HOW TO LOVE PLANTS ON A BUDGET

​If you are a plant enthusiast like myself, you already know how expensive it can be to love, care for, and purchase plants. 
Especially if you don't have the greenest thumb. 

Say aloe to my little tips on how to acquire plants and plant supplies while on a budget. 
(Once again, consider yourself warned. There will be more puns to come. MANY more.)




1. Sign Up For Emails From Garden & Home Improvement Companies 

Signing up for emails with companies like Lowes, Home Depot, and other garden center/home improvement chains can earn you rewards and coupons. 
You will also receive emails with "How To" videos, invitations to local workshops, gardening tips, and more. 

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2. The Clearance Section

Head straight to the discounted plant section at your local nursery or corporately owned chain.  This is not always to walk away with a cheap plant or a plant that you can nurse back to health, but it is also to get your hands on an otherwise expensive pot. There have been many times I have walked away paying less for a plant and pot than I would have paid for just the pot and the voila! A cheap planter mint just for you!



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3. Plant From Seeds

Planting from seeds saves an unbeleafable amount of money.
You can find seeds in stores and online, but occasionally you can even find extremely cheap seeds from Dollar Tree, Big Lots, and other retailers online for a discounted or even free price. Some online seed retailers will send out free product if you sign up for their newsletter or email list like Wintersown.org. 
There are also seed swaps online through sites such as Garden Web. 



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4. Find Cheap Pots In Unusual Places
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This year I found most of my new pots in stores such as TJ Maxx, Home Goods, and even Ross. Towards the end of the summer season, those cheap pots get even cheaper. 

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5. Propagate Propagate Propagate!

Use your plants, to make more plants! 

MANY plant varieties allow you to sprout new roots from cuttings. 
If you would like to speed up the process you can purchase a root boosting powder, but it is not necessary. 

I will intentionally buy plants that I see have several mother plants or "baby" plants sprouting from the mother plant - to make more plants. 
Clearly I am very frond of the word "plant" in that last sentence, but you get the idea. 
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Succulent propagation is extremely easy, but it does take a very long time and lots of patience. 

I am just cheap enough to wait. 

Same as above, I will buy succulents that have an overabundance of leaves to pop off and propagate to make more succulents. 
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(A small section of my current propagation station showing another variety of succulent) 



​Below are more photos showing multiple plants (in this case succulents) being sold in one pot which can be spliced off into multiple planters.
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6. Buy Local Soil

Very often you can purchase soil from a local farmer for the same or less money than getting a bag from the store, but it would already have all of their wonderful growing properties in it.


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7. Have A Plant Swap

Yes! That's right! Plant swaps are becoming a rising trend. You can have a plant swap party or even just set a table out in front of your house with a sign and see who stops by. 
I love this idea from my head tomatoes and will be having a plant swap of my own very soon. 




8. Let Your Plants Flower To Harvest The Seeds

When your plants bloom and flower, collect the seeds and save them for another planting.
I have successfully saved cilantro, scallion, chive, and basil seeds from my own plants that I allow to flower. I have also saved and dried seeds from the inside of my squash, tomatoes, and pepper plants to replant in their season. 





9. Use Recycled Items As Planters 

You would not believe some of the amazing ideas people have come up with for repurposing what we could consider to be trash.
I follow a wonderful gardening group on Facebook and have seen planters made from milk jugs, soda bottles, buckets, tires, bathtubs, canoes!
You name it, you can plant in it. 
One of the best I have seen which I have used myself is just planting directly into the soil bag. 
Recycle planting is great for your plants and for the environment as well. 



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10. Buy The Plant You Want - Just Smaller 

Love fiddle leaf plants, but don't want to spend $100?
Buy a baby for $20 and aloe it to grow into the plant you are dreaming about. 


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11. Compost

Make. Your. Own.
We throw out food scrapes, newspaper, toilet paper rolls, and all of that could be nestled into some warm, nutritious soil to rot away leaving amazing properties for your plants. 
Less food waste and more nutrition for your plants. 



12. Keep Your Receipt 

Some stores will refund you for plants that die within 6 months of purchase. Usually you will see this in writing on your receipt or you can ask customer service at each store what their policy entails.
Now, am I saying to neglect your plant and return it - NO. But if you were properly caring for your plant and it dies, it could be the suppliers issue which can be refunded. 


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13. Regrow From Scraps 

Below is growth from only one week's thyme on a romaine stalk.

Before:

One week later:

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Many vegetables and herbs can be regrown from the pieces we leave behind. Romaine, onions, scallions, celery, potatoes, and sweet potatoes along with basil, mint, and cilantro. You can regrow pineapples from the heads as well!



I hope you didn't stop reading and leaf because of all these corny plant puns. 
I am just a succa for them. 


Please comment below with your tips for frugal plant ownership!
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