Reused-repurposed-recycled

If you have read more than one of my blog entries, you are aware that I use whatever works.  I have somethings in my gardening gear that I bought new and paid a dear price for it.  Those tools have been worth the extra money I have spent.  I still have the same two trowels I bought 25 years ago, and they are not showing any signs of giving out.  Other times I use found items to work for my gardening needs. Plastic sheeting from old greenhouses is still good enough for drop cloths and tarps.  Containers are tops on my list.  Do not be too proud to stop and pick through someone else's discards.  People put good containers at the curb because they changed their color scheme.  Other items found at the curb that weren't made for plants can also be used for potting up.  Just make sure there is drainage out the bottom, make a hole yourself if you have to.

Rummage sales are the next best place to add to the garden treasures.  My tomato cages were twenty-five cents a piece and still going strong two decades in. Plant stakes can be fashioned out of all kinds of things.  I have bamboo salvaged from a garbage heap.  The orange snow fence was found in a ditch from an old construction site.  This year it is a pea trellis.  Our city forestry department has wood chips for the scooping at their self-help disposal site.  Other communities near-by compost their leaf collections and put them out on a first come, first served basis.

Our gravel base has moved twice in our yard.  It was put down by the previous owner around the pool.  The pool came out and the gravel and sand went into different piles.  The lumber from the deck has been used three different ways already.  The latest project is a wood rack for the fire pit we recently updated for our backyard.  The wood to 

fill it has come from downed trees and branches removed from our own yard.  (The wood still has to be moved from the old location.  Might get the teenager to do that.)
There is still a stack in the garage with various projects in mind.

The previous owners also invested a bunch of money into tons of Lannon stone, a local commodity.  We have dug it out of collapsed hills and walls to rebuild the terraces in the yard.  My husband put in block steps which were from a display at the local stone company, purchased at a fraction of the original price.  Materials are every where if you just look.

With a little thought and creativity, you can do some fun things with the right materials.  Do some reading and learn how to do it right so you don't have to do it again. My neighbor told me how a landscape company put in the original Lannon stone walls.  They didn't do it right which is why they were buried under eroded slopes instead of holding them back.

Be on the look out for things at the curbs and alleys at this time of year. People are cleaning out their garages and yards, so the materials will be out there for the taking.  Even if you get just one season out of an old chair, it just might make a great plant stand for that urn you found over on 14th Street.  Bed rails can be a bean trellis.  Garden gates could hold up your cucumber vines.  Use discretion.  You don't want to become Fred Sanford.  

So, what's up?

I kept myself pretty busy with gardening this week.  So much is happening inside and outside the house now.  I will do a quick run-down on the seeds I have gotten in and what has sprouted so far.


Seeding


On 4/9 I seeded agastache, hollyhocks, petunias, impatiens, thunbergia, radicchio, and lettuce.  The hollyhock were up on 4/12, petunias on 4/14, radicchio 4/12, and thunbergia on 4/18.  The impatiens have also started sprouting but very spotty.  That does not make me happy.
On 4/7 I seeded some of the garden seeds. Flowering sweet peas and garden peas were both soaked 24 hours and then into the ground.  The garden peas are up as of 4/18, nothing with the flowering sweet peas yet.  I seeded more outdoors on 4/12, green onions, beets, Swiss chard, radishes.  The radishes were up by 4/18.
On 4/15 I seeded tomatoes, peppers, marigolds, asters, zinnia and nasturtiums. Tomatoes, marigolds, asters and zinnias were all up on 4/18.  
I have one more round of seeding this next week for indoor plants.  I will get the soybeans in the ground this next week along with some of the direct seeding of flowers.  I put the first round of cilantro seeds in the ground over the weekend.  Let's see if I remember to get a few seeds in every couple weeks this year.


Transplanting


This weekend I was able to transplant the earliest seeding from mid-March.  I started them before going on vacation and they had less than ideal germination without someone checking on them twice a day.  I do not hold this against my eldest as she did bring some of them through for me.  The viola germinated the best, and I was able to transplant 36 good seedlings.  Heliotrope came through with 6 plants.  We won't talk about the mammoth stock which are not living up to their name.  I also moved my coleus into larger pots so they can put on a little more growth before May garden time.

Transplanting viola seedlings

Misting in the seedlings

Transplanting coleus to larger containers

If you find a good misting head for your hose, it is a good investment for watering your new transplants.  They stand up to the watering better and are less likely to be washed out until they can put on enough growth to stand up to the regular watering heads.


Some things I have learned this spring...

• Wash all your pots and flats before winter.  It is so much easier to do this job outside than it is in the basement and it keeps the extra dirt outdoors and out of your drains.  I am finding out the hard way that I should have done this.  I have been using bleach and also some leftover pool sanitizers for this job.  Follow label recommendations for use.
• Make a seeding chart, even if it is simple.  I have done a much better job of keeping on task with seeding and transplanting because I had a schedule in my kitchen as a reminder.
• Think about numbers.  You may get 100 seeds in a pack, but if you only want 12 plants, seed only about twice that.  You will go through a lot less guilt over throwing out the ones you really don't need or cannot pass on to someone else.
• Save money on containers in several ways.  Buy containers at the end of the season when they are discounted.  I have saved many pots through the years.  I can't imagine how much I would have spent if I had to go out and purchase everything new.  Even cell packs can stand up to a few seasons of use if you treat them gently enough and clean them up for reuse.  Check with local greenhouses and nurseries if they have containers they are going to dispose of that you may be able to get for free.  Check the curbs in June.  Many people set this stuff out next to their trash in hopes that someone will come along and take it for reuse. 
• Salvage items from the curb for trellising your garden plants.  You never know what you will find for free.  Check out my pieces of orange snow fence that are going to trellis my garden peas.  I also have some curly willow stuck in the rows of sweet peas to add some interest and support.