How to Save Money on Lawn and Garden Care

For a do it your self lawn you ned three pices of equipment, lawnmower, spreader and edger.  You can look for any of these in the classified ads in your local paper, Craig's list for your area or at a local thrift shop.  At a second hand store you may not be able to start the lawnmower or edger so be careful to budget in cost of repairs and keep the purchase cost well below that. 

Fertilize with a generic brand of product from your garden center only twice a year.  The spring treatment during the time that the Forsythia is in bloom will include a fertilize with a crabgrass preventer.  The second treatment is during the heat of summer with an insecticide that kills grubs.  Other applications are intended to keep the grass a stunning color green, that was nice when house prices were inflated, but not as necessary during the recession!

If you are overseeding or planting seed in your lawn, Use the new 'water saver'  and/or drought tolerant brand of grass seed.  This will keep the summers water bill lower.  Also to help with watering, add rainbarrels at the bottom of the drainpipes from your gutters, you can then use this to water the lawn if a coupld weeks go by without rain.

For the garden, think about the recurring annual costs that you could avoid.  Cosider placing maintenance free groundcovers in areas that you used to mulch.  Make sure you use those that thrive in sun (Liriope) in sun and those that thrive in shade (Pachysandra) in the shade.  You may need to continue to mulch the first year or two but eventually the ground covers will take over and you can eliminate your annual mulching cost.

Replace the annuals wtih perennials, use some of the groundcovers in the pots on your patios.  Place Perennials that are drought tolerant such as ornamental grasses, vinca, lambs ear, butterfly weed and others.

If you usually buy transplants for your vegetable garden, invest time instead, and make seedlings from seeds.  Start seeds indoors 4-6 weeks before the last frost date. 

Partner with your neighbors to keep the costs down!  We are all in this together!  Can you share groundcovers or split and share perennials?  If you have a small lawn, split bags of the two applications you are going to put on the lawn.