Savvy Garden Tips to Save You Money

If you’re focusing on creating a beautiful garden in your backyard, the one thing you may be concerned about is the amount of money you’ll need to spend to maintain it. Gardening can get expensive, but there are simple, savvy garden tips you can follow to save money while getting the most out of your garden.

If the purpose of creating this garden is for you to grow produce at home and eventually save money on groceries, be sure to follow these tips that’ll make a difference for you.

1. Get Rid of Pests Without Costly Pest Control Products

Some people spend a ridiculous amount of money on pest control products because they want to keep their plants protected. While you want to make an effort to keep pests away from the plants you’re growing, you don’t have to spend a fortune on products that aren’t always ideal.

Companion Planting & Natural Pest Control

Our first line of defense in our vegetable garden should be as natural as possible. I recommend using companion planting.

Companion Planting Top 10 Plants
Flowers to Plant in Vegetable Gardens
Marigolds in the Vegetable Garden
Naturally Controlling Aphids

Use What You Have

It’s possible to create an effective insecticide using vegetable oil and a bit of dish soap. If you combine these ingredients into a spray bottle with a bit of water, you’ll have a product that works. You’d need to spray the homemade insecticide over your plant leaves. It won’t cause any harm to your plants, but it’ll keep those pesky insects away from them.

DIY Insecticide Ideas

Besides the vegetable oil and dish soap concoction, you can create a different insecticide using cayenne pepper, mint leaves, a bit of garlic, and a bit of dish soap. You’ll add the ingredients together, boiling them in a pot full of water. Once the water reaches a boil, turn off the heat and allow the ingredients to sit for up to 12 hours before straining and pouring it all into a spray bottle.

2. Create the Perfect Compost to Improve the Quality of Your Soil

Compost is good for the soil. It makes it richer and keeps it moist. You don’t want to have dry soil. If your soil is too dry, your plants will die instead of growing to their fullest potential. While buying compost can get a bit costly, you don’t need to spend money on it.

Make Your Own Soil

Some of us simply don’t have the space for a large compost bin. But you can still make rich soil!

The Best DIY Soil Mix Recipe
How to Improve Soil Without a Compost Pile
Awesome Soil Amendments for Your Organic Vegetable Garden

Make a DIY Compost

You can make compost at home using table scraps. Use a large bin to keep adding to your compost pile. Some of the things you can add to this pile include banana peels, tea bags, twigs, grass clippings, and other fruit and veggie scraps. This is one of those savvy garden tips that can save you money!

How to Compost

10 Things You Never Want to Compost
Troubleshooting Your Compost

Add Water

Keep everything in your compost bin moist by adding a bit of water to it each day. When you need to add more compost to your soil, scrape out some of the compost and add it right in. You’ll quickly notice the fantastic difference that compost can make when added to your soil, and you’ll likely be glad to know you can make it at home for free.

9 Ways to Conserve Water in Your Vegetable Garden

3. Grow More Cost-Effective Produce

Save money by growing cost-effective produce. If you take a trip to your local grocery store and head over to the produce section, you’ll notice prices have increased over the past 12 months. The cost of certain vegetables, such as peppers, is much higher than it was just a year ago.

First you want to make sure you know you planting zone and what to plant when! See my Month to Month Guide to Vegetable Gardening and Easy to Grow Vegetables.

You’ll save more money by growing produce that costs a lot more at the store. If you’re not sure what to plant, start with lettuce, peppers, and broccoli. The cost for these three items is on the rise, and these three options are easy to grow. Even if you’re a beginner, you can have success with growing these vegetables.

See How to Grow: Okra, Lettuce. Strawberries, Scallions, Potatoes, Artichokes, Beets, Tomatoes, Corn, Garlic, Cantaloupe, Summer Squash, Sweet Potatoes and The 10 Easiest Herbs To Grow in a Pot.

4. Compare Prices of Seeds Before You Buy

Figure out which plants you’d like to add to your backyard garden, and then start looking for the seeds. You’re going to need to buy high-quality seeds to ensure that your plants will grow and continue thriving for months and years to come. However, it would help if you didn’t rush into buying the first seeds you can find. As with anything you’re buying, you’ll need to shop around.

Where to Buy Heirloom Seeds
How to Use Seeds and Transplants in the Vegetable Garden

Compare the Cost of Seeds

You can find dozens of credible sites selling high-quality seeds to gardeners. Compare the cost of these seeds and stick with a reasonable option to save more money on what you need. Some people prefer using heirloom seeds because they feel that they are more likely to produce better results. No matter which seeds you choose, you’ll need to take the best care of them, planting them properly into the soil.

5. Repurpose Different Items to Use in Your Garden

Instead of going out and buying costly products to use in your garden, consider repurposing old items that you’re no longer using. For example, you can use old toilet paper rolls as a starting spot for planting some seeds.

How to Reuse Banana Peels
8 Fantastic Ways to Reuse Eggshells
Recycling Coffee on Your Homestead
How to Use Orange Peels for a Better Garden

Get Creative

If you have a broken ceramic bowl or plate, you can smash it into a few more pieces before spreading it out near plants to give it a unique, stone-like appearance. You can even use old metal cans as pots for some of your plants.

Repurpose

If you have cans from vegetables, soup, and other foods, clean them out and remove the labels using a bit of vinegar and water. Give the cans time to dry after removing the labels from them. Once they’re dry, paint them in some of your favorite colors. Use bright colors to add a special touch to your garden. Allow the cans to dry, and then add soil and seeds for specific plants to them. You’ll end up with a beautiful, bright garden full of neat, repurposed items.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to create a garden or maintain it. If you have a green thumb and are ready to start growing different types of plants, be sure to use these tips to your advantage.

You can quickly get assorted plants to thrive by repurposing old products, creating homemade pest control products, and buying the right seeds at the correct times. The goal is to spend less while saving more money because of your garden. It’s an attainable goal that you should look forward to reaching.

What are a few savvy garden tips you can share to help others save money?

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Savvy Garden Tips to Save You Money - the Imperfectly Happy home (2024)