Buy a plastic 30 gallon trash can with a lock-on lid at your favorite discount store. Drill holes all over the can with a 1/2" bit ( or the biggest one you have around). Fill it with your left over veggies, grass clippings, etc. Once every week or two, lay it on its side and roll it over a few times, then open it up and water it a little. You'll have rich black soil in no time!

Dave Schwieger

When using large tubs or pots for container gardening, I line the bottom of each container with four to six inches of styrofoam packing peanuts. This reduces the amount of potting soil needed and lightens the load -- plus it's a great way to recycle.

Kelly Schuck

In the fall, pile well rotted cow manure where roses are to be planted in the spring. Let it lie all winter and in the spring, dig a 3ft. wide and 3ft. deep hole, working the manure well into the backfill soil. Follow planting instructions. Each spring, top dress with well rotted cow manure and mulch.

Anonymous

My best gardening tip is to use plenty of composted cow manure when planting new plants or winterizing roses. Never use fresh manure, it burns plants.

Debbie Druan

This spring, I cleaned out the file cabinet and shredded a LOT of paper. I wondered how to use this without wasting it's potential. Since I was out of compost, I spread most of it around my vegetable plants! Then put the rest in the compost pile. The white and colored paper shreds look kind of neat in the garden and really make the plants stand out. Also, the birds have been carrying huge wads to use in their nests. We have a little bit of paper shreds showing up in the yard and driveway from the birds, but not enough to be a nuisance. This fall I will simply dig it into the soil.

Marjorie Story

I had a sight against a garage that wasn't being utilized. So I put newspaper in a layer, then peat moss, then some topsoil and repeated the layers. In spring it was a great bed that I could plant anything in, so I started putting newspaper in between my vegetable rows covered with peat moss ( for esthetic purposes) to keep weeds out, and the following year I rototilled it all together. I have the healthiest plants and no weeds!

Susan Patrizi

As a gardener over 50, I've found increasing the size or beginning a new flower or gardening bed is almost labor-free when a thick layer of newspaper is put down and covered with leaves, grass clippings or any composting material. The soil becomes soft and pliable, rich and easily worked, in just a couple of months. For large plots, I use black plastic; this will turn the worst bed of weeds and grass into a workable plot and destroys most of the "bad seeds".

June Quillian

Say goodbye to raised beds and grow your tall plants in the irrigation canal. I grow all my tall vegetables in trenches. That is where the water is and the weeds know it. I tried raised beds and irrigation trenches and found my plants drying out and the trenches filled with weeds. So, I tried to grow them the other way and it works. Add a little mulch and it works even better.

Regor Yelnats

   After the Christmas tree comes down, I take it outside and cut the branches off. I use these branches by laying them on potted plants and other plants in the garden to protect them from winter cold and wind.

Rob Miccio