The Best Cheap Garden Ideas For Starting Your Vegetables

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These cheap garden ideas will help your vegetable garden be the money saver it was meant to be in the first place.

You start out to create a little veggie garden just to save yourself some money on groceries.

But it doesn’t take long to discover that gardening can cost you a lot more money than just buying the dang vegetables at the store in the first place!

So when you’re just starting out, it’s super important to use cheap garden ideas as much as possible to keep your costs down.

Well, these ideas are easy, cheap, and totally do-able, even for the beginning gardener. So give them a try!

How To Use Cheap Garden Ideas To Save Money On Food

My first advice would be to get your hands on a copy of this book. It is so helpful, full of great advice for planting the best garden.

I’m a cheapskate, so you know it’s worth the cost if I’m recommending it. 😉 Check the price on Thriftbooks if you find the cost on Amazon too much.

If It’s Free, It’s For Me!

Free is, of course, the best bargain there is. (Usually.)

So start by finding out who has seeds or plants they wouldn’t mind giving or trading away.

• Maybe you have your own seeds or plants to trade.
• Trade eggs from your backyard chickens
• Painting services
• Babysitting or weeding

Just follow up on whatever you promise.

My Dad traded me some blackberry bushes for a few raspberry shoots I had in my own garden.

Starting Seeds Cheaply

Starting your own seeds is nearly always cheaper than buying plants from the store.

To do it cheaply, get your seeds from this company that a friend recently introduced me to.

It’s called Artistic Gardens, and they sell 45 cent sample seed packets. Check the sample sizes, but many of them are nearly as many seeds as you get in the $2.99 packs stores sell these days.

My seeds came quickly, and I can’t wait to see how they do!

You can plant your seeds in just about anything you have on hand.

• yogurt cups
• toilet paper rolls
• disposable cups
• cardboard
• milk jugs

Vegetable Garden DIY Must Have: Milk Jugs

Speaking of milk jugs, they can be used for so many things!

Use them as a mini greenhouse.

Cut around the middle, fill it with soil, plant your seeds.

Then tape it shut. Remove the lid and leave it outside to grow.

We’re in zone 6 and I have started mine like this in March with some success.

Another great way to use milk jugs is to plant your seeds directly in the ground, and place the top of a milk jug over the plant as a makeshift “cloche” or a mini-greenhouse.

This is nice because it removes the need to transition your plants from their easy life inside to the harsh conditions of outdoor living.

(That’s the hard part of growing your own plants.)

Cheap Ways To Grow Potatoes

Grab a big bucket (or in my case an old broken bucket wheelbarrow) and put several inches of dirt in the bottom.

Then, cut up your potatoes and drop them in.

Cover with the right amount of dirt.

(Your bucket shouldn’t be too full of dirt.)

Extra tip: If you plant before the last frost, grab a clear plastic shower curtain from the dollar store to cover the bucket.

Then, every time the plants begin to grow, cover them with more dirt.

This should encourage layer upon layer of potatoes to grow until the bucket is filled with potatoes.

I haven’t found a cheap source of potatoes yet, but you can just try a bag you pick up at the grocery store.

Sometimes these will grow, but sometimes they have been sprayed so they won’t grow. So it is a risk you’ll have to decide if you’re willing to take.

Ideas For Building A Cheap Raised Bed

After coming off of three major house projects in the past three years, we have plenty of leftover wood lying around. So I just pieced together anything that would work for my raised beds.

Other cheap raised bed ideas include:

• piecing together pallet wood you get for free
• using old tires
• landscaping materials or fencing someone no longer wants (check Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist for freebies)
• logs, bricks, or rocks you shape into walls
• straw bales: Again, check for freebies. Someone may be getting rid of very old straw. Avoid hay, which will be full of weed seeds, unless you can cover it with something like landscape cloth or dollar store shower curtains.

Know When To Splurge

Fruit trees are wonderful, because you invest one time and, ideally, have fruit for years to come.

This is one place I would recommend you splurge a little.

I have bought many cheap fruit trees over the years. They either didn’t thrive at all, or (in the case of my pear trees) took years and years to bare any fruit.

This year, I decided to invest in some trees from Stark Bros.

They have excellent reviews, and even a guarantee that they will replace the tree if anything happens to it in the first year.

Plus, I was able to take advantage of 10% off, and free shipping.

I’m excited to see how they do!

Go For Perennial Plants

You can slowly add fruit bushes to your collection over the years.

I bought my raspberry bushes from Nourse Farms several years ago, and to my surprise (and despite a lot of neglect), they are still going strong.

That made me want to order from them again. So this year, we are adding strawberries to our collection.

If you like the idea of not having to buy plants or seeds year after year, look for deals on these types of bushes or plants (sometimes you can find the best deals at your local nursery):

• rhubarb
• asparagus
• berries of all sorts (blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, currants, etc.)
• fruit trees
• horseradish
• mint

Living Fertilizer

Believe it or not, a pet bunny is one of my favorite cheap garden ideas!

If you don’t already have a bunny or two, getting started in rabbits might be cost prohibitive. You’ll have to buy the bunny, the cage, and the feed, and that (obviously) can get expensive.

BUT, if you already have a bunny, or…

your kids have been begging for a pet anyway, or…

you have access to someone who can help you get set up…

here’s why it may be worth it.

Bunny droppings are ready made fertilizer.

It’s one of the few manures that doesn’t have to sit around before you put it on the garden. (Because things like goats, cows, and particularly chickens, have very “hot” poop that will burn up your plants if you use it too soon.)

So every time you clean out their cage, you should make a nice pile that you can use whenever you plant, as an added fertilizer.

These Cheap Garden Ideas Are Just What You Need For A Great Harvest

Next, use this meal planning guide to save even more on the cost of food…