Why is it called “Aisle of Shame”? My guess is because you go there for groceries and can come home with a chainsaw. I’m not ashamed of the things that I get from that aisle. In fact I went back specifically to get more and ended up also getting milk.
Aldi’s was my go to and then it fell off the radar but it is back with a vengeance and I’m remembering all the things I love about that store. This year it’s been all about the garden and the finds have been awesome.
Mini Greenhouse
Our Aldi had these for only $10. On-line I read that they had initially been #16.99. My intention was to put these over the raised beds by the front of the house. We had cats laying in them, birds feasting on them, and seeds/plants were struggling, Since math is hard, my idea failed. Apparently a 4×4 greenhouse will not fit correctly on a 2×3 raised bed, weird. I had already purchased 3 of these before the math hit me, after I had assembled one and was standing in front of the raised bed with it.
I was in love with this thing so I went back and got two more. Did I know what I was going to do with them? I did not. Did it matter? It did not. They made all the difference in this years garden. It was a cool, wet spring and I had flats of things that needed to be planted and be outside but temps, especially at night, prevented that, till these guys showed up. In addition we had just purchased grapes and all that cold/wet weather was not to their liking. Typically our gardens were not even on the radar till after Father’s Day. While last frost is typically right around Mother’s Day our schedules did not allow us to even think about working in the gardens until much later. This plus grow bags changed it for us. I was potting the plants we started inside, into grow bags where they would stay in April. I had all of them inside the fenced in garden area (having that newer section done really made this possible because I had room for these mini’s) to protect them from critters. I could fit about 12 bags in each greenhouse. We also had the larger greenhouse up and we knew we wanted to do melons there. All the melon bags went in there and all the other bags went into the minis. I had so many I was able to sort them by pumpkins, summer squash, winter squash, corn and fruits. We had just purchased grapes, an accidental blueberry, and currents to replace things we had lost and I had potted them up. That cold wet weather was not kind and some of them did not survive but after being moved into the greenhouses the ones that were still alive thrived and ones that I thought were lost actually started to come back. Because we had these our season was off to the races in April not mid to late June. We are hoping we can also extend the season further into the fall with them.
They are super simple to put together. Just thin plastic rods that go into plastic couplers. Can you mess it up? Yep and I did on two of them. There is supposed to be a top and bottom rod on the front and back and I ended up putting that top rod set on the sides so I had nothing to wrap the Velcro around on the zipper top. More of a darn than a drastic so they stayed like that, and are still like that. I will fix them before I use them again. I like that the plastic fits pretty tight and has that big zipper on the front. When it was cold at night or rain was expected we would zip them shut in the evening and open them again in the morning or when the rain had stopped. As the plants for a little older we would start to leave them unzipped for rain and when temps at night were warmer we would leave them open at night too.
Do I expect them to last forever? No, plastic won’t hold up forever in the sun even if it protection treated. I know that there are people who would not want to have plastic around their plants and I get that. For us it’s been a way to be more successful with our garden and that means we are inspired to keep growing our own food. When these start to wear out we will use the design to make our own and who knows what materials we will use to do that with but this got the ball rolling for only $10 and about 10 minutes of build time, no tools required.
The Pop Up Bag
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These bags are not water tight, they are a heavy duty material made to collapse and spring back upright again. They were $10 at our Aldi and eventually went on clearance for even less. I watch Garden Answers and I’ve seen her use these when she is doing lawn cleanup. I do not know if hers are from Aldi’s, I suspect they are not, but the idea of them appealed to me. I use bushel baskets the kind that fruit actually came in just as my mother before me used. They are fine but they only hold limited amounts. I also use tarps for normal cleanup I will just bring a 4×4 tarp with me and as I weed I toss it on the tarp. When I’m done I just grab the ends and drag it to the compost bin. It works and in the fall with leaves we use a 50 x 25′ tarp attached under the eaves to blow leaves from the roof. Between the two of us we can get that to the woods and dump it. Works like a charm and is so much easier than trying to move leaves out of the landscaping and into the woods even when we use the plow. What the small tarp can’t do for me is move as easily around to all the places I have to work. I keep one of these in the lawn cart, one in the small greenhouse in the front, one in the larger greenhouse, and one over by the chicken coop. The other two are in the garage. They are easy to grab, easy to store, easy to fill and they hold a good amount. When full I can carry it or put it in the trailer and haul it. When I go to dump there is a handle on the bottom so I can grab a top handle and that bottom one and dump it exactly where I want it. With the tarp it’s not as controlled.
Garden Totes
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These two garden totes were each less than $10. The first reminds me of a saddle bag it can be put on your belt and worn. What I like is that you can put your phone or whatever in that zipper part, a beverage in the mesh part, keys or a tool on the ring and whatever other small items you need in the pockets. It doesn’t hold a lot but do you really want your pants to fall down? I am constantly loosing my clippers when I’m out trimming. I also loose my phone.
The second one reminds me of those pocket things you could buy to put in a 5 gallon bucket. I already have a tool bag from Harbor Freight the Voyager 19″ tool tote with 14 pockets, this is where I keep most of my tools. My clippers, small garden tools, seed packets, zip ties, plant ties, garden journal & pen, plant tags & marker, gloves, and more. This round tote from Aldi’s gives me additional pockets as well as a very large interior which works so much better to hold things like fertilizer or any insect treatments or the sponges I put in the bottom of my fiber hanging baskets. I could not get all that in my Voyager! Now I only have to worry about where my 2 or 3 totes and I can grab them and go. I keep them in the greenhouses which makes it even easier because I used to keep all of that either in the garage, by the front door, in the basement, in the shop, in the she shed well you get the idea it was just all over.
