Frugal Gardening Tips

Educate yourself:

You need to know what plants you want. In the western U.S., we have the Sunset Western Garden Book, and its periodical cousin, Sunset Magazine. Many times they have plans and plant lists for various types of projects such as these. Another way to do this is to go to plant nurseries and look at what's in bloom. Because plants are often an impulse type of buy, nurseries accentuate the ones that are blooming, and it is sometimes difficult to get other things, so, check back every couple of weeks or so.

Make a list of the ones you like, and figure out their adult dimensions. What you are going to do is create the vegetative equivalent of a "Family Portrait", and you don't want cute little Aunt Minnie blocked from view by tall, gangly Cousin Fred. So, you have to know how big everything will be when full sized.

Use index cards or similar pieces of paper for convenience, and get this info for the plants you like:

a. Name, and botanical name. (Good for future talks with nurseries. There are often lots of plants with the same common names.)

b. Size: Height by spread

c. Shape: Tall and skinny, short, cushion, mound, bushy, whatever will help you remember. Make a sketch if you want to, or can.

d. Annual or Perennial: This is the secret to a cheap project: Get mostly perennials that grow from seeds where you live. More on this later! Those that grow from cuttings should also be noted, and you can try your hand at that. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

e. Check your friend's yards for things you like or want, and get this info for those plants. If you're lucky, they'll be seed propagated perennials, and you'll be set!

Watch for Free Plant Opportunities!

Learn to keep your eyes open as you drive. Around here, there are opportunities by the bushel in abandoned lots where there used to be houses, in landscape areas along roads, and in commercial settings like gas stations, etc. Many times you can collect plants from a site just before a bull dozer comes along and scrapes everything into a pile for the landfill. Watch for yards being renovated that have things you want. If they are taking it out, most times you can have it for the effort of taking it home and plopping it in the ground.

Collecting seeds is almost always OK, just be sure to ask first before you do anything on someone else's land. Remember that thing called trespassing? Let's not go there, OK? You can also sometimes collect seeds in parks, if they have the plants you want, ask the groundskeeper or ranger.

Also, if there is a botanical garden in your area, they will probably have seeds for sale in the gift shop. A WORD OF CAUTION!!! Please never pick anything in a botanical garden! It may be the one chance the staff will have to propagate a rare or endangered plant. Also, it is a violation of the Endangered Species Act to take any part of an endangered or threatened plant. ASK FIRST!!! Free seeds aren't worth a felony, after all...

A lot of annual flowers will re-seed themselves, so you can have things like zinnias and hollyhocks for years after the initial investment. Another thing to think about when getting free plants is: divide and conquer. A lot of plants grow by producing more sprouts around the parent plant. Taking one of these and planting it results in a new plant. In a year or two, its the same size as the parent plant. Agapanthus, iris, and lots and lots of ground covers do this. Things like Baby's Tears (Soleirolia) and Creeping Thyme are like this. I have a friend who has given me a blanket invitation to take baby's tears from her yard whenever I want to.

Tell your friends about your project. Many times they will have divisions, seeds or cuttings to donate to the cause.

Go talk to the person with the garden that you most admire. While you might be rebuffed, you also might make a great new friend who loves to garden, and will give you all kinds of "starts." Starts are little pieces of a given plant that, handled correctly, will grow into a new plant.

Watch for plant sales put on by garden clubs. I've gotten some fantastic plants, many times rare ones there. And they are usually just dollar, sometimes less. Watch in the paper for announcements in the garden section.

If there is a certain kind of flower you are interested in, like fuchsias or chrysanthemums, try to find out of your town has a club for them. That is a way to get great varieties really cheap, at the cutting sale, where members have taken pieces of the plants and rooted them to make new, baby plants. Also, many times there are older members of the club who are fantastically knowledgeable, and love to help beginners.

We plant people just love new recruits. End of Season sales. Many nurseries, especially at discount stores, sell their container stock cheap to get ready for the next season's plants. Right now the Kmart by my house has one gallon plants on sale for $2.49.

That means for a very small investment, you could have the large shrubs for the backbone of your garden. Agapanthus, Bridal Veil Spirea, junipers, Photinia fraseri (that tall shrub with the red new growth) lots of stuff.

As far as soil amendments go, our local utility has to prune trees constantly to keep them away from the electrical lines, and they will give you a huge dump truck load of wood chips free, just for the asking. If you can't use them all, get the neighbors involved so they can share it. Most municipalities have waste reduction laws they are working under, that involve diverting a certain percentage of the waste stream out of the landfills, and into recycling, or COMPOSTING.

Where I live they give it out in spring and summer, bring your own container, truck, etc. Fertilizer: While I am not a proponent of chemical fertilizer, it is sometimes desired. At our refuse transfer station, the country collects all the stuff people turn in, and they will give it to you if you want to use it. Old paint, garden chemicals, etc. Also, home and garden shows often have manufacturers who are handing out samples. They work just fine. Also, if you want to use the water soluble spray on fertilizer said to produce miraculous results, there is a store brand of it at Kmart, and maybe at other stores of that type, too.

As far as natural fertilizer, you can do what we do: save all the food scraps except fatty, greasy or bony things, and bury them in the garden. Coffee grounds, eggshells, peels, bread crusts, all of it. Just out side the drip line of the plant is perfect. That way, by the time it has broken down the plant will be growing into that spot. (The drip line is the outside edge of a plant, looking down on it.)

Many nurseries, especially at discount stores, sell their container stock cheap to get ready for the next season's plants. Right now the Kmart by my house has one gallon plants on sale for $2.49. That means for a very small investment, you could have the large shrubs for the backbone of your garden. Agapanthus, Bridal Veil Spirea, junipers, Photinia fraseri (that tall shrub with the red new growth) lots of stuff.

Also, you can buy seeds at the end of the season sale to be ready for the next season. This is especially good for flowers and vegetables. Many seeds retain their ability to germinate for years and years.

About The Author:
Copyright 2000 Patti Edson - Patti Edson is a Landscape Designer and comes from a long line of do-it-yourselfers and plant people. Her great grandfather had plants named after him, and her truly thrifty stepfather would crow with delight upon finding that the seed catalog had sent him a plant with an extra growable division on it. Patti lets her driving time double as scouting time; she looks for fruit trees as she drives, and notes them for the proper season. She lives in Sacramento, California. To email her Click Here

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