How To Have A Beautiful Yard On A Shoestring Budget
Have you wanted to give your yard a makeover, but are afraid that it’s out of your budget to have a home with a lot of curb appeal? Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s totally possible to have a beautiful yard on a shoestring budget. Not only is it possible…it’s easy! All you need is a little ingenuity, creativeness and time to make it happen!
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How To Have A Beautiful Yard On A Shoestring Budget
Clean It Up and Mow!
The very first thing (and the most obvious) is to clean the yard up. Pick up any trash, limbs, sticks and dead plants. This may also including weeding flower beds and trimming trees and bushes. Then, when the cleaning up and clearing out is done, pull out the lawnmower and mow.
This is going do wonders for your yard, even if there’s no landscaping to speak of and you’ll be able to stand back and vision what you’d like for it to look like.
Look For FREE!!
Before you spend a dime on anything yard related, look for free. There are so many plants in our yard that were just given to us. We are fortunate to have several friends with green thumbs. There are a few times a year when they “thin out” their flowerbeds and when I get asked if I would like to come by and get what ever they may be thinning out, you can bet I jump on it! This has saved us a fortune! It also gives me an opportunity to learn about each type of plant, as our friends can tell us so much about the care of each one.
Other free items to look for are rocks, tree branches or anything that might be an interesting focal point to your flower beds.
My hubby had cut a tree down last Fall and had some fairly nice size stumps left on the back of our property. He took his chainsaw and hollowed out the middle to make me an unusual planter. I change out the plants if and when needed.
Landscape Edging Ideas
Rocks and bricks make wonderful flowerbed borders. Look for rocks of similar size when you’re out and about.
Stay away from pre-made edging from hardware or home improvement stores. That can get expensive. If you’re brave enough, go to new home builds and see if they have leftover rocks from siding or maybe leftover bricks. Always get permission and never just take them. You may be doing them a favor as it keeps them from having to haul it off.
Also check out rock yards. They may have left over rocks in small quantities for dirt cheap. It pays to ask.
Mulch
We get all of our mulch from our local landfill. They have single ground or double ground (which is what we usually get). The double ground is $24/ton. We bought 2 tons this Spring and it covered all of our flowerbeds and went around all of our trees. The single ground is cheaper, but tends to be on the “chunkier” side.
You can also use pine needles, grass clippings or leaves. This will add nutrients back into the soil. Mulching is very necessary to a well maintained lawn, as it keeps moisture in the soil and the weeds at bay.
Another great way to keep weeds out is to lay a few layers of newspaper on top of the flowerbed before mulching. Lay the papers on top of the soil and wet them. Then add your mulch. The newspapers will eventually bio-degrade, but they work as an excellent weed blocker.
Make Your Own Compost/Mulch
I know it may be easy to just run out and grab a bag, most mulch and compost can be made for free in your own backyard if you are willing to take the time. Collecting grass clippings, leaves and pine needles is a great way to repurpose and recycle some yard waste that is on hand. In the same way, creating a compost pile by mixing leftover kitchen scraps with potting mix cuts down on your natural waste, and prevents you from having to use your limited budget to buy expensive, store-bought fertilizers. See how with the How To Compost Infographic.
Have A Yard Budget
If you need to spend money on your landscaping, make sure to have a budget for it. The best time to start planning for your landscaping needs is before you need it. If you have money already set aside and earmarked for this, you can spend it, guilt free. This is an area in our budgets that can quickly sky rocket if we’re not careful.
When you do go shopping, look for end of season sales at nurseries and check thrift stores and garage sales. There have been many times, when I was shopping at a garage sale, that there were plants for sale, too! My Mom use to have Sago Palms, that she would take “pups” off of and transplant into pots. She would sell these for around $5 a plant. Anyone who knows anything about Sago’s knows that these are very expensive if bought at a nursery. So…keep your eyes open. You never know what kind of deals you might find.
Plant Perennials
If you do end up spending money on flowers and plants, look for perennials. I love the plants and bushes that come back year after year. Most of the time, as the years go by, the perennials come back stronger and more lush than the year before.
