It’s finally here—the time to start planning for spring! Depending where you live, next month in March you'll start to plan your spring gardening to-dos. Get ahead of the game and start gathering materials for these cheap, creative spring gardening ideas.
These five easy projects are fun, can help relieve gardening stress and may result in some great food for your family while adding character and the feeling of spring to your manufactured home.
1. Compostable Pots
Leeks ready to be planted
There are several plants that need to be started inside before being transplanted outside, and in colder regions the weather will not be warm enough to start a garden outside for some time.
Compostable pots hold enough soil to start a seed before you put the whole pot outside which lets the pot itself break down and nurture the plant. These can be bought at a hardware store or at a nursery, but it's easy to make your own out of cardboard egg cartons, newspaper or even make compostable pots out of egg shells!
2. Make Your Own Potting Soil
The right soil ensures a healthy and fortified plant that’s ready to fend off harsh conditions and pests. To get your plants off on the right foot, or I guess you could say, off on the right root, use potting soil that offers a complete range of plant nutrition. You can buy this at a hardware store as well, but why pay someone else to mix the ingredients?
Simply add 1 part of compost to 1 part peat moss and 1 part vermiculite (or coarse sand) to keep the soil draining well. And voila! You have potting soil to use in pots and seed starting containers.Check out a previous article on container gardening to learn how to start your own container garden this spring with your homemade potting soil.
3. Make Drip Bottles For Easy Watering
It doesn’t get any cheaper or any easier than this, but this project will save you time and provide a constant water source for your plants.
Simply find a plastic bottle, poke small holes in it and hang it above tomatoes, pepper plants or any other large plant that needs lots of water. This system waters slowly, so the roots take up the water before mildew or fungus can develop from soggy soil.
4. Get Creative With Markers
When I first started, I did not mark my rows clearly, and it took a while before I could tell what was growing in the garden! Some people just use stakes, but if you’re crafty or have kids eager to help, making markers can be a fun way to start working on your garden and getting excited about planting outside.
Take a look at these fun plant marker ideas!
Homemade cork garden markers
Easy chalkboard garden marker
Simple wood garden marker
Garden markers are a perfect way to add personality to your garden while helping you identify your plants.
5. Make A Salad Garden
This one takes some time to put together, but it could give you a fresh salad all year long!
Leafy plants like lettuces, cilantro and spinach can be grown together in a container inside and trimmed every time you need some greens.
You can also start planning which plants to start growing inside with meals in mind! Grow potatoes with flair, plant tomatoes in containers, start growing peppers or get started on any other vegetables you love to put in salads.
Romaine lettuce, bok choy and swiss chard grow especially fast, so if you stagger a couple “salad gardens,” you can have a fresh salad almost every day of the week.
GARDENING IS NOT HARD
It can be a lot of work, but simple and easy projects like this can give you a great place to start gardening around your manufactured home! Get a head start with these project ideas so you're ready when the spring gardening season finally begins.
Topics Lawn and Garden