I found a picture with spray painted pots on my patio. The light yellow and the aqua paint are cheap Krylon (like $3 a can) paint and it hasn't held up as well (peeled a little on a few of the pots). The blue, purple, pink, & light green are the Outdoor Spaces paint.
How cute! Thanks so much for the pic, now I'm really excited!
This is the picture I meant to post where you can see the purple, pink, blue and green Outdoor Spaces colors of pots.
The colored pots look great with the green plants.
Sure beats the old faded ones I had. My DH laughed and said it reminded him of Easter eggs. Got to try and paint some more this year (i've got lots of old faded plastic pots) but the cans of paint add of quickly. I'd say one can will cover 2 decent size pots. If the pots are small, then maybe 3 pots.
The other day I was at HD and they just got in a shipment of new, beautifully colored pots. They were bright colors in teal, yellow, pink etc. I wanted some, but they were like $20 for a 14 or 16 inch pot. Like a $100 would only buy you 4 or 5 pots--just doesn't fit my budget, but I may have to splurge and buy at least one of the teal. It was such a pretty color.
Something that really struck me about the pic in the link I posted was the echo of the chartreuse color in foliage and painted surfaces. I've got some Lime Zinger Xanthosoma to use, and would like to add some Margarita Sweet Potato and perhaps some creeping Lysimachia in my hanging baskets. Keeping with the idea of remaining frugal, ...well, in my case downright cheap, I have a large leaved gold hosta that has not been very happy in its way too dry home. The inset pic gave me the bright idea to pot it up, use it on the deck, and baby it for the summer before finding a better suited new home for it in fall. I'd like to echo the other colors with blooms.
hi all-
I just discovered that there is a FRUGAL LIVING forum...did you all know that?
...I guess this thread should really go there, but didn't know about it, until today: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/dirtcheap/all/
It's all Garden Talk, Taylor. I like combining all of this stuff in one general forum instead of running around to a lot of different ones.
I guess I'd have to agree...there are a crazy amount of forums now. I can't keep up with them all :0)
I like making new friends on some of the other forums, but also like to stick around the places my "old" friends are, too.
-T
I found something in the basement today to turn into something fun for the garden, wicker laundry baskets! Those will paint beautifully, and make great mixed planters. There were 4 of them down there, some starting to mold, so I put them in the tub with bleach solution and gave them a good scrub. All drying in the wood stove room now awaiting their colorful face lift! Should be able to get at least a year or two of use out of them.
y'all may not like this idea, but - I recently got a used pickup (for my plant habit) instead of a new car when my 12 year old car gave up the ghost. and we live just barely outside the city limits, so we would have had to pay for garbage pickup. But we live barely 3 miles from a county dumpsite.
now we take our own garbage! no more garbage men refusing certain things, or things too heavy, or garbage not properly "gift wrapped"!!!
best of all, we go on weekends when it's busy, because we've found hanging around a few minutes can reap some great gardening items. I got a trellis, a chair I'm going to paint in rustoleum and some scrap wood one day, next weekend I got an old plastic wire on wood frame baby gate which I took apart and use as two drying racks for irises.
we are not allowed to browse the dump, or I SO would!
I see that on garden shows all the time, and am so jealous...when I asked why, they said it would be too dangerous,and I'd probably cut myself on something and sue the city...good grief...
This message was edited Mar 14, 2009 7:13 AM
no no - you can't go in the dump. this is a dump site. you back up to a machine that crushes everything into a dumpster and throw your trash down into the hopper. You have to stop the folks with the stuff before they throw it, because there is no way to go after it, and when the trough is full they crush it into a dumpster that they can crank onto a flat bed truck. The land fill is there, but full, so it's trucked to next one. everything would be already crushed. On a nice Saturday, if you stand there for ten to fifteen minutes around 2 or 3 oclock, you can catch folks tossing all the garage sale stuff that didn't sell! (most garage sales here are over by noon or 1. I'd have hauled half a yard full home if DH would have let me! HEHEHE
gemini - the wicker baskets will be great. I used one I got at a garage sale a couple years ago and put Chrysanthemum's in it for fall. Also, one year I decided to get rid of all of my wicker baskets I had decorating the kitchen, I put succulants in them. They lasted 3 years staying outside the whole time. Here is a picture of a duck basket.
bonjon, the town next door has a dump like that. Since we don't live there we have to pay, so only go there when we have something really big and my brother who does live there can go with us and flash his license. I've seen so much down in the pit I would have loved. Someone threw an antique sewing maching in .... darn.
Nice basket
toofew, did you line your baskets with anything? I wonder if I should line it with plastic or something to keep potting soil from leaking out the sides when watered. Hmmm...guess it might protect the wicker somewhat too?
We line ours and pierce the bottom for drainage.
Thats exactly what I'll do :-)
can anyone enlighten me on how to use the plastic milk jugs to start seeds? Picked up 2 heat mats in the coops last year, but I"m too broke for fancy flats!
our plastic gallon jugs can be opaque white, translucent to white, or translucent, depending on where I buy milk, if that makes a difference.
