Gardening is one of the best hobbies that you can take part in. This is because of the different benefits that it can help you and your family to enjoy. Apart from the obvious ones such as helping make the environment a bit greener and enjoying more fresh food, there are other benefits of gardening that you may not have thought about. Here are a few of them that could help you make the decision to start a garden at home a lot sooner.

You Can Bond With Your Community Better

You Improve Your Health

You Can Enjoy a Cooler House

You Live More Sustainably

Social media is a neutral thing. It’s neither good nor bad. It’s all about how you use it. For me, I limit the time spent on social media. Moreover, I only fill my account with things that inspire me. I want the scroll to be a resource for me, a way to focus on what I love, breathe for a moment into beautiful things, and feel energized to create and connect. I mostly use Instagram. And I follow a lot of accounts about plants and gardens because looking at them for a few minutes per day is inspiration. Here are what I consider the best garden Instagram accounts for inspiration.

1. @japanese_gardens

This is truly my favorite of all of the garden Instagram accounts. It’s a simple account in that each post is just a photo of a beautiful Japanese garden. There’s a caption that shares where the garden is located. That’s it. It’s all about the pure beauty of these simple, organized, aesthetically-pleasing gardens. I have never seen a photo here that didn’t make me smile.

2. @thejungalow

This is a totally different type of account from @japanese_gardens. It’s actually an interior design account filled with beautiful spaces. So often, though, those spaces include plants and/or decor inspired by plants. In contrast to the austere serenity of @japanese_gardens, this one is maximalism to the core. It’s abundance. And I am someone who goes back and forth between enjoying minimalist decor and abundance overflowing, so I absolutely love both of these accounts.

3. @sfbotanicalgarden

I enjoy following as many local accounts as possible. Therefore, it’s no surprise that I follow the San Francisco botanical garden. (I also follow our @conservatoryofflowers.) Mostly its images of what’s blooming and blossoming and vibrant in the garden at any given time. However, there are also event announcements, etc. This reminds me to get out and see what’s happening in the gardens and natural areas around me. And THAT is always inspiring.

4. @outersunsetgardens

This is another local account. One of the most interesting things about San Francisco is our microclimates. It can feel hot in one neighborhood and cold in the next. I often joke that it’s always 65 degrees in San Francisco, but it can be a hot 65 or a cold 65. These microclimates lead to totally different plants and gardens depending on the neighborhood. This account is “a catalogue of plants that thrive in the unique microclimate of the Outer Sunset.” Note that this is an old account, so it’s not one that I see pop up when I scroll, but when I visit it, I’m always reminded me of the very specific local beauty here.

5. @gardendesignmag

There are so many great gardening magazines here and in the UK. Most of them, of course, have their own Instagram accounts. While it’s not the same as looking at those bright gardens, and the tips that the magazines offer, on glossy pages, I still find it inspiring to check out these Instagram accounts. This is one of my favorites for pretty photos, both landscape and close-up, of flowers and other plants.

6. @leafygreenshack

I honestly tend to prefer photo-rich accounts to Instagram reels, stories, and videos. I just think it helps me slow down and enjoy the visual beauty. However, when I’m in the mood for great garden reels, @leafygreenshack is a favorite. It’s an account about :growing and collecting plants in Australia.” The reels are pretty and upbeat and make me smile.

7. @monalogue

And finally, here’s another account whose reels I love. It’s self-defined as a Cottagecre account by a neurodivergent person sharing “life from our cottage in the English countryside.” So it’s not all garden all of the time, but it’s a lot of garden. The music in the reels is usually lovely and uplifting. And there’s just a whimsical romance to this account that I adore. It’s dreamy.

What are your favorite garden Instagram accounts?

Read More:

• 4 Best TV Shows for Gardeners
• Being a Beginner in the Garden
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One of my favorite ways to get inspiration for creative endeavors is to watch reality TV competitions and other similar shows. For example, I’m a huge fan of shows like Project Runway that get me thinking about fashion design options. There are some great garden-related TV shows out there as well. Of course, if you are streaming your favorite TV show you will need a reliable internet connection. For this reason, it could be worth keeping up to date with your satellite dish maintenance to ensure that leaves, dirt, and general debris on your dish don’t affect the quality of your internet signal. With that said, here are some of the best TV shows for gardeners.

