Springtime, Yard Stuff, & A Special Treat

Monday, March 16th, 2009

March in CT is a time that fills me with happiness–spring is near–but dread as well…because it means yard work!

Saving money and time with gardening can be really challenging, particularly if you live in an area of the country where you sort of feel like the weeds are in charge no matter what you do!  And landscaping  services might be out of your price  range. 

So here’s what I’ve found that can help:

Get yourself some good tools. Aside from rakes and the usually gardening paraphernalia, here are some gadgets that actually have worked for me:

• Leaf picker-uppers a.k.a. leaf scoops.  I saw these on HSN last year flipping through one day for $20…and then happily found them in Walmart for $4!  They help you pick up larger bunches of leaves & debris at once, thus saving your back.  It looks like Ace Hardware sells them as well, for $7: http://www.acehardware.com/sm-gardex-leaf-scoop-gardex-leaf-scoop-price-6-99-the–pi-1278101.html
• Weed pullers:I don’t know about you, but I find digging out dandelions to be a pain in the butt, not to mention knees and back.  Looking for a solution, I skeptically bought a Fiskars weed puller, since I saw this on some home show as being the best that they tried out.   It actually worked–and I also got to enjoy ejecting the weeds on to a tarp for easy pick up.  Here it is: http://www.fiskars.com/EX/Garden/Other+Garden+Tools/Other/Product+Detail139910.html
• Pop-up gardening buckets a.k.a “kangaroo containers”:  Since weeding in CT is usually a big chore on a regular basis, you can easily go through 2 or 3 garbage buckets in one weeding session!  I found that the pop-up bucket makes for easier storage.  I use it with plastic garbage bags, empty the bags at the local mulching center, and then reuse them until the holes get too big.  Fiskars makes these pop-up buckets but many brands can be found on www.amazon.com if you type in “pop up gardening buckets”.

Some other tips on saving money & time w/ gardening:

• Start clean ups early in the season.  The earlier you get on top of these problems, the more manageable they are as the months go on.  We had an instance last year where we had let a certain area get out of control and had to call in the professionals to clean it up.  After that, we were able to maintain it and not need landscaping services for the rest of the year.
• It might be better to plant in the fall rather than the spring.  Depending on where you live, you may save yourself money and aggravation if you wait until the fall to plant trees, shrubs and bulbs.  Usually by September or October, perennials and bulbs go on sale so you are getting a discount.  Then, many plants actually have a better chance of survival because they have the whole winter to establish their root systems.  If you plant in the spring and have a hot, dry summer, you may lose more plants than had you waited until the fall to buy them. 
• Find out if your town has a local mulching/recycling center or lawn debris pick-up.  Danbury has both; for those of you who are local and didn’t know about these services, Ferris Mulch Products is the drop-off center and it is free.  Curbside pickup is listed on the City of Danbury website, but if you want them to pick-up your stuff curbside in a reasonable amount of time, call City Hall and they’ll send a truck your way.

Happy gardening!

And since you were so kind to read to the bottom of this post…here’s a great deal that came to me by way of Christina O.  As part of a legitimate software review program, you can get yourself some free software, including products such as HGTV Home & Landscape, which sells for $99 normally. They currently have about 25 left of each to review. There are also other types of software to review including Scrapbook Factory Pro and Hallmark Card Studio.  The catch is that you have to have an Amazon.com profile and must review the software.  If you are interested in this invitation only freebie, click on this link: http://www.critiquemanager.com/review278.html and enjoy!

You can read more about the review program here: http://www.critiquemanager.com/review278.html 

Copyright 2008-2009 Kristin Delfau, author of Turbo-Mom's Guide to Saving Money Without Wasting Time a womens' personal finance book, and Aji Publishing.

Tags: free stuff, municipal services, software, yardwork
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