If you're looking for the easiest, and cheapest, way to propagate your seedlings then you can't go past this primitive coldframe.

Aaron from GroovyGreen recently posted this very simple DIY on putting it together but honestly, I think most people could work it out from the picture.

Simply box together 4 straw bales and stick an old window frame over top. Not really that challenging, is it?

The theory behind the concept is that as the straw begins to decompose it builds up heat which then warms up your propagated material. The window frame allows sunlight into the middle of the bales and also traps the heat from escaping. It's probably not the best idea to start in the middle of summer - but then I guess that's why it's called a coldframe.

Aaron suggests in one of his comments that the inside of the bales could be lined with plastic to give it even more heat but this would only apply in the coldest of climates.

If you plan to construct one of these in your backyard putting aside a day to complete it will be overkill. Five minutes ought to do it....

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The guys from Instructables.com have come up with another great tip for the garden this time converting a 2 litre soda bottle into a self-watering planter. Sure, it's not exceptionally pretty - but it's cheap and does the job.

The pop bottle planter works on the idea of utilising a central wick that dips into the water reservoir beneath the plant and draws moisture up into the soil. It's quite ingenious - almost MacGyver-ish - and can be made solely from items that are no longer needed around the home.

If you end up making one of these please forward me some pics as I'd be keen to show the Tips 'n' Ideas community how they've been used.

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Stuck for what to do with that expired credit card? Sure you are...you were thinking of just cutting it up and discarding in the trash weren't you?

Well...no longer, gardener. Instructables.com has come up with a cute way to turn your credit cards (or any other plastic card) into an ornamentally green fridge magnet.

You choose what you wish to plant. It could be herbs for the kitchen, a series of small bonsai or just fun stuff with the kids. This is a great project and can lighten up that dull fridge with a bit of gardening ingenuity.

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If you're trying to save money on your garden fence there are many ways to be creative and stick within your budget. It all depends, however, on what you want your fence to do.

If it's just for the sheer aesthetic value making a cheap garden fence is very achievable. But, if you plan to secure your home and make it more impenetrable than Fort Knox you may have to fork out a few dollars.

Rustic Wooden Fence

This wooden fence is high on the aesthetic value and low on the security side and would be quite easy for an DIY landscaper to construct in a spare weekend. Depending on your location, sourcing the materials shouldn't be hard and in most cases can be accessed from your own property or local forest. Even secondhand wood from building sites would work well.

White Picket Fence

This garden fence is almost an institution especially amongst cottage gardeners. Your budget will dictate what's possible with erecting a white picket fence but if your trying to keep it cheap I would recommend scrounging through demolition or salvage yards.

One of the big downsides to picket fences is the constant maintenance. So, while you may be able to buy cheap pickets it would certainly be worth your time investing in a good exterior white paint and using galvanized nails or screws. They will both cost a little more but will save you years on maintaining it.

BTW - picket fences don't have to be white!!

Dry Stone Wall

If larger rocks can be easily and cheaply accessed in your area then a dry stone wall is possibly the best option for a high security fence made within a limited budget. There is no mortar or steel rods to purchase and no footings to be laid. It's just a matter of positioning your rocks so that the wall interlocks with itself.

The added advantage of a dry stone wall is that once it's completed there is no further ongoing maintenance and it will last for centuries - if it's been well constructed.

Bamboo Fence

Like the dry stone wall, if bamboo is easily accessible (try areas where it has become an invasive weed) then erecting a bamboo fence is also going to be a relatively cheap option. Bamboo is also very strong so if the garden fence is constructed well it should offer some degree of security as well as looking great.

The bamboo fence is another option that is low in maintenance and won't require painting or costly oils. If bamboo isn't available in your area, then brushwood may be worth considering as well. Both types of fence will take some time to tie up but it is much cheaper to do it yourself than buy sheets already prepared.

Rusty Iron Fence

The beauty of garden fences is the ability to hide them with creepers and climbing plants. Thus, you can easily source old rusty iron fencing from a salvage yard and then hide it as you allow your creeping plants to grow over it. An iron fence like this should offer some privacy and also a high level of security. Plus, once it's grown over will also prove to be incredibly aesthetic.

This is also another low maintenance garden fence and you may even decide to allow some of it to show between your plants to add to the effect.

Brick Fence

Using recycled bricks, a brick fence can be one of the cheapest yet high security garden fence options on offer. Unlike the dry stone wall you will need to also purchase and mix up some mortar to hold them together but this shouldn't be too expensive.

