Frugality in my Garden

Whew, what a busy weekend in the garden! Nothing like some balmy temperatures to get me going. I did a lot of trimming up of freeze damaged plants, pruned the clematis (I should blog about that sometime; that task is said to strike terror in the hearts of even seasoned gardeners!), planted out some more sweet peas, and started working on my succulent stock tank planter. But perhaps most importantly, I potted up some baby plants. This is my new era of frugal gardening. Used to be when I had extra plants lying about I would attempt to give them away. Usually I was not very successful at that because I don't know that many folks who garden. So ultimately they succumbed to the compost pile (at least I'm recycling!). But not this year. In my new role as Ms. Uber Frugal Gardener (anyone remember the Frugal Gourmet?), I vow to waste not.


Therefore, extra plants or plantlets will get potted up for possible future use. Here you can see five little coreopsis plantlets (unknown variety). The plant puts out these little guys with the lucky ones rooting. But sometimes they're popped into the air instead, I guess with the hopes that some day they'll make it down to the ground. So some of my little plantlets have roots, some do not. Time will tell which are successful. Included here is a shot of the coreopsis in bloom last year, with "Victoria Blue" salvia in the background.


I was going to post some more pics of various little plants I've potted up but I'm having network issues, dang it. So instead I'll post one more photo, this one of a tree farm. Although I'm trying to be frugal in these tough times, I'm also trying to be optimistic about the future. Therefore, I'm going to spend some money and buy and plant an oak tree. This tree farm is a scant two miles from my house. Those white pots are rather interesting. They're actually bags that are said to prevent roots from wrapping around the inside, like they sometimes or often do with traditional black pots. Instead, when they hit the side of the bag they naturally prune themselves. Something about the air.


I'm thinking that if I give my oak tree enough of a stimulus package, say a nice mulch of compost and some consistent water, it'll repay me in years to come. :-)