5 Budget-Conscious Ways to Build and Maintain the Garden of Your Dreams
You can’t build a garden overnight. If you’re looking for budget-conscious ways to build a garden, you’ll need to be innovative and very patient. From choosing the right plants and planning the right design, to knowing how to maintain your garden, you don’t need a fortune. In the beginning, you’ll learn the common mistakes that most inexperienced gardeners make when they’re designing their garden from the ground up. Here are 5 ways to keep the cost of building your garden down without affecting the final outcome.
#1: Choose an Area Where There is Room to Expand Over Time
If your goal is to have a vibrant and complete garden in a few days or a few weeks, you’re going to need to spend money. If you want a budget-friendly garden, you can add new features to the garden every season. Start out small, and choose an area where you can feature a small garden that’ll grow into a larger one. One way to save money is to make your own compost out of your table scraps so that you don’t have to buy expensive fertilizer that might not even be as effective.
#2: Try and Get Plants for Free
One thing you’ll notice is that plants that are already grown in the store are expensive. If your friends have plants they don’t have room for, or you have plants your children started to grow in third grade, use these plants to your benefit. You may even be able to ask your friends for seeds so that you can start to grow the plants in your home during any season.
#3: Use Spare Hardscaping Materials to Add Structure to Your Garden
A garden isn’t just landscaping, it’s also hardscaping. When you’re planning on building a garden, you’ll need to envision what you want your garden to look like. You don’t have to pour cement to create structure. If you have spare bricks, rocks, wood, or blocks, you can add character and structure to your garden on a budget. Just make sure to make room for a professional exterminator like Oakland Pest Control to terminate pests so you won’t have to worry about them destroying all your hard work later on.
#4: Buy Seeds Instead of Plants
You can buy seed packets for just a few dollars. These seedlings are just baby plants that need water and care to grow. Buy seeds whenever possible and save money. Seeds are easier to maintain as well; perhaps you want to buy tomato plants but it’s winter time–just buy the seeds and save them for later!
#5: Learn How to Grow Clippings
Did you know that you can take clippings from some plants, plant them, and they will reproduce and grow? Learn which plants are capable of doing this, and you can save a fortune on expanding your garden. You can even ask family and friends for “starts” from their own gardens, which will be free, and can add to your garden later on.
Don’t spend hundreds or thousands of dollars building and maintaining your garden. Start off with scraps, select the right plants, and don’t forget that patience is a virtue.