Cheap Gardening: Successful Even With A Small Budget

Last updated on October 23rd, 2023 at 08:30 pm

A beautiful garden takes effort and often costs a lot of money. But clever gardeners know how to replace fertilizer or obtain flower bulbs cheaply, for example. Splendid flowers, delicious vegetables – that works even without a lavish budget for your own garden. These ten tips will help you garden and save money.

The most important facts at a glance

Savings potential is in the details and has a lot to do with recycling. If you garden sustainably, you save money.

Nature has a lot to offer, and it’s free.
When making purchases such as tools, it makes sense to buy good quality. After all, high-quality tools last a long time and pay for themselves over the years.

Labor input lowers costs in many cases. For example, consistently collecting rainwater can save you expensive tap water.

Collected kitchen and garden waste becomes compost and eliminates the need to buy a product from the gardening store.

Tip 1: Eyes open when choosing a location.

Gardens combine different locations within their boundaries. Some spots are sunnier than others, the soil is poorer in nutrients here than there. To ensure that all plants thrive, the right choice of perennials, shrubs and all other plants is essential. Favorable gardening means above all also to clarify the location question: The better the plant selection fits the particular site, the higher the chance of lush and healthy growth and fewer pests. The right plant selection minimizes follow-up costs, because you don’t have to do more maintenance than necessary.

Tip
Think seasonally
Buy plants in season. Then the supply is large and the prices moderate. Buying bare-root plants also brings additional savings potential.

Tip 2: Encourage beneficial insects

Sometimes the splendor in the garden is threatened by pests. Many garden lovers resort to plant protection products from the specialist trade, which not only costs money, but is also critical in terms of the environment. Instead, it is advisable to get help directly from nature. Encourage beneficial insects in the garden and pests will have a harder time.

Insect hotels, water bowls, nesting boxes or plants that are particularly insect- and bee-friendly are all inexpensive ways to create a species-appropriate environment for beneficial organisms in the garden. They use them to attract hedgehogs, ladybugs, birds, lacewings, earwigs and other insects. These eat many pests in the garden and thus contribute to a natural balance completely without pesticides.

3rd tip: Inexpensive gardening with a childlike adventure guarantee

A garden is a great adventure gem for youngsters. Gardening together and the imaginative design of a child-friendly garden with small means is really fun. Here children can give free rein to their creativity and discover nature. Playful variety doesn’t have to be expensive at all. Instead of buying toys, the garden offers all kinds of potential.

For example, old tree trunks can become a climbing paradise for children. A tent made of willow rods, winding paths through dense plantings and hills of earth and massive boulders serve as terrain for children to try out.

tip 4 : Regrowing – collecting cuttings and seeds.

The common way to obtain new plants for your garden is to buy them at a local nursery or perennial plant nursery. However, in many cases you can save the cost by taking action and gardening sustainably yourself.

Regrowing
Have you heard of regrowing? It involves using kitchen scraps to grow new plants from. You can root and sprout leftovers from onions, potatoes, cabbage, leeks or lettuce, for example. In this way, you gain delicious vegetables from supposed scraps.

Cuttings
If you want to propagate shrubs, cuttings are suitable. Flowering shrubs such as forsythia or scented jasmine, colkwitzia and deutzia quickly form roots and can soon be planted.

Division
Perennials are easily propagated by division in early spring or fall. For this purpose, use the most vigorous plants that bloom the most, so that the offspring will also be vigorous. Don’t forget to mark the plants with tags so you can definitely identify them and plant them in the right place.

Seeds
It doesn’t always have to be the expensive seeds from the specialty store. Many flowers or vegetables such as tomatoes or cucumber can be propagated from their own fruiting bodies. To do this, simply collect the seeds, dry them, store them in the dark and plant them in the bed in spring. Numerous perennials and annuals can also be propagated with the help of the self-formed seeds.

Tip 5: Don’t skimp on tools

Many gardening enthusiasts save at the wrong end and buy particularly cheap tools for gardening. However, due to a lack of material quality, they have little pleasure in the long term and have to buy new ones. In many cases, the truism “If you buy cheap, you buy twice is true.” It is sensible, sustainable and less expensive in the long run to invest in high-quality basic equipment and expand the range piece by piece as needed. Watering can, secateurs, spade, digging fork, rake and planting shovel in particular should not be missing in the garden. Also wheelbarrow as well as lawn mower are useful in the vast majority of gardens.

When buying is important ergonomics of a tool. It’s best to try out the tool to make sure you can handle it. Is the weight right? Are the handles, such as on a brushcutter, at the right height? If the tool fits your physical requirements, fatigue-free gardening over a long period of time is guaranteed.

Tip 6: Save on watering and collect rainwater.

A lot of water is needed, especially in the summer months and at planting time. Rainwater helps to save costs. For this, a rain barrel is set up and connected to a downspout. This also works on many a balcony. In addition, it is possible to install a service water connection and charge via a second meter. Then you save the wastewater costs that otherwise automatically accrue on every liter of water tapped in the household. Ask your municipality, because the installation of the connection and the meter are handled individually in the municipalities.

7 tip: own harvest is often cheaper and tastier

More and more often in the garden can be found not only magnificent flowers, but also many varieties of fruits and vegetables. Creating your own vegetable garden is worthwhile, especially with your own seed and offshoot rearing. Fresh fruit and vegetables in conventional and organic quality are becoming increasingly expensive in many places. However, those who embark on the harvesting adventure themselves will be surprised at how inexpensive it can be.

Tomatoes, mini peppers, cucumbers, strawberries, onions, lettuce and herbs – you choose what you plant. Even on small balconies, self-sufficiency is possible, at least in part, with the help of mini raised beds.

8th tip: kitchen waste as fertilizer.

You can regularly leave a lot of money in the garden center. It does not always have to be the expensive fertilizer. Compost your kitchen waste with plant residues such as leaves and prunings from the garden. Mature compost is ideal for enriching the soil with nutrients and improving soil life.

Banana peels provide particularly high levels of potassium and are ideal as a natural fertilizer for roses or flowering perennials. To do this, cut the untreated peels into small pieces and work them into the soil around the plant.
Coffee grounds are known as a fertilizer for blueberries, hydrangeas and rhododendrons. Work the dried coffee grounds into the soil in small amounts on the surface or cover with a layer of mulch.
Potato water without salt is rich in potassium and vitamins. You can use it as watering water for indoor and garden plants.

Tip 9: Allow wild growth

Ornamental lawns require a lot of maintenance, as they need to be mowed, fertilized, de-mossed, scarified and watered. An extensive lawn requires far less maintenance. Can you allow wild growth? Then thin out your lawn and gradually transform it into an area where anything can grow. Bulb flowers also run wild here. Once they have established themselves in the right location, they spread out as if by themselves and delight us with their great blooms. The selection is considerable. Try ray anemone, snowdrops, checkerboard flower, mullein or elf crocus and wait and see how they develop.

10th tip: DIY in the garden too

Gardening without spending a lot of money is also possible with a close look at the kitchen, the garden and the hobby cellar. Repurpose and repurpose are on the agenda:

Instead of expensive flower pots for growing young plants, there are numerous inexpensive alternatives. For example, seedlings can thrive in cleaned cans, milk cartons cut in half, salad bowls or other repurposed packaging with proper care. Be sure to provide good water drainage.
Instead of a brand new climbing aid, in many cases a self-tied framework will do. For example, willow and hazel rods or bamboo are suitable. Long grasses can be used for binding.