Gardening

I love to garden. There's nothing quite like the taste of a home-grown tomato or the feeling of serving your family cucumbers, squash or corn from your own garden. But growing a garden doesn't have to cost alot of money.

Here's some ways to save money on your garden:

Think Freecyle. When we needed tomato cages the first year of our garden, we didn't want to buy the cages. So I just posted on our local freecycle group that I needed them. I ended up getting 30 free from a freecycle member who was no longer planning to use them. Cost? FREE

Get free seeds. Red Robin is giving away free tomato seeds here for a limited time.

Swap for tilling. In the early years of gardening, we didn't own a tiller but we needed the garden tilled so we could plant. We arranged for a family member to come till the garden in exchange for supper. Find a local friend who has a garden and see if you can barter for the service. Most gardeners love to spread the love for gardening and would be willing to make an arrangement. Maybe you could babysit their kids one night or "pay" them with your excess toothpaste and shampoo products?

Order a seed catalog...or 2 or 3 I rarely order seeds from catalogs, but sometimes these catalogs come with great coupons the first time you request it.
Free Gardeners Idea Book
Burpee Seed Catalog
Here’s a link with 45 different seed catalogs links.

Start small If you have never had a vegetable garden, don't plan a huge one. Instead, feel free to start with a couple of tomato plants and 1 or 2 other plants.

Participate in a Community/Neighborhood Garden Don't have a community garden in your area? Just find a local neighbor who already has an established garden and ask them if you can be the helper. This is a great way to 'apprentice' yourself to an expert. You will get to enjoy all the benefits and responsibilities but will not have to shoulder it all by yourself the first year. (Of course, you would have to work out the details with the gardener. You would need to do the weeding, planting and maintenance in order to earn the privilige of sharing in the harvest.)

What about you? Do you have ideas on how to save money while growing a vegetable garden? I'd love to hear!

Flower Gardening

When we moved into our house 6 years ago, there were absolutely no flowers in the backyard - none at all!  Now I have a huge butterfly bush, azaleas, coneflowers, lilies of all varieties, columbine, hostas, hibiscus, hydrangeas, the list could go on and on.  Have I spent alot of money on my gardens?  Of course not!  You know me!  So how have I been able to grow such a huge variety of beautiful flowers?

Here's some ways to get your flowers gardens going without spending money:

Start talking to your friends. You probably know at least one person who is passionate about their flowers.  Spend some time looking at their gardens.  Odds are that they would love to share some seeds, bulbs or small starts.  (I've even been known to stop at a yard sale, talk to the person who lives there and walk away with a handful of seeds that they just gave me.  People who love their flowers love to share seeds!!! 

Start digging.  You don't have to plan your first garden.  Just start digging.  You can always change it next year.

Use the soil you have! When we first started flower gardening, people told me that I needed to buy mulch or potting soil.  Big problem with that!  That cost money and couldn't be a first priority.  So we just used the dirt we had when we started digging.  Was it the best soil?  Of course not.  But it was a great place to start.

Don't bother buying edging stone, black landscape cloth or weed kill.  A neighbor told us we could have as many rocks as we wanted from where he was doing some building. These made really unique flower garden edgers.  We just pulled weeds by hand.

Bottom line...... Flower gardening is a joy!  But it doesn't have to require lots of money! 

What about you? How do you save money in your flower gardens? I'd love to hear!