5 Money-Saving Gardening Tips

Learn 5 money saving gardening tips for plant shopping to help you fill up your gardens with good quality plants without breaking the bank. These tips will add enjoyment to your spring planting as well as feed your needs for new plants to grow.

If you are like me, once the weather warms up you can't wait to buy your summer annuals and a few new perennials and maybe a bush or two.

Maybe you've lost a few plants to the harsh winter and have a few bare spots in your landscape that need filling.

Maybe you just love plant shopping. I know I do, but the costs can really add up. So, before you break the bank this year, consider a few money-saving tips I have described here, and hopefully, you will end up getting your fill of new plants without damaging your budget.

Spring Gardening Tips on a Budget

1 - Divide and Share

• Dig up some of your own perennials, divide them, and spread them around.
• Host a garden party with a plant swap. Most of the time people bring several plants that they needed to divide to share.
• Shop with a friend, and buy larger pots of annuals and perennials that you can split, so you will get two for the price of one.

2 - Contribute to Your Community

Look for local garden club sales in your area. These are usually held in May or June and have plants donated from members' yards at a very low cost. Since they are local chances are they will do well in your yard too.

3 - Start from Scratch

It's a no-brainer, but growing plants from seed costs next to nothing, and there are many annuals (zinnias, cosmos, sunflowers, nasturtiums) and perennials (black-eyed Susan, shasta daisy, columbine) that are easy to grow from seed.

4 - Use Cheap Fillers

Fill in containers and bare spots with big box store loss leaders. Many of the big box stores will advertising basic plants at lower than normal prices, to get you in the door. I often buy a flat of white impatiens, as they go with everything, and seem to do well in the sun, as well as shade at my home.

5 - Beg, Borrow or Steal

If you have a friend or a neighbor, or even a relative who has something that you covet, you don't really want to beg, borrow or steal. Maybe just ask them for some of their fabulous plant. Most gardeners are happy to share and will more than likely be flattered that you like their plants

By using one, or even all of these strategies, you should be able to have a great garden and a little extra money in your pocket.