Clipped

Obviously, HGTV is the go-to channel for shows about homes and gardens. Therefore, it’s no surprise that one of the best TV shows for gardeners is a reality show on HGTV. It’s also probably no surprise to anyone that Martha Stewart is one of the shows hosts. After all, just check out her magazine for tons of great tips on Gardening.

Clipped is a topiary competition show. So, you get the chance to watch the competitors participate in different challenges related to topiary. It’s all about making different plants and the settings that they’re in look stunningly gorgeous through shearing and other techniques. I’ll never make a plant look like any of these but I enjoy watching the process of the art form!

The Big Flower Fight

British reality TV shows are always a little bit hit or miss for me. They’re usually a little bit more serious, a little bit less of the silly drama you see on American TV shows. That can be a positive or a negative for me personally. In this case, I love it. No drama, just serious competition about how to use flowers to make a space beautiful.

AARP describes the show cheekily as “The Rose Parade meets Edward Scissorhands.” It’s really beautiful, though, to see how they use and shape flowers to create such original works of art. Every year here in San Francisco there’s a floral art display at the de Young Museum for about one week. I’ve never gone but I’ve always intended to and watching this show makes me want to prioritize doing so.

The Instant Gardener

This is more like the classic “home makeover” show that you might watch on TV. However, it’s for garden makeovers. A team of three people shows up, takes a look at a sad garden, and spends a day fixing it up. It’s one of those shows that is satisfying to watch because there’s a problem and it’s solved with the span of one episodes. So, when I’m looking for a quick fix to cheer me up, this is a good one.

Bonus: BBC’s Gardener’s World

I named this a “bonus” because I haven’t actually watched this show, yet, myself. I didn’t want to include shows I haven’t seen. However, in every blog post I saw about which shows are the best TV shows for gardeners, this one made the list. Apparently it’s a long-running British show featuring tips and tricks of all kinds for gardening. Have you ever seen it? What are your thoughts?

Do you have any other favorite gardening TV shows that I missed?

Read More:

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• 7 Financial Benefits of Backyard Gardening
• Does My Brown Thumb Make Gardening a Waste of Money?

I’ve admitted to you in the past that I honestly have a bit of a brown thumb. During periods of depression, this can make me feel like I will never be able to grow a plant ever again. However, most of the time, I’m able to turn off that kind of thinking. I’m able to embrace the beauty of being a beginner at something. It’s okay to be a beginner. And it’s okay to always be an amateur at something. In fact, I think it can be a really beautiful thing.

Being a Beginner Is Hard For Me

It’s taken me a long time to learn how to NOT be good at things. Obviously, I don’t mean that I’m naturally good at everything I try. Far from it. However, historically, I give up really easily at things I’m not immediately good at. School was always easy for me, so I pushed forward in that and excelled. Flute lessons and athletics were hard for me; I quit or didn’t even begin.

Learning How to Learn

Over time (I’m in my forties now!), I’ve learned how to embrace being a beginner. It started in school. It took me a really long time to comprehend the idea that school was a place for me to learn things, not to be automatically good at them. Since I had fit so well into traditional school growing up, it all came easily to me. I never realized I was there to learn hard things. Honestly, I didn’t learn a whole lot from my Bachelors’ degree either. I did the work, got the grades, moved on.

However, grad school was hard. I got my MA in Psychology. The school work wasn’t hard at all. The papers and tests came easily to me. However, the actual experience of pushing myself and learning and growing and being part of a complex group dynamic was really, really hard for me. And I did it. And I’m prouder of that than of any grade I ever got.

