Gardening With What’s On Hand
I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck. ~Emma Goldman
This week while I was outside spraying some mud off my shoes and contemplating what to write about for today's post, I lifted up my eyes to the tiny hill and the tire retaining wall in my front yard and decided to write about gardening with free stuff.
Amongst the weeds and detritus in my front yard I have some harbingers of better things to come. Here a
few 'free' plants we've transplanted to our yard:
Yarrow is a wild herb that spreads freely in sandy, disturbed, and not very nutritious soil, which is what we have in our tire retaining wall. A year ago I actually bought some with ready money, to see how it did. Then I learned it grows wild and freely all around me. The purchased plant did so well that a couple weeks ago after a solid rain, I toodled about our country roads in my parents' golf cart and dug up half a dozen plants and transplanted them to our tires. They look a bit bedraggled, but they have clearly taken root and will return year of year.
Day Lilies are not technically a wildflower, but in the midwest they have naturalized along roadsides anywhere a farmer's wife might have lived. They like sandy soil and spread, needing to be divided and replanted every so often, so you're actually doing them a favor if you dig up a few and transplant them. The same goes for Irises. This year we dug up several bunches of daylilies that had grown to cramped and crowded to bloom and transplanted them from on old farmyard gateyard to our tire retaining wall, one per tire. We also planted some in a corner of the backyard where I also hope some old giant white phlox (also called Sweet William) comes back, with a backing of orange bittersweet and white morning glories- if all goes well, come late summer it should look something like a creamsicle in that corner of the yard.
Spiderwort is a plant worthy of a lovelier name- the purple-blue blossoms look lovely in the morning sun, and dapple the hillside in front of our house with spots of welcome color. They grow wild around the countryside, and have not objected to transplanting. They do not need fertile soil.
Lily of the Valley is a sweet smelling spring plant that spreads easily and loves the shady, moist areas of the yard. It spread so easily, that if you can find an older gardener, you can probably find somebody who would love to let you dig some up and transplant it. It also makes a nice indoor bulb garden in the middle of winter.
Other 'wild' or naturalized plants we've moved to our yard, free from old farmyards and older gardeners or wild:
violets
Moneyplant
Hosta
Poppies (from seeds from a garden in town)
Bouncing Bett
Dame's Rocket
Wild Geraniums
Peonies
Lilacs
Mints
Catnip
I am a green novice, not a green thumb, and of course, the plants I have available to me are specific to my geographical area and my access to old farmyards and elderly gardeners- both of which I have in plenty. Your circumstances will vary. I suggest going to your local library to look for books on local flowers, and then looking some of them up on line to see what conditions they require. Drive around town and see what seems to be flourishing in your neighbor's yards. Take a walk through your neighborhood and chat up any gardeners you see working in their yards. Compliment them on their gardens and ask advice- gardeners tend to love to share their expertise, and sometimes they will offer you cuttings, seeds, and bulbs from their own gardens.
Even if you have no yard, you can force a few bulbs indoors, or find a sunny window for a flower box, or try green plants that require little light. Spiderplants do well with light sunlight, filtered through windows, and they are another plant you can often find 'free' from a friend who has one with 'babies.'
When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other. ~Chinese Proverb
Want more like this post? Read on!
- How A Stick-It Note Helped Me With a Frugal Hack Monday I was on my way home from a dentist...
- Frugal Hack for Hand-me-down bike Our 13 year old daughter has outgrown her bike, and...
- Flexibility In Your Hand A while back in a post on my regular blog...
2 Responses to “Gardening With What’s On Hand”
June 8th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Another new gardener here (my husband is the expert). I’m totally loving the daylilies this year, and I’m also seeing good things from our gaura. It’s not something you can typically find just growing around, but once you plant it, it can spread and offer plenty of new growth.
June 9th, 2008 at 6:28 am
Great post!
Can I recommend an additional resource for the subject?
(You probably have it in your library already, Headmistress!)
Passalong Plants by Felder Rushing of Southern Living. It’s a quirky and humorous guide to plants which thrive on old homesteads and are often passed from one gardener to another.
Not being a great gardener myself, these hardy plants that spread quickly are exactly what I look for!
Leave a Comment