View full sizeBars of strong-smelling soap hung around the garden can help repel deer and other critters.
Birds and Blooms, a bird and garden magazine, has rounded up some of the most useful objects for your garden that cost almost nothing. You probably have many of them in your basement or garage.
Use recycled cans, worn boots, damaged watering cans, old teapots and discarded sinks as containers for herbs, flowers and houseplants. Be sure to create drainage holes.
Paper bags can protect tender plants from frost. Set the bags upside down over tops of plants when there is a threat of frost, and put soil or rock over the edges of the bags to hold them in place.
Remove in the morning so plants can enjoy the sun.
Kitchen forks, knives and spoons make great garden tools. Use to separate flats, lift seedlings and tease apart root balls, suggests Birds and Blooms magazine.
Thick layers of newspaper kills grass and prevents weeds from growing in new garden beds.
Use tin cans with the tops and bottoms cut out to keep destructive cutworms from eating plants. Press the cans into the soil and plant seedlings inside.
Sprinkle coffee grounds at the base of plants to improve drainage in clay. Azaleas and blueberries love it.
Break a bar of soap in to several pieces and hang from string, old pantyhose or net bags from trees near places where deer feed. The strong deodorant smell may keep out deer and other pests, according to Birds and Blooms magazine.
Tie aluminum pie pans to a string and hang them from branches or fence. The annoying noise they make as they bang around and flash of reflected light may keep away deer, rabbits and other pests.
Use packing peanuts in large pots to make them lighter and improve drainage.
Old pantyhose can be used to tie up floppy plants, or to line the bottom of pots so water gets out but dirt can’t.
For more garden bargains, go to birdsandblooms/gardening/summer/garden-bargains.
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