Gardening on a budget is do-able no matter your style. There are just some things that new gardeners need to learn. And we are here to help! Personally I like planning my whole gardening around perennials. Planting them in rows by order of when they bloom. Some of my favorites are; Dahlias, Irises, and Daylilies???. All of which come in a varieties of colors making them great complements for any color scheme. The Daylilies in my front yard a bright orange and really pop against brown Hardie siding. When working with perennials it is always important to keep scale in mind. If your house is a single story bungalow low growing flowers and groundcover are going to be your best options.  If you live in a traditional two story house you can get away with hight growing blooms maybe even a flowering tree or bush. Architectural design is also an important thing to consider when planning out your garden. Does your facade have strong lines? So should your garden. Does your home have a casual bohemian feel? Then you have some creative liberty when planning out your flower beds.  Lastly but most important is to consider growing conditions. You won't want to invest all of that time and ??? to not have them come up the next year. Sunlight and soil conditions and be the difference between a lush summer garden and a colorless patch of dirt.

I'm not knocking on annuals here. Annuals are great if you want to have all season color. They are also helpful if you are just getting started and your perennials haven't come up yet.  If you are going to add annuals to your garden scape one thing to remember to water them. Water is annuals number one priority. If you deadhead and trim top growth regularly you will have bushy flowering plants all summer long.

If you are just getting started in gardening it would make sense that you wouldn't want to break the bank. Gardening is a delayed reward hobbie. I planted a new batch of dahlias back in May and they are just now starting to bloom!But man is it worth it.

Some ways to save are to be frugal when it comes to containers or edging materials. You'd be surprised what great deals you can find in the winter time. Check out flea markets and discount stores for cheap pots and planters. If you don't care about them matching Craig's list is a good place to look as well. If you are planning a large garden you might not think that it will affect your water bill but it will. Build a rain collection system to quench your plants thirst in a drought. Here is the tutorial I used when I made mine.

Hosta Albomarginata hostas

Now that you have the hardware it's time to move on to plants. You already know my love of perennials. One time investment if you take care of them. If you are looking for the lowest maintenance of all of the plants look no further than hostas. Don't know what hostas are? Yeah you do, they are the things in literally EVERYONE'S yards. They look like this. What's great about them is that they are virtually impossible to kill. They are also great plants to split. You buy one and you can split it into four or five plants. They won't look so great the first year if you do that but by the next spring you will have five beautiful hostas plants for the price of one. The one negative is that they are all green. It can get a lil boring if your only landscaping is just hostas.

For pops of color why not look into plants that bloom all summer long. Purple Coral Bells add a much need purple color to all of your green hostas. These purple leafed plants have dainty white flowers and can survive temperatures below zero. Talk about a sturdy plant. They grow to be about fourteen inches tall making them great for edging flower beds since they won't distract from your taller attention grabbing plants.

astilbe-plant-grow-care Pink Astilbe

Pink Astilbe is another hardy flowering perennial. Its light pink flower grow to be about eighteen inches and can be split like hostas if necessary. With blooms lasting from spring through summer this flowering plant attracts tons of butterflies. Astilbes are difficult to grow from seedlings. It is easier to plant divisions from other plants. Astilbes also like deep moist soil. Make sure their soil is always watered well and often. Daily short sprinklings aren't going to cut it. Fertilizing with organic material will give your Astilbes a boost in the spring.

Spring_peonies Peonies

Now here are my absolute favorite perennials. PEONIES! I think it's their fluffy blossoms. I have a plant from my grandmother's garden if that isn't proof of how study this flower it I don't know what is. The only downside of these flowers is that one rain after they bloom and they will be whipped out. I like to take a few clippings for my kitchen table before that happens. Peonies make awesome cut flowers, lasting more than a week. Cut long stems when the buds are still fairly tight. Just be careful of bugs ?. They are gross. This is a good plant to put in the sunniest spot in your yard they will do best there. They don't like to be pampered so no spliting required here. Typically Peonies are early spring bloomers. However if you mix different varieties you can achieve foliage from mid May to late June.

Hope you enjoyed our budget gardening hacks. Let us know if you have any other gardening tips.