Top 5 best tips for the Frugal Gardener

There are many people who find getting outside and doing a bit of gardening to be highly therapeutic for them and with good reason. Mentally, there are studies that provide evidence that gardening can help to relieve stress; physically, you can burn as much calories in 45 minutes of gardening as you would by participating in 30 minutes of cardio. Plus, the end results of your hard labor can bring forth a beautiful fruit and vegetable garden in your backyard or some really pretty flowers in your front.

However, based on what your vision for your garden is, sometimes it can be a bit pricey to make it come into full fruition. That’s why we wanted to provide you with some tips on how to be a really effective yet frugal gardener so that you can enjoy your garden while still keeping your budget intact.

Get seeds on sale (or use your own). There’s no way that you can start a garden without seed, right? Well, rather than spending money on newly packaged seed, the first thing to consider is using some of the ones from the foods that you have already eaten. Everything from watermelons and apples to avocado and peppers have seeds in them that you can store for planting time. You can also go to a local nursery and get seeds that are on sale at the end of each season. Also, if you see plants that are in real poor condition, ask the store manager if he will sell them to you at a discount.

Be creative with how you get your gardening tools. If you don’t already have a supply of garden tools, you don’t necessarily have to go out and buy some. If you have some family members, friends or neighbors who also have a green thumb, ask them if you can borrow some of theirs. Or, if you want to have a collection for yourself, go to a dollar store for some kitchen shears (they are much cheaper than pruners); cut a milk jug in half to store your fertilizer to pour over your garden; use a plastic dishpan as a mini potting bench and purchase some wedding tulle from a local fabric store instead of shade cloth from a nursery to shade your growing plants from birds and the sun.

Use some recycled pots. Are you planning to nurture some potted plants? If so, you don’t necessarily have to purchase some new pots either. A lot of graveyards tend to have pots that they will donate, especially after major holidays such as Memorial Day and Easter, after the plants have died. Also, if you’re looking for something to help drain the fluid from your potted plants, placing some Styrofoam peanuts at the bottom of the pots for drainage will do the trick.

Make your own mulch or fertilizer. If you’re just coming out of the fall or winter season, then there’s a pretty good chance that you’re going to have a lot of dead leaves in your yard. Rather than throwing them away, mush them together to make your own mulch. As far as the fertilizer that you need for your plants, turn your used food into compost and use that rather than a commercialized brand. You can also spray a mixture of water and vinegar to keep bugs away.

Pull out your Christmas lights. By using a professional landscaping company like RTC Landscaping, they will not only help you to create a great garden, but one that looks attractive too. If you want to do the gardening work yourself, a simple thing that you can do in order to add some flair is use your Christmas lights to put around the fence of your garden. Even during the summer months, they will provide a pretty sparkle after sunset.