How to save money on garden gear with some creative recycling

With prices for many things creeping up this year, gardeners shopping for supplies might be looking to tighten their tool belts.

Before heading to the garden center, take a look around your home, garage, shed and recycling bin. There might be some perfectly good gardening gear hiding in plain sight.

From food containers to lamp shades

Plastic yogurt containers with holes poked in their bottoms make wonderful seed-starting pots. So do plastic clamshell lettuce and berry containers.

Do you grow peonies? The plants are beautiful –- for about two weeks in spring, after which they give up and lie down on the lawn. I’ve seen peony plant supports selling for $10 for thin wire cages to well over $100 for sturdier, prettier options.

But why buy them when large lampshade frames are the perfect height and shape to support the plants? Remove their fabric and place one upside down over each plant as soon as new growth pokes out of the ground, then bury their bases or use landscape pins to hold them in place.

As the plants grow, their leaves will block the frames from view.

Similarly, you can spend $50 to $100 for an obelisk trellis, or you can let your plants climb an old patio umbrella frame. Cut its legs down to size, if necessary, and sink them into the ground for stability.

Use fish scraps

Fish emulsion is a fantastic organic fertilizer made from whole fish and byproducts. You can make your own by soaking fish scales, bones and entrails in a sealed 5-gallon bucket of water for at least a month, then straining the liquid and using it to water plants.

Or give your plants the same nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium and sulfur) by burying a whole fish or fish scraps at least 10-12 inches deep under planting beds.

If you’re an angler, you may have access to a boatload of these amendments, but if you aren’t, your local fishmonger may be willing to give you scraps and heads — or sell them at low cost.

Plants will also benefit from used fish-tank water, which is rich in nitrogen and other nutrients.

Cooking water

After boiling vegetables, cool the water and apply it to plants (as long as you didn't add salt). It contains vitamins and minerals that will give them a boost. Water from boiled eggs contains calcium, which tomato and pepper plants love.

You can even use eggshells in place of garden lime, as they both contain calcium carbonate. Microwave empty shells for two minutes to dehydrate them, then grind in a high-powered blender, coffee grinder or food processor. Incorporate the resulting powder into the soil around plants. The same can be done with banana peels. Dehydrated in an air fryer and and pulverized, they'll provide plant-boosting potassium.

Making free lawn fertilizer is a zero-effort endeavor. Whether you use a push mower or a powered mulching mower, simply remove the bag and let the grass clippings remain on the lawn. As they break down, they’ll release nitrogen into the soil.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

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