Cheap Tricks - For Your Garden of Course

Some of my best tools and solutions for my garden are in the form of a re-purposed item or tool. These cheap green fences that I buy every year at my local Dollar General Store are useful for keeping squirrels out of my raised beds and pots. I used them just this month to protect my little pine seedlings from my big ole puppies who run though the garden with no respect as to what they step on or run over.

Recently my gardening buddy gave me these left over jugs. I have several things I'm going to use them for. They will be great for watering jugs, several filled with water around tender plants this spring will be as good as a "Wall of Water" and much cheaper. I can punch holes in them and they will water a plant for quite some time if I place the jug near the roots. They would make great seed starters too - See my post about that here.

I had a big scrap of pretty cellophane left over from a project at work. I wanted to plant seeds I had saved last fall but didn't want to turn on my mist system quite this early. I decided that the cello would be the ideal thing to retain moisture in the seed bed. I re-purposed a few little plastic pots to keep the cello from being in direct contact with the soil, scattered my seeds and misted the bed well. Next I covered the whole thing with the cello sheet and turned on the heat cable under the soil. As you can see the seeds sprouted and will continue to grow here until they are big enough to pot up.

 I'd love for you to comment and share your "cheap tricks" too.