Frugal Gardening

Self Sufficient Living

As a thrifty gardener, cost savings are key. So you'll be delighted with these frugal gardening techniques which will significantly reduce your costs while you're enjoying a great hobby.

I'm confident that you'll benefit from these DIY tips for self sufficient living, which include cheap garden supplies along with other money saving tips.

I'm excited to pass this knowledge on to you because there's nothing like the feeling of growing your own food and cutting costs at the same time.

Frugal Gardening And You

First, when it come to frugal gardening, you'll want to have an idea of what you want to plant and where you'll grow it. Perhaps you live on a few acres and have ample space to grow your garden.

Many people who do not have this luxury, us included, will grow our gardens' in our backyards. For example, we have ours set up in a corner section of our backyard along our fence where our vegetables will get ample sunshine.

If you have a shed in your backyard, that could be the way for you to go. We've seen many people plant gardens along the sides of their sheds.

We also make sure we do some basic soil preparation which you'll find will save you a great deal of time and aggravation down the road. Using a shovel, you can dig the soil bed up to break up clumped soil. Removing rocks and pulling weeds (including their roots) will also provide you with better water drainage and more vibrant plants.

You could also find out that gardening can cost you a great deal of money. Fencing/wiring, sprays, seeding, garden tools, potting, compost, soil etc. really does add up.

Ahh but there are ways to knock down those costs.

Cheap Gardening Supplies & Tips

1. Watering

   You'll want to give your garden a good watering two to three times a week rather than giving it just a sprinkling every day. A good soaking will ensure that the roots of your plants get the water they need.

   So watering less often, but with more concentrated amounts is the way to go. You'll find this also cuts down on your water usage.

2. Animal And Pest Control

   Rabbits and deer are the more common critters that you can find eating away at your garden. To stop this, you can blend up garlic cloves with cayenne pepper and water, put into a bottle and spray the outside area of your garden with this mixture.

   You can also mix up a teaspoon of dishwashing soap with about a 1/2 cup of olive oil and a pint of water and spray this mixture on your plants to help prevent insects from devouring your plants.

3. Seeds

   We shop during the off peak season (in the fall) where we find excellent deals. We also swap plant cuttings with a couple of our neighbors instead of buying the plants at the nursery; a huge money saver.

4. Compost

   Compost is a very effective natural fertilizer that your garden will love. To put together a great compost pile you can use coffee grounds, banana peels, grass clippings, dead leaves, plant cuttings and animal manure.

   We actually get our manure from a farmer a few miles north of us who is more than happy to part with it.

   We will actually put all of this compost material into a pile so that over time, it will decay down to a good organic compost. The best part, it's free!

   One other tip, don't use grass clippings if you recently fertilized your lawn to avoid the chemicals.

5. Planting

   You can have a vibrant garden by getting an early start on it. In the winter, we'll start growing our vegetable plants indoors. We use potting soil and get the seeds germinated by planting them in egg cartons, empty coffee cans, milk jugs, old buckets and ice cream containers.

   Just be sure you have the plants positioned in your home where they can get sunlight.

6. Gardening Tools

   As we have, you can find gardening tools at garage sales and flea markets for significantly less money than you would pay at the store.

   Better yet, do you have neighbors that garden? If you do, you should talk to them about swapping gardening tools.

   Some of our neighbors also garden. This is great because we borrow tools from each other instead of having to buy them. What’s also nice, is everybody on our street is on board with returning the tools when there done with them. It's a great cost saver.

Frugal Gardening Summary

Have fun gardening!!

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