8 Smart Ways to Save Money on Your Vegetable Garden

Key Takeaways

Building healthy soil cuts down on the need for commercial fertilizer over time.
Homemade compost and mulch from fallen leaves are budget-friendly soil amendments.
Starting crops from seed and saving your own seeds is more economical than buying plants.

Growing your own vegetables and herbs helps you save on your weekly shopping bill and allows you to enjoy fresher produce than you’d find at the grocery store. By making a few savvy gardening decisions in the New Year, you'll create a vegetable garden that's even more budget-friendly and delivers more fresh produce for less.

Whether you’re growing a few herbs on a windowsill garden or creating a large veggie bed bursting with all the plants you love, here are 8 simple ways to save more "green" in your garden in the New Year to come.

1. Focus on Soil Health

Veggie and herb plants are much more productive in healthy and nutrient-rich soil. If you want your garden beds to produce a big harvest with minimal input from you, focusing your attention on the health of your soil is key.

Conducting a soil test through your local Cooperative Extension office, where you can get inexpensive home test kits, will help you determine if your soil is lacking in any particular nutrients and save you the trouble of investing in fertilizers that you may not need.

Building a healthier soil is a process that pays off over time. By practicing no-till gardening and adding a layer of mulch and compost to your beds once a year in spring or fall, you reduce the need for store-bought fertilizers.

2. Grow Plants from Seed

Buying potted vegetable and herb starter plants from a nursery or a garden center in spring is much pricier than growing plants from seed. Compare the price of seeds vs. the price of a single plant. If you want more than one plant of the same variety, it is usually more economical to purchase seeds, or, even more cost-saving, use seeds of heirloom varieties that you have collected yourself.

For indoor seed starting, you need supplies such as trays as well as grow lights, which makes the initial cost higher. But the lights can be used for years to come, and they should eventually pay for themselves over time.

To ensure homegrown seedlings are ready for spring transplanting, sow seeds with a long germination time, like tomatoes, in mid-March or about 6 to 8 weeks before your last frost date. Direct sow fast-growing and cold-tolerant plants like radishes and carrots outside as soon as the soil is workable.

3. Save Your Own Seeds

To make gardening even more affordable, save your own vegetable and herb seeds at the end of the season. Seeds from hybrid plants (identified as "F1" in seed catalogs) may not look like the parent plant at all, so it’s best to only collect seeds from open-pollinated heirloom varieties that are true to type.

Saving wet seeds from plants like tomatoes is a bit more involved, as the pulp needs to be removed before storage. To collect seeds from plants like sunflowers, cilantro, and dill, just allow them to dry on the plant.

4. Propagate Cuttings

Once your veggies and herb plants start growing, one way to get more plants for free is to use stem cuttings from the plants you already own. This includes plants like tomatoes, peppers, rosemary, lavender, thyme, and most other herbs, and it can be done by rooting the stems in soil or water.

If you create a lot of propagated plants, you may even be able to sell them at a local plant sale or swap them with your neighbors to get a wider variety of plants for your garden.

5. Make Compost and Mulch at Home

Annually enriching soil with compost and mulch reduces the need for fertilizer and boosts the health of edible plants. You don’t necessarily need to buy bagged compost or mulch to get the job done. Compost is easy to make using outdoor composting methods, or with indoor composting techniques like bokashi composting or vermicomposting.

To make your own mulch, use chopped autumn leaves, or potentially source inexpensive or even free straw or wood chip mulch from local farms or tree removal companies.

Local farms sometimes offer free straw that was previously used for animal bedding. This can be a rich source of nitrogen and carbon for plants, but it’s important to only source straw and animal manure from farms that don’t use herbicides. Herbicide-laced livestock manure harms vegetable and herb plants and makes gardens infertile for years.

6. Buy in Bulk

For even more budget savings, consider purchasing garden products in bulk. This includes many herb and vegetable seeds, as well as mulch, compost, some fertilizers, and other gardening supplies. If you end up with more supplies than you need, you may be able to save them for future growing seasons or share or swap them with friends and neighbors for other supplies.

7. Try Upcycling

Many items that you already have lying around your home are good candidates for being upcycled in the garden to reduce household waste and help you save money. Plastic yogurt pots, milk jugs, egg cartons, and takeaway containers are perfect for starting seeds as long as you poke drainage holes in the bases before planting.

Use old pantyhose and bits of twine as alternatives to store-bought plant clips. Old utensils can be crafted into homemade plant labels. Sticks from trees in your yard or local public woodlands work as natural stakes for tomatoes, peppers, and other plants that need a little support.

8. Research Food Preservation

A lot of potential savings go to waste if food crops aren’t harvested or used in time, and they spoil in the garden or your fridge. To reduce food waste and maximize your garden harvest yields, familiarize yourself with food preservation techniques that will keep bumper crops of cucumbers, tomatoes, and other homegrown fare fresh or learn ways to preserve them. Canning and pickling make veggies and fruits shelf-stable for a year or more. Many edible crops and herbs can be frozen for several months, and herbs can also be dried for longer storage.