The other night I was sitting with my Mom having a nice chat
and talking about the yard, gardening, landscape and general backyard and curb
appeal. We were also lamenting over the
cost involved in getting all those beautiful flats of flowers and veggies and
the vast array of all things beautiful – not to even begin to think about the
costs of water features like fountains and little fish ponds! Seriously, you could just about spend your
mortgage in outside features, and being one who loves being outdoors as much as
possible, the temptation for discontent when I look out my back door grows
faster and stronger than poison ivy and leaves my spirit itching for more. Not a good thing.
In keeping with yesterday’s post on herb gardening, I
thought I’d continue the theme this Frugal Friday and provide you with some economical
resources as you begin this season’s landscaping and backyard agricultural
endeavors!
First, be sure to get together with your friends and see
what plants and seedlings you might be able to trade from what you already have
in your gardens. See what your local
garden centers have, especially in their clearance areas – once the season is
in full bloom (yes, pun intended) you may be able to get some REAL
bargains. Think of it as day-old bread,
only day-old blossoms that might need a little TLC (and a lot of MiracleGrow).
My number one penny-polishing tip is to buy perennials
whenever possible. While it’s nice to
splash some color around with annuals during the summer months, using plants
that come up year-after-year makes a LOT more $ent$! Spring flower bulbs can often be purchased in
the summer at a discounted rate, and they will multiply and spread. You can also hunt around in your local dollar
store of choice for seed packs.
Here are a few sites I found, but scout around in Google as
well:
Penniless Parenting – Frugal Gardening
8 Tips for Frugal Gardening From an Old Pro (very sweet)
The Shoestring Gardener (ebook review)
A Frugal Gardening Forum
The Micro Gardener
Frugal Gardening 101
And if you type in “frugal gardening “ on Pinterest there’s
tons of ideas – try this link, if it doesn’t work just type it in:
I particularly liked using the Christmas rope
lights to make a heat mat for starting seeds!!
I have some old rope lights somewhere in the basement and now there’s a
reason to root them out and use them.
Please be sure to email me or comment here are your own ideas for saving money in the garden and yard! Share your frugal wealth with the group!!!
In the meantime as I build my dream yard one plant at a
time, I think I’ll try to be happy with admiring all the Pinterest images and
water my creativity with MiracleGrow in the hopes that I can magically figure
out how to design and build all those ideas for outdoor change with nothing
more than spare change!!!
Have a blessed weekend!
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