Happy Garden - December 13, 2007

Volume 2, Number 48, December 13, 2007 (Read It Online) Today we a From Trash to Garden Treasure article. Kind of a lean gardening article this week, which is normal this time of year. Next week we will not be publish a gardening newsletter due to the holiday so we'll see you again in two weeks. I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thanks for reading, Susan Send to a Friend! Submit Your Gardening Tips Submit Photos of Your Garden Submit a Gardening Request Edit Your Subscriptions: To edit your ThriftyFun subscriptions, click the Update Profile/Email Address link at the bottom of this newsletter. Today's newsletter contains: Tips and Articles: From Trash to Garden Treasure New Requests: 20 Year Old Jade Tree Growing Tiny Shoots Today's Sponsor: Crafting for Fun and Money! If you are an avid crafter, capable writer and own a digital camera, you are eligible to participate. Submit your craft projects to ThriftyFun and we will pay $15 for any crafts that we publish. More Information: Click Here: http://www.thriftyfun.com/post_craft.ldml Tips and Articles: From Trash to Garden Treasure By Ellen Brown Nature is not wasteful. Everything in it has is designed for a purpose. Maybe that is why gardeners are always finding creative ways to reuse household items in the garden. Here are a few interesting ways to recycle ordinary trash and garden waste into garden treasures, including easy, step-by-step instructions for a charming tin punch lantern. Glass Bottle Garden Path Glass bottles come in all sizes in colors. They are strong and last forever in the garden. Cut off the bottoms and invert them into leveled sand for an interesting garden path. Frame the path with redwood boards or mix the bottle bottoms in with a wet concrete slab and add pebbles and tile remnants for an interesting look. Ask local pubs and restaurants if you can have their recycled wine and liquor bottles-they should be recycling them anyway. Garbage Can Lid Bird Bath Birds will gladly use a metal garbage can lid for a birdbath. Attach it to a stump or a log for a readymade bath. For a hanging bath, paint the underside with floral designs, drill holes along the rim and let it swing freely from a tree branch or Shepard's hook in your garden. Sunflower Head Feeder Mammoth sized sunflowers are bright, cheerful, easy-to-grow additions to any sunny garden. After the sunflowers bloom, hang the sunflower heads by twine from tree branches around your garden. Add a little wild birdseed to the already present sunflower seeds and you have a cheap, disposable birdfeeder. Satellite Dish Gazebo Covers Remember when those giant satellite dishes were all the rage? Now that the technology has changed, you can use your old dish as a gazebo roof or dig it into the ground as the form for the water feature or pond you've always wanted (make sure to line it with plastic to prevent rust). Tin Punch Lantern (You can view directions on how to make a lantern from a tin can here: http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf697105.tip.html) Post Feedback: http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf721636.tip.html Email to a Friend | Get Responses | Bookmark | Link | Rate It: | Print Contest! Tip Contest Submit a Tip or Recipe! Photo Contest Submit a tip with photo! The above contests are weekly. We pick 2 tip winners and 1 photo winner at the end of each week. Each winner will win $25! My Frugal Life Submit a My Frugal Life Essay! New Requests: 20 Year Old Jade Tree Growing Tiny Shoots I have a Jade tree that is over 20 years old. For the past few months, it has been dropping its big leaves, and growing tiny spindly little shoots instead. I haven't done anything different with it at all. I do put it outside in the summer, and bring it back in in the wintertime, but that I have been doing for years as well. There does not seem to be any insects of any kind, or spider mites, although I did see spider webs when this first started. However, I have seen that before as well. I thought Jade trees were indestructible, but apparently not. Also, whatever this is affects several younger Jade trees that I have as well, and the smaller ones have all died. Any ideas? Hardiness Zone: 2b Louise from Nipawin, SK, Canada Post Feedback: http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf98985438.tip.html Email to a Friend | Get Responses | Bookmark | Link | Rate It: | Print Looking for a frugal solution to an everyday problem? Submit your request here: Click Here Today's Sponsor: Crafting for Fun and Money! If you are an avid crafter, capable writer and own a digital camera, you are eligible to participate. Submit your craft projects to ThriftyFun and we will pay $15 for any crafts that we publish. More Information: Click Here: http://www.thriftyfun.com/post_craft.ldml More Stuff Seed Swap! Swap seeds with other ThriftyFun.com users. Submit a Request... Frugal solutions to everyday problems.