Who doesn’t like freebies?. Did you know that your garden can get some really good freebies?.
For example, do you compost? The garbage you have left over that is uneaten or that rots should never be discarded. It should be composted. By composting you are creating the best soil that will give back nutrients to the earth. In fact, you might be fined if you don’t compost this garbage. One city has already started forbidding the tossing out of food. Seattle has a garbage law that will fine residents if they do throw it out. (see here) So save your non-meat scraps, save your mowed lawn clippings, save your raked leaves and compost everything for FREE soil that is the best soil you can have in your garden.
Or save the seeds from vegetables and fruits you might have bought to eat. Many, not all, will grow in your garden. Directions on how to do this is in the video. These seeds are FREE.
Or what about checking with your township to see if they give FREE mulch. Many towns and cities collect leaves and mulch them. This mulch is free for the taking. You just have to collect the mulch, cart it home or to your garden and spread it.
You might be lucky to live near a farm that has horses or chickens. Some of these farms give away their animal waste. Animals that are vegetarian make the best manure to use as fertilizer. Do NOT use manure from meat eating animals. Anyway, if you are lucky enough to know a farmer who gives free manure away, double check to see if he ages it or you will have to let it sit on your property till the manure is aged. Too fresh manure can burn crops or plants.
Free coffee grinds are another item that you can use on your garden. See if your local Starbucks or other coffee shops give coffee grounds away. Coffee grounds are free for the taking and are wonderful to spread around plants.
Then you can get free plants. This is easiest if you know gardeners. Every few years plants are generally divided. So If you see a gardener cleaning out his or her garden, ask if they would be willing to give you some of the plants they would discard and compost anyway. Ask the gardener if the plants are healthy. You don’t want sick ones that she/he is throwing out.
Or the gardener may have plants with seeds. Usually there are so many seeds that gardeners would be willing to give you some free seeds. If these free plants or seeds live and send up new plants for you, how lucky. TheGardenLady has gotten most of her plants this free way.
So though there are people who say that nothing is really free, you can get some really good things for your garden that are truly free.
You can make gardening tools from stuff you might normally recycle. For example, by poking holes in the cap of a gallon milk jug and then filling the jug with water and putting the cap tightly on, you can make a watering can. There are many websites with garden tool suggestions that you can make for free. .
You can also go on line and Google up freebies. There seems to be a lot of items that people say are free for the garden. Maybe they are. But be wary. TheGardenLady has not tried any of these sites. These free things might come with strings attached. However, it is fun to look. And you might be lucky to find something truly free.
Let the readers of TheGardenLady know if you find anything online that is 100% free with no special conditions or restrictions. And if you create something for your garden from recycled stuff, let us see a photo of it.