Gardening on a Budget

May 13 | Gardening

gardening on a budget

Spring is here! And we’ve even got the nice weather to prove it! Gardening is a big passion of mine. I’ve got flower beds and containers all over the place. My job at a local golf course even has me working on flower beds 8 hours a day! Since we don’t have a house to call our own yet, my Mom lets me help her plant and weed their vegetable garden in return for some delicious veggies.

Here are some tips for gardening on a budget that I’ve learned over the years:

  • Grow a container garden. I like to grow tomatoes and herbs in containers. Also, planting a group of containers with annuals creates a great effect!
  • Use perennials. These are more expensive initially, but you do not have to replace them every year, thus saving money in the long run. I started to do this with my flower gardens a couple of years ago. I need to buy a couple more plants to fill it in, but in the mean time I will add some annuals for color.
  • Start your own plants with seeds.  Save a bunch by buying a pack of seeds rather than small plants. My mom only uses seeds to plant her carrots, green beans…etc.
  • Before filling a large container full of dirt, add a plastic shopping bag full of foam packing material to the bottom. You will need less dirt, provides a great draining system, and the container will be easier to lift! We do this at the golf course where I work. In my containers at home, I use either rocks (for the really small containers) or the plastic containers that my annuals come in.
  • Put up a pin wheel or two in your strawberries to keep the birds and chipmunks at bay. You can find inexpensive ones at  your local dollar store.
  • Make your own compost. A great free way to nourish your plants. Here’s a great link showing you how to make your own compost bin: DIY Compost Bin
  • Utilize the weather. If I know it’s going to rain, I pull out my flower containers that are covered so that the rain will water them for me!
  • Ask neighbors for a part of their perennial. Since most perennials spread, I’m sure a neighbor won’t mind digging up a portion of their plant. My mom has received numerous plants this way. I’ve also received some from the golf course that were just going to be thrown out!
  • Use the library. If I’m needing any information on plants or I want to look at a specific book, I hop on over to my local library!
  • Start small. Use only containers or use the square foot gardening method.

What are some of the ways you save money while gardening?

Links Worth Sharing – Week of May 8, 2010

May 8 | Household Tips, Links Worth Sharing

Thanks, vmaidens!

Here are this week’s links that I’ve come accoss on my travels!  Enjoy!

The Benefits of Vinegar

Jan 12 | Household Tips

Vinegar is really a great tool to have around your home. Not only is it great for cooking but it’s also a natural disinfectant so it comes in handy for all your cleaning needs!
I use white vinegar in many ways in our home. Here are some of the ways I use it:
  • In our dishwasher – instead of expensive Jet Dry
  • All-purpose cleaner – one part water, one part vinegar and some essential oils
  • Unclog the drains – sprinkle your drains with baking soda, then pour vinegar over top. When the concoction settles down, pour a kettle full of boiling water down.
  • Floor cleaner – water, vinegar and some essential oils (tea tree oil is also a disinfectant)
  • Laundry softener – in place of commercial liquid fabric softener

I’ve also just learned that vinegar is a great and inexpensive at-home pedicure ingredient! I tried it out last week since I have to bare my toes while we’re here in Mexico! You know what? It worked great! My feet are so soft! I simply mixed 6 cups of warm water with 1/2 cup white vinegar.

Do you want to know why I love vinegar so much? It’s so inexpensive! For only a couple of dollars I can get a giant jug that will last me quite a while! I also like it because it’s a frugal way to green up my home.

Here are some great articles on green living, specifically natural cleaning in your home:

Keeper of the Home – natural household cleaners
Passionate Homemaking – Natural housecleaning carnival

So tell me, do you use vinegar for things other than cooking? Are you trying to go Greener in your home?

How My (Container) Garden Grows

Jun 17 | Household Tips, Useful information

So I had a chance to take some pictures of the garden finally! Everything seems to be growing well so far. Well, except for the lettuce. I think I killed it because I had it on the hot side of the house. I’ve replanted it and moved the container over to the cooler side of the house now. I hope that does it since I heard lettuce is super easy to grow! I’m so excited for the day we can finally eat off the plants that I’ve grown and nurtured!

On to the pictures:

Here is the majority of my vegetable garden. I have a red pepper, a green pepper, a tomato, and two carrots growing here. 🙂


Here you see our potatoes growing in a garbage can! All I did was found an old garbage can at my parents house that they no longer wanted, drilled holes in the bottom for drainage, then added some dirt, then the seed potatoes (russet), then more dirt to cover! All I have to do now is add more dirt as the plants grow. You want to have dirt covering everything but 3 inches of the plants at all times.


In this bucket here you see the lettuce that I killed and replanted. I’m patiently (or not) waiting for it to grow back. The big leaf thing is my hosta that is doing amazingly well after being roughly yanked out of the ground last year by an untrained landscaper that thought it was a weed! (I had to rummage through his garbage bin to get it back!)


Here are our beans. They’re strange. I was watching them daily for signs of growth and I would see nothing. Then one day I came out to check and they had grown about 2 inches over night! Crazy beans.


That ends the pictures of my vegetables, but I still have pictures of my flower pots! I’m quite pleased with how well they are turning out!
Here are my flower planters in the front. A mix of petunias, asters, gazanias, dusty miller, heliotrope, impomea (potato vine), million bells, and lantana.


This is my perennial garden with a few annuals thrown in to fill up space. (excuse the camera strap!)


A close up of some verbena.


A close up of some lantana.


Here are my pots in the back. The flowers are pretty much the same as the ones in the front but there is some verbena and pansies. The three smaller post contain my herbs. Thyme, basil, oregano (which is not growing) and rosemary


There you have it! I hope you enjoyed the tour through my gardens! I be sure to update you again on how the veggies are doing. How is your garden growing if you have one?