The Beauty of Being a Beginner

I’ve finally learned about how great it is to NOT know something but to want to learn it. I’ve learned that it’s not only normal and okay to mistakes; it’s great. Here are some of the reasons that it’s beautiful to be a beginner, in gardening or any other pursuit:

• The pressure is off. You don’t have to do this perfectly because YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW YET.
• The excitement is high. There is so much ahead to learn!
• You don’t have preconceived notions. Or you do but you can let them go. Thus, you’re more present in the experience.
• Hope, possibility, openness, curiosity … these are all things that it’s possible to bring to the garden as a beginner. And you can bring this beginner’s mind to the garden even if you’ve been gardening for a really long time.
• The rewards feel huge! I feel good when I complete something I’m good at, of course. But I feel amazing when I succeed at something I’m not good at, yet!

So, I think it’s wonderful to be a beginner in the garden. I think it’s wonderful to stay an amateur. After all, I don’t plan to do any professional gardening. Therefore, I’ll never have to worry about striving for perfection, layering business over the hobby, etc. I have other things for that. A garden can just be a place to play.

What are your thoughts on being a beginner? Is it hard for you? Easy and exciting? Both?

Read More:

• Quotes About the Benefits Of Gardening
• Pine Street Garden, San Francisco
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I struggle with chronic, recurring depression. While it’s well-managed, the symptoms do creep up from time to time. Depression is an expensive mental health condition, in ways that might surprise you. In fact, during bouts of depression, I find that it costs me in the garden. This does mitigate the many mental health benefits of gardening. However, it’s an important thing to know about if you’re a frugal gardener who lives with a similar mental health challenge.

5 Ways Depression Costs Me In The Garden

Here are the five most common ways that depression costs me in the garden.

1. Lack of Energy Means Slack in the Garden

A garden requires tending. Most plants need attention weekly if not daily. When this is part of a normal routine, it’s great. In fact, it’s a healthy part of the day. However, sometimes, depression wins. When it does, fatigue sets in. It literally feels impossible to get up out of the bed to do anything at all. If that happens, then gardening doesn’t. And this can mean the plants wither and die.

2. What’s The Point Anyway?

That refrain runs through my head when I’m dealing with a bout of depression. Depression is characterized by hopelessness and pointlessness and a lack of interest in doing things normally enjoyed. It’s really hard to stay motivated to work in the garden when you can’t see the point of doing it. Again, this means that the garden withers and dies.

If we can overcome these feelings (through medication, therapy, self-care, and other means,) then the growth and beauty of the garden can remind us of the point. But, sometimes, depression takes over.

3. Low Self-Esteem or Black/White Thinking

For me, depression is accompanied by a feeling of worthlessness. Some people experience black and white thinking because of their mental health conditions. In either case, this can lead to feeling like you aren’t good enough to make a garden grow. A plant starts to die, I feel like “I don’t know how to garden,” and I just give up.

Someone who loves gardening might see a small mistake in the garden and suddenly hate gardening. We lose the joy as we lose ourselves in depression. So, we abandon the garden. Or we get in there and rip it up entirely, destroying what we spent time and money creating.

4. Reckless Shopping

Although this is more commonly a characteristic of mania in bipolar depression, people, like myself, with unipolar depression, can fall into wasteful shopping as well. For me, it’s usually online shopping. I’m imagining some other life I want to have where I’m not depressed, and I’m allowing the easy mindlessness of the scroll to convince me that I just need this gadget or that to feel better. So, suddenly, I find myself buying new garden tools, plants, or a gardening apron that I can’t afford and won’t ever use.

5. Injuries

Ideally, I work through the challenges and overcome them and get back to doing things that I love. However, sometimes, when you push through before you’re ready, you end up injuring yourself. If you’re in the brain fog of depression while working with gardening tools, then you might injure yourself. This can cost me in medical care as well as lost work.

Tips for Coping

There are many amazing benefits of gardening. It’s just sometimes hard to remember them in the throes of depression. It’s helpful for me to keep lists of things I love, what the benefits are, little stories or photos that remind me of the good parts, etc. Then I look at those in depression to try to help myself overcome the inertia and get back to myself.

Read More:

• 7 Reasons Why You Should Try Gardening
• If You’re Over 50, Here’s Why You Should Start Gardening
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Some people like to use old tires in their gardening. However, you might wonder, “are old tires too to plants?” It’s important to think about those things, especially if you eat food from your garden.

