Saving Money on Gardening Supplies

So, you've decided to plant a garden, but you're also on a tight budget. Gardening supplies can cost quite a bit of money, even if you only buy the items on this short list of basic tools every gardener needs: shovel, hoe, spade, hand shovel, weeder, pruner, hand spade, garden hose, and a rake.

You might even need a garden tiller, bulb planter, pesticides, insecticides, mulch, compost, fertilizer, a wheelbarrow, and plant stakes. And then, of course, there's the cost of the plants, seedlings, or seeds. Perhaps your reason for growing a garden in the first place is to save money on your grocery bill, yet you realize halfway into your project that your gardening supplies cost just as much, if not more, than buying food from the grocery store. How can you save money on gardening supplies? Here are some handy tips for doing just that:

• Instead of putting your used plastic containers into the recycle bin each week, use them as seed starter cups. You can use yogurt and cottage cheese cups to grow small herbs. Use larger plastic containers, such as gallon milk jugs cut in half, to start tree seedlings.
• Visit second-hand stores for gardening supplies. You can pay as little as fifty cents for a hand shovel at the Salvation Army Store, opposed to upwards of $10.00 for a brand new one at a hardware store.
• Scour online sites for free stuff in your area. A good site to start with is http://www.craigslist.com. Click on your state, then your city, and then go to the FOR SALE category, and then click on FREE. You'll be amazed and the things people give away, and all you have to do is go pick it up.
• Visit the more affluent neighborhoods the night before their garbage pickup day. You may find a lot of usable garden items that people simply want to get rid of. My younger brother found an old, upright piano in an affluent neighborhood over fifteen years ago, and he and his family still have it in their living room and play it every day. It only cost him the gas to haul it away from the curb, and periodic tunings.

Visit local stables and dairy farms to see if they will give you free manure. Many farms and stables are more than happy to get rid of the excess manure. If you receive government assistance by way of food coupons or food stamps, you can purchase seeds with them.