Save Money Gardening

I love to garden, but if you are not careful, it can get expensive quickly. Here are some things I have done over the years to cut down on the cost.

Flower Pots

I have picked up flower pots put by the curb for trash, posted for free on the classified apps, and bought them at the store. I buy pots that are not fancy but sturdy. I like buying nursery pots if you can find them as they are very sturdy and will hold up a long time.

Seed Starting Pots

You can start seeds in big pots but the problem is that sometimes they don't all come up. I prefer to start most seeds in starter pots so I can plant extra knowing they might not all come up and then plant the strongest ones that do. I like to reuse small succulent pots for starter pots. They are the perfect size, free with purchase, and can be used over and over again.

Keep the pots your plants come in

Sometimes they are pretty and are obvious to keep, but a lot of times they are just cheap black thin plastic pots. Even those can be very useful for seed starting plants or to grow things that can easily take over the pot. I used some tin can sized thin plastic pots to let my strawberry "baby" plants grow in over winter. In the spring, I had to cut the pots from around them to free the roots. No nice pots lost and I had several very healthy strawberry plants! I have also used the thin pots to temporarily grow tomato plants that are between seed pots and bigger pots.

Get the most out of your tomato plants

If you are going to grow tomato plants, make sure you get your money's worth! There are so many ways to get more out of a tomato plant. For starters, if you are buying a tomato start from the store, look for a pot with more than one plant growing in it. You will get two for the price of one and tomato plants are very hearty so it's not likely you'll kill them buy pulling the roots apart. Also, speaking of roots, they are incredibly easy to root. You can break off one of the "mini plants" (for lack of a better term) growing from one of the leaf joints and just stick it in dirt. I'm not even kidding! It will take root and grow a whole other tomato plant. The best way to get a big tomato plant is to start it in a small pot. Each time it's double as tall as the pot, move it to a bigger pot. You do this buy breaking off anything growing on the lower half of the plant and burying that in deeper dirt. All the hairy like fibers growing on the stem will produce more roots. I keep doing this until I have them in a 5 gallon pot and then I just let them grow. Eventually you will have a big tomato plant with big strong roots.

Save Your Dirt

I cannot for the life of me figure out why anyone would throw away dirt. Please, keep using it for something! I mark the pots at the end of the year that have organic soil, so I can tell them apart from the cheaper potting soil that I just grow flowers in. I just mix in some plant food in the spring and plant food plants in the same dirt again. There is nothing wrong with the potting soil, just add plant food in it. If you end up with an entire ant colony living in it, which has happened to us before, dump it out in the yard and they should move on somewhere else. Then you can scoop it back up in a week or so and keep planting in it. At the very least you can just dump dirt out in your yard to fill in around tree roots or other holes in your yard. 

Get a Small Plant Start

I buy the smallest plants I can find if I'm buying plants starts. Plants will naturally grow pretty quickly. Depending on the plant, buying a bigger one might only short cut a few weeks or months of time. It just depends on if that time saving is worth it to you. The smallest tomato plant start will be as big as the biggest one in just a few weeks. A 1' rose bush will be 3' tall in two years. A succulent will get much bigger in just a few months. And if you protect it from freezing, it will keep growing for years, and even give you lots of baby plants!

Get Cheap Seeds

I like to buy seeds from a variety of places. I have bought seeds from GardenEazy on Etsy for 77 cents! I have never had a problem with germination either. I would highly encourage you to start with them.

Another great affordable place to get seeds from is MIgardner. Most seed packets are $2 and again I have never had a germination problem with the seeds from this company.

I have also bought quite a few seeds from Baker Creek Seed Company. Their seeds are not the cheapest, usually $3-$6, but that is still much cheaper than buying all the produce from the store that you would get from that plant. Plus they have free shipping! Definitely no germination problems. So if you can't find the seeds you are looking for at the other companies mentioned, I would definitely check them out.

I live in zone 9 in Texas so I like to buy seeds from San Diego Seed Company since their seeds are grown in a similar climate as mine. Their seeds are about $4-$6 a packet. Their seeds germinate great as well!

I also do other random things to save money like...

Be choosy of what I plant. I only plant things I KNOW my family will eat raw (except for beans I can dry) because I might not get around to cooking it before it goes bad. 

I grow some things in old yogurt or cottage cheese tubs (the big ones) that we've drilled small holes into. 

I actually make some of my own compost to offset the cost of organic potting soil. Maybe I'll blog about that sometime.

I save seeds from the plants I grow when I can. 

I re-use tomato cages, plant stakes, and plant markers.

I hope some of these things helped you! Let me know things you do to save money gardening! Happy gardening!