You Can Start A Regenerative Garden on a Low Budget

Do you want to start a regenerative garden, but looking at all the inputs makes your head spin when you think about the cost of it all?

When talking with home gardeners, I often hear folks assuming that you need expensive tools and inputs to begin. But I’m here to tell you that starting a regenerative garden on a budget is more achievable than you might think.

With a bit of scrappiness, there are actually tons of resources out there that you can tap into to help you save money.

I remember the my first garden planning session. Seeing the cost of truckloads of compost and tools, I knew there had to be a better way. Looking back on it now, I realize that many of my purchases unnecessary.

When we look back throughout the history of regenerative gardening, we can find countless examples of resourcefulness and community support. Today’s methods are just a modern spin on these sustainable practices. In a way, spending more than we can afford disconnects us from the sustainable ethos of regenerative gardening in and of itself.

So, let’s not rack up high costs. I’ve compiled some creative tips to get you started with your regenerative garden on a budget. Here’s a cost comparison chart that highlights budget-friendly alternatives to put this into perspective.

Cost Comparison Chart: Starting a Regenerative Garden

Understanding Regenerative Gardening

Before we look at budget tricks, let’s take a moment to understand the essence of regenerative gardening, and why it’s inherently cost effective.

I like to say “Don’t be a gardener - be a land steward.” Regenerative gardeners are always aiming to improve their soil microbiome and greater ecosystem first - the lush produce and gorgeous herbs and flowers are just a byproduct of that.

While I have a more in-depth guide to what exactly regenerative gardening is, here’s a brief overview of the main points:

• Feed the soil microbes organic matter in the form of compost, mulch, and plant trimmings.
• Keep the soil planted or covered year-round, using cover crops or thick layers of mulch in the off-season.
• Use only organic fertilizers and inputs.
• Avoid monocropping and instead interplant in order to enhance plant biodiversity and to attract beneficial insects for natural pest control.
• When possible, keep plant roots in the ground once a crop is spent. Chop it back and leave the plant material on the soil.
• Practice crop rotation so that the same plant family isn’t planted in the same location over a three year time span.

How to Start Regenerative Gardening on a Budget

Alright, now that you understand the basics, let’s look at the initial steps of setting up an affordable and sustainable garden.

How to Boost Soil Health with Minimal Spending:

• If you already have a garden established, your input costs are likely going to be lower
• If you’re just getting started, garden in-ground if you know your soil doesn’t have any contaminants.
• If you don’t want to grow a large garden, check out your local community gardens to see if they have any openings.

As you’ll see, nature and community can offer tools that you can readily use in order to build healthy soil in your garden.

Leverage local resources for compost, mulch, and organic matter

I have been known to chase down arborists on my own road, and they gladly give me their woodchips at the end of their workday for free. Resources like this really add up in terms of cost savings and garden health!

• Source Local Manure:
  • Check Availability: Have a neighbor with chickens, or have any farms with livestock nearby?
  • Go Spray-Free: Double check that none of their hay or straw was treated with Grazon, a persistent herbicide
  • Allow for Aging: Make sure that the manure has had time to rest before you apply it to your garden.
• Scour your neighbor’s leaves:
  • Inspiration: Sean of Edible Acres takes his pickup truck around his neighborhood to gather an impressive number of leaf bags each autumn.
  • Tip: You can use these leaves for mulch, or to add browns to a home compost pile.
• Save your Grass Clippings:
  • Free Resource: If you have an area of lawn that you mow, you can use those grass clippings as mulch for your garden, or as nitrogen-rich greens for your compost pile.
• Sign up for ChipDrop:
  • Check Availability: If you’re in an urban or suburban area in the United States, you’ll want to look into ChipDrop, which connects gardeners with local arborists and gives them a place to dump their wood chip haul.
  • Connect with arborists: In more rural areas, you’ll want to contact your local arborists, or even power company.
  • Tip: Woodchips are my favorite method of creating pathways in the garden.
• Chop and drop:
  • Free DIY Mulch: Growing perennial crops that offer free organic mulch can give you periodic supplies of free mulch materials.
  • Tip: Try Blocking 14 Comfrey for this purpose.
• Haul Home Brewery Spent Grains:
  • Local Resource: Many breweries will give away their spent grain
  • ‍Tip: These grains are rich in nitrogen and can serve as a “green” in your compost.‍
  • Animal Feed: As a bonus, if you have chickens, they can also eat the spent grain!‍
• Connect with Mushroom Growers:
  • Free substrate: I’ve heard of some mushroom cultivation businesses completely giving away their used growing substrate.‍
  • Tip: You can add this to your compost pile to let it age along with your other materials.‍
  • Additional information: PennState has an informative quick guide to adding mushroom growing medium to your garden, and this book looks at how mushroom cultivation materials can support regenerative farming.

