Two Easy Frugal Garden Tips

I just wanted to share a couple of easy, frugal garden tips that I have been using in my garden.  The price is right – almost free.

Alliums

I came across this idea when I took a garden tour in my town, and thought this was lovely.  You know how expensive some of the Ornamental Alliums are?  Some varieties of culinary garlic are just as pretty in the garden as the Ornamental Alliums. And it is a whole lot cheaper to go to the supermarket and pick up a few heads of garlic than to buy a pack of allium starts in the garden center.

The ones I planted in my garden are Elephant Garlic.  Mine are blooming right now and are over 5 feet tall.  The flowers are a pretty pale purple and are about 4-5 inches in diameter.  Quite lovely in the garden.  And, after the stems harden, you gave more cloves to either use in the kitchen or plant for next year.  These are the tallest ones I have.  I really think that these are pretty and I will definitely be doing this again.

I also have some Carpathian Garlic which is about 18 inches high with white flowers and little bulblets that are left after the flowers are done.  With these, I can plant either the cloves or the billets for more next year.  This is some of the tastiest garlic around, but rather hard to find.  I planted other garlic too, but none with flowers as nice as these first two.  So, have some fun and experiment with garlic, and see which ones have the prettiest flowers.

Recycled Door Mats

My other garden tip really is free or at least recycled.  You know those rubber backed door mats that are Soo cute when you buy them, but become ratty after six months to a year?  I have been recycling them in my garden.  They are great to put down in pathways to suppress weeds and to provide a non-muddy surface to walk on when it is rainy.  They are not too pretty by the time they are ready to use in the garden, so you could turn them over if you wanted to.  If you wanted smaller pieces, you could also cut them in half like stepping stones.  I have not done this, though.  Just sayin’.

Here are some pictures of the door mats I have used around my raised beds.  These make it so much nicer to prevent weeds and give you something to walk on.  Now I just put down wood chips which is good too, but these mats make it even better.