How to Have a Beautiful Inexpensive Garden and Make Friends with Your Neighbors

Gardening can be eco-friendly and inexpensive if you reuse, recycle and get a little neighborly. It takes a little time and a little sharing, but you can make friends, a beautiful eco-friendly garden and save money. Take a look at the tips below for inspiration.

DIY Seedling Pots

Make your own seedling pots out of newspaper or toilet paper rolls. I have had success with both types of DIY seedling pots, but I have found my favorite type to be the ones made with toilet paper rolls. I make a few slits with scissors at the bottom of each roll and then fold the slits in. I then fill each one with dirt and follow by pushing one seed into each one. I set all the filled rolls in a tray, water the tray letting the toilet rolls soak up the water into the soil. It's that easy and it takes very little time to do.

Gardening Neighbors

Get to know your gardening neighbors. I have several gardening neighbors who have kindly given me plant clippings, seeds, seedlings, a bit of their harvest and gardening tips. There is one neighbor in particular who loves to bring me new things for my garden and I have returned the kindness with clippings from my own garden, especially my herb garden (rosemary, cilantro, parsley, basil). Best of all she and I have become good friends and often get together to talk about our families or share gardening tips.

Save The Seeds

Save your own seeds. One thing about a garden is that a plant will keep giving and giving if you save the seeds or learn how to clip a plant and plant it so that it roots again. Anytime you see seeds collect them, label them and keep them somewhere safe until you are ready to find a place to plant them. I use recycled aluminum tins to save my dried seeds. As for clippings, any time someone offers me a clipping I put it in a pot of dirt and water it as soon as possible. Sometimes this works sometimes it doesn't. Right now I'm proud to say I my transplant of a fig clipping is a success.

Make Compost

Having a compost pile to make rich healthy soil for your plants is a great idea and easy to do. You don't have to buy an expensive compost bin to have a pile either. Untreated wood from pallets or chicken wire can be turned into strong sturdy bins to hold garden clippings and kitchen scraps (no dairy, meat or animal fats). Turn the pile a few times a week to help speed up the decomposition process and to keep bugs out. In a few months (in the winter it takes longer) you will have a pile of nutrient-rich dark black healthy soil to use in your garden. From my experience the easiest compost bin to use is the 3-bin compost unit. Instructions to make one can easily be found online.

Get a Rain Barrel

Save on water by saving rain water in a rain barrel. You can make your own rain barrel out of a 55 gallon plastic barrel. The instructions on this video are similar to the one my neighbor and I used. Depending on the size of your garden you may need more than one.

Tools

The most helpful and most used tools I have are my hand shovel and my gardening scissors. Only my gardening scissors are high quality. Other tools come in handy from time to time, but can easily be borrowed, rented, shared or slowly acquired. There really is no need to purchase a garage full of gardening tools. When you do decide to buy gardening tools keep in mind that there are eco-friendly tools made of recycled material you can purchase.

When you start your garden start small and try to reuse and recycle as much as possible. The rest of the time sit back and watch your garden grow. Don't forget to share a little here and there with your family, friends and neighbors. It's good karma.

Bob Ewing, How To Have a Beautiful But Inexpensive Garden, HubPages
Joe Lamp'l, How to create an eco-friendly garden at home, Today MSNBC
HGTV, How to Build a Rain Barrel, YouTube