Sunday, May 10, 2015

Inexpensive Garden Improvements




Most garden writers seem to work for the home and garden industry, so they offer suggestions filled with ideas for purchasing more stuff. I asked Mr. Gardener about all the riding lawnmowers I see around the neighborhood, small yards with monsters lawnmowers barely making the turns. The machines often become push mowers, as they are pushed back into the garage or onto a pickup for a trip to the repair shop.

Happy Mother's Day


Animals Love Food,  Shelter, and Water
We can create better conditions for many creatures with only a little time and money, sometimes for free.


  1. Clay pots with breaks in them are perfect toad homes, because toads need shelter from the sun.
  2. Upside down pots, with holes in their roofs (former drainage holes) are good  spider homes.
  3. Logs are ideal for feeding the creatures of rot, which attract birds. Toads love them too.
  4. A solar light on the ground will attract bugs, a fly in meal for toads. which are real bug zappers.
  5. Shallow dishes collect water, which animals need for drinking and bathing. Toads use them to hydrate.
  6. Shallow containers under a soaker hose will fill and wash themselves most of the time.
  7. Increased watering stations will multiply the bird population bathing and drinking.
  8. Food does not simply mean bird food from the store, but especially the seeds of plants and wildflowers, critters hiding in the mulch, and larvae in trees and bushes.
  9. Suet from a butcher is many times cheaper than suet in little wafers at the bird food section.
  10. Variety in plants can be created with pass-alongs, easy to raise plants from friends. Their seeds and fruits appeal to many.
  11. Some plants, like wild strawberries--will produce flowers for bees and fruit for birds and humans--all summer long. Wild strawberries transplant easily.
  12. Letting an area grow with long grass means having another habitat in the yard, which will change the make-up of the creature convention. The same is true of food.