When I first began gardening, I wasn’t sure how to save money on the input it takes to get started. I thought that you needed the ideal soil, fertilizers, and materials to be a successful gardener. I have learned over the last few years a lot of ways to save money in the garden and still have a great harvest.
There is a way to garden in which you can actually save more than you spend. Forget all of the pretty pictures on Pinterest or even home and garden shows. A garden can be pretty, functional and productive without breaking the bank. Frugal gardening is possible with some careful planning and ingenuity.
How to get started with frugal gardening:
- The first bit of advice I have for someone wanting to garden without a lot of money is to plan, plan, plan! Planning has saved me from a lot of loss in the garden. However, I haven’t always been good at planning. I love drawing up a chart of my garden and planning where everything will go. But when it comes to planting time, I have been known to get overzealous and plant more than I mean to. This causes me to not have enough room for the crops I really should have in the ground.
What do you want to grow?
- The first thing you should think about when planning your garden is what you want to grow. Are you trying to grow food to feed your family, or is it just for fun. Do you want the beauty and whimsy of a flower garden? Or, do you just want it all? Those factors will determine a lot about the space you will need and the type of seeds you will buy.
How big of a space will you need?
Now that you know what you want to grow, you can get a good estimate of the space you will need. If you live in an apartment or home with little outdoor space, this is already determined for you. But, if you have the space, figure out how much room you want to grow in.
Two 10′ feet long and 3′ feet wide raised beds can grow a ton of food for a small family. A little larger 20′ x 30′ in ground garden might be more what you’re looking for. If you have a smaller space, see how much you can fit in pots and containers that fit within your budget.
If you need containers, check out big box stores, the curb and even thrift stores for people giving them away or selling them for very cheap. Don’t think you have to purchase brand new pretty planters to grow a balcony garden.
How to get soil and amendments for your frugal garden.
Soil is one of the biggest expenses for new gardeners. There is of course the option to till a piece of ground and plant right there. Still, chances are, that soil will need amending. This is another expense to gardening.
My first two years of gardening, we spent way too much money on soil and amendments. The truth is, we have everything we need to have a healthy and rich garden for free in our own backyard.
Soil can be obtained a few different ways.
- You can go to a big box store and spend lots of money on bagged soil.
- You can find a bulk seller of soil or compost, which is what we did to fill our raised beds.
- You can start your own compost piles to make your own.
- Or you can find someone you know who would give you soil such as topsoil or rotted manure from their land.
Whichever way you choose to obtain your soil, don’t fixate on how “good” your soil is at first. It can take years of adding organic matter to your soil to really build it up.
Amendments can be obtained in the same way.
- You can find lots of different soil amendments and fertilizers at any big box store that carries gardening supplies. However, this doesn’t fit in with a frugal gardening budget.
- You can buy compost in bulk to amend your soil.
- Rotted manure from horses and cows work wonders on soil. Goat and rabbit manure can be added to your garden fresh since it is considered cold manure.
- Turning your own compost piles will give your soil most of the nutrition it will need each season.
- Searching the woods and bagging up leaf mulch, or rotted leaves is an excellent free option that adds lots of good microbes to your soil.
If you have the space, an in ground garden is by far the cheapest option. The vast majority of our garden is in ground. We amend with goat poop and rotten leaves. Using these two things is slowly building our soil and feeding our crops as well.
Mulch mulch mulch!
If I could go back a few years and tell my beginner gardener self one thing, it would be to mulch everything! Even the pathways between my rows. Our garden has seen a dramatic improvement from the use of wood chips and brown fallen leaves.
With mulch, your plants will be able to retain moisture during dry and hot periods. Mulch keeps the garden from becoming a weedy jungle, and it adds beneficial microbes to your soil as it breaks down. It is less work for me in the long run, the heavily mulch my garden in the spring. As the season goes on, the mulch begins to break down at different paces, but it all benefits.
Above are a few examples of mulch we are using in our garden. The picture on the left is of a bed we have put to rest for the season. We used both leaves and old poopy goat hay.The wood chip mulch has by far suppressed weeds the best. I am experimenting using shell peas as a mulch in one of my beds.
How do I get free mulch for my frugal garden?
- Fallen leaves and pine straw are by far the easiest free types of mulch to obtain. If you don’t have trees in your own yard to harvest fallen leaves from, ask your neighbor. Seriously. I am sure there is someone near you who is more than willing to let you have the leaves from their yard. It may take a little bit of sweat equity, but if that is all it cost you, why not?
