Last year at this time, I was in Las Vegas counting the days to come back to NY. To pass the time, I found myself gravitating toward garden magazines that focused on shabby-chic stuff. Another way to pass time is to check out my friends on facebook. Gardening and facebook dovetailed nicely when I spotted my friend Debbie's posts about her garden. Debbie has an eye for color and design and puts all that together with shabby-chic pieces. (Yes, Debbie wants an old bed frame in the garden to plant a bed of flowers.) I was so intrigued that I invited myself to Debbie's house to check the garden out.
Wow! It is something else. She started small and added over the years. One idea Debbie had that worked beautifully was to add the cheap solar panels you can purchase for garden paths and putting them in mason jars. Those mason jars were hanging about on fence posts and an old ladder (one her husband saved from street side trash). Deb says when the sun goes down, the lights give the garden a nice glow. She also used a wood pallet for planting vegetables. Basically, you lay the pallet down, put dirt in the slat openings, then plant the seed. From what I saw the pallet worked well -- no weeds could place themselves in between the rows of vegetables and the brussels sprouts were popping through.
So, I was motivated to do some gardening after I came home from Debbie's place. It's been a slow go since the winter came through and I have little in the way of available funds. Still, Rod was able to construct an arbor for me out of the dismantled swing set we had. Also, when Rod tore down the old bungalow on the property, he separated out usable wood, burnable wood, and junk. We paid for the junk to be hauled away in a dumpster. The rest of the stuff has sat in the yard.
This spring we put in a new vegetable garden. With the exception of the cost of the chicken wire and the seeds, everything else has been constructed with free material. And, this weekend we are putting a windowed door on my little garden shed. The door is a left over from when we built the house. By accident, Rod ordered the wrong sized door for the basement entry. We lived with it for a couple years, then when money wasn't so tight, we bought a bigger door. Rod, mister gets-rid-of-nothing, kept the old door. Finally it'll find a new home. |
| the old door to basement; new to shed |
Not everyone has the room to store so much stuff as Rod and I have. There is a plethora of free things out there, however. Try Craigslist. There is a free section. If you're lucky, you have a designated spring cleaning time when everyone puts their junk curbside. Need plants? Ask. I wanted to get some philodendron. Instead of buying a plant, I got some cuttings from others for free. Once they form roots, I'll have my own plant.
It's great to get stuff for free. It's good for the environment; it's good for the pocketbook; it's good for the soul.
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