12 Easy Tips To Save Money While Gardening

Today I thought I would share some quick tips that I use to help save money while gardening. I love gardening for a lot of reasons. It is a source of enjoyment that serves as a wonderful classroom for my son and it helps me save some money. While I have invested in building my garden this is the time of year it starts to pay me back in produce.

0:28 Reduce the Cost of Groceries
1:06 Focus on High Cost Crops
1:18 Free and Local Fertilizer Resources
2:00 Make Free Garden Soil
2:08 Using Rain Water to Save Money
2:43 Reusing Water from the Kitchen in the Garden
2:53 Save Seeds to Save Money
3:05 Starting your own Seedlings Saves Money
3:32 Investing in Perennial Fruit and Nut Producing Plants
3:51 Propagating Perennials to Save Money
4:08 Process Crops to Higher Value Products
4:43 Building from Recycled or Naturally Sources Materials

[musiqmaker]

Well Done! Growing up in the rural part of North Carolina, having and being surrounded by gardens was a part of life. My family did not have to worry about recalls on food because when you grow your own food you know what you are putting in your body. You can save a lot of money by growing your own fruits and vegetables right in your backyard or in flower pots. The price of a pack of seeds is almost equivalent to what you would pay for a single vegetable or fruit at the store, saving you hundreds of dollars each season!

[MIgardener]

pretty much hit all of them! Great episode Stephen!

[JohnnyHS]

I am amazed at how much you have done with such a small space. Moreover, I am very impressed that you can do this with only about 3 months of "warm" weather. In the Dominican Republic, we have sunshine all year long, which i'm sure you'd get a lot of benefit from. I have definitely taken up a lot of pointers from your videos and I will be surely developing my techniques and results Thank you!!!

[OneYardRevolution]

Excellent tips, Stephen! Your garden is looking great!

[MattThermer]

I love to use second hand items or even better free stuff in the garden. Beds, trellises, and fencing can all add up if you are buying new. Some things are worth the money to me though. My pruning shears is a cheap pile of junk and does damage to the plants with it's dull cuts, definitely should've spent a bit extra for a higher quality tool in that case. In the end I garden because I enjoy it and would likely continue even if it wasn't saving me a lot of money, that's just an added benefit.

[poppyb.]

Great suggestions Stephen!!. The old turkey fig tree that came with the property I reside on is the most productive and low maintenance perennial here. I took a few cuttings this year, and one of them rooted well. I would recommend anyone who is into self sufficiency and lives in a zone where figs can be grown in the ground to have at least one tree.

[trosanelli]

My money saving gardening tip is to develop a list of seasonal recipes that use vegetable available in your garden at a specific times of the year. For example, we make a stuffed peppers recipe that uses zucchini in the summer and we make a stuffed peppers that uses butternut squash in the fall.

[melovescoffee]

We pay a certain amount for every container of green waste the city collects. It pays to compost. General trash like broken buckets or containers and pieces of wood often find a new life in the garden as well before thrown out years later. General trash is 3 times more expensive here to get rid of. Not much more i can think of. I think i have bought salt, toiletpaper and a snickers bar this week instead of 60 euros of groceries. It sure adds up! Thanks for the great video, Stephen! It's good to be reminded of all the reasons to keep going.

[coopw]

Wow does your garden look delish. great vid thanks for sharing.

[ohhowhappygardener]

Great video! Going to the garden is like going to the grocery store this time of year-- there's so much coming in.

[thisandthatwithchris]

wow thanks for the great video I know my garden has saved our family in more than one way!

[wcbpxox]

Great video! I love making wine out of my surplus crops. In missouri it was a great year for peaches and cucumbers.

[andreahughes]

Great video! Thank you! :) The only thing that I do that you didn't mention already is I cut my own stakes for bean poles and tomatoes. There is an abandoned wood lot in my neighborhood with quite a few scrubby trees and shrubs. I cut the branches into poles with a lopper. I also do this when I prune sometimes or when a tree falls naturally (provided the tree isn't infested with some kind of insect.) Don't worry, I'm careful which trees I select for this, and never take all of anything.

[CarrieNita]

I live in NE Alabama, zone 7b.  I am able to root suckers from my first crop of tomatoes for a second crop to be planted at the end of July.  I use recycled pots and my own worm casting/compost mixture to root the suckers.  I can also save the seeds from these two crops for the following year.

[DennisDinges]

Thank you for the video and the nice ideas. Here in Holland they don't charge extra for water during dry periods but anyhow invested in extra 180 tank which has been very useful up to now

[shirleylyons]

Thank you for your video. It was clear and easy to follow---and gives me hope that maybe my attempt at gardening will someday be a complete success.

[sherthom]

Nice list. I have two video ideas I would like to see: Can you show us how you constructed your fence (rabbits have moved into my garden) and how you make your wine (my grapes will be ripening soon).

[PotatoStrong]

I spent a lot up front but I make my own compost, am on my own water well. I dump pro mix soil from containers into garden or compost bin. I'm working on extending the season with cold frames/greenhouse for more crops and more production (square foot gardening ). Canning might be another tip.

[elysejoseph]

Well done my friend! This time of year I barely buy any fruit nor vegetable, just eat fresh, local food, even some fresh fish from the lake ;-)

[Canadaheather]

The last to gardening seasons have not been very good in my area of BC. What I was able to harvest, I quickly put down whether it was freezing or canning. Two seasons ago, I was able to make so much pasta sauce and pizza sauce that I have not had to buy a jar of it in well over a year.