Growing up, I didn’t have a garden. My mom didn’t keep flowers or any plants. She did not and still doesn’t, have a green thumb so she didn’t even like receiving flowers as a gift. That being the case, now that I am older, I want plants. All the plants. If you’ve looked into buy plants before, you know that they are not cheap. You get this small thing for what seems like a ton of money for what it is. This can make setting up your garden seem like a daunting task. I mean if such small plants cost so much how can you possibly fill a whole flower bed?
1. Use Gift Cards
In my quest to fill my flower bed, I’ve had to learn a few tricks to save money. The first of which is to buy plants with gift cards! When Justin and I got engaged, we’d received a gift card to Lowe’s. Since I lived on my own already and Justin already had some nice tools, we didn’t really need anything from Lowe’s. With this gift card, I was able to buy two types of peonies, a dahlia plant, gardening gloves, and a shovel all for about $8. If you’ve looked into buy peonies, cut or the plant, you know they aren’t cheap. This was a steal to get all of this for only $8 out of my pocket.
2. Buy from Local School Greenhouses
The local high schools in my area have greenhouses where students grow various types of plants. The students sell these to other students, faculty, and the community. I had not thought about buying from there until MomLee suggested checking them out. She’s bought plants from there on several occasions and all proceeds go back into the program. Because students are growing all the plants and manage all the sales, they can sell the plants for almost 1/5 of the price of the stores. I left with a whole flat (8 sets of 4 planters) of plants for less than I paid for one of the peonies! What a steal! If I had thought to check the high school out before I went to Lowe’s then I may not have bought them because I would have bought so many more things from the high school!
3. Grow Clippings from Family or Friends’ Plants
This option takes a little longer than buying plants that are already maturing. You have to get a clipping from the desired plant. That means you need to know what you need from the plant in order to get it to regrow. Do your research. Some plants can grow from a stem, others need to have the roots. Once you get your clipping, you have to care for it so that it grows roots and then wait for it to mature and produce flowers. Some plants can take years to start flowering so this wasn’t really an option for my current garden because we are hoping to buy a house in the next 2 years. Since the flowers I’d be getting clippings from would take a minimum of 3 years to produce flowers, we are waiting until we buy a house to work on those. This is something my grandma and MomLee have done successfully for years now so I know how well it works and what a great option it is for the cost conscious gardener.
Thank you so much for reading! We hope that this helps save you money as you work on your garden! If you have any tips that we’ve not mentioned, we’d love to hear about them! Leave them in the comments below! Don’t forget to check us our on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube! Thank you again and God Bless!