Growing Great Plants on the Cheap

Everyone wants that Instagram-worthy garden.  But if you have a large space or big dreams and a small budget, you realize pretty quickly that your aspirations and your budget just don't line up.

To stretch your dollars further, I highly recommend growing some garden favorites from seed.  There are some perennials, herbs, and veggies that offer big impact and big savings with relatively minimal effort.  Here are some great options to start:

Dahlias.  Dahlias are the be-all and end-all of many gardens, but let's be honest, the tubers are expensive.  And you don't exactly get that rosy glow of dahlia abundance in your garden if you can only afford to plant 3 or 4 tubers.   But for the cost of a few tubers, you can buy enough dahlia seeds to fill your garden. 

One of our dahlias grown from seed is pictured in this blog post.  Beautiful, right?  You may not be able to get the newest, fanciest cultivars in seed form, but you can get beautiful, reliable blooms in many different varieties.  Dahlias grow reliably from seed using a heat mat and grow lamps, and they will bloom the first year.  The best part: at the end of the season, they will have produced tubers that you can dig up, divide, and replant year after year!

Basil.  Basil is always the first seed to sprout in our seed trays.  This may not be a perennial for your flower garden, but for many, it's a heavily used herb in the kitchen.  Ever try buying fresh basil from the grocery store?  For the cost of a few sprigs at the store, you can buy hundreds of seeds that will grow easily and give you fresh basil throughout the growing season.  You can also plant basil in pots in a sunny window to give you fresh basil all year round!

Echinacea.  This is a go-to perennial coveted by many gardeners for its hardiness, beauty, and ability to attract pollinators.  To grow from seed, echinacea requires cold stratification, and it may take some time for the plants to grow large enough to bloom, but I'm adding this to the "grow from seed" list because there are many, many interesting cultivars that can be grown from seed.  We're currently experimenting with prima ginger, double scoop cranberry, sombrero hot coral, and a few other varieties.  To cold stratify, plant the seeds in trays or pots, set them outside in fall or early winter, and forget about them!  In the spring, you'll see the seeds begin to sprout.

Specialty herbs.  Specialty herbs either can't be found or are extremely expensive to buy.  Think lemongrass, pineapple mint, and other herbs that may not be available locally, depending on your area.  We're experimenting with za'atar marjoram, a few varieties of mint (chocolate, orange and pineapple), and a few others to see what grows easily.  We'll give you updates of our best growers throughout the season.

Heuchera (coral bells).  Heuchera is a favorite of the shade garden, and growers know it!  These perennials are colorful, interesting... and expensive.  Though they also require cold stratification to sprout, it's also worth the (honestly, minimal) effort to get a variety of coral bells for your garden on the cheap.

Foxglove.  Foxglove is a standout in the shade garden.  Dramatic, colorful, and the plants will not be disturbed by deer, bunnies or other pests.  Foxglove can be hard to find at your local nursery, which led us to add it to the "grow from seed" list.  Foxglove is biennial, so you will generally not get blooms the first year, but once you get a rotation of foxglove going in your garden, they will often re-seed annually, giving you a steady supply of foxglove blooms.  Note that foxglove is poisonous, so make sure kids and pets don't nibble on these plants.

Give these a try and let us know how it turned out!  We'll add more recommendations throughout the season in future posts.

Happy planting!