- I don't know about you,
but I sometimes spend a little too much here in the garden.
So in this video, we're gonna give you
nine of our best money saving tips
that still give you incredible bang for your buck.
Our first tip might sound a little too obvious,
but trust me, when I say,
the simple things make the difference.
Starting your own seeds versus buying transplants.
Now I'm a fan of both methods,
but you simply can't beat the cost savings
of starting your own seeds.
I paid about $5 for this pack of corn seed.
There are hundreds and hundreds of corn seeds in here.
Whereas, if I were to buy a six pack at the nursery,
I'm probably paying $4 just for those six.
Now I do get 'em a little faster, but still.
All these varieties here,
hard to find in a nursery,
easy and cheap to grow from seeds.
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- Fertilizing your garden can actually get pretty expensive.
And one of the things that we always do in the garden
is take a bunch of prunings.
So rather than constantly trying to buy or bring in
as many amendments as you can from outside,
what I like to do is take all my clippings
and actually compost them.
So over here, I have a nice, simple, cheap compost bin.
You add your fresh cuttings in,
and you wanna make sure
that you always have a fresh source of carbon.
In this case, I really like using straw.
You just come in, cover up your fresh clippings.
Few months, you'll have a wonderful amendment
that helps build your soil, increase the life of your soil,
get healthier plants, and you'll save a lot of money.
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- I am a huge fan of buying plants once,
and having them come back year after year in the garden.
And that really is the beauty
of investing in perennial plants.
So if I A, know that I really want this plant in the garden,
B, I have the right conditions for it to thrive
and C, I'm in the right hardiness zone.
Meaning that this plant isn't going to succumb
to my winter's coldest temperatures.
Then I am bound to be able to enjoy this beautiful plant
for many seasons to come.
Now with perennials, they usually do cost more than annuals
as this upfront cost,
but over time, once it establishes in your garden
the plants will fill out
and they will come back reliably
with lots of blooms and possibly fruit.
So really over time, you are saving money
by not needing to buy annual plants year after year.
- My second money saving tip
is actually growing the same plant twice.
Believe it or not,
you can do this with many different crops.
Including this little pepper right here.
This is a fish pepper.
It's one of my favorite variegated peppers.
But the interesting thing is,
I grew this last year successfully.
I then cut it back about two thirds,
pulled it out of the ground,
put it in a pot,
stored it in a protected area for the winter
and then put it right back into this Birdie's tall round bed
and take a look.
It's growing like crazy.
And we're getting all sorts of wild
and delicious peppers out of this.
So check our video out on this and explore over wintering.
It doesn't work with every plant,
but if you can grow the same plant twice
you just saved a bunch of money.
- When I first started building this garden
I did it with whatever I had available to me.
One of those things was actually tree branches
from a tree that I cut down.
And that's actually how I built the first fence
for my garden.
So I'm always trying to repurpose.
I'm always trying to build stuff on my own,
because when it comes to gardening, it can add up,
it can get a little expensive
and I highly recommend you guys
always try to build your own structures.
So in this case, I have this cucumber trellis.
If I were to try to buy this commercially,
it would probably cost in the realm of a hundred, $200,
but as simple as two tree stakes and a two by two,
I could build a trellis for something like 25, $30.
If you look around my garden
I have these kind of funny structures all over the place
including right back there, where I just have a piece
of conduit on top of two tree steaks.
So just try to save money whenever you can
by DIYing and building your own structures.
- You've probably seen a number of how-tos
on making more plants with the existing plants you have
and even from kitchen scraps.
Now, if you've never tried vegetative propagation
or cloning before, it can save you a lot of money
and it can be a lot of fun.
So with many of the perennial plants
you can propagate from leaves, stems, and even roots.
As long as you have a bit of knowhow
and you just keep practicing.
And some of the techniques include division,
meaning like you rip up the base of the plant
and you create brand new instant plants
or you can try layering where you're trying
to encourage more roots to grow out
of something like a stem
and the most common one is cuttings
where you try to get roots to show up here,
and then you get your plant.
If you get really good at cloning
you may be able to make money by selling your little plants.
- My final tip I confess is maybe the most annoying
for myself to actually practice and preach.
And it is to have a plan in the garden.
I cannot tell you how many times
whether it's a tomato or a fruit tree,
I got a little excited at the nursery.
I bought something.
I did not have a plan for where it was gonna go.
And then what happened to it?
I did not plant it in time
and it either became root bound or it died.
And so that was just a pure waste, not only of money,
but of my own time.
So make sure you spend a little time
before you go out and purchase things.
So you know exactly what you're going to do with them.
So you don't waste any money.
- One of the hardest things to learn as a gardener
is how to actually be patient.
It's extremely tempting to go to the nursery,
buy the biggest tree that you could find,
but they often cost 50, 60 a hundred dollars
for a single tree.
Instead, you could save your money
and find a small tree like this one right here
that I only got for $10 potted up over the course of a year
and you'll end up with a tree like this,
which is exactly how this tree started
in a little pot, just like this.
So it just takes a little bit of time
and you could save hundreds of dollars
over the course of your garden career.
For example, this passion fruit right here
is just a single plant that I put in the ground a year ago.
And now it's taken over the entire trellis
and it's giving me hundreds of passion fruit.
So a little bit of time upfront
will save you hundreds of dollars in the long run.
- Over the years, I've saved a lot of money
by sharing materials and swapping seeds, seedlings
and really cool plants with local gardening friends.
So instead of holding onto a whole bunch of bulk materials
or seeds that I probably can't use
before all that stuff goes bad, I trade them.
And by trading, I learn about the different varieties
that other people are growing.
There are also a whole bunch
of seed exchange libraries and events.
So go up there and find that community
and just chat with other gardeners local to your area.
That way you learn about what works, what doesn't.
You can save money that way
and that connection piece to the community alone,
that is priceless.
- Because you're still here watching this video,
I have one final tip for you
and it is if you're gonna buy something guys, buy quality.
You don't want to have your fifth set
of pruners in your third year of gardening.
Trust me, I've done it myself.
So here at Epic, we have our own store
where we hand select pretty much everything you see
in this video right here,
the highest quality stuff shipped from our warehouses
directly to your door,
because we know you have to buy quality
if you're gonna spend money in the first place.
So until next time, good luck in the garden
and keep on growing.