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The low maintenance frugal garden

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I thought I'd share some ideas with you about gardens. I'm a tenant with a large ish garden which I am responsible for maintaining, but I don't have a great deal of time to spend on it and am certainly not spending money on it! So here's some ideas I've come up with:

1. Brighten it up with pot plants. These can then be taken with you when you move (an old colonial idea I got from a book on India). You can get cuttings from friends, or buy plants very cheaply from church sales etc

2. Weeds are your friends. EG, I have a large bramble bush at the bottom of the garden. This provides a lot of fruit and is good 'cover' for the compost heap/mulch pile. I just trim the brambles back occasionally to stop it taking over. Nettles can also be eaten. Some weeds actually look nice, and if you trim them into neat shapes with shears they can look exactly the same as 'proper' shrubs.

3. Grass is good. The bigger your lawn,and the smaller your flowerbeds, the less time you need to spend on weeding etc - just whizz round with the flymo and you're done.

4. Recycle stuff - I use some old tiles as border markers, and an old bookcase as a plant stand, etc. I got my garden table and chairs free from a friend who was buying a posh new set.
'Never keep up with Joneses. Drag them down to your level. It's cheaper.' Quentin Crisp
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