Save Money on Seeds with Sustainable Gardening
Sustainability is a central feature of simple living. Growing what we eat in a sustainable fashion is a very important part of sustainable living, and it’s something we can do ourselves.
I always look forward to spring, as the sun rises high in the sky I look forward to my morning walks around the garden waiting and watching for flower heads to open and seedlings to make their appearance. I used to think that nothing could beat the first flushes of spring in the garden, however as spring rolls on and flowers open so quick I can hardly keep up, my gardening takes on a sense of urgency and instead of the gentle strolls waiting for everything to come to life, my outdoor time is spent weeding, preparing, mulching, composting and mowing the lawn whilst trimming the edges.
Gaze at your Garden through Money Saving Goggles!
However I’ve now realised, that these gentle ambles are a highlight twice a year. With autumn well under way, I’ve been touring my garden, watching and waiting for flowers to die. Although I’ll never grow tired of trips to the garden centre to buy bulbs, seeds, plug plants and herbs, my garden is now producing its own sustainable crop where I can feel like it’s rewarding me for all my hard work by delivering an abundance of seeds.
Sustainable gardening is not all about the compost, it also lends itself to using what you have to benefit for your garden in the following year and seed heads are my favourite.
The Circle of Life will Scatter those Seeds if you don’t!
As I took a hot steaming coffee around the borders this morning, pretty dried poppy heads greeted me, rattling in the breeze. Picking them I walked a little further to the boundary fence of the paddock and scattered them in a line through the grass that the strimmer always struggles to reach. An imaginary vista opened in my imagination of a paddock filled with ducks and chickens in a border of Californian poppies, but I didn’t stop there.
Armed with a pocketful of brown paper bags, I harvested lupin seeds, marigolds (I’ll always remember at the age of seven when my father plucked a dead marigold from its shell to reveal the hundreds of seeds below, I thought this was pure magic!), morning glory, calendula, artichokes, daisies, thyme, lavender and sage, popping them all into their new home of the airing cupboard to dry out ready to sow direct when the ground thaws.
Double your Bounty!
Once the seeds are prized from their beds, the empty heads can then be used on the compost heap. Personally I always like to see a few rogue ones popping up in the compost the following year, however, for optimum mulch weeds and seeds should be omitted from the pile!
A Cut Above!
However, not only will seed heads profit you with free bounties, at this time of year cuttings can be taken and many perennial plants can be split, only to be cloned next year. However big or small your gardens, look at it with fresh eyes, and find out what it can do for your pocket!
This post was written by Martina Mercer.
We have a small backyard vegetable orchard and one main problem we have before is pests plaguing the orchard. But this doesn’t keep us from not continuing the orchard. We are very determined to eat pesticide free vegetables and fruits.
Right there with you =)