P.A. MacLean
RedwoodAge.com
As we mark Earth Day and head into a summer of eating green – figuratively and literally – remember that your vegetable garden can help you recycle household castoffs while saving you money.
Here's a list of suggestions for dealing with common garden needs without buying any new supplies. There are plenty of substitutes around the house, including these and others. Be creative!
- Stakes – To support young plants you don’t need to buy stakes,
when you cut tree suckers or prune small branches let them dry and use them
instead.
- Ties – Instead of fumbling with twine or tapes to tie up plants,
use an old bicycle tire inner tube that you were about to toss. You can
easily cut the rubber tube lengthwise into ½” wide strips of
any length. Cut a few in advance or cut as needed. They are gentle on
the plants and can stretch as the plants take off.
- Watering – Cut the bottom off of plastic two-liter-size soda
bottles just above the seam that joins top and bottom (about three inches
from the bottom) and you can use both parts. Remove the bottle cap and stick
the cap-end in the ground, buried three or four inches until it stands
upright easily. When you’ve finished watering for the day, fill up the
bottle and if you can’t make it back to the garden for a couple days the
water should slowly drain out as the ground dries and the plant needs it.
- Snails – Take the bottom of a two-liter plastic soda bottle, and bury it to the rim near areas where snails congregate. Create a little swimming pool that you can partly fill with beer. (They especially like that stale or cheap beer you were about to dump down the drain). The pools attract snails, and they die happy.
And, if you think you don’t have space for your own garden, look into participating in one of the 18,000 community gardens around North America (See: Gardens Grow on Boomers, and Community Gardens, North and South).
If your community doesn't already have a garden, ask your local parks department about starting one. You'll have fun, make friends with kindred spirits and will soon be sharing a lot more ways to help keep the Earth green!
