Don't let your budget come between you and your garden.

Financing my gardening dreams is sometimes tricky. The divide between my lofty schemes and my financial reality is depressing, but that does not mean that I can't make some of those dreams come true with some careful budgeting. As I plan out this year's gardening budget, there are a few things I keep in mind that I learned from working with farmers and gardeners who do it for a living.

Why Budget Your Garden?

Even if money is not a concern for you, taking detailed notes reveals a great deal about your gardening practices. If you bought a lot of pesticides last year and did not spend much money on soil health, it is easy to see the link between poor fertility and pest management. Detailed records make it easy to determine how much of each supply you need ahead of time, saving you multiple trips to the store or multiple online orders, giving you more time in the garden. Ultimately, a realistic budget helps you devote your time and resources where they are most needed.

Make A Spreadsheet

One of the most useful gardening skills I learned from full-time farmers was the beauty of the spreadsheet. Whether you use Excell, Open Office, Google Docs, or a (legible) handwritten document, record keeping is crucial to gardening self-improvement. It also helps you monitor expenses.

There are quite a few garden budget templates online. These templates come with handy preformatted columns and might include expenses you didn't consider, like water usage. Fill it out to the best of your ability with the things you think you will need and the estimated quantities of those things. As the season progresses, keep receipts of your actual garden spending and update the spreadsheet.

Analyze Last Year's Budget

Assuming you kept a budget record from last year, this is the time to look at it. If you didn't take notes, don't worry. Working out a budget for this year will help you next year. Examine the areas where you spent too much last year and try to shift funds around to accommodate those costs. You can also figure out ways to cut costs by gardening more efficiently.

Looking over old budgets reveals short and long-term trends in your productivity as well as spending. You might be determined to turn a particular patch of yard into a thriving rose garden, but if you pour money into that patch year after year without results, your budget won't allow you to lie to yourself. If your water bill was abnormally high, on the other hand, you might have a leak in your irrigation system.

Where To Cut Corners

If I can do something frugally, I do. Instead of planting in pots I occasionally use old feedbags. I make my own compost and if there is a place I can incorporate baling twine, town leaf recycling, or other free materials I am all for it. However, I have learned the hard way that there are some places in your garden budget where you should not cut corners. Period.

Soil tests, supplements, and quality seeds (and seedlings) form the backbone of your garden. Your garden needs these things in order to thrive. Skipping out on them or settling for lesser products ends up costing you money, as preventative soil and plant health is cheaper than trying to salvage sickly plants or swallowing a loss in produce yields. As you make your budget, identify the most important areas and allocate your funds to them first.

Set Realistic Limits

The nice thing about not having a garden budget is that you don't notice how much money you spend on your garden over the course of a year. While temporarily comforting, this is not an ideal strategy. Plan out your garden with realistic expectations. Write down everything you think you need and their current prices. Once you have a total, see if it is within your household budget. It not, cut back where you can. If it is under your budget, don't get too excited yet. Gardening is all about the unexpected, especially these days. Any number of things usually go wrong over the course of the growing season. Leave a little room for unexpected expenses in your budget.

Money Saving Garden Tips

Now that you have a garden budget more or less put together, it is time see where you can save. The first place to look are your supply order sheets. Buying in bulk is ultimately cheaper. The cost of the product goes down and shipping is usually free at a certain point. Most gardeners, however, don't need bulk quantities of seed and supplements. This is a good opportunity to talk to your gardening friends about splitting a bulk order several ways.

Reuse and recycle to reduce your costs by saving old plant pots, trays, and even drip line irrigation (tip: you can repair leaky drip line with electrical tape, which sticks to wet drip line and works remarkably well). For smaller scale gardeners, consider starting seeds in recycled plastic bags, egg cartons, and plastic containers.

Source local free materials for your compost pile like manure and leaves from local stables, your neighbors, or the town. Collect leaves and cardboard for mulch and talk to local farmers or stable owners about helping them get rid of moldy bales of straw and hay.

Join gardening groups and befriend local farmers who might have access to tips or materials. Not only will you gain knowledge and supplies, you might also meet some interesting new people.

Your garden budget is about so much more than dollars and cents. Budgets reveal your garden's productivity and help you catch problems before they start, saving your vegetable and flower beds from harm - while saving you a little extra cash as well.