We are now into our third week of lockdown and my plans to expand my backyard and improve my garden have hit a bit of a snag. My pea hay delivery guy has been prevented from delivering due to the current police roadblocks that prevent travel between rural areas in Western Australia.
Plus, I’m being conservative with our spending right now. Sure, lot’s of places are delivering the essentials, but for now, if it is not an outright need, it’s a wait and see…
And while your part of the world may not be enforcing such strict measures, the good news is, there are still plenty of things you can do to improve your garden if you are confined to your home and watching your money.
Here are my top 5 things you can do to improve your garden without spending a cent!
1. Start your Compost Pile!
Compost is one of those things that is easy to neglect in our otherwise busy lives. But now is the perfect time to start your compost pile, or revive the compost you already have.
Contact your local council, many offer free compost bins to households and now would be a great time to collect yours.
Compost is simply amazing stuff for your garden and for the planet. Instead of sending all your compostible materials to landfill, put them to work in your garden!
Check out my post How to Compost Just About Anything Fast! to get you up to speed with all you need!
2. Get To Your Garden Job List
We all have little tasks that pile up into big jobs in the garden and now is the perfect time to tackle them.
- Gutters are now clean and the resulting muck added to my compost pile.
- All the weeds have been pulled and fed to the ducks.
- Paths have been cleaned and swept.
- Garden tools have been cleaned and put away.
- The greenhouse has been decluttered and tidied.
- Shrubs have been pruned and shredded.
- The shed is still a mess, but is Husband’s domain. Haha!
- My seed collection needs sorting, but I’m saving that for a rainy day.
- Next week when it is cooler, I’m enlisting the kids to help me rid the garden of morning glory vine for good!
It’s amazing what a good garden tidy up can do for the motivation! Plus it’s such a pleasure to be in the garden without having to look past all the jobs waiting to be done!
When you sign up as a subscriber to A Farm of Your Home you’ll receive printable Garden Journal Pages, which includes a Garden To-Do list. Sign up today!
3. Start Your Seed Collection
Last post I showed how you can start your own seed collection with produce from your fridge, pantry and garden. Given how scarce seeds have recently become, we simply can no longer chuck out the best parts of our fruits and vegetables, the seeds!
My seed envelope template you see above is free and available to download from the Subscriber Resource Library.
4. Repurpose Your Recycling.
One of my earliest and most popular posts was Milk Bottle Garden Tools! I still make shovels, spades, scoops and plant labels out of plastic bottles. In fact, there are so many things you can re-use and repurpose in your garden, I wrote an e-book about it! You can find it, free to download, in the Subscriber Resource Library.
5. Start Planning Your Dream Food Garden
Given the rush on seeds and all things garden in the last few weeks, it would seem that any of us are deciding to grow more of our own food.
This is so exciting and a wonderful outcome from an otherwise rubbish set of circumstances.
Now is a great time to dream about what you want to grow and eat from your garden and start making a plan. Again, the subscriber printable Garden Journal Plan has map pages that you can use to plot your future garden!
And, I’ve snuck in a bonus 6th thing you can do for your garden….
6. Take Care of YOU.
I’m a certified introvert and some might wryly observe the fact I have been practising social distancing for years as a lifestyle choice. But, I’m not loving this lockdown.
With so much uncertainty, a crazy economic climate, knowing my friends and family are facing challenging times and worrying about the health of loved ones is not a happy place to be.
So #6 on my list of the things you can do for your gardener is… Take care of YOU, the gardener!
I have been maintaining a regular routine with my family, including garden time, school time, exercise time, food prep and even a 4 pm “Hour of Power” that involves a revolving list of chores to ensure we are not all swamped under messes of our own making. We are resisting the urge to stay up late and sleep in all morning! Plus, I’ve pulled back from reading all the endless news coverage. So far, so good!
Like many other people, I have also been reflecting on what is really important to me, and become more aware of my own privilege. Good health and a patch of dirt to cultivate and call your own is to be fortunate indeed.
I hope you have all you need.