General Info

A few tips for landscaping on a budget can help you save money over the long haul. Careful shopping habits and maintenance techniques will stretch your landscaping dollars, and still leave you with that satisfied feeling that only puttering around in your own garden landscape can bring. Let's break our landscaping tips down into three sections.

Landscaping on a budget isn't about being cheap, it's about getting the most value for your landscaping dollars. Being patient and looking for bargains instead of paying full price can really stretch your landscape budget.

Tips: 1. Instead of buying your plants from the professional landscape nursery, try looking through the garden landscape section of your local discount department store. There are great bargains to be had if you are willing to be flexible with your choices. Just be very careful to examine the landscape plants for health and insect issues.

Tips: 2. If you're familiar with eBay online auctions, many plants come up for bid, often in lots that could be a great resource for filling in areas of your landscape. Realize though, buying sight unseen can have it's drawbacks, so checkout the seller's ratings to get a feel for their level of quality.

Tips: 3. Be patient. After Mother's Day, the price of flowers by the flat begins to drop, and by the end of June you can get great deals. Now the drawback to that is that the selection will be less, and those landscape bedding plants will need a little extra TLC to get them thriving again. Watering with a little Superthrive will give them a jump start, and promote healthy new root production.

Tips: 4. Starting your own compost bin is a terrific way to cut down on your trash and save money on fertilizer. The internet and your local library have plenty of tips and directions about composting for your landscape.

You don't have to pay an arm and a leg for your landscape accents. Creativity and recycled materials can create whimsy in your garden landscape.

Tips: 1. Try scrounging around your garage for buried treasure. That rusty old red wagon the kids are through with can make a nostalgic yard ornament to display bedding plants. The rust patina adds extra character to your landscape.

Tips: 2. Paint your clay pots. You don't have to be a great artist, just put on a cheery base coat, add some contrasting stripes or dots. Instant interest for your landscape! Container gardening is a terrific way to landscape a small space.

It's a simple fact, taking care of your landscape tools will keep them working for you year after year and it's a lot less expensive than replacing them.

Tips: 1. Drain your hose, coil and store it off the ground for the winter.

Tips: 2. Winterize your mower. Drain/use the last of the gas. Drain the oil too. Clean all the surfaces including the air filter, top, underside and blades. Adding a thin coat of oil to the blades will prevent rust. In the spring be sure to clean or replace the spark plugs.

Tips: 3. Take care of your most important landscape tools; your hands. Use landscaping gloves and apply a good moisturizer to prevent chapping.

Following these simple budgeting tips for your landscape will help you get the best value out of your landscape dollars. Landscaping on a budget doesn't mean being cheap or going without what you need for your landscape. It just means being flexible, creative and responsible about your landscaping needs in order to bring your personal landscape dreams to reality.