Living large on the cheap in T-town - yard edition

Being on a budget can really suck. But after a dear also-budget-grumpy friend commented today that she was secretly envious of how I'd been able to fix up my yard this year, I realized all the many ways I've been able to rehab my yard this year, locally and on the cheap. So, a few tips to share ...

Fixing your lawn is easy. I hate dandelions. I even wrote a poem about my hate for dandelions last year. I've learned that adding soil ammendment, overseeding, and mowing regularly can work WONDERS. Mega-wonders. Sod might be an easy fix, but it comes with its own clay-laden, raccoon attracting mega-problems, so I say, get yourself a load of TAGRO Mix, a big bag of lawn seed (region appropriate!) from GardenSphere, apply in fall and spring, and reap the rewards. Oh yeah, and TAGRO is dirt cheap. Get it? DIRT?! CHEAP!? Ok, it's not dirt, it's soil amendment, but it's still funny ...

Find a friendly fairy gardenmother (or father) in your neighborhood. I've been blessed with an outspoken neighbor who if she hadn't had kids would have been an extremely type A CEO and making millions, and probably she would have been dead of a stroke by now. But she has a kid. She has two. And she's taken to motivating the kids and the neighbors to be better, be better, be better. I say this with love, and gratefullness, and with the knowledge that she or one of her kids could easily be reading this blog ... she's found it before. And you know what: She's a great leader. She literally gives us the tools to make our backyard something more pleasant for her to look at. She can hone in on free things like nobody's business. She knows who's getting rid of what, and who else in the neighborhood just might be able to use that what. Our garden is full of cuttings from her bodacious dividing flower bed, our raised garden bed is fenced thanks to her salvaging, and our projects are done thanks to her prodding. And we're all the happier for it. I so owe her a bottle of wine ... good wine.

Save your seeds. Did you know you could do that? Has it ever occurred to you that the seeds in the center of whatever you're eating could grow you your own whole plant that you don't have to pay for? I'm a farm girl and I hadn't even taken the time to make the correlation. My husband this year, genius that he is, started saving seeds from melons and other foods and starting them for fun in the windowsill. And we might just reap the fruits of our labors ... if not this year, then quite possibly next when we kind of maybe know a little about what the heck we're doing. And if you have a garden, there are many, many more sources to save those seeds from. Apparently you don't have to buy new ones every year. Who knew? Carrie Little at Mother Earth Farms knows what she's talking about in this regard, and keep an eye out at www.tacomagardens.com for a possible seed saving workshop in the near future!

Need a cheap plant? Then you really should check out the local Native Plant Salvage project. For a bit of effort, you can do a good deed and get cheap or free plants. That's awesome. And you can usually find their events posted at www.tacomagardens.com as well.

I think that's enough for now ... but a quick disclaimer: I ain't a gardening guru, I'm a gardening idiot learning as she goes. Don't expect to see my yard in any magazine anytime soon ... but I'm having fun, and taking it one step at a time. And I'm enjoying the journey.