5 Ways to Garden for Cheap

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I don’t know about where you live but it is finally getting warm enough here to start thinking about planting our garden. We don’t have a large garden but it’s big enough for us. I actually don’t even enjoy gardening. It’s my husband’s thing. Weeding and planting have a way of making me angry. I’m fine with watering, pruning, picking, canning, and freezing but weeding and planting irritate me to no end.

I’m sure you already know that gardening can save you money on vegetables. That’s pretty much why I go through the effort of weeding and planting when my husband doesn’t have the time to get to it. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. You can spend a lot of money on plants, fertilizer, tools, random paraphernalia, etc. The expenses can really add up in a hurry! To help you keep gardening frugal, here are five ways to garden for cheap and save money.

Plant Seeds

We used to buy seedlings or small plants. I still do that for things we only want one of, like peppers. Peas and green beans we have always generally planted by seed. Last year and this year have been the first years I have tried starting tomatoes from seed. Last year was a bit of a struggle. This year, so far, things are going okay. Just do your research and learn how to start whatever type of plant you want to start from seed.

Source local fertilizer

Sure, you can get bags of dehydrated cow manure. Or you could just find a local farmer. We used to raise pigs. While pig manure isn’t as good as cow manure, it still does the job. And it was free. I know people who use seafood fertilizer they are able to get cheap. Check around where you live to see if you can get free or cheap fertilizer. As far as plant food, we have used the same tub of plant food for 3 years now. It can last a long time, depending on the size of your garden and how often you use it.

Get a rain barrel

This is one that I haven’t done yet but want to. We have a well so we don’t pay for water but we do have to pay the electricity to run the well pump. We also have a whole house filter. I’d like to have a bypass for the hose but we do not yet. We use a lot more filters in the summer when we use the hose to water the garden. I’d love to have a rain barrel to help harness that free resource.

Use home remedies

Just like we use home remedies to heal any number of illness, etc. with ourselves, you can do the same with your garden. There are lots of ways you can use household items to stop blight or garden pests. Not only is it often much cheaper to make your own garden treatments/pesticides, they are much safer as you aren’t using harsh chemicals. When you need to fix something with your plants, do a Google or Pinterest search to find different natural methods.

Use what you have

You don’t have to have fancy things for your climbing vegetables to climb. For our peas, we use leftover chicken wire from when built the hen house. Our green beans climb a trellis made from old metal wire fencing held up with metal bars used in horse jumps. Both of which we got for free from friends who were getting rid of those things. If you don’t have those things, you can even use your old Christmas tree for your green beans to climb. Or you can use cut up tree limbs as fence posts to attach chicken wire/animal fencing to for your lighter weight climbing vegetables.

 

Gardening really doesn’t have to cost you a lot of money. In fact, it is one of the best ways to help stretch your budget. These five tips will let you garden for cheap in no time! How do you keep gardening expenses down?