Gardening on a Budget: 12 Tips You Must Follow To Save Money

Let's start a garden, shall we? And let's begin gardening on a budget this year so you can enjoy the opportunity and experience growing your own food.

Years ago, we ventured out of our comfort zone and started a vegetable garden. This gardening thing was one of our 2014 goals; we wanted to ensure we didn't overspend on our garden and did things right.

The truth was that I never garden in my life. Yes, I have houseplants, but when it came to growing my own vegetables in our own backyard, that was just another adventure.

Before starting to garden, we make many gardening mistakes, and one of them might be overspending your hard-earned money if you decide that gardening is what you want to do.

The good news is that you can create a fabulous vegetable garden and enjoy gardening on a budget with these tips below.

Now let's be real here for a minute.

I am no expert gardener. I am just passionate about it.

I genuinely believe everyone should experience the joy growing their food brings.

Gardening saves you money.

Knowing where your food is coming from gives you peace of mind.

Teaching your family about gardening is one of the best things you can do.

I never expected that my tiny backyard garden would draw neighborhood kids to come and help.

Do you see why I am so pro-gardening?!

There's something about gardening that it's soothing and so peaceful. Whether you are gardening to save money or eat healthier (or both), there is something therapeutic about it that I genuinely enjoy.

Many believe gardening your vegetables is expensive and not worth the effort or the work.

I beg to differ and tell you that the cost of starting a garden can be minimal, depending on your plans for your vegetable garden.

Another benefit of starting a vegetable garden on a budget is that you don't need a big space to grow your plants.

How to Gardening On A Budget

Set a budget

Before you begin your vegetable garden, plan your garden budget.

How much are you willing to spend?

Creating a budget for your garden is extremely important.

Like your finances, a budget for your garden will set the tone, how much space you need, and what supplies to buy.

Not having a budget will cause significant overspending, especially if you are a beginner gardener; the excitement will make you spend money on things that are not important.

Create a plan

Having a plan for your garden will save you money and keep you on track.

Write down a garden plan with the name of the plants you will grow and the location.

Draw a plan for your garden to know where you will grow each plant.

Also, decide if you plan on buying seeds or seedlings, as this will affect your budget. More about this later.

Do not rush

Gardening takes time, and rushing won't make you a better garden or grow more vegetables faster.

Trying to rush to get my gardening going was one of my beginner gardener mistakes. I grew too early, which led to growing more plants than needed. As you can see, I didn't use a garden plan either.

Rushing due to the excitement created some major headaches for me early in my gardening season.

Check out these gardening posts:

• 6 Indoor Gardening Mistakes Beginners Should Avoid
• 4 Vegetable Gardening Tips For Beginner Gardeners

Grow your plants from seeds

Growing your plants from your seeds will save you money, but it has a downsize. In addition, it takes longer; there is a higher chance you will “kill” your plant.

However, if you follow the instructions located in the seed packets, you will be fine. You can find seeds anywhere and even at your local dollar store.

If you are late in the season to start growing your seed, that's ok!

Research, research, and more research

Another tip for gardening on a budget is to take the time to do your research!

My friends, the internet has free gardening resources to help you have a successful gardening season.

Always take the time to research the plants and the locations they will grow. Not every plant you want to grow will produce where you live.

Spending money on plants that won't grow where you live will be wasted. Instead, consult your USDA Planting Zone Map to check out your zone to determine which plant will thrive in your location.

Start small

When it comes to busting your gardening expenses, deciding you want to start a big garden when you have no idea how it works.

As a beginner garden start small means, it will keep your gardening budget low.

Once you experience your first garden and want to increase the size of your garden, it's all good.

Get seeds from friends

Want to save even more money? Ask your friends or family member for seeds!

If you have gardened before, use the seeds from last season to help keep the cost of your garden down this year.

Limit the number of plants you want in your garden.

Limit the number of plants you want to garden to keep your budget down.

Again, overspending on different kinds of seeds or plants will result in too many plants.

If you are a beginner gardener, this might be a bit overwhelming.

If you are keeping your garden budget low, keep things simple to spend less.

Shop the sales

If you are going to shop for your garden, I recommend you look at retailers' ads for sales on the things you need for your garden. For example, dollar Tree sells seeds 4/$1.00; they also have containers and starter kids for $1.00.

Shop the clearance racks at your local retailer.

Also, as a former retail manager, I shop the “dead” plant sales. Stores mark down plants that do not look good.

Retailers marked down plants very low because they don't look sellable, and we don't have time to take care of them, and so on.

Some of these plants were shipped to the store lacking water or daylight and are marked down 50% or higher before they are thrown down the compactor.

As a consumer, this is a win; all they need is love and care, and these plants will grow.

So please make sure to check the clearance rack at your local retailer.

Plant what you will eat.

No point in gardening plants that you and your family won't eat. This is a waste of money as well. Stick to vegetables you and your family enjoy eating this season.

Reuse your items

It is so tempting to go out and buy the cutest containers and gadgets for our garden. To keep the cost of our gardening down, reuse, my friends and you. We have tips if you are unsure what to use for your gardening.

Pinterest is full of gardening ideas.

Thanks to Pinterest, I could reuse containers to grow my herbs and other plants. You can grow so many plants in containers that don't require you to go and buy them at all.

Search the house for containers and start using them to grow your garden.

Always remember that keeping your garden simple will help you stay on budget. Follow these helpful tips to help your garden on a budget, and I can guarantee you that you will keep the cost of your garden low this season.