Designing an eye-catching garden doesn’t have to cost you a fortune. Creating a garden in your backyard is doable with a bit of savvy know-how. From choosing the right plants, making your own plant feed, shopping smart, and DIY extras, your garden can be the most beautiful on the block and the most budget friendly. Read the following guide on how to design a beautiful garden in your backyard on a budget. Implementing cost-saving measures in designing your garden doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice beauty.
Let Your Plants Do the Talking
Instead of relying on expensive plants, pots, flowers, and pavers, let your budget-friendly plants do the talking. There are plenty of cheap flower options that you can purchase to jazz up your backyard garden. And once you buy your flowers, there are plenty of ways to get the most value from them by using cost-effective methods in multiplying them.
To save money on buying tons of flowers and plants, you can divide your flowers. The root bulb will stay intact and the roots are separated and divided to have more to plant. Some plants you can be propagated or layered, but you must choose plants will take root easily.
Another great way to save money while designing your garden is to share goods with your neighbors. Your neighbor may be interested in trading flowers, shrubs, and plants with you. They may even help you out with soil.
So which plants should you choose? There are numerous options and one of the best and cheapest is perennial flowers. Perennials are known to last a long time and through various weather. Most perennials are in the same price range but there are varieties that require much less maintenance which means you’ll save on fertilizer and water. You’ll also save yourself a lot of time.
Bleeding heart is a beautiful flower that comes in colors of pink, white, and red. The flowers are heart-shaped and they can last for years. They also grow wide which means they’ll take up more space and in turn you won’t have to spend as much trying to fill in any gaps.
Cone flowers are another great choice. They grow up to 4 feet high and they spread rapidly. The blooms come in colors of pink, white, and lavender.
The Day Lily is an easy flower to grow and it tolerates some of the worst soil. It’s often found as a wildflower that grows around banks and large grassy areas.
The butterfly bush is intended for warmer climates but it is a great budget-friendly option to add some pizzazz to your backyard garden. The bush can grow and spread up to 12 feet high. The colors of the flowers attract butterflies.
Pampas Grass is a unique choice and will add volume and height to your garden. The stems are long and grow upward. The Pampas Grass plant can grow up to 10-12 feet high. These eye-catching flowers boast silver to tan puffs at the top of the stems.
Budget-Friendly Compost and Fertilizer
One of the best ways to save money for your garden is to make your own compost bin and your own compost. Instead of buying a compost bin, make one that you can place near your garden for convenient use. You can use some wire or wood to do so.
You don’t have to spend a lot of money buying fertilizer when you can make your own compost at home. Compost is typically made of biodegradable materials like vegetable waste, eggshell remains, coffee grounds, and other degradable kitchen waste. Make sure you don’t get any weeds in your compost. Manure can also be found for free if you look around community websites or know a local farmer. As long as you can pick up and transport the manure, you can typically score yourself one of the best fertilizers out there for next to nothing.
Clearance Aisle
Don’t be afraid to take a peek down the clearance aisle of the garden center at your local store. Many times store managers will set prices at a discount for plants that have even the slightest wilt. Most clearance marked plants just needed a little TLC. You can snag some great flowers for half the cost and little repair is needed.
Landscaping and Lawn-Edging
Once you’ve got your plants and flowers settled, it’s important to take into account how you will landscape your garden and keep it within your budget. To start, consider buying topsoil in bulk because it comes out cheaper in the end. Also, check your local township for days in spring in summer when they may be giving away free topsoil or mulch. Usually you can find it in a large pile near the town hall on certain days and you’re responsible for pickup and transport.
Lawn-edging is an important part of any backyard garden. Lawn-edging creates clean crisp lines around flower beds and garden edges. Instead of hiring an expensive lawn care company, you can create beautiful lawn-edging on your own.
First, you’ll want to dig a trench around your garden. Then you can choose either pavers, steel, a small fence, or plastic to surround the edges. Using stakes, secure the material into the ground so it doesn’t easily fall out or hurt anyone. There are numerous instructional videos you can find on the internet to do a job well done and save loads of money.
Extra Cost-Effective Features
There’s no denying that no beautiful backyard garden area is complete without some comforting extras. You don’t have to pay an arm and a leg to spruce it up, instead put your DIY skills to use and you’ll love the finishing touches. You can make your own stepping stones that lead to your garden by mixing concrete in molds and adding your choice of paint. You can also make your own DIY firepit by using stone and brick. Lastly, you can create cute garden beds with old rubber times. Slap on some paint and you can add a whimsical or vintage look to your garden.
Using these money saving methods in designing a beautiful backyard garden, you’ll be enjoying the view all spring and summer and maybe even beyond. Keep an eye out for great deals on plants in stores and try your hand at some DIY projects. Coming up with a beautiful backyard garden on a budget is doable and can be a lot of fun.
