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How to Prepare Raised Beds for Cold-Weather Growing

Your summer tomatoes may be finished, but that doesn’t necessarily mean your raised beds need to sit empty until spring. With the right crops and a few inexpensive adjustments, cold-weather raised beds can keep producing lettuce, spinach, kale, carrots and other hardy vegetables well beyond the traditional gardening season. Raised…

Frugal Gardening · 1h ago

Leaf Mulch Uses That Feed Garden Soil All Winter

Every fall, gardeners fill bags with something they may turn around and pay to replace a few months later. Fallen leaves can become mulch, compost and organic matter, making them one of the most useful free materials your yard produces. Instead of hauling them away, strategic leaf mulch uses can…

Frugal Gardening · 2h ago

Fall Pruning Mistakes That Can Weaken Spring Growth

Fall cleanup has a satisfying rhythm: pull the annuals, rake the leaves, put away the hoses and trim everything that looks unruly before winter. But reaching for the pruning shears simply because a shrub looks messy can create problems that won’t become obvious until months later. Some fall pruning mistakes…

Frugal Gardening · 3h ago

The $30 Perennial Is Now $8 — Can You Plant It This Late?

The garden center’s clearance table can become dangerously tempting in fall: that perennial you refused to pay $30 for in May is suddenly wearing an $8 sticker. Saving $22 sounds like a fantastic gardening win, but planting clearance perennials in fall only saves money if the plant survives long enough…

Frugal Gardening · Sep 29

Should You Buy Clearance Trees and Shrubs in Fall? Check the Roots First

A $60 shrub marked down to $20 can make the garden-center clearance rack very difficult to walk past. Fall discounts on trees and shrubs can be genuine bargains, particularly when retailers simply need to reduce inventory before winter, but a low price doesn’t automatically make a struggling plant worth rescuing.…

Frugal Gardening · Sep 28

Can You Plant Potatoes From the Grocery Store? Here’s the Catch

We’ve all found one: a forgotten potato at the back of the pantry with several determined-looking sprouts growing from its eyes. Throwing it away feels wasteful, especially when those sprouts make it look ready to become an entire crop of free potatoes. Technically, planting grocery store potatoes can produce plants…

Frugal Gardening · Sep 28

Before You Bag Your Fall Leaves, Try These 5 Free Uses for Them

Every autumn, homeowners rake up something surprisingly valuable, stuff it into bags, and send it away—only to spend money on mulch, compost, and soil amendments a few months later. Fallen leaves contain organic matter and nutrients that can be recycled right where they land, and Penn State estimates that the…

Frugal Gardening · Sep 28

Leaving Soil Bare All Winter? You May Be Creating More Work for Spring

After the last tomatoes are picked and exhausted vegetable plants come out, a perfectly bare garden bed can feel satisfyingly clean. The problem is that soil doesn’t necessarily benefit from spending the next several months exposed to pounding rain, wind, weeds, freezing temperatures, and repeated freeze-thaw cycles. University of Minnesota…

Frugal Gardening · Sep 28

Bought a Plant Online? Check It for These Unwanted Hitchhikers Before It Reaches Your Garden

Opening a box containing a plant you ordered online feels a little like Christmas for gardeners, especially when you’ve been waiting weeks for a hard-to-find variety. The temptation is to unwrap it, give it some water, and immediately place it beside your other plants or into the garden. However, plants…

Frugal Gardening · Sep 27

Don’t Store Garden Soil Like This Over Winter — You Could Ruin the Whole Bag

That half-used bag of potting mix left over from summer may represent $10, $15, or even $20 you won’t have to spend again next spring. But tossing an open bag behind the shed, leaving it where rain can reach it, or forgetting it beside your containers for several months can…

Frugal Gardening · Sep 27