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A Few Tricks to Trim Your Gardening Budget

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Make some green without losing your green.

Show me someone with a hobby, and I’ll show you someone with a hole in their wallet. There’s no such thing as a cheap hobby, or if there is, I’ve certainly never heard of it. Gardening, in particular, can really eat up your cash. It is a beautiful hobby, of course, well worth putting time and resources into, but all the equipment and consumables it requires don’t come cheap. If your gardening budget is getting a little out of hand, try some of these tricks to get your costs a little more manageable.

Split Mulch

A big ol’ sack of mulch often costs more than you may expect it to, doubly so if you’re having it delivered to you. Since you’re probably not going to use all of that stuff by yourself (at least not in a reasonable timeframe), find a friend or neighbor to split it with you. Plenty of mulch to go around, and extra money in the bank.

Save Seeds

This is probably something most gardeners already do, but if you aren’t, you really ought to start. Plants propagate by leaving seeds under themselves. At the end of the gardening season, check under your old plants for a treasure trove of seeds for the next generation.

Attract Helpful Bugs

Most bugs are annoying pests, but some of them can actually be quite beneficial to your garden. Certain kinds of plants will attract these bugs, who will then eat any lingering pests and keep your garden ecologically balanced. It’s cheaper, not to mention greener than chemical pest fighters.

Make Compost

If you’ve got a pet and a garbage can, you’ve already got the components of compost. Mix food scraps and garden waste with some manure, give it some time to properly decompose, and voila, free compost. Don’t worry, it’s supposed to smell.

Use Second-Hand Tools

Second-hand shopping has become much more popular in the last couple of decades, and you can take advantage of that. Used tools, old pots and bricks, and other gardening staples can be picked up from garage sales and second-hand stores for a fraction of what they’d cost new.