👩🏻‍🌾 Regenerative tip: While no-till gardening means that you’ll need to start with more inputs, in the long run it helps you to build soil health and sequester more carbon in your backyard.

DIY Soil Amendments + Pest Control

There’s something so rewarding about making your own natural amendments from free materials. Whether I’m making up a fresh batch of nettle compost tea or mulching with a nitrogen-fixing cover crop, I feel satisfied knowing I’m not only saving money, but getting bigger yields, too.

• Make Natural Amendments:
  • Korean Natural Faring and JADAM: Learn about JADAM and other ways to make your own garden amendments from common and inexpensive materials.
  • More information: Nigel Palmer has an excellent book on this as well.
• Grow Cover Crops:
  • Low-cost nitrogen: Did you know that cover crops grown over the winter can provide nitrogen for your spring plantings?
  • Pest + Disease Control: Some cover crops even help to fight of pests and other diseases, making them an inexpensive way to boost the health of your garden.
• Keep Worms:
  • Homemade Soil Boost: Make Your Own Vermicompost from your kitchen scraps to use as a rich and bioactive soil amendment.
• Harvest Seaweed:
  • Shore up Nutrients: If you live on the coast, you might be able to gather seaweed, a material rich in nutrients, to add to your garden as a mulch.
• Urine Luck:
  • Not for everyone: Check out the Rich Earth Institute for information on collecting your own urine to use as a balanced fertilizer in your home garden.
• Low-Cost Organic Pest Control:
  • JADAM Solutions: JADAM has many solutions for common garden pests, too.
• Integrate Herbs & Flowers:
  • Natural Pest Control: Attract beneficial insects to help decrease the pest population for you.
  • Increased Yield: They also help bring in pollinators, which can boost the yield on your crops for a minimal investment.

How to Save Money on Plants:

• If you already have a garden growing, you can start to save seeds from your heirloom plants.
• If you’re starting from scratch, there are a few different ways you can save money when obtaining plants.

Plants are what makes up our garden - but they don’t have to make up your entire gardening budget! Here are some ways to cultivate your garden without spending tons of money.

Start crops from seed: More upfront time, less upfront cost

• Go heirloom: If you purchase heirloom seeds, you can save your own seeds for next year’s garden.
• Free/by-donation online resources:
  • freeheirloomseeds.org (yes the website is very Y2K but most folks have had luck with them)
  • goingtoseed.org (i’ve ordered from them and they’ve been great),
• Shop around: These two shops are known for high quality seeds at a low cost.
  • MIGardener
  • Bertie County Seeds (from the Alliance of Native Seed Keepers)
• Look up Local Seed Swaps and Community Seed Banks: Since the pandemic, seed exchanges and libraries are becoming more popular. This is a way for folks to share extra packets of seeds with the community, and also locally saved seed.
  • Tip: Have a look at this global Seed Library map to see if one is listed in your area.

🌾 Regenerative tip: Mix things up when you plant them in your garden - biodiversity helps to create a more robust garden at no cost.

Purchase seedlings: Less upfront time, more upfront cost

• Try farmer’s markets:
  • Usually Less Expensive: While this will vary from location to location, I’ve found that buying starts from local farmers is more cost effective than buying them at garden centers.
  • SNAP Benefits: If you have access to SNAP, many markets accept SNAP payments, and some have incentives like doubling the value of your SNAP dollars.
• Ask local farmers: Sometimes farms will have a seedling sale right around your area’s last frost date.
• Check local grocery stores: Sometimes in the spring, grocery stores will offer vegetable starts at a low cost.
• Go out of the city: If you live in a big city and have access to smaller independent shops that are more suburban or even rural, chances are that the prices will be lower.

Propagate from cuttings: A bit more finicky but a great cost-saver

• Reuse Grocery Scraps: I’ve kept green onions that I bought from the grocery store in the garden before, and it provided for me for two years! Fresh herbs can also be grown from the smaller cuttings you get at the market, and I’ve seen fresh herbs for sale inside of Trader Joe’s sometimes.
• Ask Neighbors/Friends/Community Gardens: Most folks with established gardens would be happy to give you divisions of their perennial herbs and fruit crops.

