Rodale

Gardeners love build-it-yourself projects because they help save time, make tricky jobs simpler, give new life to cast-offs, and just make gardening more fun! These inventive and clever garden accessories work for a wide variety of garden tasks-from making compost, planting seeds, and controlling weeds to trellising climbing plants, attracting backyard wildlife, and keeping everything well watered. Need a nifty way to harden off seedlings? Try recycling an old drawer into a protected growing space, or make a shade cone from window screening. Want more butterflies and birds in the yard? Build a quick fruit feeder or a simple tray feeder. Tired of adding wood chips to every bed? Create a perpetual mulch garden. Want to spruce up backyard living space? Decorate the patio with a handmade bamboo and cedar fountain or a dramatic drip wall.This comprehensive hands-on guide for do-it-yourself gardeners is filled with quick-and-easy projects for vegetable gardens and every part of the yard. And there's no need to buy costly materials since the projects use easy-to-buy supplies or scrap items.

BARBARA PLEASANT is the author of more than a dozen popular gardening books. She is a contributing editor for The Herb Companion and writes regularly for other national gardening magazines. She is a three-time winner of Garden Writers Association awards. She currently resides in Asheville, North Carolina.