16 Free (or Cheap) Things for Your Garden

When we moved into our house 10 years ago, we knew that it had great potential. However, we also knew that we had a LONG way to go before it would be exactly what we wanted.

Not only were we going to need renovations inside, we were also going to have to do a serious makeover on the "landscaping."

Did you notice that I put landscaping in quotation marks? Well, there's a reason for that. When we first bought this house, we had some foundation shrubs (many were alive and seriously overgrown, but some were dying) and an abundance of trees and daffodils.

Do you see what is decidedly missing from these photos? That's right! Lush, green grass! And let me tell you, we spent quite a bit of time and effort just trying to grow grass for our yard. The backyard was a muddy mess if it rained, so we had to make that our first priority.

But now, we've moved on actual landscaping! Because we have so much area to cover in front, back, and side yards, we are taking on this task a little at a time.

With such a large, blank slate to work with, affordable DIY tips for gardening really come in handy. Here are a few tricks I've learned for updating your landscaping on a budget.

16 Ways to Get Free (or Cheap) Stuff for Your Garden

1. Compost is something that every yard can benefit from, and the best part is that you use things like lawn clippings, leaves, banana peels, coffee grounds, and vegetable scraps to build it. 

We don't even have a fancy container for ours. We drilled holes in the sides of three plastic garbage cans that came with the house. We use them for compost that is freshly started, compost that has "cooked" a little bit, and finished compost.

via Robin Clugston

2. If you need a jump start on your compost, consider visiting your local Starbucks. They package and giveaway used coffee grounds for free. While you might not want to put too much coffee in your compost, this is the perfect way to acquire this compost ingredient for free (especially if you don't drink a lot of coffee).

3. Seeds are easy to collect from certain plants (and even organic vegetables). I've had success with collecting and drying marigold seeds, zinnia seeds, and gaillardia. So, every time I plant a new plant now, I wonder if it will be a good candidate for collecting seeds to use the next season! Not only do you get free seeds for your garden, but collecting seeds is a fun project to do with the kiddos.

4. If you want to start your seeds indoors, look no farther than your recycling bin for seed starting containers! Rather than tossing yogurt containers, applesauce cups, or K-Cups, wash them and set them aside for seed planting time. You can recycle them after you've planted the seedlings  in your garden.

5. If you're starting a whole new garden bed, you might also want to save cardboard and grass clippings. We started a new bed in our backyard last fall, and we simply saved enough cardboard to cover the grassy area that was currently there. We laid the cardboard out in a double layer and then covered the entire area with about 12" of lawn clippings. 

Because we did this in the fall, the lawn clippings contained both grass and leaves. If you let this set until the following spring, not only will you have a brand new bed, but the grass (and any weeds) will be gone and you'll have much improved garden soil in that area.

6. What do you REALLY want when you start out, though? Free plants for your garden! You can divide many existing plants and replant them around your yard. Those daffodils that were the only flowers in our yard when we bought our home? They've been divided and replanted around the front and back yards. Next they'll be making an appearance in our side yard.  

Iris are another excellent candidate for dividing. At this point, the iris in my yard (that I brought from our previous home -  just 10 rhizomes!) have been divided and replanted all around my yard and shared with Daddy, Harris Sisters Deanna and Misty, my sister-in-law, and my mother in law. It's the Sisterhood of the Travelling Iris! 

This is our 2012 Easter photo, and as you can see, those 10 rhizomes that I brought to this house with the move had already multiplied by then.

7. Other plants are easy to propagate, which makes this the perfect experiment for the beginning gardener. Plants like roses, hydrangeas, camellias, azaleas, and succulents root well from cuttings. So, if you have a plant that you like and you'd like more of the same for other parts of your yard, this is a good way to get those plants for free.

8. Some fruits, vegetables, and herbs are easy to root from scraps. Green onions, celery, and pineapple are ones that I have personally grown in my kitchen windowsill from scraps. Others that are easy to root in water are lettuce, avocados, potatoes, garlic, cilantro, basil, and ginger. Not only is this a cheap way to get a start on your vegetable garden, it's also a fun little science project to do with the kiddos.

via Top 10 Home Remedies

9. Once you've planted your new seeds and clippings, you should mark your new plants so that they don't accidentally get pulled with actual weeds. Cough . . . .Ryan Walkush . . . cough, cough.

