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When the budgets become strained as they are nowadays some things have to be removed or eliminated and in my case buying the plants I may want to invest in some gardening items or whatever.
However, as a child of the “Great Depression” I have never lost my knack for scrounging, trading, bartering or recycling.
I remember one year Carl came home with out 20 miniature rose bushes that looked a little beat. He said he was at the gardening center of one of the big best known super centers when he saw these roses being ready to be put into their dumpster. He asked if he could have them and they called the manager who said no, but if Carl would give him a donation to the locale charity that store was promoting he could have them. Carl asked how much and the manager said 5 dollars and Carl came home with about $65.00 worth of miniature roses which I promptly planted and they survived in our patio garden for about 5 years!
Today gardening forums are a great way to add to your garden. Posting a request for seeds, plants that you want may well produce some grand results whose only cost is the gas to drive over and collect them.
Offering to trade seeds on these forums can be done for the price of a 42 cent stamps. If you belong to a local gardening club ask them to promote an annual plant swap. Great way to get something you don’t have and a great way to thin out what you have a lot of.
Got a local Farmer’s Market? Then take your extra cuttings of veggies and flowers, sell them cheap and take the money to buy what you really have wanted to treat you and your garden to.
Check out the local yard sales as you go buy for good used gardening tools.
Offer to weed out a elderly neighbors garden in exchange for some of their cuttings or divided plants.
Don’t spend your money on expensive weed spray when cheap simple vinegar will do the same trick and you can wash out your clay pots with vinegar and get lots of wear out of them.
Collect your neighbor’s bags of leaves each fall. Just ask them if you can have them before they get put out for the trash department pick up. Bring them home and dump them into your mulching bin or just spread them around your garden. They will biodegrade really fast though the winter. Have you ever seen last year’s fall leaves laying on the grass in the spring? I haven’t.
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Author Bio Box: Arlene Wright Correll
 For more gardening or cooking information click http://www.learn-america.com/
To see Arlene’s Gardens and to read her gardening diaries or click on Arlene’s Books where you can download or buy her gardening & cook books. Arlene says, “All my royalties from the sale of my books go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and I thank you for visiting my site.”
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