- Wood chips make an excellent mulch. However, we have had to pay for ours. We have not been successful getting a chip drop yet, but we’re still hopeful. If it is easy for you to get free wood chips I highly suggest doing this. The wood chips in our garden have done the best job of keeping out weeds and keeping the moisture in. We don’t use them on our raised beds, only the in ground due to the cost. While they did cost us, they were still relatively inexpensive when bought in bulk.
- Compost also works well for mulch. However, if you don’t put cardboard down before the compost, it’s not as effective as a weed barrier.
Now that you have your soil and it’s all mulched, you are ready to plant. The absolute cheapest way to grow is from seed. You don’t have to go for the beautiful heirloom packets that cost $3 and up a pack either. You can find seed packets for as little as .25 cents at the dollar store that will grow just as well. If you want to know more about growing plants from seed, check out my article on starting your garden from seed here
Other frugal gardening solutions to use in your own garden:
Deterring bugs and pests:
You don’t need an arsenal of chemical sprays to deter bugs off of your garden plants. In fact, a lot of those sprays can do more harm than good by keeping away the beneficial insects.
Instead, try companion planting your garden. One of the easiest examples to use in your own garden is planting marigolds next to tomatoes and peppers to deter certain pests.
Another one is planting napa cabbage among your brassicas as a “trap plant”. The pests will eat the napa cabbage instead of you broccoli, brussel sprouts, etc. This has worked extremely well for us so far.
Walking around your garden in the morning and evening with a cup of soapy water can be the absolute best defense for your plants. As you identify a pest eating your crop, pick it up and drop it in the water. While labor intensive, this has been one of the most effective ways for me to project my garden from unwanted insects.
Do some research and firgure out which natural diy remedies you are willing to try in your garden and go for it.
Stay vigilant to keep animals out of your garden
When it comes to deterring animals such as birds, rabbits and deer, frugal gardening has solutions for those too. We have deterred rabbits in our own garden by fencing. Before we could afford what we have now (chicken wire and fence posts surrounding our entire gardening area) we put cheap safety mesh around our raised beds. The ugly bright orange kind. It wasn’t pretty, but it did keep the rabbits away from my young plants. If fencing is not an option, plant marigolds and certain herbs such as sage and lavender around the plants you don’t want eaten. I haven’t personally tried this, but rabbits supposedly hate the smell so much that they stay away.
Deterring deer can be done with motion lighting and loud noises in your garden. My parents tied pie plants on plant stakes around their garden and it seemed to work. For birds, my grandfather bought toy rubber snakes and placed them in his blueberry bushes and the birds stayed away.
Employ your pets!
Our dog lounges around most of the day while the cat chases rabbits and birds away. However, I am convinced his presence has kept deer out of our garden for the last four years. Just 1/4 mile up the road, the overgrown corners of my brothers yard are hideouts for so many deer, and yet they haven’t made their way to us…yet.
The solutions in frugal gardening probably won’t be as convenient as what is found at the store, but they will save you money and save your harvest. It may take some creative thinking and hard work, but it can be done.
Maintain your garden to get the most out of it.
Consistently tackling the weeds in your garden can be a big task. Keeping your garden watered can be an even bigger one. Keeping up with the harvest can seem impossible. But, by doing these things you will be able to get the most out of your garden and the harvest that comes with it, thereby actually saving you money while gardening.
The last tip I would suggest for frugal gardening would be to put your garden to rest in the winter. Cover your soil with compost, rotted leaves, pine straw, etc. and enjoy the rest that God gives you within that season.
Frugal gardening is actually simple gardening.
To summarize, all you need to be a frugal gardener is a place to plant, mulch and seeds. The rest can be done with your two hands and hard work. There is so much information out there on the right way to garden. But, if you can learn to garden with just the bare basics, then you can provide good nourishing food for you and yours.
Being a frugal gardener actually makes gardening easier. There is no information overload. Just simple hand to the earth, growing food. As you grow as a gardener, you will learn your own tricks and tips. Share them with others. Gardeners learn best from other gardeners.
Frugal gardening is more than possible. It can be even more rewarding because of all the hard work and sweat you put into it. We try to be frugal gardeners to be good stewards of the resources God has given us. In this season of our life, it is absolutely necessary, but I am thankful that it is. We have the confidence that we can grow our own food despite what we may have in our bank account.
If you would like more frugal homesteading ideas, check out this article on saving money feeding your chickens here. And if you have any good frugal gardening solutions, let me know in the comments!
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