Leaving the gaps in the fence like this will compromise whether you're after privacy or a cheap fence. If you would rather more privacy then make the gaps smaller or non-existent. Otherwise, relish in the knowledge that you saved yourself some extra bucks.

Bottle Fence

For a slightly more eccentric look you could construct a bottle fence. The idea is that from the street it looks like a wall of bottles that you would find in a cellar but it's been glued together with mortar to form an impenetrable garden fence. If you have an abundance of large bottles then this is not only a cheap option but also a very easy one.

You also have the ability to make patterns in the wall with different coloured glass bottles. Even adding some paint to the mortar joints or using a pigmented mortar can add some extra aesthetic value.

Are there any that I've missed? How did you save money on your garden fence?

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For gardeners living with limited space, a herb spiral may be a good method to incorporate some of your favourite herbs into the garden. It winds its way from the base into the centre perched more than a metre above ground level giving enough room to nearly all your herbs.

The herb spiral is a permaculture gardening method that uses nature to its full potential. Gravity allows the water to seep through the levels meaning that the plants at the top get full drainage while the ones at the bottom may reside in a simple bog. It also gives your herbs shady spots with varying degrees. The herbs that need full-sun can be grown in those positions while more shade loving plants can be located on the opposite side.

Here's a great resource for those needing to know which herbs to grow in a herb spiral by considering their light and watering requirements.

Another benefit of a herb spiral is the ease in which one can access the plants whether it be to pick or to plant and maintain them. The spiral doesn't take too much space and its varying heights means that you're not always bending over - much better for the knees and back.

How to build a herb spiral

Obviously, the first requirement is to choose the materials you plan to build with. I have seen these made from staggered PVC piping (100mm diameter), clay tubing and rocks and stones.

Next, drive a stake into the centre of where you plan to construct your herb spiral. Tie a piece of string (1m wide) to the centre and using a loose stake tied at the other end, mark out a circle. This will give you your base measurements and a place to start. If you're using the pipe or tubing you won't need to measure a circle this wide.

Using your chosen materials start forming a base by adding a perimeter of material and filling it with good draining soil. Continue until this base is about 30-40cm high.

Then, take the spiral from one of the sides and begin to work your way in, and up, to the centre adding materials to create a barrier and filling it with soil. Once finished it should stand about 1m high and have come to a small central planting area.

Water well and leave for a few days to settle in before planting. When the spiral seems like it won't move any further and the soil has compacted a little, it is time to begin planting.

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Someone please tell me that I haven't bitten off more than I can chew. Somebody? Anyone?

Friends of ours bought a property close to town during the last few years. Their dream is to renovate the existing tearooms into a conference centre and counseling facility to help with people suffering all types of psychological issues. Not only that, on weekends they hope to offer the venue as an option for couples looking to get married.

Which is all great if you only had to worry about the buildings and infrastructure.

But we all know how important gardens are to both causes. For those suffering mental illnesses they need places of respite where they can sit and focus on other things apart from their problems. And, for those getting married they always seek out venues that have beautiful gardens as the backdrop for the nuptials and photographs.

So, who better to offer their services than yours truly. Or, should I say, who would be stupid enough?

This is a Google map of their property - all 2 hectares of it. The large building is the tearooms that are currently being renovated.

And these are some of the derelict gardens that surround the renovations. Notice the dead Coral Gum - how do you kill one of these?

This large field will eventually become the gardens where couples will exchange vows. Can you see the vision yet?

And this is the dam that keeps drying in the summer but looks beautiful as it refills in the winter.

And, while the project looks huge and insurmountable I'm excited about being a part of it. It will all be staged so that as an area is finished another will be started. There are some definite priorities for what needs to be completed and landscaped first.

Just when you thought the project couldn't be any more difficult let me introduce you to a few variables that will need to considered;

1. There is no budget. I mean zilch, nill, none, zero however you want to express it. All the money has been tied up in the buildings and purchase of the land. As the couple will be doing most of the counseling voluntarily and relying on enough weddings to keep food on the table, money is something that is in short supply.

2. There is limited water. The dam fills in winter but empties in summer (at the perfect time when one could do with a drop or two). There are a couple of rain water tanks and a bore extracts water from some underground reservoirs but there certainly isn't enough to reticulate the whole property.

3. The soil is $%*@? (not good). Most of it is just straight sand and water-repelling sand at that. It's going to take bucket loads of organic material to get plants growing well in most of the beds.

However, there are a few things going for it.

1. The school I work at has allowed me to use their potting shed to pot up and germinate my own plants. The groundsman even thoughtfully added a bolt and padlock to secure it. This potting shed was being used for some classes that no longer run so it has sat idle for the past couple years.

