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Gardening on the Cheap
Robin Delargy, Vintage Bloomers

I prefer the term 'frugal', actually – it has a much nicer ring to it. Whatever you call it, gardening 'on limited means' is a challenge. But hey – so is gardening in general. Heck, life is a challenge! It's all about getting as much as we can of the things that we want, without putting ourselves in the poorhouse. When I first started gardening, I had no 'liquid assets', so I learned to rely on my ingenuity. I thought you might be interested in some of the tricks I picked up over the years.

Broken Concrete Path Broken Concrete Path Broken Concrete Rockery

• I learned to propagate from seeds and cuttings, and traded through the mail with other fiscally challenged gardeners.
• I learned how to compost. Now I compost my neighbor's grass clippings etc. as well as my own.
• I talked city workers into dumping broken concrete from sidewalk tear-outs at my house, and used the broken concrete to build paths and rockery beds.
• I asked a local tree-trimming service to dump the chipped trimmings at my house. Free mulch!
• I've made arrangements to haul off used horse bedding and cow manure from reasonably nearby stables and dairies. (Tip: Borrow the ex's pickup to do this – they like that.)
• Large nurseries often have used plastic nursery pots (even large tree pots) they'll sell really cheap.
• Feed stores will sometimes sell moldy alfalfa hay (or straw) super cheap – makes outstanding mulch!
• Some municipalities' compost collected yard waste and give away (or sell cheap) the compost to city residents.
• Some municipalities' produce a product from composted municipal waste. My city's product is called TAGRO. It's basically composted sewage sludge, but it is an excellent soil amendment. It doesn't smell so good, but the roses love it – they don't know it smells bad.
• Some municipalities will deliver free wood chips from trees trimmed out of power lines.

I've got quite the Wine & Roses theme in my yard. My husband Neal is a professional 'Wine Guy' and we've found some pretty creative uses for some of the stuff he's dragged home.

Wine Rack Wine Barrels Narrow Water Wine Arbor Trellis

• Wine racks make pretty cool structures to grow plants on!
• Wine barrels make outstanding extra-large planters. They're great for large climbers and ramblers trained into trees – the roses don't have to compete with the tree roots.
• This year, we finally finished trellising our entire backyard fence – with wine arbors! Wineries often release arbors for use as display pieces (you've probably seen them in grocery store wine displays.) When Washington's biggest winery released its new display arbors for 2004, the old models were discontinued and were going to be taken to the dump. Neal salvaged a whole bunch of them – metal ones, with a grape motif. We discovered that by turning the side pieces upside down and connecting them together lengthwise with the top pieces (we had to cut off the feet) they made awesome tall trellising for our fence. They were free and, because they aren't permanent installations (wired to the fence and pegged into the ground) we didn't even need a permit! We now have a very tall fence (12') that will give us a great deal of privacy once the roses have grown up over it. It's really pretty, too.

Gardens don't have to be expensive to be beautiful. With a little effort and ingenuity, anyone can have a beautiful garden… on the cheap.

List Member's Contributions

"As for cheap ideas on fertilizer, I have two. First, I experienced good results with shoveling my dog's poop around a newly planted eucalyptus tree. I guess it is like cow or chicken manure, but cheaper if you have a dog. You can also get bags full from no kill shelters (they would appreciate donations though). Secondly, if you have a nurse friend, she might scoop up some discarded Total Parental Nutrition (almost always some left over with no other use) and give it to you. It is used when people are too ill and have to be feed intravenously. If you take just a couple of ounces and mix in with a couple of gallons of water, the plants just flourish."

"Cost saving idea: nursery pots can be found for free from landscaping companies (I did this and got a truckload full of free pots of all sizes). Scrap iron fencing and gates make lovely trellises--call ironworkers or fencing companies for leftovers."

Care to share your cost-cutting garden ideas? Perhaps I'll use them in a future edition of Roseaholics Unanimous.

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