(photo credit: The Coupon Project)
I’m so grateful that my friend Angela from The Coupon Project wrote this guest post for me on frugal gardening. I hope to one day have a garden like hers. . .I’m certainly working toward it and her tips are really helpful. . . .
Growing your own produce can be a rewarding experience. With a little creativity and know-how, it can also be a frugal experience. Here are 20 ideas for how to cut costs for your gardening adventures.
1. Use plant starts. Do any of your friends or family garden? Ask if you can snag some plant starts or cuttings. I currently have raspberries and mint growing in my yard taken by uprooting a few smaller plants from my parents’ yard. They are growing beautifully.
2. Have a seed or garden swap. Swap garden seeds among friends, neighbors, or family members. You could additionally expand on this idea, by agreeing to swap garden produce. For instance, you could grow peas and your neighbor could grow beans. Then swap!
3. Try Starbucks for free coffee grounds. Starbucks offers free coffee grounds, which make an excellent fertilizer for your garden! Sometimes, they will set bagged grounds out in a bin in their store. However, you can always give your local Starbucks a call. They usually have some grounds that they can package up for you.
4. Watch the drugstores. Rite Aid has been offering gardening items and decor for 50% off the past several weeks. Walgreens sometimes offers in-store coupons for potting soil and gardening seeds. You could additionally use any UP or Register Rewards to help offset these costs.
5. Repurpose old buckets or containers. If you think gardens are only for those with lots of space, think again! Drill holes in the bottom of buckets, fill with dirt, and you can grow some potatoes! I also recently collected up old plant containers, filled with dirt, and made a small deck container garden for my daughter. She is currently growing strawberries, spinach, and flowers.
6. Swagbucks, anyone? If you don’t already have a free Swagbucks account, I recommend it! You can earn “swag bucks” for performing everyday web searches. These bucks can then be redeemed for items including $5 Amazon gift cards. The Amazon gift cards can be stacked, and they never expire. Last I checked Amazon offers everything from garden seeds, to tools, and even container boxes.
7. Grow greens. Growing lettuces, spinaches, and other greens are extremely easy to do! They require very little dirt or space, and grow pretty quickly. Greens can sometimes be even grown in a sunny window. This can be a fast way to cut costs out of your produce budget as fancy salad mixes can be spendy. I’m currently growing an organic mix of wild lettuces in my garden. I paid $5 total for the seeds, and I plan on snipping organic salad greens all summer long. Imagine the savings over buying from a store!
8. Try Craigslist. I just did a simple search on “free plants” and a whole host of items came up including free and cheap plants, plant swap events, and local plant sales.
9. Find a Community Garden near you. One option that may be worth considering is to rent a plot at a community garden. I did a quick search for Tacoma, and found a website listing the locations and contact information. Several of the plots near me had very reasonable fees, of about $25 or $30 a year. This may be less expensive than other options for starting a garden. Some community gardens also offer plots for kids.
10. Grow food in bags. Some plants are so easy to grow, you can grow them in a bag! Check out how lettuce was grown in a $0.79 reusable grocery bag.
11. Consult with YouTube. Last year was my first real year of growing a bona fide garden. I quickly fell in love with YouTube! I’d search for videos on pruning tomatoes, or planting carrots, or harvesting blueberries, and I always found just what I needed. This may save costs over purchasing books or other resources.
12. Check out your local Farmer’s Market. I’m not sure if this is the case with all farmer’s markets, but the one on Broadway in Tacoma has a booth each week where you can come and ask your gardening related questions to a panel of experts. This is a service that is offered completely free of charge. Even if your market doesn’t have such a booth, I think you’ll find many of the local farmers and vendors are happy to share what they know. It can also be a great place to buy your garden plants.
13. Consider frugal options for pest control. Before you head to the store to buy that slug repellant – wait! – you might want to try egg shells first. Or beer. Not only will these at-home solutions save you money, they may also be less harmful for your garden. My advice? Try the most cost-friendly solution first!
14. Mulch your plants. Mulching helps conserve water, plus it will reduce weeds. One cheap mulching solution? How about all those Sunday newspapers? They make great mulch!
15. Save your seeds to re-plant. If you want to cut down on the cost of next year’s garden, harvest this year’s seeds. Allow them to dry and store them in a cool, dark place until next spring.
16. Harvest rain water. You can collect rain water from your gutters in barrels and reuse it in your garden. Not only will this help to conserve water costs, the natural rain water is a great way to keep your plants healthy.
17. Scout out your local nurseries. My family and I visited a local nursery back in January or February of this year. We were surprised to learn that that is a great time of year to purchase fruit trees, because they are sold bare root. Apparently these trees are later potted in the summer and sold at a higher cost. See what you can learn about what goes on sale, and when at your nursery. Learn if there are any sales, discounts, or clearance events you can take advantage of.
18. Watch the daily deal sites. Groupon recently added a “home and garden” section to their site. This might be good to keep an eye on. I’ve also seen deals for nurseries on occasion.
19. Sign up for seed catalogs. I got on the mailing list for Gardens Alive! last year. This year’s catalog had a “spend $50, save $25” coupon code on it. That’s half off! Not only that, I somehow managed to get my name on several other seed catalogs too, some of which had similar coupon codes. I split up my orders across some of these companies in order to take best advantage of all the discounts!
20. Grow what’s normally most expensive. Last year, I had success growing corn. It was a satisfying feeling. But here’s the problem: corn is abundant. And generally cheap. This year, my strategy is to grow produce I love eat, normally buy, and that is generally more expensive to buy. So I’m opting for lots of organic salad and dark greens, herbs, and berries. I’m also going to try my hand at celery root.
While this list is not exhaustive, I hope it illustrates that there are many, many ways you can creatively save money on growing your own food. Happy gardening!
What other ideas do you have for saving on your gardening efforts?
Last year, Angela and her family ripped up a sizable chunk of their yard to install seven raised bed containers for growing her family’s own food. She blogs about all-things frugal at The Coupon Project, including the progress of her garden. Angela lives in Tacoma with her husband and two kiddos, Keefe and Piper. She thinks you should all be gardening.
sue says
I live in Gig Harbor and its somewhat shady in my yard because of all the trees, but raspberries are taking over. Once they get started you will have tons.
Corynne says
I used to work in a nursery… check the nurseries in March for clearanced bare root fruit trees and roses, they often put them on clearance first before potting them up since it’s less work just to get rid of them. Plus the potted up blueberries and raspberries and a lot of perennials and nursery stock go on clearance around July & August when business slows down and they need to clear stuff out so they don’t have to water as much and to make room for fall color. If a plant doesn’t look great, just check the roots to make sure it’s healthy, then cut it back & plant! (that’s how my mom got a gorgeous $50 tree peony for $2!)
Mandy says
This is an awesome post! I usually buy most of my gardening gear from http://www.gemplers.com/ , but these tips will be great to incorporate into the summer garden I am planning.
Thanks!
Rachel says
This is awesome! Thanks!
Dee Wolters says
If you have questions or need help, try your local University Extension office. They should be listed in the phone book. There are extension agents trained in horticulture for your area who can give advice on fertilizing, pest id and general garden help. And the best part, totally free!!! Their salary is paid by the university and your county. You will probably find the 4-H office there too, check it out. Extension is one of the best kept secrets.