2. The property abounds in natives that can easily be propagated. This is where most of the plant material will come from to design the garden. It makes sense anyway to use plants that are already doing well in a given location to reuse them.

Plants like melaleucas, callistemons, grevilleas, banksias, eucalypts and proteas will feature heavily throughout the garden schemes.

It's a very exciting venture, and one that I'm sure will take many years before it even smells of completion. However, I'm keen to start this challenge and look forward to sharing the progress as the journey continues.

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Most gardeners don't build fences for the sake of it. There is always a reason. Some erect a barrier between neighbours, others try to block out unwanted views while some may build a fence merely as a decorative ornament. Whatever the cause, the garden fence has been as much a part of gardening as compost and earthworms.

I'm not sure how it works in other countries but in Australia the boundary garden fence is owned by both sets of neighbours. The installation, upkeep and maintenance and any legal obligations are shared by both parties. This can be good but it also has it's down sides too.

For instance, our home was the last to be built in the street so our neighbours had already erected fences around their properties. With four bordering lots we found ourselves with four different garden fences. All similar style but each one was a different colour. Then we received four bills asking for our half share for the cost of materials and installation. Nice...

Yet, while these fences have kept our home and garden private we still manage to interact with the neighbours and sustain healthy relationships with them.

But for some, this isn't always the case. The garden fence can actually become the common denominator in "neighbourhood rage".

Most councils allow home owners to remove any part of a plant or tree that oversteps its boundary and invades your garden. Which is all helpful unless you have a crotchety gardener next door abusing you when you try to prune that invasive hardenbergia.

Or, worse still the neighbours next door have no intention or desire to garden and their unkempt yard produces more seeds than Yates. It's worth checking your local council bylaws to understand your neighbourly rights on your side of the fence.

It's not all bad though. In Britain it's been reported that more than 50% of neigbours enjoy a gossip over the garden fence. Considering that our lives are becoming more reclusive and introverted this is an encouraging statistic.

Maybe we might consider building lower fences and be better neighbours in the future. But not too low just in case we see things we may not want to see.

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Wash out the bottle using the same water you washed your dishes in.

1. Make a garden scoop.
This probably won't be strong enough to dig your soil but it can be used to meter out potting mix or fertiliser etc. You could make on for each medium so that they don't contaminate each other.

2. Make a plant self-watering container
There are only so many garden scoops you will need so rather than waste this bit turn it into a cheap plant self-waterer.

Put less holes in the lid if you want it to come out slowly.

Invert the bottle in your container and fill with water.

3. Make some seed trays

Mark out the bottom 1/4 to create a small seed tray.

Put some holes in the bottom for drainage, add your seed-raising potting mix (using your scoop, of course) and then sow your seeds. Leave them on the window sill to germinate.

4. Make some labels for your new plants or seed trays

There is still some scrap left over from the other projects so these can be turned into plant labels.

5. What to do with the ring seal?

This still remains and I have not idea how it could be used. Any suggestions?

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I'm a keen fan of Guerrilla Gardening and the effort these volunteer gardeners put into re-scaping their urban environments. So, when I stumbled upon this blog, Guerrila Gardening.org I was excited to see that someone was now doing this more than an ad hoc feel-good affair.

These guys are true guerrilla's: working under the cover of darkness, being supplied by supporters and groupies and spending weekends trying to create fund raising ideas to keep the cause moving.

Sporting secret identities as agents would in the cult TV series "Get Smart" these revolutionaries hail from the UK. This doesn't stop them from Guerrilla-ttacking [that's my word - I made it up but you can use it] other places in the world. Steve (007) - [I'm sure I've seen that number being used before somewhere] and Mike (054) even performed a little makeover on a recent trip to Libya.

So, if you haven't checked out this green terrorists before now head on over and support their cause...

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If you're looking for a cheap way to start your seedlings and you have a bunch of newspaper laying around, try combining them both.

Here's a little how-to tutorial that may help recycle the paper plus be a useful seed starting pot.

These little seed pots could be useful for planting all your vegetable seeds, e.g. beans, cucumbers, beetroots, pumpkins etc, in advance and then plant them into the ground as they being to grow. The newspaper will eventually break down and allow the roots to penetrate the soil, plus you've had a head start on next season's vegetables.

One extra tip: Make sure you place the newspaper pots on a tray as they will begin to break down from the continued moisture. An easy way to plant them straight into the ground would be to use a bulb planter to clasp around the whole pot.

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This weekend saw me tackle our shed project yet again. This time it was cladding the walls with timber.

