32 cheapskate handy hints for the outdoors

Regular maintenance keeps your garden tools clean and rust-free. To avoid much of that maintenance, fill a bucket with sand and mix in a plant-based oil, such as boiled linseed oil. Plunging a blade, tines, or teeth into the sand a few times cleans off any dirt and gives them a light coating of oil for rust prevention. You can even store your tools right in the pot.

Learn how to renew your hand tools.

To keep toilet paper dry and at the ready while camping, put the roll in a coffee can or CD/DVD container. It makes a handy, weatherproof dispenser.

If you don’t use up all of your seed packets, store them in an airtight container with silica packets to keep them fresh for next year. The silica packets prevent the seeds from germinating or getting mouldy.

Check out our simple guide to saving seeds.

To protect my fishing rods in the back of the truck, I cover them with pool noodles. Cut the noodle and slip it over the rod. Depending on your rod style, use either one or two pieces of pool noodle. No more broken tips, thanks to a cheap pool noodle! – Tim Wurmlinger

If you don’t have an air compressor to inflate your air mattresses or pool toys, you can use your shop vacuum instead. Just pop the top off a plastic squeeze bottle and fit the top to your vacuum’s hose. You may have to use duct tape. Once the top is secured to the hose, attach the hose to your vacuum’s exhaust port. It’ll blow up your inflatables in no time. To deflate, attach the hose to the vacuum port and suck the air out.

For an easy and green way to start seeds, save your toilet paper and paper towel tubes. Cut the tubes into 50mm lengths and set them in a waterproof tray. Fill the tubes with potting soil and plant your seeds. When the seedlings are ready to move to the garden, plant them right in their cardboard tube. The cardboard will decompose. Be sure to keep the tube below the soil surface, so it doesn’t wick moisture away from the roots.

Fill a jar with wine corks and rubbing alcohol, and let the corks soak. The corks will burn ok in a couple days, but for best results, soak them for a week. Be sure the corks are natural, not synthetic.

For deep planters, fill the bottom with old cans and plant pots. The cans and pots improve drainage and create air pockets for better aeration and healthier soil.

Do you have a hard time starting seeds or cuttings? Try soft drink bottle greenhouses. Cut the bottom off two-litre soft drink bottles and remove the labels. Each seed gets its own micro greenhouse! Remove the greenhouses once the seeds have germinated and cuttings are rooted.

Learn how to raise plants from cuttings in a mini greenhouse.

I only own one watering can, so I need to refill it four or five times to water all of the plants on my patio. Instead of buying more overpriced watering cans, I use old milk jugs. I drill a few holes in the caps, fill up the containers with water and I’m good to go. – Harrison Berg