10 Creative Ways to Save Home Gardening

When setting up your garden you may have grand ideas of saving money on groceries while eating organic and fresh! Then you start and realize that, especially in the first year or two, the grocery store prices aren't looking so bad. You have to buy tools, soil, raised beds (or material to make them), trellises, and it all takes time!

Don't despair because we have 10 tips to help you save money gardening and a promise that if you stick with it and invest the time and money now, in the years to come it will be worth it. Gardening really can be cheaper and better than shopping at the grocery!

1. Buy Quality

That is actually our first tip, invest now in quality that will last you your life time. If you can, buy quality materials to build your raised beds like the red cedar we use, or just buy quality raised beds. It will cost more upfront but it will last and you won't find yourself spending as much time on repairs or spending more money replacing them multiple times later on. Red cedar is also a natural pest repellant reducing the amount of time you have to spend picking pests off your plants, and save you stress!

2. Grow from Seed

 It can be so tempting to go to a big box store like Lowes and load up on start up plants for your garden. It can feel safer and more efficient, filling your garden as soon as you plant them. Seedlings can be helpful in a pinch but with a little bit of planning you can grow everything you need from 99 cent seed packets. That means each plant cost you a few cents instead of a few dollars and that can add up! Make sure when you are growing from seeds you know which plants you can start inside and transplant and which seeds you need to start in the ground. If you have our calendar then it has a list of transplantable plants and seeds that need to be directly seeded!

3. Plan Ahead

Related to the above point if you take time to plan ahead and keep a gardening journal then you can save a lot of money and time. You can plan which seeds you can start inside and when to start them so they are ready to transplant as soon as it's time. You can also plan how many seeds to buy and start if you already know how many plants you want in the garden. If you want 5 tomato plants then start 10 seeds inside then even if a few fail to germinate (which is not as common as some think) you have back ups. You also know you don't need two bags of tomato seeds. By planning ahead you can grow from seed, not waste money on seeds, and be prepared for things that might go wrong. 

4. Timing is Key

This tip goes hand in hand with Tip 3 about planning, do not waste money by planting at the wrong time. Plant the right plants for the season and if you plant with each season you can get more out of your garden ultimately saving you more! If you plant too early you can loose warm weather plants to a frost, plant a cool weather plant in the summer and you'll have stunted growth and bolting. Our calendar also has a list of cool and warm weather plants so that you don't make this mistake! You can plan all this out in a gardening journal which we highly recommend you keep one even if its just a spiral notebook!

5. Go Pest Picking

If you can, spend time in the garden, not money. That means going on daily scout walks to check for pests and remove them. If you stay on top of pests you can prevent them from injuring your plants and from spreading. You reduce the amount of lost produce that way as well as lost plants. As we discussed in the Vine Borer blog one grub can kill an entire cucurbit. By manually picking and removing the pests you can save money on pesticides or sprays. 

6. Use Trellises

Once again this sounds like more money, but if you invest in a quality trellis at the start you won't need to replace it. You can also make trellises with wood and string but this is a temporary fix. A trellis can save you money by freeing up garden space. If you grow wide spreading plants like tomatoes, squash, and other gourds on a trellis then you free up soil space and you can grow more in a smaller space. this way you can keep a smaller garden, or just grow more in your garden.

7. Save Your Seeds or Propagate 

Seeds are already cheap but you can make it free by saving your seeds year to year. To do this make sure you know about cross pollination we talk a bit about it in our The trouble With Volunteer Tomatoes post. By saving seeds from plants like your green onions you can plant year after year for free. You can also propagate some plants from store bought plants or what is already growing in your garden. Lettuce head from the store for example can be regrown, as well as green onions. You can propagate some plants like tomatoes, when you prune a tomato you can take the branches you cut off and put them in soil and grow a whole new plant!

8. Save Produce

The idea of gardening is to feed yourself from your garden, but what about in winter if you live in a climate that has a cold season. The answer is preserving your harvest. As you garden you sill start to produce in excess with more tomatoes, peppers, and squash then you could possibly eat. You can share those with your community. I know a man who has a cute little free produce stand outside his house that anyone can take from and that is wonderful, but you can also preserve that surplus. Pickling, canning, and freezing can help you eat from your garden all year round. I personally love cutting up squash and freezing it to pull out and add to pasta dishes in the dead of winter. 

9. Reuse, Reduce, Recycle

One of the best ways to save money is to use what you have! If you want to start your seeds inside don't feel like you have to go and get a bunch of those little plastic trays instead save some berry containers, egg cartons, or anything else you can put dirt in and seeds. I personally like berry containers and cardboard egg cartons because they have built in drainage, but if you use something else get a sharp tool and punch holes in the bottom. This can also apply to larger containers, you don't need fancy containers to start a garden you can use old buckets, crates, pallets, tubs, and bins. I know a wonderful gardener who had her family supplied in leafy greens entirely from two blue plastic packing bins. She saved up and ultimately upgraded to some garden beds but it just goes to show you can make all kinds of things work!

10. Join Your Community

Finally we have one of my favorite tips and that is to use your community and help your community in turn. There are tons of ways you can get help from your gardening community, and your community in general so I'll just list a few.

Plant and seed swaps can help you get seedlings for cheap and seeds as well. If you have a package of 50 beans but only want 20 plants you can trade half those bean seeds and get yourself something else!

Getting mulch, this could be for garden paths or for your beds but don't be embarrassed to ask around for leaves, if you don't take them chances are they will just end up on the curb and sent to the yard waste facility. Instead they could be used to overwinter your garden and add nutrients. Free leaves are also perfect for adding carbon to your compost!

Sharing produce, you can reach out to your gardening community to share if you have an abundance of something, and in turn receive from others. Maybe your zucchini had a bad case of vine borers and wilt this year but your tomatoes went crazy. Reach out to your community and see if anyone wants tomatoes and has some zucchini they could share.

As I said there are a bunch of ways to save money buy building a gardening community and reaching out to those around you! So I'll leave this last thought, you can save money by making gardening friends and help them save money in turn plus its just so fun to have a community!