Gardening and landscaping is a favorite pastime in 84 million U.S. households. If done right, it's good for the environment and increases the aesthetic and financial value of your home. But it can mean shoveling a ton of green from your wallet into a hole in the yard. Americans spend more than $40 billion annually on their lawns and gardens.
For an affordable and eco-friendly alternative, try "guerrilla gardening" -- recycling plants and landscape materials.
Some freescaping ideas:
Pitch in with a shovel, and landscaping crews are usually happy to give you what they uproot when tearing out existing landscapes and native plants.
Water less/save more by mulching. Ask the highway maintenance crew to dump their wood chips in your front yard or check with the local landfill; many shred wood products and giveaway the mulch for free.
Grow your own plants from those you already have; pick up a copy of American Horticultural Society Plant Propagation (DK, 1999).
Make your own compost, and contact local stables and the zoo to get on their "manure wish list." (Warning: you'll grow what the animals eat... including wild grasses!)
Check with demolition crews and salvage yards for bricks, cobblestone, broken concrete slab, and other materials for garden walls and walkways.
Get into swapping -- free plants, that is. Attend or host a plant swap meet.
Transform plastic pipe -- a common construction site throwaway -- into garden trellises that pass for wrought iron when spray painted black.
Sprinkle spent coffee grounds and crushed egg shells around your plants to enhance soil nutrition and protect against garden slugs.
And when it comes to garden art, anything recycled goes: from car tire planters to bicycle wheel sculptures.
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