Save on potting mix

Save on potting mix
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Name-brand potting mixes can set you back quite a few dollars when you’re filling large containers. Use less of the expensive soil mix (and save weight so you can move the containers more easily) by lining the bottom of large containers with packing peanuts before filling with soil mix. Put the packing peanuts in a sealed plastic bag or cover with landscape fabric to prevent them from mingling with the soil (a hassle if you ever dump the pot).

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Recycle berry containers for lawn care

Recycle berry containers for lawn care
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When it’s time to clean out the refrigerator, be sure to save those plastic berry containers. You can toss the mushy raspberries, but wash and dry the container – it’s perfect for spreading grass seed on your lawn! This is one simple way to reduce waste and save money every month, too.

Here are 12 things you should never do to your lawn. 

Add mounds to flat areas

Add mounds to flat areas
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If you’re stuck with a perfectly flat yard, a mounded “island” of earth is a great place to isolate and display plantings, yard ornaments, boulders or other eye-catching features. A yard with contours looks more natural than a flat yard. Order a dump truck’s worth of topsoil or use fill generated from patio or pond excavations.

Go for green

Go for green
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Unless you’re a seasoned gardener, get help with selecting and placing plants. Bring photos or a scale drawing of planting areas to the nursery and enlist the help of a knowledgeable salesperson. Your goals are to choose a variety of plants that lend colour throughout the season (including winter), and to position them well, so their mature growth heights and widths fill in the planting beds and blend well.

Erect stone entry walls

Erect stone entry walls
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Low stone walls are striking features that can define your entry and guide visitors up the walk. Natural stone is ideal but difficult to set. The decorative concrete units shown here are relatively inexpensive and easy to install. They subtly separate seating areas from public sidewalks and streets. And they’re also great places for casual seating and potted plants.

This is how to build a dry stone wall.

Put in a small patio

Put in a small patio
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A simple flagstone or paver brick patio furnished with an outdoor dining set is the perfect spot to watch the kids play in the yard and entertain guests. Practically speaking, patios help drain water away from the house and are a great solution for areas that won’t support grass. Luckily flagstone requires little upkeep, too.

Cleome

Cleome
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Cleome is just one of the many self-seeding annual plants that come back year after year without any effort on your part. Also called spiderflower because of the spiderlike flowers, it grows 120cm tall or better and brandishes large pink, purple or white flowers. Although it is a vigorous self-seeder, unwanted seedlings are easy to pull when they’re young. Because of its size, cleome is not a plant to be ignored. That size also makes it a great back-of-border plant in a flowerbed.

Here’s a calendar that will help you know when to prune your plants. 

Celosia

Celosia
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Celosia is another rampant self-seeder that makes itself at home in your garden year after year. If so, consider yourself lucky, because the vividly coloured blooms on this plant are a pure delight. They feature a variety of colours – from burgundy, red, magenta and pink to cream, orange and yellow. Celosia offers different flower shapes, too. There are plumes, crests and spikes. No wonder this annual is loved by so many gardeners. There’s a size to fit any garden, from 15cm dwarfs to 90-cm-tall specimens.

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Source: RD.com

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