Sticker shock at the nursery: what can a gardener do to save money?

After being out of the country for three weeks, we were anxious to get started with some gardening as soon as we got home. We couldn’t have asked for better gardening weather and set out to check the inventory at some of our local nurseries. While we were pleased at the nice selection, we were not pleased at the jump in the prices from last year! 

We weren’t the only ones hit by sticker shock, nearly everyone shopping was commenting on it. While many people garden to save money, just how much money is a family going to save if they are paying over $10 per tomato plant? 

It puts a whole new perspective on things once you start calculating how much you’re going to have to spend per plant vs. how much you would have to spend at the store. Counting in the fact the vegetable prices will be lower when they are in season. Since we plant 8 tomato plants each year, buying them at $10 each was not what we had hoped to do!

So just what is a gardener to do? While I still prefer to buy tomato plants, we save a great deal by purchasing seeds for most of the garden. For example, we saw bean plants for a couple of bucks while we were able to get a package of seeds for $1.50 and by getting those at ½ off, we saved even more! We were able to plant two long rows from one package of seeds. We picked up multiple seeds and since they were half off, we picked up some extra for succession plantings. 

I did some intent searching and found our local co-op had a 2 day Mother’s Day sale with all of their tomato plants (½ gallon size) on sale for $2.99! They have a nice selection of tomato types so we were able to get multiple types from beefsteaks to yellow pears to early girls. With such a great price we even picked up a patio and a tumbling Tom to try out. 

So my advice to all you sticker shocked gardeners is to use the net to find local sales and locate the best prices out there. In a time where every penny counts, it pays to search those deals out!