Cheap Garden Ideas

From rare and unusual plants, to cutting-edge tools, to large and involved hardscaping projects, gardening can be an expensive hobby. Fortunately, there are many opportunities to keep costs down by using cheap, homemade solutions instead of store-bought supplies. Use your creativity to keep your costs down and you will be able to stretch your budget to make the garden of your dreams.

Salad Bowl Birdbath

Bird baths are usually heavy, formal and pricey stone affairs, but there's no reason they need to be; anything that can hold water for birds to drink or bathe in is a functional bird bath. Make your own bird bath with an old salad bowl or other round, open container. For a simple bath, place a salad bowl filled with water on an outdoor table. For a more permanent structure, glue it in place on top of a stool, an old camera tripod or some other free-standing structure you have lying around. It will attract birds and give your garden a funky, homemade look.

Cheap Garden Supplies

From the moment you start seedlings to the day you harvest the fruit, there are marked up special-purpose gardening supplies for every task. Often, a homemade version works just as well. Save money on starter trays by using wax paper cups with holes poked in the bottom to start your seeds. Use thrift store plates or old food storage trays as drip trays. If you have broken venetian blinds, use the slats as labels for your plants, writing the names on them with a fine-tipped marker. Rather than buying compost or organic fertilizer, recycle your kitchen scraps into compost to nourish your plants cheaply.

Homemade Trellis

Build a trellis for the cost of some twine and a pair of scissors using windfall branches, suggests Littlecountryvillage.com. Find some tree limbs that have been knocked down during a storm and stick them several inches into the ground in a row. Either angle the branches or bend their tops to make them touch and cinch the tops together. Then, thread twine between the branches to the bottom, creating a lattice. Alternately, tie willow branches or twigs in horizontal rows across the branches using small pieces of twine. Grow vines up your homemade trellis for a rustic and decorative look.