The beauty in taking so long in getting this project to completion has meant that we've been able to change our minds a few times. We originally planned to clad the outside in corrugated metal sheeting (Colorbond) until we stumbled upon a farmstyle barn that had been covered with timber.

The timber used on the barn that we looked at was hardwood Jarrah which looked fantastic. However, at triple the price of CCA Farmed Pine we opted for the green approach and decided we could stain it to a jarrah colour and still save some money.

I'm hoping to finish all the cladding this week and even hang my outside door.

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Just when we thought we didn't have enough projects on our plate we decided to start another one. The shed is still on hold, the water feature is waiting for some design stuff to be done and our outdoor room needs the paving to be finished.

So it seemed like the logical time to start another one.

To be precise we've been waiting for a friend, who has the knowledge I lack in erecting a pergola, to have some free time to guide me through the process. It's not that constructing a pergola is a particularly difficult task it is just that we've decided to use bush poles as our supports.

Bush poles are as the name suggests "poles from the bush" meaning they haven't been sawn or dressed to conform to any straight lines. Therefore, rather than using a spirit-level or plumb line to keep things straight you have to rely on your eye. Not an easy task.

We didn't start construction on the pergola until after noon however we were able to get this far and have all five poles erected. This meant that each pole needed a couple of notches cut out from the bottom and the majority of excess removed from the top. Then they had to be positioned delicately atop a galvanized metal stirrup and braced against anything that wouldn't move.

They will sit here for another few weeks until we can coordinate a time for both of us to place the ring beam around to support them permanently. In the meantime, I wil have to start work on the trusses that will support the roof.

It's all very exciting. We might even have some of these projects finished before Christmas.

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The more I garden the more I appreciate adorning small spaces. In small gardens, especially courtyard gardens, attention to detail is the focus. Larger gardens can get away with the soft-focus approach but when you rein in the size every choice becomes important.

The aim of courtyard landscaping is to produce a vista that makes the area appear larger and deeper than it actually is. It encourages the visitor to not only see the overall picture but to focus in on the detail.

The beauty of creating a small garden is that you have a very defined boundary that won't settle for a lack of forethought. Each decision needs to be measured and the problems associated with courtyard gardens are much greater than with larger sized plantings.

Here are some things to consider when landscaping your courtyard;

1. Accessibility - How are people going to move around your courtyard? There are two options to consider. The first is shall I make a platform for visitors to peruse the courtyard without having to physically move through it? This may be a good option if you want to have more plants, features etc rather than pathways.

The second choice is allowing people to move through the courtyard thereby gaining more points from which to observe and explore.

2. Shade - Many small courtyard landscapes suffer from poor light. Towering walls and roof structures keep the sunlight from entering your garden and stifle many choices of plantings. Some may see this as a benefit and further accentuate the shade by growing large trees or erecting overhead trellises.

Obviously dealing with shade creates other problems too such as moisture retention, a safe haven for snails and slugs, and an ideal microclimate for fungi to abound.

3. Height - Small gardens suffer from height problems because you don't have the room to grow large plants so the best way to counteract this is by growing many plants in containers. Container plants add multiple dimensions to a courtyard landscape by introducing more colour, shape, width and height and complement the style in which you've chosen to forge.

4. Maintenance - While access for visitors is a decision that needs to be catered for access for maintenance is also another consideration. Many small gardens that I have seen appear to agree with the set-and-forget principle - once the plants are added they should be able to look after themselves.

This is fine if you're happy with a roguish garden bed that lusts after more and more space but when it comes to maintaining your courtyard garden it become a sheer nightmare. Access into the garden seems harder than fighting your way through a Vietnamese jungle.

5. Purpose - What is the purpose of your courtyard landscape? Is it just for the garden or do you plan to entertain guests within it? Determing your small gardens purpose will define how you design it.

An entertaining courtyard may contain a barbeque, chiminea or outside pizza oven. It would most likely host a deck of some variety where people could mingle or even dance, if so desired. And it would most likely have some landscaped lighting.

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Irrigation for outdoor plants has been available for aeons yet to water our indoor plants we've used a jug from the kitchen, a watering can or even set up these new water bulbs.

But, there is another alternative. In this great step by step tutorial you can install your own automatic irrigation system that keeps your plants moist even when you're not around. And it only cost US$45 (A$60) to make it.

The downside of the operation is that it relies on a reservoir rather than a constant source of water but for the cost and peace of mind it seems a small price to pay.

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I've been showing our upcoming water feature over the months and thought that I might include it as a SlideShare presentation instead.

Leave your feedback so I know whether this is a helpful format for future reference.

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