droughts/hose pipe bans. Remember to put mulch on top of wet soil ... if you put it on dry soil, it won't have the same effect. Mulching also helps to keep weeds down. You can use sheets of cardboard but remember to weight it down with bricks or whatever otherwise they'll blow away in the first wind.

[Benny&Co]

Great thread thanks Perchy and everyone

I've learn't loads of tips from you lovely folks on here and picked up other bits and pieces on the way, so here goes....

* make seed labels out of yoghurt pots/milk cartons etc, anything plastic - no need to buy them.

* anything with a clear lid can be used as a home made propegator.

* since the hose pipe ban etc, make a funnel out of the end of a plastic milk carton so you can keep that filled up with water next to your veggies/plants.

* save loo/kitchen rolls and use them for growing seeds - I think it was HappyBob who mentioned this and thank you it's working really well

* save any water from washing veggies/fruit/even washing hands in kitchen and put into water butt. Also save water from Benny and the girls when changing it too.

[HappyBob]

A great tip for making plant labels which I have done often is, If you can get hold of one of those cheap plastic window blinds, then de string it, then you need to stack all the lathes together then run it through a band saw at 4" lenghths. If you dont have a band saw you can put elastic bands the lenghth of the lathes to help keep them together and use a fine tooth saw. Depending on the size of the blind you can get 1000,s out of a single blind. They also have another advantage and that is becuase they have a slight profile to them they are really good for using a pencil as your writing medium.