Savvy real-estate agents often advise their budget-minded clients to buy the ugliest house on the best block they can afford. I certainly did that. When I purchased a new home recently, I found a diamond in the rough —very rough.
Entombed in '50s aluminum siding, this turn-of-the-20th-century farmhouse didn't have much curb appeal. From its sagging front porch to its scraggly lawn to a graveled strip between the sidewalk and the street, turning this hovel into a home has been a challenge.
Although there hasn't been much cash to spend on making a new garden, I've come up with precepts for sprucing up the yard that can pay off both economically and cosmetically. Here are seven tips to create beauty on a budget:
1. "Cheap" is not a bargain.
Save up for important things — tools, fences, furnishings, containers, paving — and buy or build long-lasting items. Investing in quality can help you avoid the labor of having to replace items all too soon.
If you're the handy type, you can save bundles by crafting and installing elements yourself. I removed my straggly lawn by hand. All it took was time — and several economy-size bottles of pain reliever.
2. Buy smaller plants.
Nursery-grown plants can be pricey, and there are good reasons why: A gallon-size or quart-size perennial usually represents at least two years' work by the nursery staff — starting as a seed, cutting or division, with daily attention to watering and fertilization. And that doesn't count energy costs, which can be staggering.
I have no quarrel with the prices at the nursery — but I still have to count my pennies. When I started my new garden, I developed a loose two-year plan. A few hundred dollars went for 5-gallon shrubs — blue mist spirea (Caryopteris), lilac, purpleleaf sand cherry (Prunus x cisterna), butterfly bush (Buddleia) and shrub roses. I splurged a further hundred dollars on young perennials.
Forgoing the gallons, I concentrated on economical 3-inch and 2 1/4-inch containers. Some plants aren't available in these small sizes because of their extensive root systems. Peonies, ornamental grasses, yuccas, Japanese anemones and monkshood are mostly offered in gallon sizes and larger. Nurseries usually order these plants in as "liners": two-year-old bare-root plants from wholesalers.
3. Shop end-of-season sales.
Take advantage of the green industry's equivalent of the department-store bargain basement: Your nursery would really like you to take their odd lots home so they don't have to deal with them over the winter. Shoppers can often save up to 50 percent. It's a bit of a jumble and the selection isn't what it was in spring, but bargains are the mother of creativity.
Perennials are the best bet. Don't be deterred by a few yellowing or even brown leaves. These plants will die to the ground come cold weather and should emerge next spring in good shape.
Keep in mind, however, that obviously diseased or pest-ridden plants must be avoided whatever the price. A badly shaped shrub or tree can be pruned to shape and may be a good buy, but sometimes balled-and-burlapped plants have suffered by drying out. It is difficult to detect residual damage until much later, but if the price is right and you are willing to take a chance, you may have a bargain.
4. Start from seed.
Seeds, of course, provide the least expensive way to grow a garden, usually at a fraction of the cost of nursery-grown plants. You supply the labor and overhead. It takes a few seasons to get the hang of growing from seed, both indoors and out, but eventually you'll start to "think like a seed," gaining an intuitive sense of when and where to plant.
Collecting seeds from your own garden and from friends' saves further. Remember, you must ask before you collect seed in any garden, especially public ones. Learning to take cuttings can also help you fill in your garden and containers. Fuchsias, geraniums, coleus, flowering maples (Abutilon) and many more are easy to propagate.
5. Accept gifts graciously.
Gardeners are usually happy to share divisions of daylilies, yarros (Achillea) and iris. Just beware of any plant they're too happy to be rid of — it could be some invasive thug intent on taking over your garden.
Shopping with bargain-conscious friends can also save bucks. Buy only one of a plant you both like, with the agreement to divide or take cuttings the next season. In a short time, a small nursery bed lavished with tender loving care — and well-rotted organic matter such as compost — can beef up small plants to swap.
6. Waste nothing.
Pots and six-packs are good for at least several seasons, although the plastic eventually becomes brittle. Never use dirty containers. Rinse and run them through the dishwasher before planting seeds in them.
Composting garden debris and plant scraps creates yummy organic matter for beds and pots. I save the soil in my patio pots from year to year, dumping it in a pile in the fall. The roots and stems break down and enrich the mixture. In the spring, I add compost.
Because I feature hundreds of pots on my patio, I need that soil to stretch. Rough compost, not yet fully decomposed, can be added to the bottom of each large pot to break down over the summer.
7. Treasure your "volunteers."
Grow what wants to grow for you: I cleared several hundred feet of that awful gravel on the "hellstrip" between the street and the sidewalk and created a bed for my volunteers, which rapidly filled it. Though I'd prefer a bit more diversity, I'm thrilled with the water-thrifty patchwork of meadow sage (Salvia nemorosa), snow daisy (Tanacetum niveum), ponytail grass (Stipa tenuisima) and lamb's ear (Stachys byzantina), spiced by more than a hundred old-fashioned Iris pallida that came from a single, crowded clump.
Rob Proctor is a contributing editor to Country Living Gardener magazine. He is the artistic director at Denver Botanical Gardens.