One of the cheapest ways I've found to make plant markers is to buy a big pack of clear plastic forks and write the plants' names on them with a Sharpie permanent marker.

You can stick the fork tines directly in the soil next to your plant, and because the forks are clear, they blend into the landscaping and aren't noticeable unless you are right next to them. Here are a few plant markers beside some newly planted Solomon's seal and hellebore.

10. You'll also need to mulch your new plants to help them retain moisture and to help control weeds. Check with your local Public Works Department and see if they offer free mulch. Our Public Works Department offers free mulch as long as you pick it up with your own truck and cover it with a tarp upon leaving.

11. We mulch in the springtime, but in the fall we use leaves as mulch. Remember all those trees that were on our property when we bought it? Well, they turned out to be very beneficial for our garden in the fall. If you have enough trees on your property, it is easy to blow the leaves into the natural areas to provide an added layer of free mulch for the winter.

12. You can reuse cooking water to water your garden. Instead of pouring it down the drain when your meal is cooked, just let it cool on the back of your stove, and then use it to water your plants. Once you've cooked vegetables or pasta in the water, the water contains additional nutrients. Just make sure you don't use any water that you've added salt to!

13. To save on watering your plants altogether, you can easily choose drought tolerant plants for your zone. Unless you live in a particularly rainy area, planting drought tolerant plants can save you the time, effort, and money associated with watering during dry times. Plants like sedum, yarrow, gaillardia, Russian sage, lavender, lamb's ear, and purple coneflower grow well even with a lack of water.

14. To make sure your plants come back year after year, choose perennials rather than annuals. Yes, annuals make a pretty splash of color in your yard, but after all that work planting them, you'll just have to buy and plant them again next year. 

If some of your favorites plants are annuals, save them for your potted plants, and make sure that the plants you put in your garden are perennial.

If you research the bloom time of the plants you want and plant a variety that bloom in different seasons, your garden will be colorful right up until winter. Some examples of easy-to-grow perennials that are colorful (just like annuals) are phlox, asters, astilbe, peonies, iris, daffodils, black-eyed susan, hibiscus, and daylilies. Make sure to check out what will work in your zone and growing conditions.

15. Don't overlook buying plants and bulbs at places other than garden centers. For example, our local Aldi starts selling garden items (including plants) around March. Last year I bought a bag of gigantic allium bulbs that were as large as my hand. These bulbs are selling at online retailers for as much as $11 per bulb, and Aldi had the same ones for $5 for a package of 3 bulbs.

16. For even cheaper plants, wait until after a holiday to purchase them. For example, the nicely potted Easter lilies, hyacinths, and tulips that are often on sale to give as gifts around Easter, will go on sale for 50% off the day after. 

You can plant these bulbs directly in your garden and they will bloom for you again for years to come. This is one group of hyacinths that I planted last year from an Easter pot. I've planted six more groups this year so that these won't be lonely.

Bonus Tips

17. If you are really starting from scratch and you don't have any plants to separate, make cuttings, or take seeds from, reach out to your family, friends, and neighbors. When they are separating their plants, I'm sure they'd be happy for you to come over and help dig some up. That's less work for them!

My side yard is planted with ferns and poppies from my mother-in-law. And just this past week the boys and I went over to a neighbor's house to dig up some plants that she wanted to thin out. We left with two large boxes full of Solomon's seal, blue flag iris, columbine, hellebore, sedum, and money plant.

This is a great way to start off our spring planting all for about 1 hour of our time!

 

18. If you are new to your neighborhood and haven't met too many of your neighbors yet, contact your HOA or your local government to see if there's a neighborhood garden club or a community garden club that you can join. 

Many garden clubs will exchange free information (which will be helpful to learn about growing conditions in a new area). And many times, they'll host seed and plant exchanges, which is a great way to try new plants in your garden for free.

Hope these tips about how to improve your garden for free or cheap will help you this spring. Happy gardening!

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