7 frugal gardening suggestions and tips | Dwelling Backyard

(Family Features) Gardening can be an easy way to spruce up your yard, relieve stress, and save money on your grocery bill, but like any hobby, you can get carried away with purchasing the necessary equipment.

Fun, economical, and environmentally friendly, these tricks can help you create an affordable garden:

• Use a folding rule and permanent marker to mark inches and feet on the handle of your rake, shovel, or hoe. The next time you plant, simply lay the marked handle along the row to create perfectly spaced holes for the seeds.

• Line the bottom of a clay pot with a coffee filter to prevent soil from spilling out of the bottom.

• Use empty plastic water bottles or clear milk churns to fill the bottoms of large pots. They reduce the weight of the pot and require less soil for filling.

• To test if your seeds are still viable for this planting season, put a wet paper towel in a zippered bag, add 3-4 seeds, and wait a week to see if anything grows.

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• One way to prevent weeds is to line your yard with a layer of newspaper. Simply cover two or three sheets of newspaper with a layer of pine needles, clippings, or dried leaves for an environmentally friendly, inexpensive weed barrier.

• Keep garden twine close at hand. Nail a funnel grommet down to your potting soil, run the string through and your string will never be lost. For a more portable solution, put a ball of yarn in a mason jar, make a hole in the lid, and feed the end of the yarn through the hole. Now you can take yarn with you wherever you go, without tangles.

• There is no need to buy expensive potting systems to start seedlings. Place several cardboard toilet rolls in a clean plastic bowl like those used for prepackaged salads. Fill each cardboard tube with potting soil and plant. Once your seedlings get too big for the clam, simply tear off the top lid.

Visit eLivingtoday.com for more ideas for designing a garden without buying a package.