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Do you hate shelling out cash at the local nursery for plain old sticks ... just to prop up your tomato plants? Then quit doing it. You can get the best stakes in the world for nothing (says Charles Dowling of Shreveport, Louisiana) at the local cemetery's flower dump. The heavy-gauge wire tripod stands (florists use 'em to display their funeral arrangements) that you'll find at "flower graveyards" are very sturdy. And such plant proppers come in various heights, require no maintenance, last for years ... and even fold flat for storage. Besides that, pushin' their sharp-tipped legs into the soil is easy. (The tripods can also double as display stands at arts and crafts shows.)

So check your cemetery sexton's office for the location of the flower dump near you, and get some free "veggie easels" for your tomatoes to lean on!
Did you ever think there must be a better way to sow those hard-to-handle tiny garden seeds than letting them slip (all in one place) through your fingers? Don Snyder—who holes up in Marianna, Florida—felt that way, too. So he created some homemade seed-sprinklers out of old spice jars. First, Don drilled the lid openings slightly bigger (enlarging the punctures with a nail would work, too). Then he loaded his future carrots in an old onion salt container (and his radish motes in a rescued garlic salt holder), went out in the garden ... and started shaking. The result was some very easy—and even —plant sowing that stretched his seed package (and his money) while it reduced the need for later thinning.

What Don Snyder's spice-sower did for the little seeds, Alfred Goolsbee's invention does for the big ones. This Pt. Neches, Texas native made a no-stoop, no-crouch planter that consists of a funnel attached to some lightweight aluminum or plastic pipe. Al says, "Just take this seed tube and a long stick into the garden with you at sowin' time. Poke a hole in the prepared soil bed with your stick, insert your pipe in the opening, and drop the seed down the funnel. The kernel'll land right where you want it. Then simply flip the earth back over with your stick ... and ease on down the row!"

When those spring rains hit your windshield and the whole dang inside of your car fogs up ... you can be in for some pretty hairy traveling. But you don't have to drive blind ... not if you lake this tip from Glasgow, Kentucky's Ronald Hunter Simply buy a large felt blackboard eraser (you know, the kind Teacher made you clap after school) at a large variety store. One swipe of the slate-scrubber'll wipe that murky window clean. And the felt block will store right comfy in your glove compartment, too.

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