I am cheap. Perhaps I should say frugal – it sounds better. Whatever it is, my urge to save money often clashes with my passion for gardening, and I've had to find a way to balance penny pinching with the urge to spend ever more on the newest plants, the best plants, and the hardest to find plants.
The dilemma occurs most often at this time of year, when it's easy to wander up and down the garden center aisles and blow a hundred dollars on luscious greenery in the blink of an eye. And then, if you're like me, be overwhelmed with guilt at the lack of self-control.
A few years ago, I decided to try to avoid the mind games by planning ahead and putting a new twist on the old Christmas Club savings idea. Each payday, I'd put a few dollars — sometimes $5, sometimes $20 — in my Garden Jar. Any odd change went in there, too. By spring, I had more than enough to fuel my green addiction. I'd stick the garden money in an envelope, head for the garden centers and happily hand over the cash.
Somehow setting money aside over time has made it easier for me to buy the fancy coleus I like for my container gardens. Last spring, I had another choice to make when I saw Itoh peonies in bloom at a plant nursery. Gloriously in bloom. Fantastically in bloom.
More than $100 each, in bloom.
I circled, I stared, I went away. I could not part with $100 for a single plant, no matter how beautiful.
When I returned in August, looking for late-season deals on perennial plants, the Itohs were no longer in bloom. But they were on sale. I looked at the $70 price tag and left. And thought a lot about these peonies — a cross between ordinary peonies and tree peonies — that have extra-big blooms and don't need staking.
I came back a few days later with my garden money and slowly drove home with a precious Itoh balanced in the back of the car.
I babied the plant well into fall, but worried about it during our freaky dry winter. I'm relieved to say my prize is sending up maroon sprouts like crazy. I can't wait to see the enormous blooms, and I am thrilled to have such a plant.
Next week, I'll write part two on my strategies to save money in the garden. How about you? Are you a free-spending gardener, or a penny pincher like me?