Propagation Vases
This was a little bit of a splurge because they did cost $19.99. Why splurge like that? I’ve been playing with propagation for a few years now. It started with things like hydrangeas, lilacs, raspberries, and other hardwood cuttings. We didn’t have tons of luck but we did okay and we did get plants but we also lost a lot. We realized that raspberries and blackberries were so easy to root just by putting their tips in dirt so we would take pots out and just push a tip into he pot and BAM new plant. Other things were more of a mystery. Then I saw a video from Mike Kincaid on propagating petunias. Well now you have my attention! I learned from him and have actually become pretty good at petunias. Yes, we left for CA and I lost many of them but it was my fault. This year I started watching videos done by Vita Loca on her Budget Gardening with Vita Loca YouTube channel. She was talking about harvesting seeds from Impatients, and then said you can propagate them! I had just bought double pink impatients and thought okay lets try this but I want to see the roots because I don’t believe the stories. Enter the glass vases which sit on my window sill. I watched as each cutting grew roots. Because it was in front of my face all the time I also remembered to change the water. I did get 4 cuttings to grow roots and all of them did survive the transfer to dirt, and then we left for 6 days but I still have 3 plants waiting to go into the flower beds! Next came cuttings from a begonia these are now potted up continuing on their propagation journey. I have some cuttings from a cone hydrangea that was here when we bought the house and a smoke tree to get setup. My branch trimming was a little to enthusiastic. Rather than waste these branches that still had life I figured might as well try. I’m going to do half the cuttings from each in water and half using the 3 cup system. If I have enough I’ll compare the soft wood to hard wood to see which methods work best for each type.
Misc. Garden Stuff
Doyle 8-1/2 in Steel Blade Bypass Pruner These were from Harbor Freight and cost $24.99. Aldi’s did have clippers but I didn’t grab them when I saw them and they were gone when I went back. So far I really like these.
Gordon 10-in-1 Multi-Tool, From Harbor Freight cost $39.99. I have carried a Leatherman multi-tool on me for close to 30 years and it is so useful. Many times in the garden I have a use for different tools but I don’t want to load up the bag with “all” the tools. I also do not want to chance loosing my Leatherman out in the woods so I bought a knock off version. Still more pricey than I wanted but very handy and very compact it easily fits in the smallest of the totes or in a pants pocket.
From Aldi I picked up a small trowel, small hand rack, a cheap spray nozzle for the hose and a lighter. I just want to keep a set of basic tools in the bag at all times. So many times your working away on something and think, “Man if only had a trowel!” then realize you either don’t remember where they all went which means you are now on a two day hunt for that trowel and the work is not getting done, or you just muscle through it and deal to get the job done. Now I’ve got one in the garden bag at all times. The lighter is just handy, need to melt the ends of a cut well there it is, need to light a candle well there it is, need to burn incriminating evidence not a problem. Mostly it’s the whole sealing the ends of twine and such but you never know. That cheap wand is now on a hose piece I pulled out of the bottom of a bag in the she shed. I needed it for the side of the house because I had started moving Hosta over there and they needed to be watered. We go through those things like water, get it? It’s a hose wand for watering… we use a lot of them and they don’t seem to last so … go through them like water… get it? I also tossed electrical tape in the bag for fixing landscape fabric tears and apparently tractor water tank repair. There is a roll of water tight tape for fixing hoses and hose ends. Duct tape and zip ties, I’ll let you use your imagination on that one. Which by the way recently on a TV show someone said something about the other person carrying duct tape and a tarp in their trunk made them look like a serial killer. I looked at Bill and said, “Not only do I keep duct tape and a tarp but I also have clippers for tree trimming, a mallet, a small shovel, rope and other assorted tools in the back of our Jeep. What does that make me?” He replied, “Prepared it just makes you prepared.”
Aldi also had at least two different kinds of mini greenhouses with shelves on the sides one they even called a walk in greenhouse. Both types were under $20 and the walk in one went on clearance for only $12. I did end up buying one of their two level round bar carts made from metal. They suggested using them outside on the patio but ours is in the bedroom with Olive the olive tree on it. She is a big girl and needs to be elevated so that the cats won’t eat her and off the ground so that “not our dog” won’t think he now has a litterbox like the cats. It’s really sturdy and the shelf under the top is a nice place to keep her water and such (we did not put he wine bottle loops in when we built it).
They had tons of camping gear too! While we are pretty set on our gear we did end up buying a water proof case that we can clip to the kayaks. Not to put baggies down but we feel that a case built to stop water intrusion will probably protect phones better than a baggie can.
Not sure how these will work but we got 2 foldable camping hammocks. Sleeping on the ground is fun and part of the camping experience. We have inflatable mattresses but hammocks sounded intriguing. For now we will set them up in the fruit garden area to just enjoy that space. If they work out they might make the next camping trip. While they were a little bit pricey $49.99 and they are heavy-ish we do enjoy the hammocks we bought years ago. The only issue with them has been finding replacement hammocks for the stands they seem to either be to long and your butt is on the ground or to short and it’s less of a hammock and more of a cloth board that threatens to roll you face first into mother earth, hard.
If you have an Aldi’s near you it might be worth a visit just to see what you can find. When they sell out they are generally out and not getting the specials back in stock. Not all areas will get the same things it seems. How is the quality? Time and usage will tell.