How To Use Old Tires In Your Garden

There are so many great, fun ways to use old tires in a garden. You can create all kinds of fun garden decor and art like that shown above. Other ways to use old tires in your garden include:

• Hang a tire swing from a tree.
• Build a small playground for your kids or pets with old tires.
• Fill the center of tires with soil and plant in there for a unique plant bed.
• Hang tires to create shelving for a vertical garden.
• Build chairs, tables, and other lawn furniture from recycled tires.
• Use tires to create a big, dramatic garden border or fence or edge a pathway in your garden.
• Stack tires to create a retaining wall.

Are Old Tires Toxic to Plants?

Lots of people like the options above for their gardens. They’re fun. They keep tires out of landfills. It’s a great way to make new use of something old. But, are old tires toxic to plants?

There’s actually been a lot of debate about this in the gardening community over the years. Although there’s been some research, we still don’t have a clear answer that’s absolutely definitive. On one hand, tires do obviously contain harmful chemicals that are toxic to humans. These chemicals leach into the soil over time. On the other hand, the leaching process is so slow, particularly on really old tires that have already done most of their chemical off-gassing during years on the road, that they’re probably not actually harmfully toxic to most humans.

That’s the argument on either side. If you ask specifically “are old tires toxic to plants,” then the answer is basically no. The plants seem to still thrive. But if you want to know if they’re toxic to you if you eat plants grown in them, the answer isn’t as simple. Likely a little bit yes, enough to harm you – who knows?

If you have small children that play in the garden, pets that dig and romp in the garden, or you grow food in your garden, then you might want to err on the side of assuming that they could potentially be toxic.

Alternatives to Old Tires in the Garden

If you want to be better safe than sorry, then you might want to consider alternatives to using old tires in the garden. Lucy Bradley recommends upcycling wood in the garden instead. Specifically, she recommends non-treated wood, ACQ pressure-treated wood, and naturally rot-resistant wood. You can use wood to build planters, raised beds, fences, vertical gardens, and playgrounds in the garden. The important thing is that you make sure you choose wood that hasn’t been exposed to chemical treatments.

Likewise, you can upcycle stone, concrete, and bricks. Again, you just want to make sure that these recycled materials weren’t first exposed to chemicals like lead-based paint or asbestos. Think of it this way: if you wouldn’t use it in your house then you probably don’t want to use it in your garden.

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Pine Street Garden is one of my favorite little things in San Francisco. Sure, we have the huge botanical gardens and the very special Japanese Tea Gardens. But the Pine Street Garden is the type of little gem that to me is what the heart of San Francisco is all about.

What Is Pine Street Garden?

It’s actually just a little fence on which local people have created a garden of small plants inside of upcycled containers for the neighborhood to enjoy. I’m not sure who established this spot. I’d assume it’s one or more of the people who live in the small apartment/house closest to it. I’ve loved watching it grow over the years during my walks past the place. It started out as just a few small plants hanging on the fence. Now the whole fence has plants on it in various containers.

Where Is Pine Street Garden?

If you want to find this little gem, then you need to walk along Pine Street in San Francisco. You’ll find it on the south side of the street, between Pierce and Scott streets. It’s located right in front of a residential parking lot. In fact, the housing’s trash cans are right on the other side of the fence. Before this was here, you just saw the trash cans. Now, you see gardens and art!

Upcycled Garden Containers

Each small plant, mostly succulents, grow inside of small upcycled containers hung on the fence. These containers include:

• La Croix cans with the tops cut off
• Water bottles cut in half and turned upside down
• Wine bottles , also cut and turned upside down
• Mason jars
• Aluminum / tin cans (the kind for canned veggies)
• Old gardening pots
• Wooden containers

They also have a fabric hanging shelf, like the kind you’d hang over a door to tuck your shoes into the pockets. Little plants are tucked inside of soil in each pocket.

