Wanted: Frugal Gardening Ideas

There’s a little cheapskate in every gardener. We learn at an early age to make plant containers out of milk cartons and later discover that, cut into sections, they’re just the thing to protect tender seedlings from cutworms. Advanced gardeners even use them to blanch celery.

We’d like to hear your tightwad tips--from an inexpensive source of fertilizer to a way to make your own plant labels. We’d also like to hear your frugal landscaping ideas. Maybe a cheap material for paths, for instance.

Don’t worry if your money- or labor-saving ideas sound goofy. Some of the best do, until someone tries them and sees how good an idea it is. We’ll publish the best and those selected will get a free (that’s right--free!) pair of tickets to the Los Angeles Garden Show, held at the Los Angeles County Arboretum in Arcadia in October.

Send your ideas to the Cheapskate Gardener, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053. Or fax them to (213) 237-4712. Please include your telephone number.