Reduce Your Water Bill:

Water is a precious resource. These tactics will cut your water bill and help your yard to be more sustainable.

• Mulch your garden: While mulching your garden is standard regenerative practice, it’s extra necessary in the summer to keep the soil moist.

*The next three options all have an upfront cost. While saving water is a core tenet of regenerative gardening, I also understand that investing in water saving garden features can be cost prohibitive. If your water bills are high and mulching isn’t doing the trick, run a cost benefit analysis to see if any of the below options are worth it for you.

• Harvest Water with a Rainwater catchment system:
  • Rebate Potential: There’s an upfront cost to this, but many areas now have rebates and other incentives if you’re installing a rain barrel on your property.
  • Check Suitability: Double check your roof and gutter materials are non-leaching. Sometimes, barrels that are food-safe and have been used for food shipment can be sourced from restaurants.
• Install a Gray water system:
  • Rebate Potential: Like rainwater catchment systems, there is an upfront cost but some areas offer rebates.
  • Where to Use: Gray water is great for watering trees and bushes where the water isn’t coming into contact with your food.
  • Tip: You’ll need to use eco-friendly soaps and laundry detergents if you decide to try this out.
• Try drip irrigation:
  • Cost-Benefit Analysis Necessary: Drip irrigation isn’t a cost-saving installation at first glance, but if you live in an area with wildly expensive water costs, it might even out for you within a few gardening seasons. While you’ll have to run the numbers based on your water rates, it might be worth it for you depending on what your usage rates are.

Resource List

Here’s a compilation of the resources I mentioned in this article, plus a few extra thrown in for extra support.

Factoring in Other Garden Costs:

• Tools: See if your area has a local tool library, or if any of your neighbors are willing to share. One of my own neighbors said it best - “Why does everyone on our street need their own shovels or pruners? We can just have one and share it.”
• Soil Testing: While it might not be necessary, local government agencies and master gardeners, and extension services will offer free or very inexpensive soil tests for you. While these won’t be in-depth reports, they can tell you the pH, basic nutrient levels, or even if there’s lead in your soil. Sometimes, you might find that your soil already has certain nutrients, so you won’t need to spend money adding expensive fertilizers to your soil.

FAQ

• Q: How can I improve my poor soil without spending a lot?
  
  A: Improving poor soil doesn't have to be expensive. Start by integrating organic matter through composting kitchen scraps and yard waste, which enriches the soil with essential nutrients. You can also plant cover crops like clover or vetch during the off-season, which fix nitrogen in the soil and improve its structure. Additionally, mulching with leaves or straw helps maintain moisture and encourages beneficial microbial activity. These practices not only enhance soil fertility but also contribute to long-term soil health.

• Q: What if I don’t have enough space for a garden?
  
  A: Limited space doesn't mean you can't enjoy the benefits of gardening. Consider container gardening, where you can grow herbs, vegetables, and even small fruit trees in pots or vertical planters. Alternatively, joining a community garden can provide access to shared plots and resources. Many urban areas offer rooftop or balcony gardening initiatives, perfect for maximizing small spaces. By experimenting with different setups, you can create a thriving garden regardless of space constraints.

• Q: What if your suggestion isn’t available in my area?
  
  A:  Sadly, resources will vary from region to region, and access to some of the services I mention here might not be available in your area. If possible, see if anything is going on in your local community, or see if you can collaborate with a neighbor or two to start something, like a seed swap or tool library. There are also online groups where you can find or share resources, like the seed swap forum on reddit.

• Q: Does anyone really have time for this?
  
  A: There is a lot of time investment required for some of these cost-saving tips. I wish we lived in a society where people had more leisure time and didn’t have to work long hours to make ends meet. I know that it can be challenging to find the time to garden in this way. Joining a community garden might be a great way to have a garden with minimal setup and lots of shared resources.

Conclusion

Here's Why You Should Start Now

Regenerative gardening is a rewarding journey for both experienced and novice gardeners.

It promotes biodiversity, conserves resources, and enriches the soil, making it a sustainable choice for the environment. Additionally, it allows you to create an eco-friendly space that requires less water and chemical inputs, aligning with nature's processes. Finally, it offers personal satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment from growing your produce.

I remember visiting my neighbor’s garden, which was full of healthy green plants, fruit bushes, and herbs - all organic, no-till, and created with minimal investment. This affirmed for me that regenerative gardening is more about smart choices than spending power. It resonated with the idea that we can all live more harmoniously with our environment.

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