Incredible Garden Hacks to Save You Time and Money

Materials Needed: Wine bottle, water
Cost to Make: $5*

Even novice gardeners know that keeping plants watered is the key to keeping them alive, but it’s not always as easy as it looks. For a start, what happens when you go on vacation and can’t get someone to water the garden for you?

As it turns out, all you need is a few empty wine bottles. If you’ve got them lying around the house, then this hack will cost you nothing, but you can pick up a bottle for under $5 at stores like Walmart. All you have to do is fill it up with water and stick it into the planter. The water slowly seeps out, keeping the compost moist.

Materials Needed: Baking soda
Cost to Make: $0.65*

Growing vegetables can be a sure-fire way to live a more sustainable and independent life, but no one ever said it was simple. Some crops never come to anything, while others end up tasting bitter and inedible. However, if you’re trying to grow tomatoes, there’s an age-old trick that could help.

You can pick up a bag of Kroger’s own baking soda for just 65 cents. According to experts, sprinkling it over the soil around the tomatoes makes for a bigger, sweeter yield when the fruit starts to grow!

Materials Needed: Planters, glow-in-the-dark paint
Cost to Make: $12*

When summer comes around, lighting in the garden can be a nice way to add ambiance, but getting creative can often mean spending an awful lot of money. In reality, the solution to a chic outdoor space might actually lie in a coat or two of paint.

If you’ve already got the planters, then all you need to do is shell out around $12 for some glow-in-the-dark paint from somewhere like Amazon. Simply coat the planters in the paint and watch your garden come to life at night! Even if you need to spend $15 on buying pots, it’s still a bargain.

Materials Needed: Metal spoons, paint, hammer
Cost to Make: $5*

If you’re lucky enough to have a herb garden, then identifying the different plants might be easy – but if you’re new to the herb game, it can be a challenge, especially when the seeds are just starting to grow. Signs solve this problem, but the standard ones can be quite boring.

If you feel like flexing your creative muscles you can buy some all-surface paint on eBay. Use a hammer to flatten the spoons out, decorate them as you wish, and there you have it – fun, colorful signs that will put an end to herb-induced confusion.

Materials Needed: An old purse, waterproof lining, plants
Cost to Make: $15-$25*

There are many different ways to brighten up a garden, but if you go to a major retailer you’ll find garden ornaments can be pricey. The more elaborate they are, the higher the spend, but that doesn’t have to be the case.

If you’ve got an old purse lying around, you can line it with waterproof lining and use it as a very fancy, very unique planter. You might want to varnish it to make sure it withstands the weather, but this creative idea will still cost you less than buying something new from Home Depot.

Materials Needed: Old cans
Cost to Make: $0*

Almost every single household consumes some type of canned drink at least a few times a month. Instead of sticking them in the recycling when you’re done, you might want to think about saving them. They could actually be a very valuable – and totally free – gardening resource.

Placing a few old Coke cans at the bottom of a planter before you fill it up with compost acts as a drainage aid, making sure your plants don’t wither and die before they’ve even got off the ground. After all, the aim is for things to live!

Materials Needed: Eggshells, compost, seeds
Cost to Make: $1.46*

Getting seeds to start can be a risky business. They need just the right conditions to grow and thrive, but buying seed starter trays can cost you upward of $10 a time on sites like Amazon. Instead, you could have the answer already lying in your compost bin: eggshells!

Eggshells provide the perfect safe, warm space for seeds to get started. All you need to do is carefully place soil and seeds within the shell and wait for the magic to happen. The box itself can act as a stand. Even if you don’t have eggs at home, you can pick a dozen up at Walmart for less than $2.

Materials Needed: Potatoes, rose bush clippings
Cost to Make: $3*

Beautiful rose bushes are the crowning glory of every garden that’s well-tended and looked after, but growing them from scratch isn’t for the faint of heart. If you’ve always liked the idea of planting cuttings but the idea of propagating scares you, look no further.

All you need to do is take a trip to Kroger and pick up a pack of spuds for just $2.99. Wash them, stick the rose bush cutting your mom gave you in the top, and plant them in the ground. Not only does the potato hold the cutting in place, but they supposedly grow wonderful bushes. Who knew?

Materials Needed: Muffin tray
Cost to Make: $4/free*

Some gardeners like to scatter seeds willy nilly and see what pops up to create a beautiful cottage garden. There’s a lot to be said for that technique, but that’s not to everyone’s taste. Others like a more organized outdoor space, but creating perfectly spaced-out plants can be time-consuming.

But, if you nip into the kitchen and take out a muffin tray, you could save yourself precious hours. Using the tray to imprint the soil gives you a perfect guide on where to plant. If you’ve already got a tray it’s a totally free hack – if you need to buy one, Amazon sell them for just a couple of bucks.

Materials Needed: An old shoe, compost, plant, waterproof liner
Cost to Make: $10*

Let’s face it, we’ve all got at least one pair of old shoes lying around in the closet that we don’t use. While sending them to Goodwill is one option, you could actually turn it into an interesting garden feature.

Lining an old boot with a waterproof liner, filling it with compost, and sticking a plant inside it may not seem like a “normal” thing to do, but these sole-ful planters can actually look great if given half the chance. What’s more, if you take the lace and dip it into water, it acts as self-watering. Can you get more eco-friendly than that?