With inflation, the prices for plants can be very not friendly. Sometimes I feel like I almost have a heart attack when I go to nurseries or big box stores. $6 for a small vegetable start? Outrageous! As a millennial just used all the savings to buy a house and still have decades of mortgage, I have tried to be frugal and here I am to share some $$ saving tips for you.
1. Improve your soil quality
Soil is the foundation of any plants. Good soil allows plants to grow faster and healthily. You also can save lots of water as organic-rich loamy soil allows water to penetrate faster. If you have poor hard clay soil, don’t despair – follow these 3 steps to improve than buying bags of soil. (I did buy a bag to start my seeds before the soil got improved. It takes time.)
Just by mulching heavily (>3″), our soil is already so much better in the second year. (pic)
– 2. Plant perennials rather than annuals
- Perennial plants that suit your hardiness zone: come back every year
- Annual plants: die after it blooms or at the frost date
From an investment point of view, perennials are a way to go. I never understand spending hundreds of dollars every spring to buy something that only lasts for a few months… Since perennials grow years after years, they usually develop deeper roots – which make them resistant to drought better.
*Some annual plants can be self-seeded and come back every year.
3. Divide/propagate plants from your friends or neighbors
Lots of perennials can be divided by shovel when they get big: catmint, lavender, Russian sage, yarrow, Jupiter’s beard (valerian), blue fescue grass, berries… Bulb root/rhizome type of plants can be easily dug out, divided and shared: irisies, dahlias, canna lilies, etc. Some hard-wood can be propagated with cuttings: rosemary, mulberry, elderberry, roses, etc.
Check out FB market or KSL/Craigslist and see if someone is nice enough to share for free/cheap if you don’t have a free source. I’ve been lucky enough to get some free plants and will keep the kindness going by sharing them when they get big.
Evolution:
(2022 summer) literally bare ground when we bought the house
(after a month) got some free fescue blue grass and randomly put it on the ground.
(2024 spring) after 2 years of experiment and hard work… lots of free or discounted plants that make this possible
4. Plant in fall (perennials)
Nothing against planting in spring. But fall is the time you find good deals – lots of nurseries and big box stores are trying to get rid of stuff before winter. Plants have a better chance to survive as the temperature is cooling down (as long as you give it at least a month to develop roots before the ground gets frozen.)
5. Start from small batches
If you’re still learning about gardening or the micro-climate in your yard, you prob will experiment and fail at some point. Keep it small scale at the beginning and see how it goes. If it doesn’t thrive or dies, try another way, plant or location.
Same for your vegetables – don’t start a whole bag of seeds. Do a small batch, transplant (if needed) and see what works, what doesn’t. If you fail, you still have a chance to try it again.
6. Collect the seeds of vegetables/fruits from a grocery store
Some easy ones are tomatoes, bell peppers, cabbage (put the remained core in the soil and it will grow stalks with flowers, eventually seeds), carrots (if the top didn’t get completely chopped off), etc. My favorite one is Taiwanese cabbage where I bought at Chinatown supermarket. I randomly placed the core in the soil and it gave me enough seeds to start the next year! (pic)
