How to Start a Garden on a Low Budget

Do you want to start a garden but not spend a lot of money? Start with what you have at hand. If you have a lot of only one or two different kinds of plants, check Craigslist for people in your area who want to trade plants. Neighbors may also be willing to barter with you. Trading is a good way to multiply the variety of plants you have if you are on a low budget or even if you just want to diversify your garden.

Lillies

When you move into your new home or apartment, you may find you have plants in your yards that aren’t growing properly. For example, if you have whispy grass-like lillies in the shade that don’t bloom, you can dig them up and move them to more sunny areas. Lillies like full to partial sun but often flower best in full sun. Additionally, lillies can easily be divided and planted in multiple locations. Just split apart the roots with a shovel and plant where desired. Don’t worry if you accidentally chop off the top of the plant or even a few roots; plants will come up again the next year.

Irises

You may also find irises that aren’t blooming in your yard. Irises need full sun so if they are planted in the shade, that may be the reason why they aren’t blooming. However, another reason could be that they are planted too deeply. Iris roots prefer to be only a few inches below the surface.

Reusing what others don’t want

On walks around the neighborhood, look for plants thrown out at the curb. Irises and lillies need to be thinned so if you don’t have any, there’s a good chance you’ll find some that neighbors have discarded because they had too many. Yucca, raspberries and hostas are also plants that are commonly tossed into the ditch when people want to get rid of them. These could be the starter plants for your garden.

Using Seeds

Seeds are also a good way to save money. Wildflower seeds, morning glories, and cosmos seeds are tough varieties that are easy to grow, though they do require good soil. After you plant wildflower seed, make sure you don’t weed, unless you know for sure you are pulling up grass or another weed. Many of the wildflowers appear weedlike until they bloom. Perenniel wildflower or Cottage Garden Wild Flower mix are excellent options.

Buy One Plant; Divide it

If you can only afford to buy one or two plants, buy plants that you can split in half with the shovel and plant in multiple locations in your yard. That way, you’re increasing the value of the plants purchased. You may choose to buy a large hosta, lily or iris plant. You can use a shovel to split these plants into thirds and even fourths. To do this, remove the plant from the pot. Use your shovel to slice down the middle and then if the plant is big enough, divide each half one more time. After a year or two, you can slice pieces off of the hostas you’ve planted and continue to spread the wealth. Whenever you divide a plant, make sure you get a piece of the root.

Plant Sales/Bareroot plants

Inexpensive plants can also be purchased at end of the year sales or online from places such as Gurneys and Michigan Bulb Company that sell bareroot plants and bulbs. Buying bareroot plants is a lot cheaper than purchasing plants from local nurseries. These two companies also have excellent replacement policies. For example, if you purchase a shade garden, which is a variety of shade loving plants, and one of the plants dies, they send you the whole shade garden again.

Additional Resources

Consider what else you have in your yard that you can use as a resource. You may have an abundance of rocks, or violets that grow naturally. Use these to your advantage. It’s also typically cheaper to buy loam in bulk rather than buying it by the bag. If you can’t afford loam and you have poor soil, you may want to consider starting a compost pile.

Use dirt that you can’t garden with as filler to build up low areas or help create raised beds. . For example, if you need to dig large trenches to plant asparagus, pile the extra dirt in a long line along your patio steps and then just mix some good dirt or rotted oak leaves in with it. This way, you don’t have to haul and discard the dirt that you didn’t use. In your new raised bed, you can plant strawberries, alliums, or other perrienls or annuals.

If your budget doesn’t allow you to purchase loam, you might want to think about starting a compost pile. Dumping vegetable leftovers and peelings in an area in your yard can help to really build up good dirt. Depending on where you live you may need to compost in an enclosed bin. If you have a large yard without a lot of wild animals around, you can get away with open composting. If you live in an area with a lot of racoons, you may want to make a compost bin. There are additives that you can purchase from places like Garden’s Alive to reduce the smell of bin composting. If you’d rather go with loam, it costs $22 per yard at Tri-Town in Avon, MA. The compost mix is $26 per yard. Prices are probably similar at some of your local landscaping companies. One yard of loam and one yard of compost goes a long way.

Never let money be an obstacle to getting started on things that you want to do. If you are creative, you can find ways to use what you have to get started. Gradually as you are able to, you can add plants or buy plants when your budget allows you to do so. There are always the neat surprises too, plants that seem to just appear. Most likely the plant came via bird who brought the seed and happened to drop it in your yard.

Additionally there may be the unidentified plants that you have a feeling you just shouldn’t pull up. If you have that instinct, leave the plant alone; it may bloom later. With a little care, plants like wild roses, can also be lovely. While they look scrubby at first, with a little pruning and spraying, they can be lovely additions to your garden.