The funny thing about blogging is that sometimes you write things you actually need to hear yourself. In my last blog post, for instance, I apparently needed to hear how much good it does me to have more plants in my life. Not just in my house, but also by coloring pictures of them, embroidering them, looking up Pins about them, or simply being around them. It gave me the idea to visit a garden center again. I have three within biking distance, and this time I chose the one that was both the closest and the longest time ago since my last visit. While at first glance you might think a garden center is a bit like a shopping mall or a supermarket—an almost megalomaniacal commercial place—I actually found the trip to be spiritual and deeply comforting. All that green really does something to a person!
I didn't go there with the intention of buying anything, but if something caught my eye, I might consider it. Well, I was absolutely floored by the prices! They sell their plants for so much money, it’s just crazy! Then it hit me: if someone had read my previous blog post and felt inspired to get a few plants of their own, they might think plants are only for rich(er) people. Well, let me just be honest: I am anything but rich. An-y-thing but. I can't work and receive disability benefits, so I have to be very creative with every single cent. And yet, that doesn't stand in the way of having lots of plants. Having little money is one of the "lemons" life gives me, but I manage perfectly fine to make something good out of it and have a ton of plants. That topic seemed perfect for Making Lemonade, so here are some tips to have lots of plants on a small budget!
1. Buy the tiny plants and skip the big ones (your little one will grow big in no time anyway!)
This morning at the garden center, I saw a rack full of ivy plants in all kinds of varieties. The smallest pots cost 1.80 euros, the slightly larger ones 3.50 euros, and prices just kept going up from there. Personally, I always buy the very smallest pots. They are the cheapest, and after giving them a little love, light, and water, you’ll have a larger plant in no time! That’s also exactly why they make bigger plants so expensive: they require more hours of labor. But if you’re willing to put in that labor yourself (and let's be honest, that work is really not that hard at all!), you're just as well off with a small pot. I thought it would be nice to have some plants on my balcony, too, and since they’ll have to survive the freezing cold later on, ivy is a really suitable choice! When I pulled that cheapest 1.80-euro pot from the rack, I noticed the roots were already growing out of the bottom of the nursery pot. Perfect, because that’s an invitation to repot it into a larger pot at home right away, which immediately stimulates the plant to grow more. More space, more growth (isn't that how it works for people, too?). The plant that looked so tiny in that huge garden center turned out to be not so mini at all once I got it home. Just a matter of perspective, I guess?
By the way, I did the exact same thing with my monstera a few years ago. I bought it when it was very small, for less than 10 euros. Today, about three years of sunlight, love, and water later, it has become a truly massive plant that would easily cost 60 euros in the store! I’d say I saved myself a nice chunk of money there! Yes!
In the first photo, you can see the little ivy plant; the second one is my monstera.
2. Grocery stores for the win!
It turns out that plants in the grocery store are almost always cheaper than at the garden center. For some reason, I used to think they would be lower quality because of that, but that really isn't the case. Last winter, I bought a zamioculcas (ZZ plant) in the supermarket for 9 euros, and recently I also got a tamarind plant there for 6 euros. I can assure you: they are doing great, and you get way more bang for your buck than you would at a garden center! So, highly recommended! (And for my fellow Flemings: personally, I find the plants at Carrefour and Colruyt to have total old-lady vibes, but the ones at Albert Heijn are actually really cool!)
In the photos, you first see the ZZ plant, and then my tamarind plant. A fun little fact about that tamarind plant, by the way, is that it seems to follow a day-and-night rhythm. In the evening, it rolls up its leaves and looks pretty discouraged, but during the day, it opens right back up. In that sense, this long, lanky plant is quite a bit like people, which I really like!
3. Flowerpots from the thrift store
Flowerpots cost an arm and a leg. Every time I so much as dare to look at the price of flowerpots in a garden center, I almost burst out laughing. It’s crazy that they dare to ask 15 euros for such a ridiculously small pot! Of course, I understand that the price is based on shipping costs for the pot, storage space at the center, labor that needs to be paid, and so on. Still, that doesn't change the fact that I can eat delicious, healthy food for three days for the price of just one of those flowerpots. Since putting food in my stomach takes priority over buying pots, brand-new flowerpots are simply not an option. Yet, having them is nice, of course. It’s not strictly necessary, because just putting the nursery pot on a (secondhand floral) plate can look just as pretty. Personally, I do prefer using flowerpots, and without exception, I buy them at the thrift store. There, standard small flowerpots cost 60 cents each, and the large ones (like that white one with the tamarind plant above) are 2 euros. A whole lot more affordable than the flowerpots from the garden center! I will admit that sometimes it takes some searching to find pretty, undamaged pots. It never ceases to amaze me what some people still dare to bring to the thrift store instead of the recycling center, but if you get lucky, you can find some real gems there. That’s why I regularly keep an eye out for those hidden gems, and I'll take them home for the next time I get a new plant. Works like a charm!
