Garden supply stores have row upon row of handy tools for the gardener and mail order companies have whole catalogs of gardening tools. But if you need a tool to do something right now and don’t have the time or inclination to run to the store to buy it or to the internet to order it, you improvise. Many of the items I use to in the garden were never meant to be used the way I utilize them.
One of the handiest items is a five gallon bucket of the type that sealant for asphalt driveways comes in. It is useful for mixing soil, carrying sand, hauling tools, and toting weeds to the compost. A rectangular plastic kitchen dishpan works for many of the same tasks and is also useful for carrying produce from garden to kitchen.
Instead of filling the bottoms of container plantings with heavy stones or gravel for good drainage, use styrofoam packing peanuts. For very large containers, fill the bottom with empty pop cans, then packing peanuts, then potting mix. This makes containers much lighter and easier to move and saves money on potting mix. Place a coffee filter in the bottom of the pot before planting so the soil doesn’t wash out the hole.
Yogurt cups are perfect for starting pepper seedlings; my tomatoes get their starts in cut off half-gallon orange juice cartons. Plastic gallon milk cartons have many uses in the garden. Cut the bottoms off and cut a slice out of the top of the handle. Poke a stake through the handle and into the ground next to tender seedlings in spring. When frost threatens or on windy days, flip the container around the stake and over the plant to protect it.
Plastic milk cartons are also useful to hang in apple trees to prevent damage from coddling moths. Cut a hole a few inches square somewhere in the top half of the carton. Mix 1/2 cup vinegar, 1/2 cup water and a few tablespoons of molasses in the carton and hang it by its handle in the apple tree right after blossom drop. The solution will attract moths away from the apples. Check periodically and refill when the solution evaporates.
A third use for plastic milk cartons is for watering. Punch holes in the bottom and bury the carton up to its neck next to tomato plants. Fill the container with water and it will trickle out the bottom to reach the plants right where they need it – at their roots.
Thick layers of newspaper can be used as mulch to kill grass for a new garden bed or between rows in a current garden to suppress weeds. Wet it down and cover it with a heavier mulch to keep it from blowing away.
I have knives intended for use in the garden, but what I reach for when I need to trim away roots to repot or divide a plant is a sharp kitchen knife. It works better and is always handy.
And for what do I use the great knee pads my mom got me for Christmas to wear for weeding? Kneeling to scrub the kitchen floor!
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