Bargains for the Garden

Never pay full price for ANYTHING! Especially plants!

I'm an avid gardener, but I have a very limited budget for plants, so I always try to find the best bargains when I'm spending my hard-earned cash and I almost always succeed!

Here are a few rules that I follow when I'm out looking for a bargain for the garden:

Rule number one is ask.
If you see something you want and are willing to sacrifice a little time to make it better, then make an offer--even if it's already marked down! It never hurts to ask and the worse that can happen is that they'll say no, or maybe meet you half way! Even if they'll only take off 10%, that's better than paying full price!

Rule number two is don't take it if you don't need it.
Better yet, only buy what you went after. It's really, really hard sometimes not to buy every single one of the $20 hibiscus you just got them to go down to $2 on, but STOP!!! Do you have time to plant all those suckers? (See rule number three.) Do you have a place to put them where they'll be healthy and happy? Or, are you just being a greedy gut and taking them because they're dirt cheap and you can't stand to pass up a bargain because YOU'RE A POSSIBLE HOARDER??? (We'll talk about hoarding in another blog.)

Rule number three is don't buy it unless you can get it in the ground THAT DAY!
Otherwise, you're likely to leave it sitting around and it'll die before you plant it. Especially, if you've bought discounted plants which are struggling in the first place. And, it doesn't do any good to pay $2 for that $20 plant if it's just going to sit in its pot and die! (See rule number two.)

Rule number four is find the free stuff
I also propagate my own plants as much as possible and I never turn down seedlings, cuttings, or plants from my fellow gardeners. (Well, I used to never, now, I'm a little more cautious about what I plant after this amazingly beautiful and proliferous vine nearly took over my entire pond garden!) I'm also more cautious about what I give away. I gave my neighbor some wonderful morning glory seeds and she planted them all along our fence line. A year or two later, those morning glory vines choked three, yes, count them, THREE, of my hibiscus to death! It was very sad indeed and now, if something grows out of control, I want to make certain sure that the person planting them will take responsibility for keeping them cut back.

Also, look around your plants for babies and replant those. I love finding babies because that's a very sure sign my plants are happy plants!

And don't forget your local garden clubs. Many garden clubs encourage you to bring plants for trading and that's one great way to get some terrific new plants! And the prior owners should be able to tell you all you need to know about the plant(s) you're bringing home. Another good source for freebies (well, trade really, but no out of pocket expense), is to contact your local extension office or garden club and find out if there are any home garden tours in your area. Volunteer to help prepare the gardens that are being shown on the tour and be amazed at how many goodies you'll take home from there! And talk about knowledge! These folks know their stuff and are usually very happy to fill you in! I helped some folks on our garden tour one year and they told me about this really cool place where they go get river rocks for absolutely free any time they need 'em. Oh, I'm a Master Gardener, by the way, and I learn about our tours from my local extension office where we hold all our meetings.

Okay, I feel like I'm rambling now and getting off my topic, so, I'm going to shut this down and start thinking about my next blog. Maybe more gardening stuff, maybe not. We'll see.