10 Outrageously Smart Gardening Tips (#5 is Really Clever!)

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4. Collect Your Own Rainwater

Despite what you might have heard on social media sites, it is not illegal to collect water from rooftops. This is actually a super resourceful way to easily collect water for watering your garden. Buy one or more heavy-duty trash cans (with lids) and disconnect part of your downspout so that it goes directly into the trash can and not down the drain. Once your can or cans are full, replace the lids on them, and store them in the garage or in some other place in your yard. Replace the downspout when you are finished collecting water. This is great for places that get very little rain or that regularly experience droughts.

5. Deep Water Roots for Free

You can buy deep watering systems at your local hardware store — but why? Whenever you plant a tree or other plants, simply bury an empty pot next to, or in the middle of, several plants. Choose a deep enough pot so that you really get water down to the roots of the plant. Some people are comfortable using two-liter bottles with holes punched all over them. Both methods work well getting water down 10 or 12 inches into the soil where the roots are.

6. Give Your Garden a Mineral Boost

This is a terrific and inexpensive way to improve your flowers, fruits and vegetables with almost no effort. Simply save your eggshells, and when you have shells from a dozen or so eggs, grind the shells into a powder in your blender. Rather than waiting for crushed egg shells to turn into compost, powdered egg shells are easy for your garden plants to digest.

You can also get bigger vegetables and flowers by working some Epsom salt (which isn’t really salt, but actually magnesium flakes) into the garden soil twice a year. This magnesium boost really does incredible things for your garden. You will get more results from Epsom salt than that “miracle” stuff sold at garden centers.

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