Thursday Techniques: Gardening on a Budget

Written by Heleigh Bostwick    Thursday, 06 May 2010

1. Buy plants at the annual plant sales held by many arboretums, horticulture societies, and local garden clubs. 2. Divide and conquer by asking fellow gardeners to swap plants with you. 3. Eco-friendly gardening. Self-sustaining landscapes using native plants will save you money in the long run. 4. Buy gardening tools at yard sales and sharpen them at home. Click here to see how. 5. Plan ahead and buy late in the season (especially trees and shrubs) or off-season (hardscape materials). 6. If you don't make your own compost, many municipalities provide it for free or low cost. 7. Buy smaller sized plants. They will thrive under your loving care. 8. Expensive is not necessarily better. Cheaper plants will do fine as long as they are healthy. After all, plants are programmed to survive. 9. Save seeds to plant the following year. And, if you see a plant you would love to have try to get a few seeds from it to plant in your own garden. 10. Buyer fewer plants rather than more, especially when it comes to vegetable plants like tomatoes, squash, and peppers, which almost always produce copious amounts of vegetables.