The first step to planting a successful garden is careful planning, and perhaps the most important p...

1. Creating a Home Garden on a Budget
The first step to planting a successful garden is careful planning, and perhaps the most important
part of planning is knowing about your soil and growing conditions. It is always advisable to buy the
best quality plants that your budget will allow to ensure maximum growth and value for your money,
but even the hardiest plants will wither under the wrong conditions.
Planning Your Garden
Depending on how extensive you garden project is, hiring a professional landscaper or garden
designer to draw up plans for you could cost several hundred dollars and is not always an alternative
when trying to stay within a budget. Studying garden design books and Cd`s from your local library
is a good place to start. They contain valuable information on everything you need to know. If you
can`t find exactly what you are looking for at the library, head to your local home improvement
center. The staff in the garden department are usually quite knowledgeable and willing to give
advice.
Friends, neighbors and family members who are gardeners themselves are also a wonderful
resource. Don`t be afraid to ask for advice.
Buying Plants
Garden centers and nurseries are usually the most expensive place to buy plants and landscaping
materials, but they offer a larger variety of high quality plants that will be less likely to wilt or die.
Nurseries also offer substantial discounts on perennial flowers, shrubs and fruit trees in the off
season. These reduced items probably will not bloom until the next growing season, but the savings

2. are well worth it.
Roadside stands and garage sales are also great places to find perennial plant material. Avid
gardeners frequently put up a stand to sell off the plants that they have thinned from their own
gardens. This is an excellent opportunity to purchase many different varieties of plants and ground
cover at incredible prices.
Budget Accessories
Commercially available garden accessories like gazing balls, statues and trellises enhance the
appearance of any garden, but they can be costly. Instead of breaking your budget to buy
accessories, use your imagination. An old spindle headboard or antique wooden ladder can become a
trellis, and old bricks covered in vibrant paint colors make a whimsical garden border and wooden
barrels, old wash tubs make rustic looking planters.
Garden Swapping
The best and most affordable way to build up a garden is to swap mature plants that can be thinned
with your fellow gardeners. Many years ago I stopped while I was out walking, to admire some
flowers that I saw growing in someone`s front garden. When the homeowner appeared to see what I
was doing, I asked what they were. Not only did she tell me the name, but offered to dig me up a
small bunch ( as well as some other varieties) to take home and plant in my own garden. Over the
subsequent years I have dug up many pieces of that same little bunch of flowers to pass on to friends
and family to enjoy.
Salvaging
No matter where you live or where you shop , you are always going to find a good deal here and
there, but nothing beats free gardening materials. If there is a construction site near your home,
don`t be shy about asking what they do with leftover materials. Many contractors will give excess
materials such as bricks, soil or screening away rather than having to remove or dispose of them
themselves when their job is finished.
I am a full time mortgage loan provider who spends his downtime writing about points he thinks are
really incredible. I finished from The College of Texas at Austin in 2002 with degrees in Financing
and Political Science.