ecosophia | Frugal Friday

Welcome back to Frugal Friday! This is a weekly forum post to encourage people to share tips on saving money, especially but not only by doing stuff yourself. A new post will be going up every Friday, and will remain active until the next one goes up. Contributions will be moderated, of course, and I have some simple rules to offer, which may change further as we proceed.

Rule #1:  this is a place for polite, friendly conversations about how to save money in difficult times. It's not a place to post news, views, rants, or emotional outbursts about the reasons why the times are difficult and saving money is necessary. Nor is it a place to use a money saving tip to smuggle in news, views, etc. I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.

Rule #2:  this is not a place for you to sell goods or services, period. Here again, I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.

Rule #3:  please give your tip a heading that explains briefly what it's about.  Homemade Chicken Soup, Garden Containers, Cheap Attic Insulation, and Vinegar Cleans Windows are good examples of headings. That way people can find the things that are relevant for them. If you don't put a heading on your tip it will be deleted.

Rule #4: don't post anything that would amount to advocating criminal activity. Any such suggestions will not be put through.

With that said, have at it!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I had some cedar log segments from a dead cedar tree, and was able to make them into a raised garden bed. I put hardware cloth (metal screening) around the bottom and sides to keep out voles, and chicken wire on top to slow down the deer and raccoons. Hard to say if it will keep out bears!

Here is a link to the construction process:

https://jackmanassas.blogspot.com/2025/05/critter-resistant-planter-box.html

And this is, hopefully, a picture of the box;

https://emmanuelg.dreamwidth.org/file/65514.jpg

Happy Gardening everyone!

--Emmanuel G

Thank you for this. Very inspiring.

I noted that someone commented about the wood rotting. You might also have a problem with the angle irons and hardware mesh rusting away. Really, that's only natural. It's not like you'd want to use chemically treated wood in a garden where you'd be growing food. Besides, I've always understood cedar to be resistant to decay.

We, naturally, want to minimize maintenance but it can't be avoided altogether. I imagine that hardwoods would last longer. I've experimented with applying linseed oil to wood I want to preserve. It appears to be working.

Not sure if there are any better options for hardware cloth. Plastic mesh might last longer but it certainly wouldn't be a deterrent to voles. Plastic lining against the sidewalls might help the wood last longer.

Caldathras

Next time try adding a little wax and turpentine to the linseed oil. Blueberry

Thanks for the tip, Blueberry.

Caldathras

A permaculture demi-god, Sepp Holzer, has a technique of mounding up otherwise waste wood (like windfalls) into long piles, up to six feet tall. He then adds whatever manure he can get all over the pile along with other random organic matter, and tries to keep it from drying out too much. The wood breaks down over a period of several years, generating a gentle heat and turning into a long, fertile mound great for growing things. Carbon sequestered into new soil.

"Hugelkultur" is what he calls it. Plenty of videos online about it. (This is all from memory-- my German stinks.)

*Ochre Harebrained Curmudgeon*

I think it is very cute. I have found that overlapping but not secured areas of hardware cloth become problem areas that let in tunnelling rodents like gophers and voles. They push around dirt alot, pushing with their noses, and will push between the 2 layers and get in after a while. Next time sew the 2 pieces together tightly where they overlap with baling wire or if you have a galvanized wire, even better.

I use hardware cloth on the bottom of all my garden beds. The long sides are 2x12 lumber, redwood in this area, cedar is just as good in other regions. The hardware cloth is nailed on with metal staples very very close together, maybe even every inch. Could be 2 inches ? I havent done one for a couple years, but it has to be where a small rodent nose cant pull it down, push in, over time when they tunnel.

That's a great idea, to sew the pieces together with galvanized wire! At the end of the year, I can shovel out the dirt and fix that. I left the ends of the side pieces poking out so that a vole getting near would poke his nose on the wire points and hopefully move on. Sewing them together would likely work better and be more humane for the voles.

Speaking of which, someone told me to mix Castor oil and dish detergent, and spray it on the lawn in the Spring and Fall. Voles apparently don't like the smell of Castor oil, and will move on...

Frugal Friday

Planter Box with Cedar border

Re: Planter Box with Cedar border

Re: Planter Box with Cedar border

Re: Planter Box with Cedar border

Re: Planter Box with Cedar border

Re: Planter Box with Cedar border

Re: Planter Box with Cedar border