Gardening – what’s not to love, between the pleasures of cultivating beauty and the respite from life’s chaos?
But as the weather warms, there is little respite to the cost-of-living pressures, and when money is tight, cultivating a garden may feel out of reach.
Fortunately, smarts and hands can be used to grow an abundant garden without an abundant budget.
Grow more of what you’ve got
Maximising your planting is a great solution to growing more for less. Mass planting (using a lot of the same plant) in a big block is an easy design approach that can be replicated on balconies and in apartments by using lots of smaller pots. Repeating the same plant in smaller groups throughout a garden also gives the planting and overall garden coherence. Mass planting is also possible to achieve for free by propagating cuttings from plants you already own.
Abundance from a packet of seeds
Seeds are dormant plants awaiting the right conditions, and a packet of seeds can contain hundreds of plants. With gentle care, you can grow yourself a mass of plants. Easy-to-grow flowers such as sunflowers, cosmos and zinnia, billy buttons and paper daisies can all be grown in large numbers then planted in large blocks of flowers or in clusters and small groups throughout a garden. They also grow well in pots.
Annuals (flowers that are around for a few seasons before fading and setting seed) have a quick growth rate, meaning they can fill and even ramble through spaces to bring cheery blooms at a pace. Nasturtiums are the perfect example. Let them wander and fill the garden, then pick a few for a salad. Collect their seeds at the end of the season and save the seeds (and your funds) for the next year.
Borrow to grow
Look around at the gardens of friends, neighbours and family for plants to propagate. The classic geranium (now known as pelargoniums) and succulents of different shapes and colours are generous plants that can quickly grow from cuttings.
Plants that clump with strappy leaves such as grasses, kangaroo paws and red hot pokers can be dug up or lifted and gently separated into several portions, all with root systems and leaves to be replanted. Keep dividing and replanting to spread around a garden, or add to pots. Plant swaps and exchanges can fill a garden over time.
Don’t buy big, buy more
Younger, smaller plants are cheaper than advanced, larger plants. Immature plants tend to have a juvenile vigour and grow faster anyway, so they will fill a space faster than their older compatriots. The equivalent amount of money can be used for several smaller plants, rather than fewer older specimens.
Be strategic – choose varieties that can be used for cuttings or divided into two at home to grow more from each plant you purchase.
Garden on with an abundant mindset
There is a common narrative about Australian back yards, perpetuated by home renovation shows, that a good garden can be constructed overnight. But there are many satisfying and meaningful roads to gardening and tending abundance, even when there isn’t the budget for a total overhaul.
The act of gardening fuels ideas. You will find your way to a garden with care and time, so pull up those sleeves and garden with what you have, in any way you can.
