What if I tell you that you can have a gorgeous garden without breaking the bank? Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it?
With the gardening tricks I’m going to share in this guide, you’ll be able to plant and maintain a garden without spending much.
Keep reading!
1 – Check the Soil Quality Before Anything Else
When you cultivate your plants in poor soil, they’ll grow unhealthy no matter how much money you spend on them. The result is much less plant production than expected in terms of quality and quantity.
Many gardeners fall into this easily avoidable problem but you shouldn’t. To avoid this issue you must check the quality of your soil before planting.
You can do a quick soil test at home if you have a soil test kit. Alternatively, you can opt for a $20-something soil test at your local cooperative extension office.
After testing the soil, you’ll know what you need to optimize the soil’s quality to produce healthy plants. This means preventing potential waste of money.
2 – Make Your Own Mulch and Compost
You don’t need to purchase pricey pre-made mulch and compost to improve your soil. You can make these products at home at a fraction of the price of the pre-made ones with methods like Bokashi and vermicomposting.
Similarly, if you have trees in your backyard or garden, you’ve got all the materials you need to make some high-quality mulch.
Collect the fallen leaves of these trees in fall, then chop and use them as an organic mulch. The resulting natural material makes excellent mulch for flower gardens or vegetable beds.
3 – Grow Your Crops From Seeds
You definitely know that buying the plant as a seedling costs significantly more than purchasing it as a seed. That’s why I recommend you grow most of your plants from seeds.
This approach can be slow but it’ll save you a pretty penny.
Bonus Tip: Choose fast-growing vegetables such as lettuce, carrots, and radishes to get the most out of this savings hack.
4 – Divide Perennials to Increase Their Numbers
When purchasing perennials from a nursery or garden, divide each plant into two before cultivating them. Each cut will grow into a separate plant, doubling the production at the same cost.
You can divide an herbaceous perennial by cutting the root ball in half using a sharp garden spade, cultivating tiny offsets from the main plant, or pulling the root ball apart.
Choosing the best way to split the plant depends on its nature.
5 – Look for Bare-Root Plants
In the dormant season, you can look for bare-root plants that become widely available. They’re usually sold at a significantly discounted price during that time, making them an exceptional bargain.
You can buy these bare-root perennials, shrubs, and even trees during that season and plant them with some extra care. And in their growth season, they’ll provide a more valuable yield than their initial price and growth costs.
6 – Consider Joining Local Groups
Joining a local gardening group has plenty of benefits, and saving money is one of them. By joining these groups you can swap plants and seeds with other members instead of purchasing them expensively.
These groups also offer plant sales that you can utilize to get young vegetables and perennials for a fraction of their market price.
7 – Transform Toilet Rolls into Plant Pots
Spending a few dollars on some pots might not seem a big deal, but if your garden is spacious, these dollars will add up.
To reduce expenses, you can use toilet rolls as a substitute for seed pots. Saving isn’t the sole benefit of using these items though. These rolls are biodegradable containers, allowing you to cultivate the plants in the ground without removing them from the pot first.
The toilet rolls will gradually break down anyway, so you’ll be able to transplant the plant to the ground while it’s in the pot without disturbing the roots.
8 – Maintain and Clean Your Tools Regularly
Many gardeners overlook maintaining and cleaning their tools, in turn shortening their lifespan, which means they’ll need to replace them regularly.
You can easily avoid these frequent replacement expenses by cleaning and maintaining these tools on the regular.
Final Thoughts
I hope you found the tricks I shared today insightful. If so, please let me know in the comments which one you liked the most. And if you have any cool hacks of your own, make sure to share them in the comments so that other gardeners can benefit from them.
Growing up with a mom who filled her home (inside and out) with all sorts of plants, Lisa got her start in gardening at a young age. Living now on her own with a home and yard full of plants (including an indoor greenhouse), she shares all the gardening tips she’s gained over the years.