But clearly we don't own a house, we are just renting an apartment.. and we are certainly on a budget. When it comes to landscaping and decorating, it can be difficult to know where to start when you don't own your property, and it can be tough to dedicate yourself to decorating a space that you know you won't be living in forever. There are plenty of easy ways to decorate your space temporarily; that involve building a simple garden, hanging some plants and decorations, and allowing your plants to grow in large moveable pots so that when the time comes when you decide to move, you can easily bring your "garden" and decor with you.
Here are some of my tips from how we decorated our yard:
Be a smart shopper
Look for plants at Lowes and Home Depot on the clearance rack. Don't buy dead plants or ones that look unhealthy unless you have a green thumb and know you can revive them. Look for healthy ones that may have just been overstocked or out of season. We have gotten plenty of amazing deals on "rescue" plants that we got for only a couple bucks. Even if they are small, throughout the season they will grow and flourish if you plant them in the ground or a larger pot than they came in.
Shop at local nurseries, museums, farmers markets, or feed stores for inexpensive plants while also supporting local businesses. We got some nice beautiful healthy flowers at a local nursery near us for only a few dollars. We have gotten many native host plants from the Natural History Museum where I work because the funds help support the butterfly rainforest there, and I've gotten a lot of healthy and nice sized plants for good prices. We always check out our local farmers market and get a lot of locally grown flowers such as marigolds for only 99 cents each. We also got a baby moringa tree (moringa is a healthy "superfood") for only $5 from my favorite farmer there. We found small 6 packs of vegetable plants at the local feed store for only $3.50. For only $10.50 total we got 6 red pimento pepper plants, 6 yellow bell pepper plants, and 6 eggplant plants, all of a decent size that are a great addition to our vegetable garden. That's way less than the worth of the value of the amount of (organic) food we will ultimately be getting from these plants. Being on a budget doesn't mean you have to compromise your passion for gardening.
Look for clearance yard decor and wind chimes at the end of the spring and summer when seasonal stuff goes on sale. This items are great to hang up all year round, or if you get a good enough deal you can save it until the next warm season comes around. Last year I got a bunch of amazing deals at Joann's and Michaels on seasonal stuff including garden wind chimes, a fun welcome sign, animal ceramic planters, small garden flags, etc. that were all 75% off. Solar lights are another nice addition to a pathway and can be found at very inexpensive discount stores like Ross or Tuesday morning. I found ours there for $1.99 each.
Also don't forget thrift stores, Goodwill, Craigslist and garage sales. We have found nice garden pots, planters, and yard furniture at thrift shops. We got our big outdoor glass table for $14.99 at Goodwill, that matched our outdoor chairs exactly that we splurged on at Lowes for around $20 each last season (well worth it now, since the table brought down the price of the whole set!) The table has a hole for an umbrella, and to save money, we are able to just use our beach umbrella that we already have on hot sunny days.
Look for free things. For me, living in a campus town, I've found plenty of our plants for free. Many are given away at the Entomology building on campus after they had been propagated and used for research studies and are no longer of use, and I've even gotten plants from students and staff that have moved away and needed to rehome their plants.
Reuse, repurpose & recycle
After our garden themed wedding last year we had a lot of props leftover such as shepherds hooks, watering cans, and even leftover plants that we gave out as wedding favors. We shlepped them all down to Florida with us when we moved and it was well worth it.. they now all serve a second function and purpose and remind us of our big day every time we look at them! Repurpose items you may have bought for one use, so that you can also get your money's worth out of them. See if a friend who had a big outdoor party or wedding has items like this that she used and is looking to find a good home for them.
We got a bunch of cinder blocks from a friend who had them laying in their yard and has no use for them. We used them to surround our vegetable garden, and even put plants inside the holes! There are a lot of awesome ways to repurpose cinderblocks in a garden, including stacking them and planting plants inside them, making a perimeter for a raised flower bed, or making a bench or outdoor furniture out of stacking them.
Scrounge the Lowe's and Home Depot racks and garbage for old plastic flower pots they get rid of. You can ask them what their delivery days are, and that's usually when they move out old pots they have no use for. We try to use all of these pots for our plants, and as they grow we replant them into bigger ones we are able to find. We have been able to get huge pots from their dumpsters before.. brand new just no use to them! Prime example of reusing and repurposing what would otherwise be garbage! Also use old containers, tupperware, milk jugs, cartons, etc. to repaint and cut to make into a planter (Just cut or drill holes in the bottom so the water can drain out!) Try an even more creative planter like this hedgehog made of an old water bottle and a plant!
Ask friends and families who have gardens if they have old pots and tools they no longer use. You can help them clean up their yard and utilize their unwanted garden supplies to use for your own!
Use old toys, dishes, and random household items in your yard if you see it fit! I put little "toy" animals in many of our plants to make them more exciting. Use fun toys to create a "fairy" garden. Dishes make great pots and plates make good water catchers under pots. We had a shower organizer for our shampoos and soaps that we no longer had use for when we moved to our new apartment that has a new shower insert that has shelves built in! We hung the hanger outside in our garden area and use it to store small planters, gloves and garden tools from now.
Use old scraps of wood to build a birdhouse. Paint it bright and cheerful to add some color and personality to your home.
Try making one of these awesome bird feeders out of old plastic bottles.
