Rhonda Massingham Hart - Tips for Dirt Cheap Gardening

Excerpted from Dirt-Cheap Gardening

by Rhonda Massingham Hart

Obtaining plants for your garden can run up potentially enormous expenses in your gardening budget, depending on the plants you want and how you go about getting them. However, with a little investigation and some hands-on propagation, you can be thrifty and have all your favorite plants.

Invest in longer-living plants and perennials that will come back year after year.

The longer a plant lives, the more you will get for your money. Like us, plants have a somewhat predetermined life span. The entire life cycle of annuals is a single growing season, while perennials come back year after year. Although annuals are cheaper than perennials, you must replace them every year. A dollar spent on a six-pack of petunias may seem like a bargain compared to $3 for a single candytuft, until you multiply the cost over several years. You only pay for perennials once.

Choose disease-resistant varieties for longer-lived plants.

Two rosebushes are next to each other in a border garden. One is practically defoliated, with the remaining leaves covered in black blotches. The other has full leaves and boasts blooms to boot. What makes the difference? Some plants are just naturally more resistant to disease than others. Physical and chemical attributes account for much of the mystique of natural resistance. We may not always know why some plants resist illness, but we do know disease resistance exists. Unfortunately, resistance often varies with climate or locale. Still, resistant varieties help save money otherwise spent fighting plant diseases or replacing lost plants. Look for varieties that are resistant to diseases particularly prevalent in your area.

Dont assume that because you bought certified disease-free plants or resistant varieties, your plants will never get sick. The rest is up to you. Just as you can keep susceptible plants healthy with proper care, disease-resistant plants can get sick if not maintained properly.

RECOMMENDED DISEASE-RESISTANT VARIETIES

Dont waste money and time growing crops that are cheaper to buy than grow.

An important consideration for a cost-effective plot is to grow only those crops that are cheaper to grow than buy. Why toil over a bed of spuds when you can buy 10 pounds for $1.59? Actually, there are a couple of sound exceptions to this rule. If your hearts desire is for a vegetable variety unavailable at the grocery store, grow your own. If you worry about an organic diet, grow your own. But if cost is a factor, leave the cheap vegetables to the truck farmers. See the chart on page 5 for details on vegetable production rates.

To find great deals on plants, join your local garden club and participate in its plant swaps and sales.

One of the best reasons to belong to a garden club, apart from the friendship, is that members give each other or sell cheaply perfectly good plants. Plant swaps or sales are standard among clubs and a great way to increase your plant collection. If you are not a member of a formal club, create the same opportunities simply by talking with others about your garden and theirs. Once people know you are a plant nut, they offer you all kinds of plant items.

To save money on seeds and plants, and to increase your selection, join a seed-savers exchange club or plant association.

Gardening magazines often have a seed-savers exchange section. Someone has saved variety X and would like to trade for Y. These are a great way to get seeds often rare or heirloom varieties that are hard to find elsewhere. There are seed-saving clubs, such as the Seed Savers Exchange, the members of which trade thousands of seed varieties. In addition, plant associations abound for nearly every kind of plant from alpines to water lilies. National groups usually send out a newsletter in which members often list plants they have to offer. If you have a real passion for a particular kind of plant, get involved with the local chapter of the appropriate association.

COMPARATIVE TABLE OF VEGETABLE PRODUCTION RATES (PER 10 FOOT OF ROW)