Any of y'all know how to make yourselves a simple free scooper? for potting and such? I have done this at work when someone asked me to take a look at their office plants! made one for the dog food, one for the grass seed bag...
Take a disposable plastic single size drink bottle, with the lid on it. Wash it out well, replace the cap. Cut off the very bottom with a pair of scissors and cut up the sides until you have a "scooper" shape. Round off the edges for safety and smooth any jagged cut edges because they can hurt you.
Coke bottles with longer necks make the better handles, but I like the wider ones for scoping soils.
Yes, I've done the scooper. :0) I've also used them as cloches, but here is a new one to me:
They won the contest with this one in seedtrading forum...it is a hanging basket
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=6257823
now, if we could paint those nice colors, that would be more than cool! wonder what's in the neck to prevent water/soil loss?
I don't remember but I would think a coffee filter, piece of mesh, or screen, chip of broken pottery, or just even a large leaf would work :0)
bonjon, there are lots of tips on the Wintersowing forum about use of milk jugs and all sorts of other appropriate containers. I've also used them as little propagation chambers too. I use a knife and make drainage holes first, piercing the bottom 4 times and twisting the knife each time to make a big enough hole. Then I pierce the jug on a corner, at the bottom of the handle (with being able to get 3-4" of soil in the bottom in mind), and then use scissors to cut from there around 3 sides, leaving one attached to form a hinged lid. The cap is best left off as a vent. They provide a great little humid environment, should work great for seedlings and cuttings indoors, as well as they do for Wintersowing. After the seeds are up or cuttings are rooted the top can be cut off.
two other "miserly" tricks I've done
when I first got into irises, my plants arrived before their bed was ready. I poured out about 8-10" high of rich black topsoil, the cheapest brand of bagged topsoil Home Depot had, atop our hard red clay and heeled the plants in. quick fix and took only minutes to do. no lost plants so no lost $$!
I also heard I should use bagged topsoil to make good garden beds atop the red clay, so I bought 20 bags. Pricey, and it didn't even make a dent in my beds.
One unopened bag got misplaced, covered up and forgotten. Found it two years later cleaning up. The bag was rock hard, 2/3's empty, yet weighed about the same. Guess what? Opened it up and it was a big clump of rock hard red clay!! I'd spent all that $$ and 2 years later had what I'd had all along!! ARGH. Found out the "topsoil" was our local clay mixed with sand and compost. Now I buy the sand and compost in bulk for making beds with.
We can get compost for free if we haul from the local 'dump your leaves and clippings' site. I spend the weekend tossing it on my beds lightly to refresh them and cover frost heaved plants.( still frozen 3 inches down). A hard rain will settle it in and then it will be time to Preen the edges at least.
The cows here also give me all the manure I can use. So I tossed a little aged stuff on my seed growing garden.
It felt like spring. Yeah!
Karen
3 solid days of rain. I have weeding to do and can't
City of Raleigh shreds all storm debris into mulch. a year after a hurricane they usually give it away. otherwise, they sell that and the compost they make from the yard waste collection by the truckload quite cheaply.
We have the same deal here.
A truck load is $40.00 We figure about 3-5 yards.
We have a town nearby that does the same. But it is free if you shovel yourself or $5.00 per truckload if you are a resident. $20.00 for non-residents.
I'm buying black( no dyes) hardwood mulch, ground twice, for the new lazagna garden extention.Fifty bucks a yard.But its almost like soil.
I'm late to this party.
Neal, I have used the spray paint for plastic and it is great! Not a whole lot of colors ( ie no flourescent pink, green) but they have nice red, yellow, blue, green. I recommend it. I have one of those little seats w/ wheels that you can use when weeding. It was green but since my fave color is red, I bought the paint and changed it. I will post a pic later. It looks great.
I can't say that I'm frugal but cost control is very much on my mind and I have been more strategic about my plant purchases. then again, this is only March....
then again, this is only March...
and in its new home on my keyring :0)
other than tell time, what does it do?
It unlocks the door to everlasting happiness, LOL...
no, not really
sure it does!m that is adorable
I will have to post a pic of my keychain. It is ridiculous! It doesn't fit in my purse or in my pant pockets. I need to do something
Thanks, Nery
Good morning. I'm just sipping some coffee, and trying to wake up before diving headlong into taxes again *sigh
It is a little blurry, but here is the crocs clock I was telling you about:
I want one. absolutely adorable
nothing to do w/ frugality. But here is a pic of my gardening stool. It was green, but I couldn't resist the opportunitiy to paint it red, with the spray paint for plastics. It worked great and no scratches.
I painted the inside also. I love this little seat.
Then, on one of those winter days when the weather is nice but there's little gardening to do, I got ambitious and painted this PVC stake to make it look like bamboo. First I painted the entire thing tan, then spot-painted wit brown.
