Creating a garden on a budget

What is the most expensive aspect of landscaping a garden?

The costs of landscaping a garden can vary significantly depending on the size and complexity of the project. However, here are some elements that can be expensive when landscaping your outdoor space, whether small or large:

• Materials such as slabs, paving stones, pebbles, gravel, borders, walls, and fences can represent a substantial budget, especially if they are of high quality or if the area to be landscaped is large.
• Labour required for their installation can significantly increase the cost of landscaping.
• Plants are one of the most expensive elements in a garden: bushes, trees, perennials, and even annuals can quickly inflate the final bill, especially if you opt for large specimens, rare or exotic species.
• Decorative elements such as pergolas, arbors, garden furniture, lighting, and water features can also represent a significant investment, especially if you wish to create a zen, exotic, or contemporary garden.
• The automatic irrigation system can be an expensive installation, requiring trench digging and installation by individuals who are at least knowledgeable about this type of setup.
• Equipment and tools: purchasing or renting gardening tools such as mowers, hedge trimmers, chainsaws, tillers, etc., can also represent a significant cost.

A well-designed outdoor space with high-end materials can come at a significant cost

What are the tips for designing a garden on a small budget?

• One might wonder whether a garden must necessarily be enclosed by walls or rigid wire panels. The installation of a simple and inexpensive wire fence fixed to metal or wooden stakes costs much less and can be done by anyone with a bit of skill. The necessary tools are simple and affordable.
• Mineralised areas, such as terraces, driveways, and pedestrian pathways, as well as parking zones, can also be very expensive to develop. The most economical solution is on one hand to minimise artificialisation and concreting and to use gravel laid on geotextile to keep certain surfaces “clean”. For greater durability, the base must be stabilised and compacted for trafficable areas. A significant advantage of this type of surface is that it remains permeable.
• For borders, one can use natural and reclaimed materials, such as stones, wood, tiles, etc.
• A little spirit of recycling and countryside charm can both enhance the garden and add structural and decorative elements: small barriers and a gate made from simple branches or reclaimed planks to define the vegetable patch, a shaded pergola with canes from Provence or branches instead of expensive PVC screens, etc.
• In the same spirit, recycle and “upcycle” everything you can: pallets can be transformed into benches or compost bins, old furniture can replace an expensive and charmless garden lounge, terracotta pots can become ollas, old zinc watering cans can be turned into flower pots, reclaimed wood can be made into playhouses for children… nothing is wasted, nothing is created, everything is transformed!

Simplicity, recycling, and “upcycling” bring charm to your outdoor space and allow for significant savings.

How can one save on garden greening?

Nature is well designed and from just a few things, you can create a true oasis of greenery:

• you can sow, transplant, propagate, and divide a large number of plants yourself
• buying plants as bare roots or plug plants is also more economical than container plants
• you can also buy smaller specimens
• keep an eye out for promotions and clearance sales
• attend plant fairs, exchange plants with friends, acquaintances, and neighbours
• and of course, you can plant your plants yourself without hiring a professional landscaper

• Finally, rather than buying expensive bags of potting soil or compost that is often of poor quality, you can opt for creating a composting area, which allows you to turn green waste into brown gold ideal for planting, repotting, for the vegetable garden…etc. This also saves on purchases of fertilisers and amendments of all types.

→ Discover also how to propagate bulbs by scaling in our tutorial!

How to save on watering?

The automatic irrigation system is expensive not only to install but also increases the water bill. In the face of climate change and droughts, various solutions are necessary:

• choosing frugal plants that require no maintenance once established
• mulching planted areas
• forgetting about lush lawns in favour of unmown areas; tall herbs protect the soil from direct sunlight, while mown grass exposes it to UV rays. Moreover, repeated mowing is very energy-intensive: consider the time spent mowing and the fuel or electricity consumption. Mowing pathways visually marks different spaces and gives a neat and maintained appearance to the garden, while also supporting genuine reservoirs of biodiversity, both plant and animal. Some groundcovers can replace grassed areas to eliminate the need for watering and mowing.

For further reading...

Discover a wealth of articles, tutorials, and advice sheets in our category “Economical Garden” that will help you design, flower, and maintain your garden without breaking the bank!