Guerilla gardening: Eco-friendly landscaping on the cheap

Gardening and landscaping is a favorite pastime in 84 million U.S. households. If done right, it's good for the environment and increases the aesthetic and financial value of your home. But it can mean shoveling a ton of green from your wallet into a hole in the yard. Americans spend more than $40 billion annually on their lawns and gardens.

(Photo: Maurice van der Velden /
iStockPhoto)

For an affordable and eco-friendly alternative, try "guerrilla gardening" -- recycling plants and landscape materials.

Some freescaping ideas:

• Pitch in with a shovel, and landscaping crews are usually happy to give you what they uproot when tearing out existing landscapes and native plants.


• Water less/save more by mulching. Ask the highway maintenance crew to dump their wood chips in your front yard or check with the local landfill; many shred wood products and giveaway the mulch for free.


• Grow your own plants from those you already have; pick up a copy of American Horticultural Society Plant Propagation (DK, 1999).


• Make your own compost, and contact local stables and the zoo to get on their "manure wish list."


• Check with demolition crews and salvage yards for bricks, cobblestone, broken concrete slab, and other materials for garden walls and walkways.


• Get into swapping -- free plants, that is. Attend or host a plant swap meet.


• Transform plastic pipe -- a common construction site throwaway -- into garden trellises that pass for wrought iron when spray painted black.


• Sprinkle spent coffee grounds and crushed egg shells around your plants to enhance soil nutrition and protect against garden slugs.


• And when it comes to garden art, anything recycled goes: from car tire planters to bicycle wheel sculptures.

Jeff Yeager is the author of the book The Ultimate Cheapskate's Road Map to True Riches. His website is www.UltimateCheapskate.com.

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Reprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc

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