Coupon Mama Massachusetts: My Frugal Labor of Love: My Flower Garden

I don't have many hobbies or pasttimes. I'm too ~~cheap~~ frugal to pursue some of the more expensive hobbies my husband enjoys - he's just taken up brewing beer on his own and dropped nearly $400 last night in equipment and accessories. The thought of spending that much on myself makes me shudder.

But lucky for me, books are FREE when you borrow from the library and your friends and family. And I can find really, really, REALLY inexpensive flowers and plants at my local Lowes. I've shopped around for plants at many places and found that Lowes has the best clearanced plants around. Many perenniels are put in the clearance section at 50% or more off the original price once the flowers have bloomed for the season. Maybe some people don't realize that perenniels come back every year, but I've found lillies and tulips and many other bulb-plants for less than 50 cents a pot. These plants, after several years, will also multiply and fill in the area where you plane them. So your 50 cent investment now can turn into $20 worth of flowers very quickly.

My husband and I will have been living in this house for three years come this November. I don't have many before pictures of our house, but I'll try to show you a comparison of how my frugal gardening has taken root.

BEFORE

AFTER

Two hibiscus plants, butterfly bush, 2 trumpet flowers, irises, a pussy willow and some other random plants whose names I can't recall.

BEFORE

AFTER

Deer-chewed arborvitae are gone! Two rose bushes, tiny bee lillies, tiger lillies, other random lillies, daylillies and some plants that might be weeds but I'm leaving to see if they bloom.

BEFORE

AFTER

I finally coughed up money for annuals because I found that great metal basket in someone's trash and spray painted it lime green. Dusty miller and snapdragons.

Hostas from my husband's mother, tulips and hyacinths leftover from church mass around Easter.

My beautiful bleeding hearts!

My husband built that shed mostly on his own :-)
Tiny bee lillies, another rose bush, 2 more butterfly bushes, and some other random flowers.

I can't say I planted this rhododendron. It was here when we bought the house. We just knocked down a poorly located tree next to it to give it some light.

MORE AFTER PHOTOS, SADLY I CAN'T FIND BEFORE PHOTOS :-(