Why I Love Pine Street Garden

This is such a simple little garden. However, it speaks so much to me. I enjoy it every time I walk by. Just a few of the reasons why I love it so much include:

• It’s a contribution to the whole neighborhood. It beautifies the block.
• It’s also an inspiration. Many people here don’t have yards or decks where they can have big gardens. This is a reminder to make a garden in whatever space you do have.
• There are such great upcycling garden ideas showcased here!
• San Francisco has such an indomitable spirit. In the toughest of times, I’ve seen the people of this city come together, help each other, and bring creativity out into the streets in so many different ways. This is one small example of that.
• It reminds me to look for the little things. It’s all too easy to get distracted on walks – by music or podcasts or just thoughts in my head. I love looking around to see unique, different, interesting, beautiful things. It reminds me to be in the moment and enjoy the small stuff. The way this garden subtly changes over time with its new additions reminds me of that.

Read More:

• Benefits of Community Gardens
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• 7 Reasons Why You Should Try Gardening

Last month I mentioned that I’m working with the book A Garden to Dye For to learn more about growing plants that you can use to natural dye fabrics. One of the first important concepts is learning about how well or how long a plant’s color is likely to adhere to the fabric that you’re dyeing. After all, you don’t want to grow a plant for dyes that will immediately fade, right? So, I’m learning about colorfast and fugitive dyes.

Colorfast vs. Fugitive Plant Dyes

You can technically dye fabric with almost any plant. However, some plants simply work better than others. Basically, colorfast plants create a natural dye that will easily stick to your fabric and won’t fade very much. In contrast, fugitive plant dyes won’t stick or stay on fabric for very long at all. You an still use fugitive plant dyes, but you’ll usually use them for other crafting projects, such as coloring homemade play dough, rather than for dyeing fabric.

Colorfast, Lightfast, Washfast

In the aforementioned book, author Chris McLaughlin notes that we should consider not just how colorfast a plant’s dyes will be but also whether they are lightfast and washfast. Colorfast means the color will stick and not fade. Lightfast refers to color that doesn’t fade much even after frequent exposure to light. Washfast, as you might guess, refers to colors that don’t fade much even after many times of washing the fabric.

McLaughlin emphasizes, “a color might be one and not the other” of these three things. Solstice Studio notes that sometimes when a plant is one but not the other, we call it “semi-fugitive.”

Common Fugitive Plant Dyes

Berries are so beautiful as plants that it’s tempting to try to dye fabric with them. However, they are often fugitive dyes. The color rarely sticks.

Other common examples of plants that are less than ideal for dyeing, according to Solstice Studio, include:

• Basil
• Beets
• Black beans
• Black rice
• Citrus
• Pomegranate kernels
• Red cabbage
• Roses
• Spinach
• Turmeric
• Wine

Good Colorfast Plants for Dyeing

In contrast, though, there are many great plants for fabric dyeing. Obviously, McLaughlin’s entire book is about this, so I can’t cover it all in a paragraph. However, some of the most popular options include:

• Marigolds, dahlias, yarrow, and goldenrod for yellow and orange colors
• Hollyhock, lichen, Japanese maple and madder for reds and purples
• Walnuts and pomegranate skin for shades of brown; eucalyptus and oak for more orange or reddish brown
• Avocado for pink
• Indigo for blue
• Mint for green

Factors Affecting Colorfastness of Plants

You want to start by choosing plants with good colorfastness and/or lightfastness and/or wash fastness. However, do note that other factors come into play. How much of the plant you use to dye, the temperature of the dye bath, whether or not you add mordant or modifiers, the fabric you use, and how long you leave the fabric in the plant dye bath are just a few examples fo those additional factors.

Read More:

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There are so many benefits of gardening. Many of them relate to frugal living. For example, gardens remind us to enjoy the little things, rather than spending money on flashy stuff. The following quotes about the benefits of gardening remind me of the important stuff.

“The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature.

To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.” – Alfred Austin

If you enjoy frugal gardening, then you spend barely anything at all except time in your garden. It doesn’t cost much to feel dirt on your hands and sunshine on your skin. And yet, the benefits are immeasurable. Your body as well as your mind will thank you.

“I like gardening—it’s a place where I find myself when I need to lose myself.” – Alice Sebold

We often try to tackle life’s problems and challenges by ruminating on them. However, at times, this just makes things worse. Gardening gets us outside of our heads, into our bodies, into the greater world around us. This often points us to creative solutions we could never have just thought up in words.

“Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help.” – May Sarton

We rush through so many moments of our lives, missing out on much of their beauty. However, you can’t rush gardening. The plants work in their own time. You must work at them diligently, daily. As a result, you learn patience. You might also learn to reap the benefits of mindfulness.

“Gardening simply does not allow one to be mentally old, because too many hopes and dreams are yet to be realized.” – Allan Armitage

Of course, people of all ages enjoy gardening. However, over the years, I’ve often especially enjoyed learning about elderly people who garden. The activity and planning and experience all contribute to keeping the mind young. And I love this idea about how the garden offers hope and that keeps you excited about what’s to come. After all, the bulbs you just planted aren’t flowering yet.

“I can think of no better form of personal involvement in the cure of the environment than that of gardening.

A person who is growing a garden, if he is growing it organically, is improving a piece of the world.”- Wendell Berry

One of the greatest benefits of gardening is that it allows us to contribute to improving the planet in our own small way. We can’t control the entire world and the choices made there. However, we can control our own choices. When we choose organic, natural, slow, frugal gardening, we make our corner of the world a little bit better. When we share that, we encourage others to do the same. This is how change happens.

Michael Pollan addresses the same thing above in a different way:

“The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero-sum …

and that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world.”

And finally, Minnie Aumonier puts it more succinctly:

“When the world wearies and society fails to satisfy, there is always the garden.”

Quotes sourced from Treehugger

Read More:

• Garden Photo Walks for Mindfulness
• A Garden to Dye For
• 5 Fun Ways to Use Yarn in the Garden

Have you thought about trying gardening for a long time? What’s holding you back? Sometimes people worry that they won’t be good at it, that it’s expensive, or that they don’t have the time to do it properly. However, you can always start small and grow your garden later if you want to it. It’s worth a try. Here are seven good reasons why you should try gardening.

1. Gardening Is Good For Your Mental Health

Many people started gardening or keeping plants during the pandemic. This is no coincidence. Gardening offers a variety of different mental health benefits. It’s a hands-on activity that keeps you focused and grounded, which reduces stress, anxiety, and symptoms of depression. Growing something from seed helps you feel like you have a purpose and boosts self-confidence. Moreover, simply having plants around you has been shown to be good for your mental health. Feeling better is one of the most popular reasons why you should try gardening.

2. Gardening Is Also Good For Your Physical Health

Getting out into the garden and moving your body in the sun is good for you. Even if you just enjoy a small garden on the deck or an indoor garden, the daily ritual of getting up and caring for the plants is good for you. If you eat healthy fruits and vegetables from your own garden, this can improve your overall health as well.

Additionally, when you’re gardening, you aren’t on your devices. Reducing screen time has both mental and physical health benefits.

3. Gardening Is Good For Families

You can definitely enjoy gardening on your own. However, it’s also a terrific family activity. Research shows that gardens are a safe space where families unify and bond. Kids learn responsibility. The entire family grows together. It’s a great experience for people of all ages.

4. Gardening Is Fun

Gardening offers an affordable, consistent form of entertainment. It’s a great way to pass the time. If you’re looking for good reasons why you should try gardening, the fact that it gives you something enjoyable to do every day should be at the top of your list.

5. There Might Be Financial Benefits

At Frugal Gardening, we’re all about the fact that gardening doesn’t have to be a costly endeavor. Moreover, you might actually experience financial benefits of gardening. You can reduce your grocery bill, grow your own gifts for people, and maybe even start a small business selling what you grow!

6. You Can Build Community

Getting outside in your yard might mean that you connect more with your neighbors as they pass by. Alternatively, you might join a community garden, allowing you to really get to know the people living near you. Or you might engage in seed swapping, attend local gardening lectures, etc. These are all great way to build community. Community has lots of benefits.

7. There Isn’t A Significant Downside

We can think of so many reasons why you should try gardening. More than that, though, we can’t really think of many reasons not too. If you try it and you don’t like it, there’s really no harm done. So, why not give it a try?

Read More:

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