Many eager gardeners decide to tackle expansive gardens on their own. While you can save money by not hiring help, you pay for it in extra time spent in the garden. When, eventually, you notice Fido is looking a little pudgy because he hasn’t been walked in a month, you discover your kitchen has become a highly effective science experiment, and you wonder just how many times you can wear the same pair of shorts before they can stand up on their own, it might be a good idea to invest in some time-saving measures for you and your large garden. Here are just a few ideas for saving time in the garden:

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Balcony Garden

Originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete

Balcony garden design uses the same principles as regular garden design, only on a smaller scale. Patty Brown offers some excellent tips for designing a balcony garden.

The folks at notNeutral have seriously cute and perfectly classy garden decor. Originally founded as a one-man design firm, the company applies signature patterns and colors to everything from household goods (barware and dinner plates) to garden decor (plant stakes and candle holders).

notNeutral’s metal filigree-style lanterns splash flickering patterns around for a perfect evening glow. These would be great (in addition to jack-o-lanterns) for a stylish Halloween party.

The garden stakes come in fun shapes (insects and flowers) and colors (magenta and lime). Their snowflake shapes would be perfect to dress up a winter-blah garden.

[photos: notNeutral]

I love it when designers take a simple motif, and turn it into a whole line of fun, cute things. Take the garden decor of J Schatz as an example. They’ve taken the humble egg and turned it into ceramic bird feeders, bird houses and planters. They also offer egg-inspired home decor. The egg style is so sweet and the vibrant colors would be an eye-catching highlight in any garden. These would make a super housewarming gift or wedding present for your favorite gardeners.

[photo by J Schatz]

10 great garden ideas _ The Chicago Tribune photo gallery isn’t fancy, but it shows a bunch of do-it-yourself garden designs.

Garden is a seedbed for green cosmetics – A hand-tended, German garden provides the raw ingredients for an eco-conscious line of cosmetics touted by Hollywood-types as the bestest make-up evah. Interestingly, the company started focusing on herbal remedies.

Organic garden uses every sustainable trick – This eco-savvy garden shows how sustainable, organic gardening can look fit so seemlessly into conventional landscaped neighborhoods that you would never know it’s “green.”

Back to the garden – Author Michael Pollan suggests we all dig up our yards and garden not just for pleasure, but to sustain us in the “calamity to come.” He believes growing our own food we will make a bigger impact on slowing our destruction of the planet than the smaller things we are already trying.

The incredible, edible front lawn – Through the Edible Estates project, the Rodriguez family received a grant to plant a front-yard garden to feed their entire neighborhood. This is an amazing concept, and I really hope someone will create a foundation to help more people convert their lawns to vegetable gardens.

The New York Times has imaginative photo composites and a detailed article about the future gardens that the city and Friends of The High Line will build on a nearly a mile-and-a-half long, elevated railway in Manhattan. The project is a fascinating mix of old and new, reuse and repurposing. With native plants mingling with hybrids for year-round color and art installations to catch entertain walkers in Chelsea Market, the space looks like a garden designer’s dream.

With more businesses moving overseas leaving aging factories behind, perhaps this is the future of public gardens in urban areas. Unused, but historically significant, commercial structures won’t be destroyed to make way for greenspace; they will be refashioned into gardens that protect both history and the future.

The Lifeshop Collection offers sumptuous outdoor furniture with very contemporary and organic looks. The woven Iraya Daybed reminds me of a comfy nest I would just love to curl up on those cushions with a good gardening book and a glass of pink lemonade after a hard day toiling in the dirt.

[photo by The Lifeshop Collection]

Design*Sponge blogger Grace Bonney shares her favorite outdoor furniture and accessories for under $100 over at Domino magazine.

The gardening life Web site features all sorts of sweet gardening inspiration. From curb appeal projects (including a contemporary Craftsman garden) to an encyclopedia of seasonal living, gardening life has tons of garden pictures that offer great ideas for landscape design and outdoor entertaining.

With a high-profile story in this week’s gardening section of The New York Times, urban agriculture has hit the mainstream media big time. With food shortages and rising food prices, it’s no wonder people are taking to the streets (or empty lots, as it were) and finding a place to grow not just what they need, but also a little extra to feed their neighbors. It’s good business that’s good for everyone.

The Times article follows a couple who moved from Jamaica to the rough-and-tumble Bronx. They, along with many other city dwellers looking for a way to save money and have a source of fresh produce, turned a once-vacant lot into a verdant, veggie-and-herb supplying plot. The couple now has several gardens around the city, where they grow vegetables and herbs for their family and to sell at market.

This market-garden-in-the-city trend accompanies an upswing in the number of people growing in community gardens, joining CSAs, and just plain gardening in their own backyard.

For more information about starting your own market garden or more about successful urban agriculture, check out:

• Growing for Market – News and advice for market gardeners. Currently, you receive the special edition “Extending the Season” with your subscription.
• Path to Freedom – Urban agriculture at its best, Path to Freedom is a family-operated urban homestead that offers outreach programs and resources, along with a row-by-row account of life on the urban farm in their blog.