HOW TO FRESHEN UP YOUR LANDSCAPE (WITHOUT SPENDING A DIME)
We all deal with stress and anxiety differently. For me, the only thing that helps is getting out in the yard. Getting some Vitamin D and doing some manual labor to relieve that massive anxiety that’s been building in my chest.
Several areas of our landscape have been on my list.
The most pressing is this side of the house. We still have these big bulky bushes lingering from when we bought the house that have been driving me nuts. Since we don’t have a dividing fence between us and our neighbor’s house, I’ve been dying to rip these out and plant some privacy plants. And plant something that fit better with our aesthetic.
First things first: Chop Chop.
My advice,
if you have any kind of anxiety, use a power saw!
That and attacking the roots with my shovel literally take all of my anxiety away:)
Next is planting new plants.
However, we’re on a spending freeze until this whole quarantine is over, and we’re not buying anything. Nor are we taking any unnecessary trips to Home Depot.
We’re staying home.
But in times like these that’s when I get the most creative and resourceful.
I recently got on NextDoor and discovered that there’s a whole Gardening section, and most of it is FREE! Neighbors literally have giant Cacti, Succulents, or just brand new plants that they want to get rid of! So I hit up a few, they put their clippings and trimmings out on the road and I did a drive-by and swooped them up!
No contact necessary
I mean look at these Cactus limbs, some of these are like 8 feet long!
Throughout several days, I’ve picked up Foxtail Agave pups, Prickly Pear Cactus, Peruvian Apple Cactus, Paddle Cactus, Horsetail Bamboo, some cool palms and succulents that I don’t know the name of, and a Jackfruit Plant!
ALL. FOR. FREE.
I’m also foraging from my own yard. I had no idea that pretty much every single plant we have can be propagated. That means that you can cut or trim part of it off, stick it in the dirt somewhere else and it will literally start growing into a whole new plant!
I also discovered that we have a Facebook Neighborhood Group. I posted that I was looking for free plant trimmings, and so many people responded! You’d be surprised how many people just want to help.
Every plant in this pic that we planted were all propagated.
The biggest surprise to me were Podacarpus. We bought about 25 of them last year to build a privacy wall along our back fence, and these here were all taken from their stems! So in no time at all we’ll have a full privacy wall along our bedroom windows.
And under the other window, Peruvian Apple Cactus, Giant Birds of Paradise, and Yucca (all grown and propagated from other plants:)
BEFORE