A lot of gardeners like to purposely plan out their beds down to the exact plant they want in a space and how many. By doing so that creates a very well laid out garden, more in the line of a formal garden. And they look wonderful!
Paying full price for plants and multiples of each adds up quick. If you are not rigid and a more of a free flowing gardener, you can create and have a garden quite a bit cheaper. Here is what I do.
I covet the plant clearance racks. Walmart, Lowe’s and I’m sure other garden centers often place damaged and end of season plants on clearance, sometimes at unbelieveable prices. Lowe’s is extremely reliable to have many plants on clearance just so they can make room for more incoming plants. You cannot pass up these deals.
Seasonal blooming plants are often put on clearance after their bloom time just to get rid of them. Plants that got hit by an early frost and look horrible are more often then not put on clearance. The plants may look almost dead sometimes but look closely. If there is some green growth showing through, it is alive and will recover. When you get home, trim off those dead spots, give it a bit of fertilizer and water and place it in the sun (or shade depending on the plant) and see what happens. If it doesn’t bounce back, you haven’t lost much. Chances are you will have a vibrant gorgeous plant.
Sometimes your options aren’t the best. Maybe a ton of annuals, maybe a few perennials of different varieties, sometimes a whole lot of the same perennial that may be past it’s bloom time for the season.
No matter. Buy them. Buy as many as you can afford. Put them in the ground. Create a new bed. Create a new planting design based on these new plants. Next year they will bloom when they are supposed to and you will be overjoyed with how inexpensive these plants cost and the amount of beauty and joy you are now receiving from them
Here are some of my clearance finds:
The majority of my yard (and I have a large yard) has been planted from clearance rack plants. I have been pretty lucky to have been able to purchase lots of plants from a couple of garden centers that have gone out of business or just needed to get rid of the particular lot of plants. I religiously hit the garden departments every time I am in Walmart or Lowe’s or any other store that sells plants. If there are some plants in the clearance that I feel would fit the bill for my garden, I but a few, or a lot. If not, no worries. I’ll check back again next time.
I also start a ton of plants from seeds. I always start annuals because you can always fill in little spaces here and there with annuals and starting from seed is cheap. I like to start indoors early enough so that the plant has time to put on some growth before it is planted out in the yard.
I also like to start perennials from seed. It is an inexpensive way to add expensive plants to your garden. Or plants that you maybe can’t find locally. The varieties you can find in seed form, especially if you order online, is outstanding. Again I start those seeds indoors and sometimes keep them in pots until the second year. A lot of perennial plants won’t set flowers until the second year anyway so that is a way to keep them going until they are large enough so that they won’t get lost in the yard. Some perennials can be started indoors in mid winter and they will flower the following summer. Just read the packaging with your seeds to determine what is best. Either way you can’t beat starting from seed. The feeling of accomplishment is amazing when you see a very prolific plant in your garden exuding flowers all over the place and you started that plant from a little tiny seed months earlier.
These Catmint plants were started from a packet of seed that cost me about $3.00. And I have a ton of seeds left if I need to start more. I have them planted at the edges of several large flower beds so there are quite a few of them. They provide color almost all summer long and come back vigorously every year. If I leave the plant alone and it drops its seeds all over (which it inevitably does every year), I have lots of new little plants coming up everywhere which I can transplant into new places or use a replacements if one of the original plants has died out or somehow been damaged. If I don’t wish to use them, I just pull them up and toss them in the compost pile. I have also potted some of them up in case I wanted to use them later somewhere. It’s a win win situation and it cost me almost nothing.
Another way to gain plants is by division. There are lots of perennials that can be divided into 2 or more plants. Hostas, Mums, Bee Balm, Yarrow, Daylily and many, many others. It is fairly easy to do and instantly gives you more plants and doesn’t cost you anything but a little time. If you purchase an overgrown plant, chances are that you can divide that and end up with more than one right off the bat. If you have some plants currently in your garden that are getting too big for their spot, you can dig them up and divide them and then replant them.
Another form of plant reproduction which takes a little more time but is so easy, is rooting clippings. This doesn’t work for every plant but there are a multitude of plants that root very well from clippings. Butterfly Bush, Azaleas, Roses, Geraniums, and may others. If you have a plant that you would like more of, look it up and see if it is a good candidate for this process. Some root in fairly quickly while others take a bit more time.
So snag up some of those clearance plants this year. Or try your luck at seed starting. It is a very rewarding experience. Or take the division or root cutting route and see what you end up with. It may be just what you need to fill in some of your flower beds inexpensively, or free.