Monday, April 18, 2005

A Little Work Now, a Lot of Money Later

We're still stacking and cutting wood from that huge branch that we took down. Its a lot of work but it feels good to know that I won't have to buy as much wood down the road. I find the outside of our house is a great place to save money, as long as you can think long term.

For example, the forsythias are in bloom (and the bees are nutty) but did you know that they are really easy to root? My mother in law showed me years ago her very unscientific technique for rooting. It goes something like this: cut off long branch on angle and shove into ground on angle, water whenever you remember. At the time I thought she was nuts but she was right. Its a great way to make one or two forsythia fill a larger space over time.

Most bulbs and perrenials can be seperated to cover a larger area over time. I don't generally use annuals because when I'm done landscaping one spot, I really like to be done. Although, I have an impatien that I have been taking cuttings off of for three years. Talk about easy to root.

Another technique is to rescue unwanted plants from your family and friends. I've gotten spreading juniper bushes, day lilies, iris and a ton of others that I don't know the names of.

Here's a little trick with lillies for those of you with septic systems and soggy leech fields, plant day lilies, they thrive in this environment and eliminate some of the sogginess allowing other plants to grow.

Now I'm off to enjoy the sunshine.

1 comment:

Katie said...

I'm not positive but I think they do. If I remember correctly tiger lilies grow taller and sometimes need support to stand up. I have some in my back yard but they are a favorite of the deer so I haven't seen anything but the last two inches of the stem in years.

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