I enjoy being frugal. It's been ingrained in me since childhood and I see no other reason to live any other way. My frugality reaches from making use of the items I find or already have to providing a garden of produce for my family eat from. All of these things, most of the time, end up saving us money and also give us a sense pride and accomplishment; we know that what we have is because we have worked hard for it - not waiting for someone else to support us - and that we are truly blessed in all facets of life!
But lets face it, gardening involves some money to be spent. For all gardens (food as well as landscape): we pay for water, fertilizer, seeds, plants, soil, tools, not to mention a great deal of time. And over time, this all adds up. I have started planting all of my fruits and vegetables from seed. This is actually my first year for tomatoes, and so far, so good! :) But when it comes to flowers and landscaping plants, I have a hard time just passing by the local nursery or even store nurseries without seeing something I want! And they aren't usually inexpensive :(
I have two wonderful dogs, but for the past three years, they have ruled my back yard and run a-muck! I tried mesh fencing, electric underground fencing, rocks...everything I could think of to keep them out, but to no avail. It just created more frustration and heartache for me.
Just as i had settled into the fact I couldn't have beautiful flowerbeds in my back yard, I got an amazing piece of advice from several of my uncles...and like magic, it WORKED!! (this advice is so astonishing, I have to share it in another post...very soon, I promise :-)
Well now I was left with a dilemma; i had beautiful beds in my backyard and absolutely no plants to fill it with. I approached family members and was able to get some starts of columbines, asters, shasta daisies, irises, wild hollyhocks, ferns, and coreopsis. This was a start, but i had so much bed to fill, I had only made a small dent into it. My husband, Cam, agreed we needed more, so we decided to go to our local Lowe's to check the selection.
(We LOVE Lowe's! Simple reason really: we have found numerous jaw-dropping deals there! So, our first 'go-to' home store is always Lowe's. No, I'm not being endorsed by Lowe's...this is my personal and very honest opinion!)
As we walked through the double doors marked 'Entrance' we were met with a very large display marked "Spring bulb clearance, $.50 each". Fascinated, we began to sort through the three racks of sale items. Amazing...the only word to describe it. We looked at everything and if it looked good we decided to take a chance. This was our opportunity to fill in our beds!
This what we found: purple potatoes, peonies, red astilbie, white astilbie, hostas, two different types of caladiums, three different kinds of day lilies, amaryllis, elephant ears, ferns, tropical garden kits, and a hydrangea bush...each pack was $.50! A grand total of 76 bulbs, starts, and plants; all for $9.50!
Time will tell if this was the deal of the year for me! I spent all afternoon planting & watering, and I can't wait to see what each of these will do! I'll keep you posted!
Always remember, you can have a beautiful garden on a budget. Look for discounted plants and bulbs at your local garden stores. Ask family members and neighbors for starts of their plants (this isn't only to your benefit...remind them it will also be of the up most benefit to the plant; several perennials - ie. irises and day lilies - need to be divided in order to bloom!) With a little time and TLC, you can often nurse a struggling plant back to health!
Enjoy the hunt!
No comments:
Post a Comment