Gardening On A Budget (2024)

Since I was a child Memorial weekend always meant planting the garden. I am from northern Wisconsin and we have a much shorter growing season up there so this is when we always started planting. There is still a danger of frost even when planting at the end of May. Now I am living a little farther south, in central Wisconsin but we still start planting around the same time.

So this weekend I got my veggies in!

I am really wanting to plant a huge garden with raised beds and all sorts of fun ideas from Pinterest but when some things changed for our family I new I wouldn’t be starting that this year. A few weeks ago our family received a huge shock when my husband lost his job. I know this is happening to many other people also and now I can truly feel for what others have been going through. It has been a hard time on our family adjusting to a change in income and also having my husband around all the time now. My husband is diligently working on finding something new so hopefully this will only be temporary.

But the unknown can be very scary!

So we are trying to make very smart decisions with our money right now and although planting a garden would save us money on our grocery budget, building raised beds right now really isn’t an option. So I was trying to figure out how I can still plant some things and save us money. So if you are finding yourself in a bind like us or in a similar situation or just love finding ways to save your family money you will love some of these tips!

1) Utilize the equipment you have.

Going out an renting or buying a rototiller is not an option for some so use the resources you do have. Like………borrow one from a friend or you can do what we did and just till up small areas by hand. I have this handy little hand tiller and it was worth every penny, and I think it was only about $20. Don’t quote me on that, we bought it a couple years ago at Menards. Here is what it looks like:

Also and old fashioned rake and hoe work great too. I realize if you are thinking of putting in a large garden these wouldn’t work well but for smaller spaces they work great.

2) Plant in already prepared garden space.

Use the garden space you already have available. Or if you have space that you want to landscape in the future prepare it and use it for your vegetables now and when you can, a few years down the road, you can landscape it how you want. Veggies can make very pretty landscapes if well tended though. This is what I did. The front of our home is landscaped with perennials but nothing was ever done with the backyard around the house and deck. So I tilled up around the deck with my handy hand tiller and did my planting there. So now I have beds ready for planting when I have the money and perennials I want to plant, but I can use it for veggies right now.

3) Get your plants from friends and neighbors.

If you are looking for perennials for your home a great way to do it is by asking friends and neighbors for some plants. Perennials tend to grow out of hand and need to be cut back every couple years and most of the time people are just happy to get rid of them instead of throwing them away. This is how I helped my sister landscape her entire front yard a few years ago. She really wanted to landscape but just didn’t have the money so I got perennials from a friend who just wanted them out of her yard. So my sister has a beautiful front yard and it cost her nothing!

4) Get accessories from friends or family who aren’t needing it anymore.

For my gardens I did over the weekend I got some old brick from some family who didn’t need it anymore to line the edge of my garden.

I also got some old fencing from my in laws to make some of my Pinterest inspired creations!

Here is a fence for my cucumbers to grow up:

I am also going to make one to grow my potatoes in like this, I just have to get soil and straw for the inside.

My husband also made this from some scraps of wood we had around the house. My son brought home a bean plant from school so he made this for it. We are just going to ask around for some left over chicken wire to staple up it for the beans to grow up.

So all I really ended up purchasing was the plants for my garden, I got everything else either from around the house or from friends and family. If you use your resources wisely you can go much farther than you thought!

Here are some more fun pics of our day planting!