Last Updated on February 14, 2019 by Diane Hoffmaster
If you are looking for easy gardening tips, you need to keep an eye on your budget. Some gardening ideas sound great, but are incredibly expensive. I have been a fan of frugal gardening for years so I decided to share a few easy gardening tips that won’t break the bank!
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Backyard Gardening on a Budget
I have been gardening for many years…ever since my preschooler came home one day with a Lima bean plant that he grew in class that he wanted to put in the ground. Well, the boy is now a teenager who asks for Trinidad Scorpion Peppers at the nursery and I am still outside playing in the dirt!
Backyard gardening is addictive and a great way to feed your family while reducing your carbon footprint. Unfortunately, gardening can also be expensive and I am not made of money! I have learned over the years where to invest my money when it comes to feeding my gardening addiction. Frugal gardening will help you reduce your grocery bill as well as your carbon footprint!
Resources for Frugal Gardening
- Make friends who garden. Try the gardening app GrowIt Mobile. GrowIt!™ lets you Garden Socially, for free. Whether you want to show off your plants, or find something that will work in your garden there’s something for every type of gardener.
- Compost. Invest in a backyard composter. This is a great way to get rid of your kitchen scraps and yard waste. And you never have to buy compost again.
- It’s all about the seeds. Check out Seedsavers.org for information about collecting seeds and using them year after year.
- Don’t get too fancy with your gardening tools. Head over to Local Tools to find people in your area who are sharing tools.
Easy Gardening Tips that Won’t Break the Bank
Whether you are planning a container garden or looking for frugal raised garden beds, saving money when gardening requires some planning. Here are a few easy gardening tips that will keep your garden budget under control.
Choose garden plants wisely:
Look at your garden bed and decide what you want to grow as well as what your family will actually eat. No sense growing eggplant if no one wants to eat it, right? Creating a garden diagram ahead of time will keep you from overbuying when you head to the nursery.
More Gardening Tips to Read
- How to Make Bottle Cap Flowers for Frugal DIY Garden Art
- Organic Gardening with Kids for a Fun and Rewarding Experience!
- How to Grow Your Own Herb Garden
Crowded plants are prone to disease and don’t get enough sun to be as prolific as they should be. And plants that don’t get put into the soil just end up being a waste of money. ‘Don’t buy it if you don’t need it’ is one of those gardening tips to keep in mind all season long!
Consider starting plants from seed:
This is the area that I actually spend most of my money on…I DON’T start from seed. I found that the time involved in seed starting was fairly intense and my yield was fairly low. Your mileage may vary and seeds are MUCH cheaper than plants.
Keep in mind that you cannot save seeds from previous years gardens unless you are buying heirloom, NON hybrid plants. Otherwise, the seeds will not grow to be what their parents were.
Make your own compost:
Composting is honestly the easiest frugal garden tip I can provide. We invested good money in two preformed compost bins and they have saved us a ton of money over the years on compost. We throw all of our kitchen scraps, yard leaves, and an assortment of other things in there and then turn it into the soil when it is completely broken down.
By having two compost bins we can add scraps to one while the other ‘composts’ itself. After we turn the composted one into the soil we start adding food scraps to the now empty bin and let the first one start breaking down. Organic matter from your kitchen is free, unlike compost from the garden center!
Use natural pest control:
There are a lot of ways to control pests in the garden without relying on expensive chemicals. Use salt to deter slugs. Scatter eggshells on the soil under your plant to keep caterpillars away. Use rolls of damp newspaper to create a DIY earwig trap.
Start investigating natural garden pest control before you shell out any money on fancy (and often toxic!) pest control methods. This is one of my easy gardening tips that may keep you healthier as well as richer! Check out my posts on how to attract bats to your yard or attracting backyard birds. Bats and birds are great natural pest control solutions.
Check out garage sales:
You can find a ton of flower pots, gardening tools, wheel barrows, and other assorted garden needs second hand at garage sales. Make sure you wash all garden tools with hot, soapy water before using it in your own garden. Who knows what sort of chemicals or diseases that old trowel could have been exposed to!
If you are looking to save money and have never gardened before…don’t just go to Home Depot and drop a few hundred dollars! Frugal gardening IS possible with a little bit of thought and planning!
Do you have any easy gardening tips to share that save you money?
(post updated and content added from previous publish date)
I failed miserably at starting from seed and also skipped on this one now as well. Love the tips on natural pest control – so simple. I have to give that a try this summer. Thanks for all the tips!
glad you found them helpful. Starting from seed is definitely cheaper but a huge challenge!