Frugal tips for fall

[tortoise]

Hopefully the seeds will be genetically good, so you don't get the mutant sqazuchpumpkin plant next year

Sometimes mutants are the best!. But one year we got mutant pumpkins with skin so hard we needed a sawzall to carve them

 

[tortoise]

Bah! I want to hibernate until April.

That would save a lot of money!

 

[flowerbug]

Hopefully the seeds will be genetically good, so you don't get the mutant sqazuchpumpkin plant next year

true, but since i'm always up for squash gardening adventures of this sort anyways it doesn't bother me to have to try out some new ones that show up from time to time.

 

[flowerbug]

Sometimes mutants are the best!. But one year we got mutant pumpkins with skin so hard we needed a sawzall to carve them

wedge and sledge.

 

[flowerbug]

That would save a lot of money!

i would like to do that for about 10 years at a time, just wake me up for a potty break once in a while and a stretch, let me read the headlines and see what's up and then go back to sleep again. i do want to see what happens over the next 500 years as i think it will be very interesting, but i'm not likely going to make it another 30 - 50 years at the rate things are "going".

 

[Lilbitsnpieces]

Bah! I want to hibernate until April.

@tortoise, yes deals are aplenty. I am seeing mentions that canning supplies are dropping slightly in price locally. *eye twitch* is back.

 

[Lilbitsnpieces]

I have to be fery fery careful when going to feed store..maybe put on some blinders..or I end up with extra containers, clothing and other "necessities"..
Frugully speaking.(.is that even a word?) After leaves fall and others bag them..I drive around and snatch them up...maple leaves esp. make great poultry bedding..saves on purchasing.
Oakleaves go around blueberries for they are acidic and any left over get dumped on the garden beds...especially the asparagus and rootbeds...
I either take them back their bags..in which case they fill them again and may even deliver to me...or I use the large paper bags...for any number of things

 

[Hinotori]

In my area the county is trimming trees and branches that are died or in the way of power lines.. I talk to them and they are more then happy to let me take what I want.. I get free mulch to add to my garden and compost also free beanches and sometimes already cut trees for you y wood stove. Might be little work but it is free..this year I got lucky they did alot of work half mile from my home.

After the first windstorm is the best time here to get the wood chips as the county is always super busy with downed branches. Saves them time to drop at houses.

 

[flowerbug]

I have to be fery fery careful when going to feed store..maybe put on some blinders..or I end up with extra containers, clothing and other "necessities"..
Frugully speaking.(.is that even a word?) After leaves fall and others bag them..I drive around and snatch them up...maple leaves esp. make great poultry bedding..saves on purchasing.
Oakleaves go around blueberries for they are acidic and any left over get dumped on the garden beds...especially the asparagus and rootbeds...
I either take them back their bags..in which case they fill them again and may even deliver to me...or I use the large paper bags...for any number of things

i used to get bags of leaves from a friend in a nearby town, but it became too much of a problem with all the trash that was being raked up and put in those bags. especially if he shredded them. so i said no thanks to any more. it took work to put them in the gardens but it was worth it for the help they made to the clay.

one particularly bad load of leaf bags had things like, parts of the headlight of a motorcycle, a butterknife, batteries, childrens toys, shredded beer cans, a wall clock, and a ton of candy wrappers.

now 10 years later in some gardens i'm still finding and removing bits of trash from them.

the other mistake i made was that i took some compost from a company that was hauling other things for me and didn't look too closely at it when i was mixing it with the topsoil and sand. turns out there was all sorts of things in there i'm still pulling out of the gardens where i used that mix. parts of diapers, metal, broken glass, plastics, etc. just a mess.

had a tree trimmer dump a load of wood chips and other ground up branches. he'd also thrown some large plastic jugs in there and didn't answer my question honestly when i asked him if it was clean of other stuff or not.

will not ever bring in anything again without inspecting it first.

 

[Hinotori]

Another frugal thing, at least around here after big wind storms. I have friends who fill their gas cans and pack their chainsaws in their trucks right before the winds are forecast. Then after they go around neighborhoods and ask if they can remove fallen trees for the wood.

They also clear the country roads as they head toward town. Long before the county gets out, the trees will be in sections on the side of the road at a minimum. I've dragged branches off, but don't carry a chainsaw.