Reuse greywater or catch rainwater to water your garden. Water bills can add up fast when you have a garden to care for. Using a rain barrel is the easiest way to save money watering your garden. Other options including using greywater like dumping cooking water into the garden after it cools or using a bucket to catch the cold water while you wait for it to transition to hot instead of having it go down the drain. Many families collect grey water for their garden including the rinse water from doing dishes or laundry.
Use plenty of mulch in your garden to help trap water and reduced the cost of watering your garden. Mulch is cost-effective and can help with weeds and protecting your garden from pests as well. Mulch is vital for helping your garden to survive the summer heat.
Take advantage of free mulch to help lower your cost. Using cardboard boxes you get from online shopping is a great way to block weeds. Dried grass clippings from your yard make an amazing layer of mulch. You can always top these with more attractive decorative mulch options. Call your local power company. In many areas, the power company is often looking for places to dump wood chips from trimming trees along the power lines. This is a great way to get a whole lot of mulch for free, often enough to share with neighbors. In Florida Duke Energy is known for being a very gardener friendly energy provider that is more than happy to give you as much mulch as you are willing to take.
Rescue dying clearance plants. This can be a great way to get plants for pennies on the dollar from grocery stores and other places that sell plants that may not get the love they need. These dying clearance plants can often be saved with a little pruning, water, and sunshine.
Trade seeds and cuttings with other gardeners to lower the cost of adding new plants to your garden. This is a great way to build your local garden community as well. Check your local library as many host seed training events, if they don’t they may be interested in adding one.
Save seeds at the end of the season to use the next year. This can only be done with heirloom seeds making them an even better investment than modern conventional seeds.
Regrow food from your kitchen in your garden. Foods like celery are best grown from cuttings rather than seed. This makes growing the leftover bottoms a great way to save money and grow more food for your family. be mindful that not everything you can regrow is worth the time and effort. Pineapples can take up to two years to fruit a single fruit when grown from a pineapple top and take up a large chunk of the garden. Avocados can take 5 years for the tree to produce a single avocado and are best planted through grafted rather than from the pit of your grocery store avocados.
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