Everything in the above pic was given to us. Plumbago, Irises, Knock Out Rose and Lantana. They’re all perennials and come back every year.
Buying annuals is kind of like throwing your money away. They’re pretty for only one season then they’re gone. They have to be replaced every year and this will get expensive.
Perennials are going to save you a ton of money for years to come!
Invest In Plants And Projects That Give Back!
Give back you ask? Planting plants that are edible is a great return on your investment! Having a garden is great, but what I’m talking about here is putting herbs in your flower beds or places where you need fillers or shrubs. Rosemary makes a beautiful bush and it can grow quite large. It’s so fragrant and is great to cook with! It grows very quickly, too!
Solar lights only cost when you buy them. After that, they provide great night lights, free of charge, although you may need to change batteries, each season. They look great lining flower beds, sidewalks, patios and driveways.
Learn How To Propagate
Propagating, in the plant world, simply means to produce a new plant using a parent plant. Whether you take a cutting off of a plant or divide it up at it’s roots, its a great way to get the most out of your (or someone else’s) plants.
Some plants need to be thinned out. This is where I put my name in the hat to friends who are born with a green thumb. It’s saved us a ton of money and they are always appreciative when someone wants the propagated plants.
You can get so many more plants out of many of your shrubs, bushes and perennials if you learn how to propagate them!
If your not sure how to propagate, check out this short article, 4 Ways To Propagate Your Plants.
Learn Your Plants, Shrubs and Trees
You can save a lot of money, time and trouble if you take a little time to learn about the plants. You’ll need to determine where you will be putting them, how much sun and water they need, how big they’ll get and how far apart they need to be. You would never want to put Impatiens or Caladiums in full sun anymore than you would put a Sunflower in the shade.
It also helps to know what kind of soil you have. We have a very sandy soil, which means it has more air in it than clay soils, so it doesn’t retain water and nutrients as well. Clay, on the other hand, stays wet for a long time and has more nutrients, but tends to get quite hard. There are numerous types of plants that do well in each type of soil. Just do a little bit of research before plant.
Another good thing to know is the zone that you live in. Here is a link from the USDA site that will help you with that, in case you don’t know.
The lesson here is a little education will go a long way in saving you time and money.
DIY and Value Your Time
It’s obvious, but I’ll say it anyway. The most cost effective way to landscape is to do it yourself. When you hire someone to do it, you’ll pay mostly for the labor and not the plants.
When you’re trying to decide what kinds of plants to put in your yard and the size of the flower beds, be sure to think about how much time and upkeep you’re going to have to spend maintaining it. If you want a nice yard but are really busy with other things, you may want to consider just keeping the yard mowed and cleaned up.
If you’re really busy, but you want a little more personality for your yard, look for low maintenance plants and shrubs. There’s tons to choose from.
Check Out The Dollar Tree!
I’m always amazed and pleasantly surprised at what this store has to offer. Just recently, I was able to find Gladiola bulbs in any color you could want. There were 6 bulbs to a package, so I bought four packages of red ones. They had multi colors in pink, purple and white in addition to the red. That’s 24 bulbs for $4.00!!
They also have vegetable seed packets as well as wild flower, zinnias, nasturtium, and so many more and their seed packets are always 4/$1.00. While I was there, I also picked up a pair of gardening gloves, a small spade and a claw.
In addition to bulbs and seed packets, they have quite a bit of yard decor as well, like the solar lights (If you grab them as soon as they put them out) that I mentioned, above.
The Bottom Line…
You do not have to spend a lot of money on your landscape because you CAN have a beautiful yard on a shoestring budget. I know this because I have done it for years! One year, we even won “Yard of the Month” through the Garden Club in the town we live in! Talk about a shock AND a very pleasant surprise!!
The most important thing you can do is to keep your yard clean, healthy and maintained. If you’re able to expand your budget, over time, your landscape will eventually evolve into the yard you’ve been dreaming of. You don’t have to do it all at one time.
How do you keep your yard looking great on a shoestring budget? Please share in comments and be sure to Subscribe to Love To Frugal so you never miss a post!
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