Our Frugal Lifestyle

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Passionate about eco-frugality. I used to party hard, clubbing my way from pay-packet to pay-packet. Never getting ahead, just getting by. Then came our much wanted baby with no savings in the bank - only an old car. Changes were made to our lifestyle and we didn't turn back. In the past 6yrs we purchased a flat, found employment, lived below our means, built an emergency fund, purchased a reliable car and saw the financial benefits of our frugal lifestyle. Our only debt is our mortgage. Our aim is to manage our cash flow wisely, pay off our home quickly and eventually work for pleasure, not necessity. Join us on our journey, share insights, tips and tricks to help us and others to get ahead while having a good time.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Poo Poo

Some of my plants have been really struggling and I see other people's plots around me prospering. I try and not criticise myself and instead read books and tell myself it's a learning process and this gardening hobby is a hobby for life, I can skill up and grow as I learn bit by bit. I also don't want to blow huge amounts of my pay packet into the garden and I have done well so far restraining myself from buying all the pretty plants.

Being the eco-frugalista that I am, I refuse to fork out big bucks for sh*t from a company hundreds of kilometers away. I was thinking of heading out to the race tracks as I heard they have a manure bin where people can load up their buckets for free. But another gardener told me race horses are usually pumped up with "stuff" to make them excel at their job. So I decided to not go that way as I am not aiming for giant sized vegetables that will give me muscles in very strange places.

Another solution was to head to a property where city folks keep their horse. These are just regular horses owned and loved by individuals. Outside the property gates are bags of manure for only $2 that you just pop into an honesty box. And apparently if there are no bags of manure you can go in and ask if the Poo Fairy will fill a bag for you. Now that is my kind of Fairy. A win win all round. I get cheap sh*t and the horse owners get a few bucks to put towards their horses, it's local and the plants love it.

My Little Fairy was hoping to meet the Poo Fairy.
Another eco-frugal thing I did for my garden was head out to a work colleague's home out bush as she had old chicken wire and metal stakes she no longer needed and were gathering dust and rust. I was very thrilled to get my hands on it and can't wait to set some of it up this weekend as I prepare my garden to the wet season. As a bonus Dolly loved her visit out bush and got to ride a mower.

Dolly Driving a Lawn Mower.
How do you enrichen your garden soil?
Do you splurge or keep it cheap?
Posted by Frugal Down Under
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9 comments:

  1. SuzanneJuly 11, 2011 at 6:51 AM

    I have chooks, so I use all the bedding straw and poo from the chook house...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Frugal Down UnderJuly 11, 2011 at 7:20 AM

    Lucky you. Fresh home grown chook poop. Wish I had some of that.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Practical ParsimonyJuly 11, 2011 at 8:14 AM

    I have compost bins low enough the hens can get in their and scratch and poop. The soil is lovely, fine, and dark after a year of throwing in compost and leaves and letting the sun do its job. I hope you age your poop and don't use it fresh! Food luck. Well, I meant "good luck." But, "food luck" sounds good, too.

    ReplyDelete
  4. africanaussieJuly 11, 2011 at 3:06 PM

    Yes, like you I don't want to go down the path of my home grown vegetables costing more than they do from the store! I use home made compost, seaweed from the beach, and comfrey leaves, and have lots of worms and good soil. I do occasionally buy seasol and charlie carp, and also a product called 5 in 1, that has a mixture of different manures in it. I find that mulch is very important and use hay from a neighboring farm. Also I get the council mulch when it is free.

    ReplyDelete
  5. DaffodilJuly 11, 2011 at 7:20 PM

    I have three horse pooing machines that turn pasture into black gold for my garden beds. I just pile some of it up to rest for a few months and cover it with the horses discarded hay. It matures and then I turf it into the garden beds. I actually found a HUUUUGE pile that I had forgotten about and it was absolutely beautiful. Black, rich and moist. It was perfect poo. The rest of the horse manure is left in the paddocks and harrowed into the pasture after it rains.

    We also have the chooks manure which we also leave to rest, the duck poo...and I even get the wheelbarrow out and pinch some of the neighbours cow poo. We also have rabbits that leave their little droppings behind. For the bunny pellets I simply wet those one down smoosh them into the pasture with my boot.

    All in all we have alot of pooing contributors on our little farm. We don´t use any synthetic fertilizers or herbicides either.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jennifer @ Fast, Cheap, and GoodJuly 12, 2011 at 12:55 PM

    How wrong is it that I read your post and thought, "Lucky Dog! She can pick up manure from her neighbors for $2!"

    I wish I had a source of manure. You know, other than watching the daily news. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Fairy from Organised CastleJuly 12, 2011 at 3:23 PM

    We live in area with very rich, fertile soil so are lucky. However, we add our home-made compost and every so often clear out the chicken shed and put that in as well.

    The only thing we buy in is mushroom compost (we often get a crop of mushrooms as a bonus) from a local mushroom farm for 60c/bag. See my post titled "Soup and Compost". We have dairy farms nearby so I could easily get cow manure as well if required.

    ReplyDelete
  8. KarenJuly 15, 2011 at 8:31 AM

    Hi Frugal Down Under. My Gardens not doing very well this year too. My runner beans and green beans are not flowering and my strawberries have been very poor this year. Maybe my garden needs a bit of poo like yours does. There are stables at the bottom of a lane near me where the horse manure is piled up outside the gate for anyone to take for free. It saves them having to dispose of it. Lots of people come and dig buckets full to take home. Think I shall have to give them a visit.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ms. DigJuly 15, 2011 at 11:08 PM

    I don't know how keen I am on this idea, but a local gardening expert digs in cane toad corpses to fertilise her vegie patch. Get rid of pests, and dispose of the body!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for commenting - I love getting feedback, sharing experiences and learning from you.

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