Make eco-friendly plant hangers out of old t-shirts! This is one of my favorite crafts and it only takes a few minutes once you make a lot of them and perfect the skill. The best part is it'll help you clean out your closet and repurpose all those old T-shirts you don't need anymore. Try fun bright colors and even tie-dye for the coolest plant hangers. Below are the plant hangers I made for our orchids (all of which I got for free when UF was giving them away after they were done using them for research).
Utilize old palettes and make a garden out of one, or even a vertical planter against a wall if you don't have much horizontal space!
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| Taken from Pinterest.com |
Keep it natural (and free)!
Create a compost pile in a bucket and dump in it any organic garbage you produce daily. This includes things like eggshells, vegetable and fruit scraps, food waste, weeds, plant clippings, etc. Add some top soil and shake it up once a week to get it to decompose faster. If you leave the bucket open, sunlight and water will allow plants to start growing from vegetable seeds in the compost. We got squash plants and our tomato plant this way. This compost can be used as a natural fertilizer for your plants and flowers. It also helps cut back on waste and garbage going into landfills that can be reused in another way.
Keep it pesticide free. Save money and the critters in your garden for opting to natural methods of repel pests. Lemon grass, and citronella plants or candles provide a natural way of repelling mosquitoes. Check out this cool DIY citronella tiki torch made from an old wine bottle. Soapy water can kill off aphids. Vinegar repels and kills other types of plant pests too. Using harmful chemicals will kill and keep away superhero garden residents such as frogs and toads which feed on the real pests.
Grow herbs in your garden. They are affordable to buy (our local family owned supermarket and the farm market both have an assortment of herb plants for only $2.50). For the same price or more, you can buy enough fresh herbs to use in just one meal! Herbs grow back quickly when snipped or pinched, and soon you will have so much you won't know what to do with them! Many herbs can be used to make teas, to cook with, or to make natural cleaning solutions. My favorite thing to do with the herbs in our garden is to bake bits of peppermint in my chocolate chip cookies, use basil and oregano in our italian dishes, use stevia leaves as a natural sweetener, cilantro on our mexican dishes, and lemon balm in a glass of refreshing ice water. Some herbs such as lavender even repel mosquitoes! Many herbs such as dill, parsley, fennel and carrot tops provide a host plant for black swallowtails in your garden. Repot your herbs into a larger pot to allow the plant to get bigger and it will grow even faster.
When you eat your fruits and veggies, save the seeds! These can be dried and planted, and you can create your own edible garden! Great seeds to collect include peppers, cucumbers, watermelon, pumpkin, squash, and tomatoes. Look up each plant's care requirements before planting. Seeds can be grown in pots or right into the ground!
Seeds can be collected from many wild flowers at the end of their season. Milkweed is a great example! Milkweed is the host plant of the monarch butterfly and it should be planted to help them keep their numbers up as they haven't been doing too well these days. In the fall when the milkweed's season is over, they release pods of floating seeds that blow into the air to find new places to reestablish. When sunflowers die at the end of the season too, their big heavy heads fall down and are filled with fresh seeds. Collect some!
Propagate the plants you have! Succulents can grow from mere cuttings, and many other plants produce babies that can be cut off the mother plant and replanted. Coleus and other plants will grow quickly from one cutting kept in water until roots develop.
Wild areas with a heavy established population of wild flowers and plants are a good place to get cuttings or a small part of a plant to replant. I don't want to promote "stealing" or "trespassing".. make sure it's not in a protected wild area or on private property. Many wildflowers are considered weeds anyway and get moved over, so dig some up and if they are native they will easily reestablish in your yard and spread when you replant them. Many plants like succulents for example grow extremely well from cuttings. Find friends who grow plants and ask if you can have a small cutting of a plant they have so you can grow your own.
Keep watering cans and open buckets outside during heavy rains to collect water for your plants. This is especially helpful if you live in an apartment like us with no spiket for a hose. If you live in a house with rain gutters, put a large garbage can or bucket at the end of the gutters so all the rainwater will collect in them. Great way to save water and reuse rainwater, especially during droughts.
Utilize your space
Short on yard space? Don't have much of a yard at all? Hang a welcome sign or fun wall decor all over the side or front of your building to give it some personality. If you have even the slightest overhang, you can utilize that space by hanging a bunch of plants, or even just one. Plants that hang down from pots will help create some privacy, and utilize the height you have to fill. If you have a porch or balcony, add a few potted plants with a pop of color, either in their flowers or in a fun bright hued pot. You can even take old reused plastic planters or containers and paint them to make them look more posh and to save money! Add a cute chair or table, even if it's inexpensive and simple or just a lucky find at a thrift store or yard sale. You can always repaint and decorate yard furniture too to give it some personality, or add a cushion or outdoor throw pillow.
Use dog gates or metal play pens to create a small "yard" for your dog in a non existent yard. We used 2 metal dog pens to make a dog run for our dogs to go to the bathroom when we don't have time to walk them and it works great. We surrounded the whole thing with potted plants to beautify it.
Most importantly.. USE IT! Hang out in your yard... bring out a book, your laptop, or even a meal and enjoy the beautiful weather of summer. You'll find caring for your plants therapeutic and find gardening a fun hobby that will keep you outside and keep you busy.
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