Looking for some gardening ideas to help you keep to your budget? Gardening can either save or cost you a lot of money if you don’t know your way around it. Lucky for you, I’ve got these gardening ideas, tips, and tricks to get you gardening for less and even for free!
Gardening Ideas On A Budget For Smart Homesteaders
Wanting to save money got me to gardening for the first time. Growing our own food to save money was the only thought I was focused on in gardening. Surprisingly, gardening can be costly with all these fancy gardening tools and stuff that goes with it. It was a work in progress and there are helpful ideas available online. Now I know some tips and tricks in gardening where I no longer have to spend much or even spend a dime. Check these gardening ideas which helped me get on gardening with little or no expense!
1. Grow Plant From Seeds
Seedlings cost way more than seeds. Growing fruits and vegetables from seeds are easy, you can do it on your own. You can even grow fruits from seeds of store-bought ones, or better yet, save the seeds of your harvest so won’t have to buy seeds again.
2. Go To A Seed Swap
First of all, you’ve got to have seeds yourself to join a seed swap party, and you can learn how to store seeds here. If you don’t know a place, organize your own. Create a group of fellow gardeners and have your own seed swap party. Who knows, you may even get to share gardening tips while you’re at it.
3. Starting Seeds Using Recyclable Materials
Starting seeds is a gardening activity a gardener should never spend a penny on. Your home is practically a treasure trove of recyclable materials you can use to start seeds in. Take these ideas, for example, on how to germinate seeds in recyclable household stuff like toilet paper rolls, newspaper, and eggshells.
4. Growing Food From Scraps
Growing food from scraps is practically a gardening trend that’s been making the rounds of gardening beginners and expert alike. Although it may seem like a little experiment, you can both save money and your environment this way. Find out what fruits and vegetables you can regrow from scraps here.
5. Forage For Your Gardening Supplies
Some of the most interesting gardens around are gardens of organic and sustainable homesteaders. Somehow, they have been able to use free materials around them for their garden, it’s fantastic! Willow twigs, branch cuttings, and reclaimed wood, surprisingly make a great fence, raised bed, and vine support materials.
Confused on when you should plant a #garden? This should help clear things up: http://t.co/7fmrx6c4co #homesteading pic.twitter.com/PJAEymlpSK
— Homesteading (@HomesteadingUSA) July 18, 2015
6. Design Your Own Garden
Hiring a professional for your garden landscape design can definitely take a huge cut in your budget. So why hire when you can have a front yard landscape or a backyard garden design just as you like it. There are a lot of garden landscaping ideas you can find online and a DIY garden landscape should be easy.
7. Amend Your Soil
A bag of garden soil can be costly, so how much two or three, and your garden will probably need more. Learn how to amend your soil but before you do, learn how to test soil the pioneer way. Understanding the needs of your soil will help you amend soil inexpensively.
8. Improve Your Garden Soil Without Compost
Sometimes, you just need a couple of ingredients to improve your garden soil. Amazingly, the things you need are available right in your kitchen, they mostly end up in the trash bin. You can use eggshells, banana peels, and coffee grounds to add the essential nutrients to prepare an organic garden soil.
9. Make A Kitchen Compost Bin
Your kitchen will probably produce a trash bin full of garbage daily depending on the number of household members. Don’t waste your kitchen trash, but learn how to compost with it even in a small space. It’s so easy to make, all you need to do is follow these instructions to make a kitchen compost.
10. Plant Microgreens
Amazingly, vegetables like cilantro, fennel, sweet onions and broccoli have tasty and nutritious sprouts. They’re a specialty in some restaurants and they can be costly in the market. So why not grow your own supply of fresh microgreens all year round.
11. Try Organic Mulching
Organic garden mulch work perfectly to suppress weeds, retain moisture, and over time serve as plant nutrient. What’s best is that they’re available around you for free in grass clippings, wood chips, and fallen leaves. They make great composting materials too after serving their purpose in the plant bed.
12. Container Gardening With Upcycled Materials
Gardening issues such as limited space, weeds, and pests can be addressed with container gardening. However, fancy planters can be costly and for me, just impractical to use. You can transform old tin buckets, tin cans, even old tires into personalized planters with minimal cost.
13. Propagate Plants From Twigs
Propagating plant from cuttings can be tricky, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll surely save time and money. Growing trees from seeds can take many years. Luckily, you can propagate plant cuttings and enjoy the plants earlier. Find out how to grow trees from twigs here.
14. Manage Garden Pests
Why use chemical fertilizers in your garden when it can be hurtful to both your wallet and your plants? Every homesteader knows homemade organic pesticides and companion planting are the way to go. Find out more about managing common garden pests here naturally and on the budget.
15. Utilize Gray Water
Are you familiar with gray water? You can use this kind of water on some plants and will ultimately help you on saving a couple of bucks on your water bill. Read more about gray water here.
You can also check this video for more low-budget gardening ideas:
Weren’t these practical gardening ideas amazing? Keep you piggy banks untouched with these gardening ideas on a budget.
Which gardening idea are you going to try? Let us know below in the comments!
Want to start homesteading but haven’t got around to doing it? Learn how to start homesteading in this guide.
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This post was originally published in January 2017 and has been updated for quality and relevancy.
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