Here are 10 garden tips and ideas sure to give you the best garden ever! Check out our tips for easy composting, cheap and natural weed killer, organizing your garden shed, free seed starting containers and much more!

10 Garden Tips For The Best Garden EVER

Did you know that I went to school for horticulture and that gardening is my passion! It’s kind of funny that I’m running a website on saving money when my true love is gardening.  Of course, gardening does not have to be expensive, and for me, it definitely isn’t! I spend less than $50 a year on my gardens and my gardens are pretty big. Here are some of my top tips to save money in the garden and have the BEST garden EVER!

The tips are below, but here’s a video we made where I actually show you the tips in action:

1. Use diapers in the garden– Yes, seriously! The water absorbing granules in diapers work great at helping keep your container plants moist, so they don’t dry out too quickly. That way, you can water less and your plants get more even moisture. The granules are safe and, in fact, they are the same stuff that you can buy in garden stores to help keep your plants watered.
2. Compost in place. I just throw most of my compostables into the garden and compost in place.  If it’s a large item, like half a watermelon, I will bury it a bit but with most scraps, I just pull back the mulch lay the compostables on the ground and put the mulch back on top of it, so that it rots right there in place.
3. Use vinegar to kill weeds. Just spray vinegar on your weeds and they will die. If you just put it on the leaves there isn’t enough acid in the vinegar to impact the ph of your soil. I buy the large bottles of white vinegar, which are much less expensive than weed killer and very effective for most weeds.
4. Use milk bottles, water bottles or other containers as drip irrigation. Just poke a small hole or two in the base with an ice pick. Set next to your plant and put some rocks in the bottom to weight it down so it won’t blow away. Then, when you water, just fill up the jug and you have an instant drip system for your plants! Then your water will soak in slowly instead of running off.

5. Use broken mini-blind slats to make labels for the garden. Cut them down to the right size (3-4 inches works well) and use a permanent marker to label them. I can get 175 plant markers out of a small mini-blind and up to 500 markers out of a large mini-blind. You can also cut up a yogurt container or other container into 1-2 inch pieces to use for garden markers.
6. Use a shoe organizer to store your small tools. They’re great for storing all kinds of small garden tools and supplies. Many shoe organizers don’t work so well for organizing shoes, so they’re cheap and plentiful at garage sales!
7. Use cardboard and newspaper for mulch. Just put the newspaper and cardboard under your mulch. This way, you don’t need as much mulch and it completely smothers the weeds so you don’t have weeds coming up.
8. Use buckets or planters to water new trees. Drill a few holes in the bottom of a bucket or planter. Fill with some rocks so it doesn’t blow away. You can also use the rocks to partially obstruct any large holes that might let the water out too quickly. Then just fill the bucket with water and it will slowly water your plants.
9. Set a small plastic or clay pot over plants to protect them from frost. Just put one pot on top of each plant. Remove in the morning so they don’t get too hot.
10. Use toilet paper cores for planters. Just snip four small cuts along the bottom edge and fold inward to close one end. Then plant the tiny cardboard “pot” with soil and your seed. When the plants come up, just put the entire thing in the garden. The cardboard will decompose as the plant grows.