Another thing I often do is get creative with containers. For instance, I once had a beautiful scented candle in a brown apothecary jar, and I just kept using it as a plant pot for years afterward. Tin cans (that used to hold tomato sauce, for example) also work great, and you can even decorate them to make them look cute. My personal favorite is a reusable soup bowl that I got from my niece last January. At her birthday party, the whole family ate butternut squash soup, and the kids got to decorate the soup bowls beforehand. On mine, my niece wrote: "I love Auntie so much," along with a drawing of a butternut squash and a little heart. Super cute, right?!
4. Just snip away!
I didn't buy most of my plants as full-grown plants; I got them as little babies. I’m not ashamed at all to ask people if I can take a cutting from their plant when I'm visiting. Just snip away, and you’ve got yourself an extra plant. Okay, maybe you don't ask for one the very first time you have dinner at your mother-in-law's house, but why not ask your own family or best friends? People usually love to give, and personally, I never forget who gave me which cutting. I see it as an enrichment of my home, knowing I have a plant around me from those specific people.
Of course, it’s also possible to propagate just about any plant you already have at home. Before you know it, you won't just have one pilea, but five or ten! In fact, this is how I get most of my plants: I just multiply what I already have. No one really notices that most of the plants are the same, but it definitely keeps things affordable (because other than a 5-euro bag of 20-liter potting soil, it doesn't cost you a thing!).
The plant in the first photo was given to me as a cutting by my therapist. Back then, I simply asked her for a pair of scissors and if I could snip off a small piece of her plant, which she didn't mind at all. In the meantime, that little cutting hasn't just become one plant, but two. Knowing that I have two plants that come from a place where I feel incredibly safe, and where I owe a huge part of my recovery, makes me genuinely happy.
The plant in the other photo ended up with me more as a happy accident. At the welcome desk of the church community I used to belong to, there was this half-withered plant, and I felt called to clean it up and remove all the dead parts. In doing so, I suddenly found myself holding a few healthy stems. Oops! I felt it would be a waste to throw them away, so I put them in water at home. That's where this little plant came from, and many, many more plants after that. Who says plants have to cost a lot of money?!
5. Plants as (birthday) gifts
When people know you love plants, they often give them to you as a (birthday) gift. Of course, it’s a wonderful present to give, because you can make your gift as small, big, cheap, or expensive as you like. Sometimes huge plants cost very little, or vice versa. And you just know you’re going to make the plant lover in question truly happy! I’ve received many plants as gifts over the years, and I’m still just as happy with all of them. My sister and her kids once gave me a Chinese evergreen, and for my last birthday, my mom gave me an asparagus fern. She has a gorgeous one herself, and every time I visit, I admire her plant. So today, I'm lucky enough to admire my own asparagus fern, and the fact that it was given with love just makes it even more beautiful!
In the first photo is the Chinese evergreen from my sister, and in the second photo is the asparagus fern I got from my mom.
Conclusion
Let’s be honest: living on a small budget isn’t easy. Sometimes it’s a real struggle, being afraid of what’s to come, or almost crying at the grocery store checkout. That’s just the reality of it. You can’t do crazy things when you have very little money (going on a shopping spree just for fun or taking a weekend getaway is simply out of the question), but that doesn’t mean we can’t do anything at all. With small, creative adjustments, we can actually go a long way. My tight budget is the best motivation to keep thinking creatively, and often I'm happy about that (and often I’m not, of course!). If I had more money, I would probably just buy every cute plant I came across without a second thought. But how much of a story is there in an expensive plant from a garden center? Isn’t raising a cutting given to you by family or friends so much more rewarding? And isn’t hunting for that one perfect flowerpot at a thrift store, or using a soup bowl lovingly decorated by a little niece, so much more fun than just buying a pot from IKEA? For me, it is. I truly enjoy being creative with money and turning it into abundance. It’s something to be proud of, something that makes me feel fulfilled. Because let’s be honest: to make what creation has given us grow and bloom, we don’t need money—we need love, time, and light. Just like people, right?
Do you know someone who is completely crazy about, for (or perhaps even because of?) plants and who would appreciate this blog post? Please feel free to share it with them! Are you creative with plants and/or your budget yourself, and do you have some tips that I missed? Feel free to share them below, because I’d love to be inspired by you!
Reacties
Reactie plaatsen