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Keeping a yard and garden looking healthy during the hottest months of the year can come with a hefty price tag and big water bill.
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“It’s not as bad as I thought it would be, but it’s still up,” said Debby Manning, who’s planning a large landscaping project for her yard this summer. “If we would have bought two years ago, we would have saved some money.”
Inflation, high gas and diesel prices, and tariffs on imported goods all have the cost of making that backyard oasis higher than ever.
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Luckily, there are ways to have a beautiful outdoor space without spending a fortune.
Watch as a garden center owner shows how to have a beautiful yard on a budget:
Save on water
At Denny McKeown’s Bloomin Garden Centre & Landscaping in Cincinnati, owner Chris McKeown can rattle off a list of plants and flowers that don’t require much watering at all.
“Zinnias or periwinkle, once they’re established, you’re watering them once a week,” McKeown said. “These aren’t the plants for people that invested in a sprinkler system.”
On the flip side, he said overwatering is a common mistake — especially with hanging plants.
“They love them so much they kill them with kindness and they overwater them,” McKeown said.
The garden “extras”
When shopping for your yard, McKeown believes fertilizer is a nice supplement, but not a necessity.
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Mulch is important for suppressing weeds and retaining moisture in hot temperatures, but just like water, it’s possible to overdo it. Experts recommend keeping mulch to about 1 to 1.5 inches at most.
“You can have too much mulch and then it works against you,” McKeown said. “Then the water can’t penetrate down to the soil where it should be.”
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Know your region
To ensure your flowers and plants last all summer, avoid spending money on food for deer or other little foragers.
“We’re looking for something that’s native to the area and something that would be deer-resistant because that’s a big problem in our area,” said shopper Liz Mann.
If you live in a region dealing with an invasive species — like the box tree moth that attacks boxwoods — McKeown advises shoppers to ask about alternatives before buying.
“An inkberry holly is a great alternative, and you don’t have to worry about the insect and the blight problems that are happening with the boxwood,” McKeown said.
He also suggests “globe” or dwarf arborvitae, another plant that resembles a boxwood from the street, but is immune to the damaging box tree moth.
Get help from local experts
A local garden center expert can share insider knowledge to help you buy plants that are right for your yard and your budget.
Take rhododendrons that thrive in mature soil, for example.
“You’ve got to have really, really good soil to have rhododendrons,” McKeown said. “If you live in a newer subdivision where they take away all the good soil and just leave the clay soil, rhododendrons aren’t for you.”
So take advice from the folks at your local garden center who know plants best, so you don’t waste your money.
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