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Yards for Nothing by  Karon Goodman  Expenses in trying to beautify your yard can add up quicker than fruitcakes after Christmas, but you can temper them a bit with a few tricks and creative ideas. You can make your home a more peaceful and inviting place without needing to float a loan to do it.  -- Take another look at your containers. Have you checked the price of "flower pots" at your local discount or home and garden store recently? Skip that expense and use what you have.  (1) If you've saved pots or baskets from years past [or know someone who has some they'll part with], clean them with a weak bleach solution and recycle them, perhaps adding a coat of paint, some embellishment or making a repair if needed. If a pot seems too big for what you'd planned, mix several plants together, always placing the taller growers in the middle if you'll see the pot from all angles.   (2) Look at everything you have as a possible home for your plants. Kitchen items, discarded toys, shipping containers, tool boxes, even pieces of old furniture can be recycled into great places for plants and add some whimsy and surprise to your garden area.  (3) When you buy plants, don't be so quick to throw away what they come in. One four-part container only meant to transport my plants home would look like something that was supposed to be discarded if I'd used it as it was. But I cut it apart [it was plastic], taped up the edges enough to hold soil, and slipped the "pots" down into a bigger pail that held other containers and my gardening bears, and only the flowering parts of the plants showed. I could easily swap the reclaimed pots out if a plant died, as well as direct food and water as needed.  (4) Finally, consider larger containers for focal points -- something such as an old wheelbarrow or wagon will draw your visitors' eyes right to the free beauty of your yard.  -- Make your own money -- uh, soil. Well, with the cost of potting soil, you just about need a printing press to afford enough of the dirty gold to properly amend your yard and give your plants a fighting chance. Try another approach. Consider a compost pile.  (1) If you don't have a compost bin or barrel, you can still make some compost in just a small area marked off with cement blocks, rocks, discarded wood or other barriers. An area even three two or foot square will provide you with good amendments for your soil.  (2) Start with some grass clippings, leaves or other foliage, dead or alive. Add your fruit and vegetable peelings, egg shells and coffee grounds. With a pitchfork, hoe or whatever you have, turn the pile every day or so, add some water now and then, and to hurry the decomposition a bit, lay a piece of plastic (an old shower curtain will work fine) over the pile so the heat can build up from time to time.  -- Cheat. Along the lines of our last point, large containers make a great impact, but just the soil to fill one can eat up your budget. Take up space in the container with something else, just about anything else. Use empty soft drink cans or water bottles or even laundry detergent and bleach bottles if your container is big enough. You can also add shredded paper, packing peanuts or other packaging material if it'll mean having to add less soil. And you and your visitors will never see what lies beneath the beautiful flowers.  -- Try anything. It only takes your time and muscle to set out and try every plant or sow any seed you can find. If anyone offers you a clipping of something, take it. If your garden center is throwing away plants that look dead, take them and give them a chance. If something you like grows at your workplace or friend's house, ask if you might transplant some to your home. And look at unlikely candidates for adding interest to your yard -- vegetables such as cabbage and potatoes will provide deep greens and great backdrops for your flowering stars.  Remember, the idea is to share and relax in a beautiful and inviting yard, and knowing you got it without a lot of money will make it even better. Enjoy!  ©Karon Goodman is a writer, speaker and frugal to a fault. Subscribe to her newsletter and get a free organizing report, The 3-hour Blitz. Join in at her blog, The Organized Homestead  http://organizedhomestead.blogspot.com   .

 

 

 

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