13 Low-Cost Gardening Tips: Successful Gardening on A Budget

Have you wanted to try your hand at gardening, but don’t want to take on another expensive hobby? Or are you struggling to keep up with the costs of your current garden? I am here to help!

I would love to share with you some of my low-cost gardening tips and tricks that I utilize to help save some money on gardening.

Save Your Seeds

After the last 5 years of gardening regularly, I am finally at a point where I am saving my seeds from some of my best produce of the year. I never really thought much about saving them for the next year, but I feel like it’s even more of a gardening flex to, not only grow plants from seed but, from seeds that you harvested as well!

Keep in mind that not every plant seed is equal. Stick with heirloom varieties for seed saving, as that will ensure that you get the type of plant you want. Hybrid varieties can be hit or miss on what grows from the seed since hybrids are a mix of two different plants.

There are different ways to save, dry, and store different types of seeds so do a little research to find the best method for you. I have recently tried the fermentation method on some of my tomato seeds and I liked it.

Plant Propagation

I am a complete newbie to house plants, but I got some from an AMAZING family member and have fallen in love with them. So I have been learning everything I can about caring for them and propagating them. I was lucky enough to receive a beautiful snake plant and was able to separate 5 “babies” from the main plant. Now I have them all in their own planters where they will grow and make their own little “babies” that I can repeat the process with.

It has been a super fun new hobby to learn about and there are so many different types of plants that you can propagate. You don’t even need an actual plant to get started. You can just get a cutting of a plant and start your journey there.

But plant propagation isn’t only for houseplants. There are some vegetables and herbs that can be grown from just cuttings. I haven’t dabbled much in this, but I plan to in the upcoming growing season.

There is a long list of other plants including trees, hedge plants, and vines that can be easily propagated!

Grow From Scraps

Another type of propagation I have fallen in love with is trying to regrow from kitchen scraps. We have had a lot of fun experimenting with this as a family. It’s super simple and saves more stuff from going into your trashcan.

Things like lettuce, green onions, celery, and root vegetables are just a few that can be regrown using the scraps. There are also plenty of items that you can save seeds from to grow, as well. We’ve personally grown starfruit, lemon trees, and a few avocado trees from seed.

This spring I planted about 15 green onion bulbs that were kitchen scraps. They regrow very easily and fast. We had a pretty endless supply of them all summer. I even had enough extra to dry and turn into a powder that we put on our eggs at breakfast. It’s AMAZING!

Compost

Utilizing compost is one of my favorite ways to enhance my garden plants, while never having to spend a dime. Everything that goes into our bin is absolutely free. Kitchen scraps, plant debris, and dried leaves make up the bulk of our compost bin right now.

We did initially purchase a bin, but you don’t necessarily have to. It was the best option for us since we currently rent our property and are short on outdoor space. If this is something you are interested in, make sure you do some research on the best method for your situation.

Utilizing compost enhances your plant’s health, life span, and disease resistance, so it can make a huge difference in your garden.

Reuse Soil

Since we have only been using containers for our backyard garden, I usually just purchase new soil every year. But that gets costly. So this year, I decided to reuse some of the soil we had used last year and dumped it at the end of the season.

If you choose to do this, you will have to add amendments to the soil to help replenish the nutrients in it. I do this by mixing in dried leaves and compost. The dried leaves will continue to break down and slowly release nutrients back into the soil over time.

You can purchase soil amendments as well if you want to spend a little for this step. Just read up on what would be best suited for your planting needs.

Save Water

Setting up a rain barrel or two can be a huge money saver for the garden! Even using water from your cooking can help as well.

If you’re going to use water from cooking, just make sure it hasn’t been salted or seasoned first.

Buy Supplies Out of Season/Sale

I prefer to do most of my shopping during end-of-season sales. You just can’t beat the super cheap prices. It’s a great time to replace some old equipment that may be getting worn out or grab some things for next season!

Check your local store’s ads for upcoming sales as well. I know our local nursery here always has awesome sales going on.

Participate in Local Plant Swaps

Depending on your area, you may be able to find some local plant or seed swaps to participate in. These are a great way to diversify what you grow. I actually found a little table set up at our local Nature center for one. So cool to know that when I have something to swap there is a place close by I can utilize.

If you can’t find something local, there are tons of Facebook groups out there that do these. Just watch out for scammers.

Grow Perennials

Perennial plants come back year after year, so these are a great way to stretch out your money. You usually just plant them once and they die back in the colder seasons to regrow the following spring.

There are many options for these depending on your needs. You can choose from a variety of flowers, herbs, and even some vegetables. Make sure you research your area’s hardiness zone as well so you know what will be a good fit for you.

Use What you Have on Hand

Another passion of mine is DIY. So of course, there’s going to be some DIY happening in the garden. This is a great chance to get creative and an opportunity to recycle. It’s a win-win.

We save all of our glass jars a lot of the plastic ones to reuse for plants. Small glass jars make great little containers for plant cutting! And really, anything can be a planter if you want it bad enough!!

Saving different types of items from around the kitchen can also be a good practice in recycling for the whole family! I know Barrett gets very enthusiastic about saving our fruit containers for seed starting in the spring!

You can repurpose just about anything with a little imagination.

DIY Structures with Natural Materials

Making funny-looking trellises for my plants is pretty much a hobby of mine at this point. My boyfriend always makes fun of them. But they hold up and serve their purpose, so I will just continue making them.

You can easily use sticks and twine to make a quick trellis, like I do, or even a simple teepee-type structure to allow your plants to climb. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy.

You can also do things in your garden like plant sunflowers with your cucumbers and let the cucumbers climb on up the sunflower stalks. We did this last year and it was beautiful to look at. Make sure you give the plants lots of space for pollination and airflow.

Thank you friends for taking the time to read through this post! I hope you found some helpful low-cost Gardening tips here that you can incorporate into your gardening on a budget journey! If you haven’t already, take a look at my post about my Backyard Family Garden for more information on how I do things in my garden.

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