Nourish and protect your plants with eggshells.
Next time you make a batch of deviled eggs, don’t toss the shells in the trash! Eggshells are useful in the garden. If you spread them around the bases of your plants, you can nourish the soil with calcium. On top of that, eggshells actually repel certain insects, so they protect your plants from pests. Very cool.
Grow sweeter tomatoes using baking soda.
A lot of people love to grow tomatoes because they are usually much juicier and sweeter than the ones you buy at the supermarket. How can you make even sweeter and more delicious? Try adding some baking soda to the soil. Make sure you only sprinkle it on the soil, not the plant. The baking soda is a base, and counteracts the acidity in the tomatoes. The result? Sweeter tomatoes.
Build a strawberry tower.
If you want to grow a lot of delicious juicy strawberries and conserve space in the process, the strawberry tower is a great way to do it. What’s really exciting about this setup though is the fact that it allows you to drip water gradually through the whole tower. There’s a water bottle in the top pot (just like the one you read about before). The water drips down through the top pot to all the ones below.
Build a trellis out of PVC pipes.
Have you ever wanted to add a trellis to your yard? One surprisingly easy design uses PVC pipes linked together. Just check out these beautiful photos. This trellis is being used to grow cucumbers, but you could grow any number of things on it. It looks and works great.
Mosquito control herbs.
Are mosquitoes bugging you in your garden or on your deck? There are a number of herbs which naturally repel them, including catnip, lemon grass, and more. Plant one or more of these together in your garden, and you will get those bugs away fast. Put them in a pot and grow them on your patio or deck and you can keep them away from the areas where you like to spend time. As a bonus, these herbs are all useful for other purposes, so you can harvest them for food and more. This is a much healthier alternative to spraying mosquito repellent everywhere. It’s better for your garden and for you.
Learn why lemon balm is amazing.
Trying to think of a new herb to grow in your garden? Think about growing lemon balm! Lemon balm, according to Ann’s Entitled Life, is one of the most all-around helpful herbs you can grow! It acts as a mosquito repellent and also helps to draw bees to pollinate your flowers. On top of that, it has a bunch of great medicinal uses and goes great in a variety of recipes. It also is wonderful for potpourri and aromatherapy. And believe it or not, it makes an excellent conditioner or facial. Basically, it is useful in every area of your life and every area of your home.
Reduce the weight of a heavy outdoor plant pot.
Have one of those super heavy huge outdoor plant pots which is backbreaking to try to relocate once it is full? One easy way to reduce the weight of these outdoor plants in the future is to fill the bottom part with foam peanuts, then put the dirt on top of that. This reduces the weight a great deal, and actually improves the drainage of your soil. How cool is that? Keep in mind you will probably need to water the plant more often.
Learn all there is to know about compost with a handy infographic.
Do you compost? If you don’t, this infographic will change your mind. As you’ll see, a single cubic yard of compost has an estimated worth of $562. That is what you would pay without it for fertilizer, organic matter, growth hormones for plants, and other gardening supplies. You’ll also learn the amazing benefits to the environment of using compost, which go far beyond your own garden. You’ll discover the optimum way to layer the ingredients in your compost bin, and finally you’ll get a quick guide which teaches you what you can and cannot compost. This is an incredible resource for a beginning gardener!
Repurpose toilet paper rolls for seedling starters.
These are awesome! Everyone has toilet paper rolls in their home. Start accumulating the empty rolls instead of throwing them away, and you will have a great material for seedling starters. It looks to be a simple matter of making a couple of cuts and folding the bottom part under and taping it. They are the perfect size!
Easy homemade wasp trap.
Need to get rid of some pesky wasp buzzing around your home or garden? It’s a good idea to take care of this problem quickly before it turns into a bigger one! This easy home made wasp trap uses a plastic bottle and some sugar water. Judging by the photograph, it’s plenty effective too and will do its job quickly and thoroughly.
Repurpose gutters for strawberries.
If you want a great way to grow strawberries, try hanging old guttering from welded re-bars. The strawberries grow very nicely from the guttering, and are easy to pick from overhead. There is unfortunately no how-to on this one, but it should not be too challenging to figure it out. Punching some holes underneath would help with drainage.
Make a unique, round garden trellis.
If you are looking for a fun DIY project that you can build in an afternoon, you will love this idea for making a garden trellis with a unique round shape. The cylinder is just a couple of bike rims, an upright, plus a little garden twine and wire. It is a fast, easy, and fun project with fast results. I would love to see what it looks like once the plants have grown clear up to the top. I bet it has a gorgeous effect!
Build a potting bench.
Want a nice surface where you can comfortable work on potting your plants? You can assemble this potting bench on your own at home using a couple of pallet boxes. It looks fabulous, and would make for a great workstation!
Learn why apple cider vinegar is so awesome to have around in your garden.
Apple cider vinegar is one of the most handy substances to have around the household. It has literally hundreds of uses, and it turns out that a fair few of them are out in the garden! Apple cider vinegar helps to keep fruit flies away, nourish plants that thrive in acidic conditions, kill mold, get rid of those annoying brown splotches in your grass, and so much more. Discover all the amazing uses here at the Thrifty Couple blog!
Turn your old garden tree stumps into something spectacular.
Old tree stumps don’t have to just sit in your yard taking up space. You can turn them into something magical and beautiful with a few easy steps. This page has several great ideas, including using a garden stump as a natural flowerbed, growing moss on a stump, and turning your tree stump into a base or pedestal for a table or planter. You can even use one to hold a birdbath! These are just a few wonderful ideas. Have a look and you will probably be inspired to come up with even more!
Learn about vertical gardening.
If you have limited lawn space, vertical gardening is the best way to use the room you do have available. According to Kathleen Jackson at Starting from Scratch, you need 13 to 18 times more ground space to plant the same amount horizontally that you can plant vertically. If you click through and check out the blog, which I highly recommend you do, you will find detailed instructions to get you started with vertical gardening and saving space.
Build a ladybug habitat.
Then again, sometimes you want to attract bugs to your garden! Ladybugs are big helpers for gardeners, which is why you can order them through the mail if you want. A simple and less expensive alternative is to build a habitat to attract them. Just get a hollow pipe and fill it with bamboo, scrap wood, or something similar. Then place it in your garden somewhere convenient. The ladybugs will love making homes out of the little hollow spaces inside. If you do order ladybugs online, I suggest building this home for them anyway—that way they will want to stay in your garden!