Top tips to save money for your garden

Whether you need to update your current patio furniture or are planning to buy some for next year, here are some great ways you can save some money while adding furniture to your porch or patio this summer.

Buy Garden Fundamentals out of season

Outdoor furniture is a seasonal business, so buying out of season will generally result in lower costs. Buy patio furniture, barbecues and grills towards the end of the summer months to save a lot of money. Most retailers offer end-of-season rebates, so if you hold off on those huge purchases, you could score a fantastic deal.

Separate your perennials

Dig up your sprawling, high-coverage perennials and break them apart from the roots with a shovel or fork; by doing so, you will get some small plants that you can then give to friends or move to another part of the garden. Reusing and altering the plants you already have, instead of buying new stuff, will save you a lot of money in the long run.

Put your money on items from Best Buy

The ‘Which?’ consumer website Try out a range of garden items for yourself, to make sure you can spend your money on the right things. However, you don’t just need to listen to internet reviews and you don’t just need to spend a lot of money to get decent items. Lawn mowers can vary greatly in price – on Amazon, for example, you can find one for £50 or one for £900 – but the £50 one still has more than 4.5 stars out of 5 across 400+ reviews. A small amount of research on your part will produce the best results.

Develop from seed

Planting seeds instead of buying more developed plants will save a lot of money. Many times, a bag of seeds will contain more than is necessary, so why not share them with a friend or loved one who also enjoys gardening? A bag of 10,000 poppy seeds, for example, could cost you less than £2.00, while a set of three fully grown poppy plants can cost up to £20. You don’t have to be a math whiz to see the benefits.

Reuse your leftover fertilizer

Repurposing last year won’t be a terrible plan, but it certainly won’t be the 100% most effective way to help your plants. So do you throw it away? Certainly not! Just cut it up with a newer bag and use it to get great results without wasting last year’s fertilizer. That is, of course, unless it’s a wet fertilizer or has been exposed to moisture. In which case, it will have negative impacts and you should throw it in your compost pile instead.

update your furniture

To change the decoration of your garden, you do not need to buy a completely new set of garden furniture. Instead, see if you can work with what you have and maybe upgrade it. If your garden set is made of metal, you can buy shower paint, mainly intended for outdoor furniture, to revitalize the look. If you have porch furniture made from wood, you can restain it with an alternate shade to give it a different look.

Another excellent method of giving your patio furniture a second life is to purchase new cushions and pads for your porch furniture. It’s much less expensive to upgrade just your porch cushions and pillows than it is to get a whole new set.

Buy at the end of summer

Finally, and certainly similar to shopping in the off-season, be sure to shop right at the end of summer, when stores know patio furniture will have a sharp drop in purchases. Prices will also drop as stores try to get rid of excess stock and make way for the winter collection, allowing you to take advantage of great deals.