Frugal Gardening
Featured Blogger - Beth Reis
Tom & Beth Reis
Hi, I'm Beth Reis, sister-in-law to Beth. Although we live more then 500 miles apart, Beth and I share the same passion for gardening and she has graciously invited me to share on her blog some gardening tips that I have found to be successful.
Fond Gardening Memories
I have loved gardening for as long as I can remember. My earliest memories include digging up my mom's flowers for worms (which I still love!), planting a pussy willow from a neighbor and growing my own vegetables in my mom's garden as part of a Community Gardening program. All before I was nine years old. Besides the knowledge I have gained from books, magazines and gardening shows, I have had some wonderful mentors over the years including my mom, members of our local gardening club and Geisella, a woman my husband worked with, who was a horticulturist by trade. So, here it is four plus decades later and hopefully I have learned a thing or two about gardening!
"Of course my very best teacher has been learning by trial and error"
Forever Frugal
Anyone who know me, knows how frugal I am. Yes, I have been called "cheap" many times, but my thriftiness has paid off, especially when it comes to garden watering. We live in a rural area and have a well for our water supply, so conserving water is very important to us. Over the past 22 years we have lived here, I have found a few ways to be frugal when it comes to watering my many garden and flower pots.
Water Saving Tips
One of the ways is to save water from any pasta and vegetables I cook. I just let the water cool and then pour it into my watering can to use when needed. I also save and reuse the water from produce and herbs I rinse before eating or preserving.
Another way takes place in early spring before we open our above ground pool. With my watering can I scoop up water from the pool cover to water transplanted perennials and seedlings. Also, after it rains I pour any accumulated water in the containers I use during weeding into my watering can for later use.
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| Handy Watering Can |
Although we would rather not have a sump pump, we do. So, on those occasions we had to run it, my husband hooked up a hose to the system to access the water for grass we were growing and for me to use in my garden,
It's a "when life gives you lemons..." situation that I have advantaged from!
Rain Collection System
Before I had the rain collection system I have now, I used four-35 gallon plastic garbage cans that filled with rain water from the garage roof. They were set up under the overhang of our garage near the gutter downspout. I attached a flexible elbow and an extension to the gutter so I could move the extension from one barrel to another. When the barrels had any water in them, I covered them with lids so the water would'nt attract mosquitoes. I could then dip my watering can into a barrel for any spot watering I needed to do. It was also great for when I needed tofertilize. I would fill the watering can from a barrel, add the fertilizer to the watering can and then stir it up with a piece of bamboo stick before fertilizing my plants.
"piece de resistance"
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| Three Rain Barrels Hold Plenty of Water |
My "piece de resistance" though, is my current rain collection system. Rain water that falls onto the garage roof flows into the gutter and is then collected in the barrels. My brilliant and talented son Michael designed and built it for me with my husband Tom on Mother's Day three years ago.
Recycled Materials We Used
I love that they were able to save money by reusing and recycling many of the materials they needed. It is constructed from three- 60 gallon soap barrels from our local car wash, which were free; leftover scraps of wood from our deck, leftover scraps of PVC from a plumbing project and purchased pieces of PVC, straps and screws. It cost about $50.00 to construct. As you can see from the photo, I can easily fill my watering cans from the attached faucet. Unless we have a drought, I usually have water available at all times for spot watering in my gardens and the fertilizing and watering I do for my many flowerpots.
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| Mercedes of Rain Barrels |
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