Natural Landscaping, or things I find and put in my yard.

So, living out here in the middle of nowhere with a lot of land, left me with a feeling I should be gardening.
So I started some landscaping and food producing gardens. After looking at stores and seeing the prices of landscaping items, I knew I would have to do this creatively.
Meaning, holy jeez is that stuff expensive. I need to start finding things that look nice and are laying around the property.
And so I did.

Granted, the flowers were purchased, but most annuals will reseed themselves if left to their own devices. Perennials will obviously come back every year.
So let's take a look at what you can do on the very cheap.

Yep, these are old buckets and washtubs. I also use old blue and white speckled camping pots.  Most had holes or rusted out bottoms, or some damage that made them unable to be used for their original purpose. So now they are pots for some lovely flowers. Make sure to put a thin layer of gravel at the bottom of the buckets and make drainage holes. Otherwise, water will sit in the bottom and cause root rot.

Oh, it's an old log. Which is now being used as a table outside. We have a lot of trees on the property and some simply fall over when they are too old. Such is the case with the tree that donated this log.  If you have trees that have fallen over, simply measure about how high it is from the ground to the bottom of the arm rest of your chair or swing. Cut the log to that height and you will have a perfect side table. And when it finally rots away, you have mulch to use in your garden. These can be sealed against the weather, but we always have an ample supply of logs to use. So I really have never bothered.

Continuing with the trees, limbs fall off quite a bit. So, I used to them to make natural fence borders around the gardens. I interlock the fallen limbs together to make one continuous chain. These are all limbs that have died naturally and fallen off of the trees, I never cut live limbs off. The limbs make some lovely shapes and add a wonderful natural element to shade or sun gardens. 
 If you have small children, it's a good idea to sand off the sharper ends and cut off protruding branches for safety.

Hanging baskets are some of my favorite ways of decorating the yard and porch. But dang are they pricy. So, I might buy one a year, but I always save the baskets at the end of the season. So now I have a nice stash of hanging baskets that I simply plant with whatever I want. The basket featured started out as one single wave petunia at the start of the season (on clearance for 1.00) and it grew very nicely.  Wave Petunias do great in hanging baskets, as well as Lobellia, and trailing Verbena. If you want to add height to your baskets, plants the taller plants in the middle and the trailing plants to the outside.

Rocks! I love rocks. No really, I do.
But landscaping with them can get pretty expensive. All of the large rocks that make the border were found out of the fields around us. This actually is a favor to the farmers who would otherwise have to mess with getting the rocks out of the field on their own. Good thing there are nutty cheap people like me who will wander around and pick out the rocks for free. The river pebbles were all purchased on sale at 1.88 a bag. Good deal! 


So let's talk bedding plants. Annuals can be kinda pricy to replace every year, so I tend to stick with perennials.
However there are some annuals that will come back each year and are darn cheap to start.

This, is Dianthys. It's in the carnation family. It is a very hardy plant and will spread easily. It will also reseed itself each year. The current crop I have has been around for 4 years. It's pretty resistant to dry conditions as well, so if you don't remember to water it all the time, it's not a big deal.

Then there is the old standby of Marigolds.
Marigolds are great for food producing gardens. Why? They keep away insects that would otherwise eat your plants. The smell of the marigolds will repel most food destroying insects. This is how I avoid using any kinds of pesticides in my garden. 100% organic gardens with no extra work on my part. Score! Simply plant the marigolds in the beds with whatever type of flower or plant that you want to protect. If you notice in the top picture a tub of marigolds is sitting next to my dahlias. Dahlias are notorious for being bug food. But, as you can see the plants are healthy and bug free. Marigolds are simple to grow from seeds and will reseed themselves.

Whew, that's about it from me on gardening. If you have any questions, or things I didn't cover here..please reply and let me know!

Fun Tip:
Geeky Upcycling!
So as many of you gamers know, the XBOX had a big issue with the red ring of death. For you non-gamers...it would fry and never come back to life again.
Sadly, this happened to us.
So, I gutted the unit, and stuck kleenex in it. The kleenex come out of the CD drive. Cheap, easy way to get a really nerdy kleenex holder.