Creative Gardening and Home Landscaping on a Budget

Get ideas and advice for your home garden projects, from seeding to landscaping and garden decor. Grow flowers, vegetables and potted plants and work less, enjoy more in the yard.

I'll share my methods and tips along with photos from my own gardens and nature crafts projects in this section.

Grow Your Own Garden, Indoors or Outdoors

Learn how to keep critters out of your gardens, make lovely garden crafts, plan and grow herbs, vegetables, flowers and shrubs in your own yard or in a few containers on the patio, porch or balcony.

cucumbers growing on DIY branches trellis

Cucumbers like trellises; this one is made from saplings and a scrap of coated wire garden fencing.

Grow Your Own Food

grow your own veggies and flowers with help from pastiche

You can grow sunflowers taller than 10 feet high using nothing but compost and organic fertilizer along with mulch and plenty of water

Rabbits in the Vegetable Patch - Birds on the Berry Bushes - How to Keep 'em Out, Safely

Wildlife is fascinating and fun - but not always if they show up in your home flower and vegetable gardens.

Learn how to discourage unwanted wildlife or chase them away without poisoning or harm to them or to your family.

how to keep wildlife out of gardens

Here's an article that will tell you how to fend off the various animals that want to enjoy your flower and vegetable gardens by eating them.

Try out my humane and practical tips on how to keep wildlife out of your gardens without harming them. .

Design a Blue Flowers Garden Bed

Get creative, designing a garden with blue flowers. This is the rarest flower hue and it can add a rich splash of color to your garden or in decorative pots. This article will show you pictures of suggested plants that will bloom every year.

Plant your flowers in a cluster of all blue or mix them in with white flowers to add a bit of contrast. Or get patriotic in the USA and plant yourself a red, white, and blue flower patch.

plant a blue flower garden

Organic Weed Control

Weeds can spoil the look of a flower bed, rob valuable nutrients from the garden soil and can be a general nuisance.

If you don't keep up with weeds, they can be even more troublesome to get rid of. While they can be difficult to get under control, don't lose hope, it just takes a little persistence and weed control knowhow.

Garden Crafts - Whimsical Outdoor Decor

It's easy and fun to make stepping stones, artistic mosaics, small sculptures, and even leaf-embossed bird baths for your garden. I love to make cast concrete leaves to use as birdbaths, feeders, or garden decor.

All it takes is a supply of easy to use concrete patch mix, a place to work, and an afternoon or two for you to create durable garden decorations that are trle works of nature art.

Repurpose old boots, boxes, furniture, ladders and anything else you have on hand to decorate your garden and expand your planting spaces.

In the Spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. - Margaret Atwood

Grow More in Less Space with Raised Beds, Vertical Gardens, and Containers

If you have a very small vegetable garden, one of the easiest methods for getting more produce from your plot is to use trellises or vertical gardening techniques combined with a home made raised bed planter box.

Learn how to get the most out of a 3' x 6' 12-inch deep raised bed planter - we're talking LOTS of tomatoes, squash and greens. You can build one with stones, logs, bricks or mounded soil for next to no cash.

how to grow flowers, herbs, and veggies in containers

If you are gardening on a balcony, you can satisfy that green thumb urge - plant up a container garden

Dried Flowers from Your Garden

Flowers hanging to dry make a fabulous decoration by themselves, and, when they are finished drying, you can take them down and make dried flower arrangements, Christmas ornaments, dried flower wreaths and more. Learn how to dry flowers for crafts

It's Easy to Grow Fresh Herbs Indoors or Outside

It's easy to grow your own delicious herbs and vegetables in a family garden patch. In as little as 10 square feet or in a collection of large pots you can cultivate tasty, fresh and organic herbs, veggies and fruits for your family. Learn how to plan and cultivate a home herb garden.

Add a Garden Pond to Your Landscape or Interior Environment

Garden ponds are a beautiful addition to any garden and a stunning focal point to your home interior. Learn how to design, maintain and stock your own gold fish in a back yard or indoor water feature (pond) ... it's easier than you think!

Keeping Cool in the Garden

A water feature in your garden or on your porch can create a relaxing and cooling environment. Learn about adding the sound and sight of water to your porch, patio or garden.

Vintage Child, Organic Gardening; Victory Garden Poster by YesterdayCafe