I would like to reclaim the word cheap. To me it does not mean stingy, miserly or of poor quality. In this post-recession era I believe it now signifies resourceful, ingenious, grateful and green. I love to garden but don’t relish spending hundreds of dollars on it. I prefer splitting plants in the spring or fall, buying plants on sale that propagate well and taking really good care of the plants I have so they spread and thrive.

So this blog post is dedicated to a cheap gardening trick that will yield a brilliant fall show. I have a lot of chrysanthemums, commonly referred to as “mums.” They are a popular perennial that blooms profusely in the fall. These plants, along with your asters, need to pinched back or they will be long and strangely leggy by the fall. The general rule is to be sure to cut them back before the 4th of July. So get on it! Then just let them grow until the fall. Basically, you just use a good clippers to cut them so a few inches of green leaves and growth is still left on the plants stem. In the case of mums, save those cuttings!

This is what the mum cuttings look like.

Once you are done trimming the plant prepare a pot for your cheap garden magic! Just put in standard potting soil (you could do this in a plant bed, too) and wet it. They take your mum cuttings and pull off the bottom leaves so there is more bare stem to work with. Stick the cuttings in the soil and water them in. You will have to water them often and perhaps not all will make it, but the photo below shows what your mums and asters will look like around Halloween.

Thanks for reading! I am always looking for great photo stories to tell in the Chapelboro area. If you know of someone or something that should be documented please write to me at kophoto@chapelboro.com.
Related Stories
‹
![]()
Talk Derby To MeMy favorite spring sporting event has to be the Kentucky Derby. What stands out most during this historic horse race is difficult to decide…the sleek and athletic thoroughbreds, the diminutive yet wiry jockeys in their colorful silks, the thrill of the race itself or the chance for a long-shot filly to come from behind and […]
![]()
Parenting Page: It Takes a Village - Of PerspectivesThis is a parenting page, about parenting Page. I am a child psychologist and a mother. So I specialize in children, yet I am human, thus I am full of knowledge and yet as full of emotions as any other parent. So I decided to write this Parenting Page since it might be informative and […]
![]()
Cabaret at PlayMakersThe crowd laughs, but […]
![]()
Political Power Grabs in 1875 and 2013Republican Party. We need more moderate voices.” One of my longtime friends was tempting me, noting that his political party was in charge now. If I wanted to participate in the new regime in North Carolina, I should change my registration. “And,” he said, “we could use some […]
![]()
TABLE Celebrates its 5th BirthdayTABLE celebrated its 5th birthday with children of the South Estes Family Resource Center with a delicious and healthy carrot cake — made with carrots, whole grain flower, white flour and cream cheese icing. TABLE is a nonprofit providing hunger relief to at-risk kids in the Chapel Hill Carrboro area. They will be celebrating their […]
![]()
Sleep On ItSome mornings I wake up, check Twitter, and see the following: “The struggle is live today” or “I’m captain of the struggle bus this morning.” Did you ever think about what is the cause of the struggle? I’ll tell you: insufficient sleep. College students are probably the worst offenders when it comes to not getting […]
![]()
A Dangerous Eight SeedAnyone who was channel surfing last Sunday had to stop and marvel at the Carolina-Miami game and how great that first half was. Even if they didn’t know the teams. That’s how good, and at such a high level, the ACC championship game was played. Both teams scored better than a point per possession, shooting […]
![]()
Light Sensitive at NasherImmediately upon entering the exhibit, one is greeted by images at once recognizable and disorienting. The photographs in “Light Sensitive” are not merely beautifully captured or distilled moments in time. Rather, they are hyper-consciously manufactured artistic works. In this exhibit the idea of photography as an unbiased portal into reality interacts powerfully with the more […]
![]()
The Luck of the DrawRoy Williams wasn’t thrilled with the ACC's NCAA Tournament draw on Sunday night.
![]()
ACCT 2013: This Matters.Who would say this tournament doesn’t matter? Try finding someone in the Greensboro Coliseum on Saturday afternoon who would tell you this is all just a big “cocktail party.” Not only was Saturday’s content potentially Maryland’s last ACC game ever, but every member of this particular UNC team was fighting to win their first tournament—of […]
›
Comments on Chapelboro are moderated according to our Community Guidelines