Learn how to save money on landscaping. We have 7 money saving landscaping ideas that you will love. Tips to save money to have your yard looking amazing!
Money Saving Landscaping Ideas
I’m so excited to share how we save on landscaping with our new house. As many of you know we built a house almost 2 years ago… in fact (thanks to our coupons) we paid cash for our land. One thing we were able to do was put in a pool. Thanks to our amazing family who owned a pool company we were able to afford a pool for our children. However, we couldn’t afford to do landscaping on it. This year, we decided to make it a priority to put in the landscaping around our pool.
We looked into having it professionally done and we were SHOCKED at the price tag…. seriosuly? It is just plants and dirt. 🙂 I could not believe how expensive professional backyard landscaping costs?!
We decided to do it ourselves. With some smart tactics and some hard labor, we literally saved THOUSANDS of dollars by doing the landscaping ourselves and using these landscape tips.
7 Money saving landscaping tips!
1. Landscape ideas
Take pictures of landscaping you like. Since around the pool is primarily sun, picking plants was pretty easy. However, we didn’t know where to put the plants. We drove around and looked at houses and took pictures of plants we loved. This also helped us when we went to the plant nursery. We were able to show them literally want we wanted.
2. Landscape Edging Ideas
Buy your edging at a rock store and ask for the left overs. Do not go to your local hardware store to buy pre-made edging. It is very expensive. Instead look at actually buying rocks to use for landscape edging ideas. They tend to be much cheaper and they look nicer. When you are looking at rock, ask for their left over rocks. We found some rock we loved. Then we asked if they have left over rocks that looked similar. We were able to snag our rock at HALF the cost just because they only had a small quantity left. These landscape ideas alone saved us several hundred dollars. It never hurts to ask!
3. Spend your money on the slow growing trees to lower backyard landscaping costs.
Our main tip is to spend your money on slow growing trees. They will not grow fast to buy bigger trees. Then on your faster growing plants, buy smaller. They will grow and fill in quickly. In fact several of our plants have doubled in size in just a month! The trees will not do that.
We bought three trees. When you are looking at slow growing trees, look at all sizes. In our case, we were able to get 15 foot trees MUCH cheaper than we thought. In fact, they weren’t much more expensive than the 10 foot trees we found a home department store. Simple landscaping ideas can save big once you know all the tips and tricks.
4. Avoid Annuals – buy shrubs and perennials to help with landscape gardening prices.
Buying annuals is almost like throwing money away. We tried to avoid annuals if at all possible. Now I did throw some in a pot and then some in front of one of our trees. You will have to replace the annuals each year which will cost you more and more money. By buying perennials your are saving money – these plants will come back every year. This is one of the best money saving tips! Using this garden idea alone will save you so much time and money.
5. Use pots and grasses as fillers.
First, grasses are cheap and they grow big fast. We bought two of these purple grasses and in a month they have tripled in size. We also used pots at fillers too. You can even add in your few annuals in there too (or you can put ivy in the pots). They add some height when your plants are still small. Plus, they add color and texture.
Above is a picture of our purple grass. In one month it has gotten huge! This grass cost us only $7… we could have bought the same plant only bigger for $21. We saved 70% by buying small and waiting for it to get the same size in just a month. It saves to be patient.
6. Buy your dirt in bulk – have it delivered.
If you need a lot of dirt (like we did), then call around to see if you can have dirt delivered to your door. You might be surprised. It was about half the cost if we would have bought it at our home improvement store. Plus it was delivered to our house! More convenient and cheaper! That’s a win all around.
7. Buy Plants at a Nursery.
I highly suggest buying at a nursery versus a home improvement store. From our experience, the plants seem to adjust better. Plus they are normally more knowledgeable and helpful. For example we had one tree that was starting to turn brown. The nursery was able to tell us exactly what we needed to do and it worked. The trees are now growing strong. 🙂 I also found landscape gardening prices better at a nursery.
We literally saved over $2,000 using these Money saving tips for landscaping your yard.
I’m so glad we did this because now I feel like I can do anything! We saved money and achieved the same results minus the professional price tag on outdoor landscaping. It looks amazing and since we planted perennials, we don’t have to keep planting new things each year. It saves time and money. I usually just put out a few new pots of annuals each year for color and that is it! I hope you enjoyed these landscaping ideas on a budget as much as we did! They really helped us to save money. I just couldn’t fathom spending thousands on this project. I’m so pleased with how it turned out and how much we saved on our yard! Give it a try and I bet you will be pleased as well. You don’t have to spend tons of money to have a pretty yard!
Now I am curious… what are your tips on how to save money on landscaping?
I’m always looking for new ideas and tips. Please share in the comments how you landscape your yard.
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Thanks for the landscaping tips! Great to get REAL advice from your personal experience – and love the photos too!
When shopping for perennials I look for plants I can divide into two or more plants. That way I get more plants for my money. Also, I look for perennials like day lilies on clearance before the end of summer at big home stores. They may no longer look great in their pots but will come back strong and healthy if divided, transplanted and cared for before going dormant.
I never thought of this.
What is the name of the evergreen tree in your pool landscape? Enjoyed reading how to save money!
Where did you get your rock. I love it! We are redoing our landscaping so looking for ideas!
Islands may also be planted with flowering shrubs.
It is terrific idea. Save money and planting own plants it sounds distressing and enjoyable
Thank you for these tips! I am starting my landscaping for our new home, and this post really helped. Beautiful job.
Good to hear – Thanks for sharing!
I ALWAYS hit the clearance section at the home improvement stores. We do hit up the nurseries at least a few times during the growing season.. I’m having a hard time finding plants that I dont already have. I’m building a greenhouse this fall. I bought 12 knockout Roses from lowes today for $1 a piece, they do need some TLC, but they were originally $25 a piece. So a savings of $288 ish… also, ask friends and neighbors for theirs. It’s highly likely they probably need to be thinned out anyway. Your pictures look great!
Great tips – Thank you for sharing.
There are good ideas here. I recommend starting a compost pile and a horse manure compost pile.
Because you advise Gardener’s to be patient, consider that a packet of annual seeds is not expensive. Annuals and biennials can reseed and may therefore be a worthwhile investment. Poppies, cleomé, cosmos and zinnias are good examples.
Gardener’s are often quite generous. Some areas allow for plant swapping and sharing via the internet. Master Gardener plant sales usually offer plants at bargain prices. As a gardener with certain plants of my own to spare, I would add a word of caution: there’s a reason that I have lots of bee balm, lemon balm, wild ageratum, Mexican petunia, rose-of-sharon and obedient plant to share. They spread vigorously. So far, they’re too pretty to eradicate, but they must be kept isolated or thinned out each year.
I planted some red/purple grass and was disappointed that it didn’t survive my Zone 7 winter. Be sure to check for that detail.
Great tips! Thank you so much for sharing!
I also by from the clearance rack at our Big Box store. My whole flower garden is made up of “half off” plants and they’ve come back strong! Also, we recently found a farmer who needed to clean his fields of rock, and we were able to purchase several GIANT rocks from him to use in our landscaping. …all for less than $300 total! Win-win! He got rid of the rocks and we put them to good use!
Wow! Great tips – thank you so much for sharing!
Thank you for these tips! I am a landscaper, and this post is really helpful to me. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to write it up!
You’re welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed it!