The Shoestring Gardener is an e-book by Claudia Brownlie which gives useful information about how gardeners can save money and improve their gardens. It contains simple and easy solutions, some with creative methods, use of recycled items, clearly explained DIY projects, and hundreds of eco-friendly gardening pursuits.
Introduction
Gardening doesn’t have to be expensive, and you don’t need to have a lot of space to grow your own fruit and vegetables. The Shoestring Gardeners gives people a lot of useful advice about how to make a garden without spending a lot of money. You will learn many gardening techniques and ideas without visiting a garden centre to buy seeds, plants, or equipment. The book is also full of useful hints and shows you how to make tools, fertilisers, and pesticides as well. Whether you live in an apartment or have a large garden, you will still find something useful to enhance your gardening experience. Gardening enthusiast Claudia Brownlie has 30 years of experience, extensive research, and master gardener training to help aid you in becoming an eco-conscious gardener.
What is the Shoestring Gardener book about?
The Shoestring Gardener, written by Claudia Brownlie, is a 300-page e-book. It gives gardeners many ideas on how one can be cost-effective in all aspects of gardening. It has hundreds of common sense hints for all types of gardeners. It contains simple and easy solutions, some with creative methods, use of recycled items, clearly explained diy projects, and hundreds of eco-friendly gardening pursuits. It is an information-packed book with detailed instructions on gardening and gardening problems without the back-breaking effort.
What kind of information is provided in the Shoestring Gardener?
The Shoestring Gardener has information about all kinds of garden-related activities and topics. The book focuses on non-toxic gardening methods and techniques that help you save money and live more sustainably. As well as gardening tips, the book also provides DIY projects such as making a birdbath or gardening tools from materials that you might already have, recyclable objects, or items that you can buy quite cheaply.
The book is divided into chapters which each focus on a particular topic. Some of the topics that you will find in this book are how to improve your soil and lots of information about compost and how to use it effectively. It gives some interesting ideas about how to use your food waste for compost and how to use the compost you produce to enrich the soil in your garden.
Readers of the book will learn more about insects and be able to recognise which ones are helpful and which ones you need to get rid of. You will learn about weeds and how to remove them. Once you know what kind of pests you have in your garden, you will also learn how to make non-toxic pesticides to get rid of them. You may find that these products can be made with household ingredients that you already have in your home.
“We are starting to see the beginning of a new green revolution – green pesticides”
Professor chris elliott, director, institute of global food security.
You don’t need to buy expensive seeds or seedlings to have a good vegetable garden. This book has tips on how to grow a large number of fruit and vegetables from seeds or cuttings that you can take from the produce that you buy from a supermarket or a farmer’s market. You will find an extensive list of fruit and vegetables and how to grow them in this book.
Even people who live in cities will find useful hints in this book. There is a section on how to make a mini veggie garden if you live in an apartment. Instead of buying fresh herbs, this book will show you how to use them to grow your own plants.
Container gardens are good for anyone, not just those living in apartments. If you are not up to managing a full-size garden but want to try gardening or a gardening task, this book will be useful for you. You don’t need to buy expensive pots to grow your own food, and this book gives some good ideas for starting your own eco-friendly container garden using creative ways to save money.
Another important topic in this book is the conservation of water. This book gives the reader ways to conserve rainwater and greywater. You can take on one of the DIY projects to make a rain chain or a rainwater collection barrel system to help you use water more efficiently. Even if you live in the city, you can set up one of these systems, which you can then use in your garden or for other purposes such as cleaning.
“I grow my own vegetables and herbs. I like being able to tell people that the lunch I’m serving started out as a seed in my yard.”
Curtis stone
Who is the Shoestring Gardener book for?
The Shoestring Gardener is full of useful ideas which can be used by any eco-friendly gardener, but it is particularly useful for novice gardeners who are happy to get super creative and do not want to spend a lot of money getting started. More experienced gardeners who want to reduce waste and make the move to more organic, sustainable gardening methods will also find it useful, but they may find that they already know a lot of the information contained in this book since the author learned these ideas through her own gardening experiences.
Anyone can grow their own food, and even someone who lives in an apartment will find ideas on how to build their very own garden without spending a lot of money. Vegetable gardens are not just for country people; city people can also reduce food costs and waste by following this book’s ideas. Even just a small garden of herbs can help reduce costs, and many can be grown from your purchased leftover herbs.
Are there any online reviews of The Shoestring Gardener book?
There aren’t many online reviews of this book, but you can find some reader reviews on Amazon. Most of the reviews are positive, but some reviewers point out that some of the information is quite country-specific, and others felt that this book was better suited to novice gardeners. Any frugal gardening techniques and environmentally friendly methods to get the lushest garden are positive in my eyes.
Where can you buy the Shoestring Gardener book?
The Shoestring Gardener is an e-book available on most sites selling e-books. In addition to Amazon, you can also find it on Kobo, Apple, and Google. It is also available through Angus and Robertson; all sites have it for a reasonably low price. Gardening workshops can cost upwards of $120, so an e-book of highly resourceful ideas that you can use in your own garden while reading allows you to be a conscious gardener while saving lots of money.
Conclusion
The Shoestring Gardener by Claudia Brownlie contains a lot of ideas for people who want to live a more frugal lifestyle by reducing waste and growing their own food. Full of useful advice and interesting DIY projects, gardeners will find all kinds of ways to save money. Even living in a city apartment, you will still find some useful ideas to enjoy frugal gardening. This book will help novice gardeners get started without spending too much money, and it may also help the well-seasoned gardening enthusiast move to a more sustainable and eco-friendly way of gardening. The emphasis on providing environmentally friendly and non-toxic gardening techniques can help allow your very own garden to thrive.
