Bargain Blooms and Dirt Cheap Landscaping

In the Spring, at the end of the day, one should smell like dirt.

And I do.

I have been outside as much as I can enjoying this 

gorgeous South Carolina weather (not too hot, not too cold).

I thought you might like to see how a one-income,

no-debt, cheapskate household gets their plants for practically nothing.

Wanna know how?

We get up at 3 A.M., don coal miner's caps and prowl the cul-de-sac,

crouching in the grass and hiding in the shadows.

Then we dig the plants out of the neighbor's yard while they are sleeping.

Ingenius, no?

Well, okay, we don't do that, and you shouldn't either.


What we actually do is wait till plants and their paraphernalia
go on sale or buy stuff at yard sales.


We go to the back of the Lowe's Garden Department
and get out plants off the slightly overcooked or
somehow overlooked palettes.
We even buy plants at yard sales.


Top row: White Geraniums, 1.25 quart, $1.00 each
Middle row: Blue Wave Petunias, 1.25 quart, $1.00 each
Bottom row: Red Geraniums, Pint, $ .60 each

Sometimes, by the time we rescue a plant, 

it is no longer blooming (but will).

I am picky about the colors that go in our yard.

We only take in rejects that bloom yellow, red, white or blue.

How I tell what color it is, is by searching for the dead blooms

usually lying on a leaf or two.

Sometimes the tag will tell you, too,

but sometimes the tag shows the whole variety of colors that this plant comes in,

not the particular color you want.

If I cannot tell what color the flower is, I don't buy it.

Maybe you are not as persnickety picky as I am 

and it you love all the colors.

You'll get done shopping more quickly than I do.

We also buy plants that, even though they are annuals,

will survive our hot SC summers without a lot of attention.

Geraniums and Lobelia, in the basket below,

(Originally $19.99, I paid $5.00)

are good choices.

(In the upper right corner of the picture you can see dead leaves on a Mandevilla Vine that was adopted.
The dead portion was cut off and it thrives, and you'll see it further down in this post).

Impatiens are also good choices that love the shade and heat, and multiply like crazy.
(I paid full price for these-- $1.87 for a 6 pack of annuals).

Other plants in our yard--that can take the heat are Miniature Japanese Holly bushes
I got 8 of these for $2.00 each.

This is one of my favorite blooming vines in our yard, the Jackman Clematis.

Every year, it tells us when Spring is here.
One time price of around $8.00. So far, eight years of blooms.
($1.00 a year!)

Another garden joy is the Nikko Blue Hydrangea.
I got this as a birthday present, so it was free.
Another way to get cheap blooms is ask for plants for presents.

These Indian Hawthorn Shrubs (the middle one looks like a bite is taken out of it)
were $1.00 each a few years ago.
There are 6 altogether, lining the side of our house.
They were 8 feet tall last week, until I pruned them.
When I bought them they had been on life-support.

This hummingbird favorite, Black and Blue Salvia, is stunning and very hard to get rid of, 
so plant it where it has plenty of space.

We bought three small plants ($5.00 each) 3 years ago. 
We cut it back to the ground in the Fall.
Yet it grows to about 4 feet tall by 8 feet in diameter each year.

English Lavender.
Is there a prettier name for a flower?
This perennial smells heavenly, and makes a beautiful ground cover and bouquet.
I dry it and crush it and use it to scent drawers.
Miss S (my college girl) wants to cook/bake with it sometime before this summer is over.
I have it several places in the yard and got the plants for around $1.50 each, as I recall.

Stella D'Oro Day Lily.
Hearty, lively, beautiful.
These reproduce. Divide these to make more plants.

Threadleaf Coreopsis.
Wispy, whimsical and wild.

These were the BIGGEST bargain of all.
Instead of a fence, we spent $185.00 and
bought 24 of these Thuja Green Giant Trees in 2002.
They were two feet tall.
Miss A on the left and Miss S on the right on planting day.

These are now about 20 feet tall!

And of course, the least expensive way to have plants: seeds.

(Or is it the least expensive)?

Our organic veggie and herb gardens as of today.

These railing planters (with coconut liners included) were $3.00 on clearance at Wal-Mart last Fall.
I bought 4 of them.

I got a set of 5 of these faux clay pots at a yard sale for $5.00!!
The previously over-baked Mandevilla (minus the dead leaves) 
now lives in one of them.

So, these are just a few ideas from my own yard
on how to save money on making your yard come to life.


It's Spring.
Will you smell like dirt at the end of the day?


How do you save money on flowers and plants?

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