In recent years, I have fallen in love with gardening. I love the delayed gratification of it. I love how much work and planning goes into it and how precious every flower and every little harvest is when you’ve put so much into it!
Today I am sharing some of the ways we make gardening both earth-friendly and affordable for our family. If you also like the idea of gardening while trying not to buy plastic things and trying not to spend a fortune, these are some ideas that might help.
Use What You Have
Using what you have might sound obvious, but sometimes it is tempting to go to the hardware store or garden center and buy the perfect thing for every gardening need. Before buying something, we like to try to consider using something we already have. There were some garden tools and organic fertilizer in our shed when we moved here and we’ve used those when we can. We re-use milk cartons as mini greenhouses to try to get a jump on the growing season. This also makes for hardier seedlings since they are exposed to the elements within their little mini ecosystem. There are lots of tutorials you can find online for these.
When starting seeds indoors, we re-use yogurt containers, egg cartons, or toilet paper rolls. When we do buy seed pots, we buy biodegradable or terra cotta ones. Casserole dishes or plastic bins from around the house can be used as trays to put seedlings in for bottom-watering. If you do use yogurt containers or milk jugs, make sure to drill holes in the bottoms first before filling them with soil.
Another opportunity to use what you have on hand for gardening is to use branches for trellises. This year we pruned the apple tree in our back yard and built a trellis for our sweet peas. We used twine to wrap around the trellis. Twine is one of my favorite gardening tools. I also use it to mark sections of the garden so I can remember where I planted what. I use twine for lots of other things outside of gardening as well, so we always have some on hand.
Start From Seed
We try to start things from seed as much as possible as a way to save money. We just bought a couple of grow lights to use indoors to start things a little earlier to extend the growing season and also to give them a stronger start. We spent $50 on a metal wire shelving unit and two lights for $50 each. While this is a bit of an investment and there is a lot of packaging involved with buying them new, we didn’t feel like it was possible to expand our gardening without this step. The year before we had started seeds on a 2 ft. x 3 in. windowsill in the kitchen, in addition to direct sowing everything that we could. We weren’t ready to buy a greenhouse, but wanted more flexibility in what we could plant and how much we could plant. It has been so much fun starting seeds under the lights. I think they are off to a great start. Fingers crossed! It’s a bit like Tetris trying to get everything to fit under the two lights that I want to start. I hope to add more in future years. I think at least one more, maybe two, would fit on the shelf I’m using.
There are two other seed starting tools that are eco-friendly and on my wish list. These are soil blockers and seed pot makers. Seed blockers allow you to start seeds in free standing blocks of soil which can then either be transplanted into a larger soil block or directly into the garden. Seed pot makers are a simple wooden tool which you use to make biodegradable pots from newspaper that can go directly in the ground. There are ways to make newspaper pots without the tool as well, which I am looking forward to trying soon.
Join a Seed Swap
This year I took part in my first ever seed swap organized by Steph Parke (@gardenbythesound), a gardening guru here in Tacoma who I started following on Instagram a couple of years ago. I sent her 15 packets of seeds that I had either saved from my harvest last year or had bought last year and didn’t end up using. Getting involved in a seed swap is an inexpensive (and super fun!) way to explore new veggies, herbs, and flowers. It is a way to pass on things you have too much of and use up what others might have too much of. Perhaps the coolest part of all is that you can connect with other gardeners in your area. So many of the seed packets were so creatively assembled and had the Instagram account names of those who had given them. I will definitely be participating in the swap again next year. I may even organize a small one among friends.
Save Seeds
Seed saving is one of the biggest ways to save money (and packaging and energy) while gardening! Why buy a whole packet of seeds each year when you can just save the seeds from last year’s harvest?! I am just getting started in seed saving. I have found sunflowers and nasturtium to be easy seeds to save, but would like to get into saving other types of seeds as well.
Buy Soil and Compost in Bulk
Last weekend, my dad brought me to Walrath Landscape Supply in Gig Harbor (near Tacoma) to pick up a load of compost. I asked him for the favor because we don’t have a pickup truck. We drove up, paid for it (just over $20 for a half yard), and they dumped it in the back of the truck with a front-end-loader. We drove home and shoveled wheelbarrow loads and dumped them our veggie raised bed, main flower bed, and put the rest in a pile on a tarp so that I can use it once I’ve got the other beds ready to go. It would have been much more expensive to buy individual bags and it would have wasted way more plastic. Now, I do buy potting soil and seed starting soil and some other gardening products in plastic bags for now, but at least the getting the big quantities in bulk makes a difference!
Grow Organically
Using organic soil, compost, and seeds, and avoiding using chemicals in gardening is a simple and significant way to make sure our gardening is Earth-friendly. While it is more expensive up-front, it keeps our family healthy, which saves money in the long run. As a weed suppressant this year, I spread cardboard boxes across one of my beds that is particularly prone to weeds. Using cardboard is cheap and better for soil, wildlife, and people than using chemicals.
Reach Out to Your Community
We share tools among three families that all live in Tacoma. Between my family, my brother’s family, and my parents, we own a wheelbarrow, a weed eater, an edger, a hedge trimmer, and a pole saw. Each of our families doesn’t need a complete collection of tools if we can share. The wheelbarrow actually belonged to my grandpa. I love to be able to use it still after all these years and I think of him every time.
I’ve also checked out lawn tools from the Tacoma Tool Library. Tool libraries make tools more accessible and help reduce consumption. Following gardening accounts on Facebook and Instagram can get you involved in your local gardening community. I’ve gotten a free strawberry plant off of the Tacoma Gardeners Ask, Give Trade page on Facebook. I’ve also gotten a free raspberry plant from Charlotte of @grittygardener253 on Instagram. I have been so impressed with everyone I’ve met in the gardening community here. They’ve all been so friendly and generous.
Buy Second-Hand
Many garden tools and pots can be found second-hand either on Facebook Marketplace or in thrift or antique stores. I have a metal watering can that I found at Goodwill. A clever idea I just learned was to thrift old photo albums (or clean out your storage and find some) for storing seeds! (This was shared by Roxanne of @happyholistichomestead.) That way you can flip through your seed collection easily and keep everything organized and safe in your album. Mine are currently stuffed in an envelope so I’ve got my eye out for photo albums.
Go Slow
Finally, a way to make gardening more economical is to take it slow. Add a few things each year. This year we got a couple grow lights and a shelf. Next year, we’ll add another raised bed, and the next year maybe another, and so on…until my whole back yard is full of them!
Gardening this way takes work, planning, and patience, but it is so rewarding. Among obvious benefits like getting us outside more and giving us beautiful flowers and delicious, wholesome food, gardening gives me the urge to experiment, embrace imperfections, and just go for it and see what happens!
If you have any ideas on sustainable and affordable gardening, I would love to hear them!
