{"id":125,"date":"2008-12-01T14:07:11","date_gmt":"2008-12-01T22:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/garden\/?p=125"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:33:00","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:33:00","slug":"making-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/making-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Do"},"content":{"rendered":"

MAKING DO
\n<\/font><\/font><\/strong>\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As I participate in the belt tightening that everyone is doing right now, one phrase comes back to my mind again and again–“use what you have.”\u009d<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I would like to do that.\u00a0 I need to do that.\u00a0 The problem is that in order to use what I have, I have to organize what I have.\u00a0 That’s going to be a problem. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My garden paraphernalia resides in two places: the cellar and the garage.\u00a0 Both are in equal states of disarray.\u00a0 There are a thousand perfectly valid reasons why these areas are so uncivilized at the moment, but it all comes down to one reason–life happens.\u00a0 Now, however, I am going to tame what I have so that I can use it.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I started earlier this week by taking stock in the cellar.\u00a0 Heading towards my subterranean garden room, I armed myself with a large trash bag; knowing that some stuff–used up, worn out or junky to begin with–had to go.\u00a0 Weeding through the detritus, I began grouping similar objects together, discovering in the process that I have a lot of pots, including clay pots, ceramic pots, decorative pots and utilitarian pots.\u00a0 Every conceivable size is represented in my collection, from huge to two inches in diameter.\u00a0 Without even entering the garage, I knew that between the two locations, I have enough pots to start a nursery.\u00a0 By all rights I should never buy another pot and I should really start cutting up some of the flimsier plastic pots to use as ballast in the bottoms of larger pots.\u00a0 I thought about the feasibility of acquiring a servant to cut up the flimsy pots, and then I remembered my vow to use what I have.\u00a0 I don’t have a servant, so that idea won’t work.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I found nearly-empty bags of vermiculite, seed starting mix and activated charcoal, and it occurred to me that if I combined them all I would have a free draining mix that would probably benefit some kind of houseplant.\u00a0 I deposited the three bags in one big box and moved on.\u00a0 I added the half empty sack of powdered rooting hormone to the box as well.\u00a0 Now I can root cuttings to my heart’s content, almost certainly increasing my usual survival rate from one percent to at least five percent.\u00a0 Of course powdered rooting hormone has been somewhat superseded by rooting gel, but before I buy any of that, I am committed to using my five year old bag of the powdered stuff.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I found at least twenty large and small containers of beach glass and interesting beach rocks, collected by my family on every summer vacation since my twenty year-old daughter was old enough to pick up a rock.\u00a0 Beach glass is wonderful; I use it to cover the soil of the potted plants.\u00a0 It also acts as an attractive mulch and discourages the cats from digging in the plant pots.\u00a0 I figure that the abundance of beach glass is a hedge against future shortages.\u00a0 Plastic has replaced glass in so many packaging applications that now negligent people are throwing plastic into bodies of water instead of glass.\u00a0 That doesn’t matter.\u00a0 I have enough beach glass to last about twenty years, and I will use and re-use what I have.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The rocks also make good mulch and some of them contain interesting fossils.\u00a0 Even though the supply of rocks will never abate–especially in my garden–it’s comforting to know that I can lay hands on imported extras any time I need them.\u00a0 The glass and rocks all went into another large container.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The garage was more of the same, with the expected hundred extra pots, plus eleven much-needed pot saucers.\u00a0 I also had one bag of pine mulch and half a bag of leftover composted cow manure.\u00a0 I put those where I can find them easily next spring.\u00a0 The garage is also home to my large collection of plant supports.\u00a0 Some of them are ornamental, but most of them are faded bamboo.\u00a0 They are unattractive but functional.\u00a0 I collected them all into one enormous plastic plant pot and gave thanks that since bamboo lasts for centuries, I will never have to buy another bamboo plant support.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In a corner of the garage I saw an old blue-glazed strawberry jar.\u00a0 It was a beauty in its day, but suffered some significant chips when it was left out during an unexpectedly cold November a few years ago.\u00a0 I could spray paint the chipped places to match the original blue, but I don’t happen to have any spray paint and I am restricting myself to using what I have.\u00a0 I decided that it would be better to plant the pot with an array of billowing herbs or coleus next summer.\u00a0 The plants will cover the chips and nobody will be the wiser. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A few years ago, I wandered into an antique shop in central New York State and purchased several attractively priced, large wire baskets, of a type which I call “egg baskets”\u009d despite the fact that the holes are big enough so that eggs would probably fall through them.\u00a0 Perhaps farmers’ wives lined the baskets with a towel or cloth before gathering eggs.\u00a0 Maybe they were intended for a different application.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s equally possible that they these “antiques”\u009d were made in China five years ago.\u00a0 Whatever the back story, I grouped them together in one part of the garage.\u00a0 Next summer I will fill them with plants and use them as hanging baskets.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I still have more organizing to do, but for now I feel both thrifty and virtuous.\u00a0 In hard times you have to take your pleasures where you can find them–even if the only place you can find them is in the garage.
\n<\/strong><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MAKING DO \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As I participate in the belt tightening that everyone is doing right now, one phrase comes back to my mind again and again–“use what you have.”\u009d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I would like to do that.\u00a0 I need to do that.\u00a0 The problem is that in order to use what I have, I have … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1659,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125\/revisions\/1659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}