Do you want to spend a little and achieve a lot in your garden? These tips will help you make the most of things on a limited budget.
Make The Plants The Focal Point
If you watch gardening shows on TV, it is easy to get the impression that you need to spend a ton of money on landscaping, statues, water fountains, and outdoor lighting to create a beautiful space. In fact, however, if you look at some of the most beautiful gardens throughout all of history, the plants tend to be the focal point.
As much fun as it might be to watch makeover shows where a team of experienced gardeners swoops in and transforms an ugly yard into a beautiful garden overnight, that isn't practical for the real world. If you are like most people, you probably don't have a ton of money that you can put into completely revamping your outdoor space.
Not only does creating a beautiful garden take quite a bit of money but it also requires a lot of work. The results can take time to appear. As long as you stay dedicated to the process, however, you can make your outdoor space absolutely gorgeous without spending a lot of money.
Educate Yourself About Gardening
Instead of jumping in and making a bunch of mistakes, it makes more sense to learn as much as you can before you get started. The more educated you are about gardening, the better position you will be in to make smart choices for your yard.
You may even want to think about joining a gardening group in your area. Getting together with gardenerswho have more experience than you is a great way to get real-world knowledge that you can put into action in your own garden. Best of all, you may even score some free bedding plants, cuttings, or seeds.
Revamping An Existing Garden
In some cases, you may find yourself in a position where you need to completely redo a garden that already exists. For instance, if you buy a new house, you are starting with the outdoor space that the previous owners created.
Before you tear everything out, it is worth taking a step back to look at what you really have. You may be pleasantly surprised when you take a closer look.
Try leaving the garden as-is until spring. That way, you can see what the plants look like as they grow.
Spend some time in the garden before deciding how you want to change it. Giving yourself a season to get used to the space will usually give you a much clearer picture of how you want to use the space. At that point, you can start planning the changes that you want to make.
Grow Plants Rather Than Buying Them
It is surprisingly easy to grow plants on your own without needing to buy them from the nursery. You can plant seeds, take cuttings from existing plants, or divide plants that you already have growing in your garden. All of these methods allow you to dramatically increase the number of plants that you have in your outdoor space without having to spend much money in the process. You can then add them to a planter like this from Soothing Walls.
If you want to get a little bit more variety, you can even talk to your friends about whether they want to do a swap. Each of you can take cuttings from your garden and share them with each other.
Another option is to talk to any gardeners you know. Most of them will be more than happy to give you cuttings from their yard or to grab some seeds from plants for you at the end of the season.
Growing plants on your own is not an overnight process. In the long run, however, it can save you a lot of money, which is what this article is all about.
