Spring Clean Up

 I am overwhelmed by the amount of work there is to do in the yard and garden!!

 I decided to start the outdoor spring cleaning on the deck.

 Lots and lots of playing in the dirt today.

 Sure is going to be nice to have a pretty place to rest after a day of doing the not so fun or cute stuff.

 In keeping with my goal to be MUCH more frugal for the next month or two I cut WAY back on the spending for flowers this year. Here is an example. I bought hanging baskets instead of individual plants. The hanging baskets have three or four individual plans in each basket. I took them all apart then spread the plants out around the deck. Even had some leftovers to share with DD#1 this afternoon.

 

As you can see the planters are not full right now using this money saving trick however in a month (maybe less) they will fill out nicely.

I am dirty as a pig tonight and in need of a cool shower ASAP.

I hit the floor in high gear this morning after checking prices around town yesterday on annual flowers. After some quick math the best deal was to purchase flowers in hanging baskets from the grocery store.

Here is the breakdown

Hanging basket at grocery store $7.99

Hanging baskets at big box home improvement store $15.00

Individual plants at the home improvement store $3.99 - $5.99

Total cost in hanging baskets at the grocery store $118.18

Cost for hanging baskets at the big box store would have been $210.00

I didn't do a great count on the individual plants but there are about 60 plants in total.

Had I bought the plants individually at the lowest price it works out to $240.00

Another cost cutter this year was I didn't add any new potting soil to the containers. Instead I mixed in dirt (red clay) from the yard along with homemade compost (yard waste thrown in a pile out back)

Total spent for our deck and DD#1's porch was $182.67!!! I picked up a couple of Shepard hooks for DD's home (so the dog doesn't pee on the flowers) that ran the spending up however she will use them for years and years.

While I wouldn't want to buy tree's, bushes and such from the grocery store, for plants I figure they should be fine. Unlike a nursery or even big box store the grocery store plants don't get any TLC. What the heck, if they can grow in that environment surely they will do fine for me.

In the past we spent well over $500.00 each spring on flowers. I am pretty darn happy with how low I have kept it this time around. I will put out seeds for zinnia's, sunflowers and other flowers for cutting, the cost should be pretty low as I saved seeds from last year (hope it works), That task will have to wait until I get the garden tilled (who knows when)

Next on the outdoors clean up is the herb bed. I also plan on pulling all of the strawberry plants from their raised bed as they do nothing other than feed the durn squirrels. Like eating a watermelon its going to have to be small bites each day until hubby gets home to lend a hand.

How do you save on flowers and garden plants? Do you have any luck with growing plants from seed or do you go with buying flats at the store?

Time to get that shower. You know your dirty when your sweet dog refuses to snuggle up at night! Ha