5 Gardening Ideas for Spring and Summer

Sticking inexpensive plastic forks into the soil around young plants creates a surprisingly effective barrier against squirrels, cats, rabbits, and other critters. The tines make it uncomfortable for animals to dig, scratch, or trample delicate seedlings. Place the forks with the tines pointing upward around vulnerable plants and remove them once the plants are well established. It’s much cheaper than buying fencing or commercial plant guards and takes only a few minutes to set up.

Want more roses without buying new plants? Take a healthy rose cutting and insert the stem into a potato before planting it in soil. The potato helps keep the cutting moist and provides a stable environment while roots develop. While not guaranteed to work every time, many gardeners swear by this trick as an inexpensive way to propagate roses and other woody plants. It’s far cheaper than purchasing mature nursery plants.

Before buying a sprinkler attachment, try making your own. Poke several small holes in the side of a plastic bottle, attach it securely to a garden hose, and place it on the lawn. Water sprays out through the holes, creating a simple sprinkler that’s perfect for small garden areas, flower beds, or patches of grass. It’s a great way to reuse plastic bottles while saving money on irrigation equipment.

Many gardeners throw away valuable nutrients without realizing it. Eggshells can add calcium to soil, used coffee grounds can improve compost, and vegetable scraps can be composted into rich organic matter. Instead of purchasing bags of fertilizer every season, start collecting these kitchen leftovers and turn them into a steady source of plant nutrition. Over time, this can save a surprising amount of money while improving soil health naturally.

If slugs are destroying your garden, skip expensive slug control products and pour a small amount of beer into a shallow container. Slugs are attracted to the yeast scent, crawl in, and become trapped. Place the dish near affected plants in the evening and check it the next morning. This low-cost trick can significantly reduce slug populations while using something many households already have on hand.