Author Topic: DIY landscaping websites  (Read 3407 times)

Lentils4Lunch

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 104
DIY landscaping websites
« on: February 11, 2017, 06:22:54 AM »
Are there any good websites that you can recommend for buying landscaping plants at a discount? Specifically, we are looking to buy ground  cover to plant on a south facing hill with full sun.

Plant nurseries around us are expensive. 

lthenderson

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2252
Re: DIY landscaping websites
« Reply #1 on: February 12, 2017, 10:18:17 AM »
In my experience, getting plants on discount (the kind you find at big box stores or outside your grocery store in the spring) is a terrible idea. They are generally stressed and full of diseases and bugs. However at our local nursery, I've never had a single problem with either of those things plus they give me up to a three year guarantee for full replacement should it die. Worth the price premium to me.

However, I have learned that there are ways to reduce your price at the nursery. The biggest thing it to buy things out of peak times. You don't get as good of a selection, but they still give you the guarantee. Two  years ago our nursery sold raspberry bushes for around $40 a pot during the spring, summer and fall. We stopped by in late fall and saw two pallets of potted raspberry bushes and they sold them us for $20/pallet which was about $1 per bush. The still guaranteed a replacement however only for the discounted price so that didn't help us much in this case. We planted them anyway and about 90% of them are still going two years later.

Another thing we use to save money is to take advantages of their promotional deals which they regularly have. Ours gives us buybackbucks based on how much we spend and we use those when we need to pay full fare for something. You can also buy giftcards for yourself using a cashback creditcard so you get even more savings. Our local store used to allow us to buy giftcards during their 20% off sale in late fall for 20% off so with our 2% cashback, we saved 22% on everything no matter what time we bought it. They however closed that loophole when I tried to do it last year so now it is just 2%.

Poundwise

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2076
Re: DIY landscaping websites
« Reply #2 on: February 12, 2017, 02:16:52 PM »
I'm afraid I can't answer your question exactly, but if you go to Gardenweb (now owned by Houzz I think) plant swaps there are common.

If you have enough time, you could pick up cuttings or corms of some sort of easily divided perennial, and over a period of years they will cover your hill, especially if you take new cuttings from your old plants every year to help them spread faster.

NoVa

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 182
Re: DIY landscaping websites
« Reply #3 on: February 12, 2017, 03:03:20 PM »
I asked my local plant expert (wife) about a south facing hill ground cover in the DC Metro area. First question back was "do they want to walk on it?" I guessed no.
She then wrote down three unpronounceable names:
Hypericum calyinum
Hardy carolina jasmine
Prostrate juniper

I then added the caveat that it had to be cheap. She said Ivy or Japanese honeysuckle would be basically free, but you would spend a lot of time preventing it from taking over.

I think her answers cover both ends of the economic spectrum, but no middle.

deborah

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 15960
  • Age: 14
  • Location: Australia or another awesome area
Re: DIY landscaping websites
« Reply #4 on: February 12, 2017, 11:21:45 PM »
Get the smallest version of a plant (if it is available in little, big and enormous, get the little). In three years or so, there won't be a difference.

MasterStache

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 2912
Re: DIY landscaping websites
« Reply #5 on: February 14, 2017, 01:18:24 PM »
I asked my local plant expert (wife) about a south facing hill ground cover in the DC Metro area. First question back was "do they want to walk on it?" I guessed no.
She then wrote down three unpronounceable names:
Hypericum calyinum
Hardy carolina jasmine
Prostrate juniper

I then added the caveat that it had to be cheap. She said Ivy or Japanese honeysuckle would be basically free, but you would spend a lot of time preventing it from taking over.

I think her answers cover both ends of the economic spectrum, but no middle.

Japanese honeysuckle is a horribly invasive species. I tore a shit ton of it out of our woods because it was shading out and killing everything. Great for spreading but very high maintenance. 

Morning Glory

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 4866
  • Location: The Garden Path
Re: DIY landscaping websites
« Reply #6 on: March 04, 2017, 06:54:40 AM »
What climate are you in? How about a low maintenance edible perennial such as asparagus, raspberries, blueberries, chives, walking onions, rhubarb. They will earn back their cost many times over. Your neighbors might be happy to part with some onion sets.

Frugal Lizard

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 5581
  • Age: 57
  • Location: Southwest Ontario
  • One foot in front of the other....
Re: DIY landscaping websites
« Reply #7 on: March 08, 2017, 06:36:26 AM »
Size is everything for plants.  The cheapest commercially available size are plug trays.  If you buy directly from the grower, typically late in the season, they need to transplant the plugs into bigger pots or sell them.  That is when you get a deal.  Some trays hold 72 plants, others, 64.  Great thing about this size is that the planting holes are easy to dig.
Please investigate a ground cover that is not an invasive exotic in your area.  There are lots of attractive native groundcovers that will grow well and provide food for wildlife and pollinators and not escape and become weeds.
I am into my 6th year of ripping periwinkle out of my back yard to stop it from spreading down into the ravine where it doesn't belong.  It chokes out the native plants that provide food for all the creatures I love to see.

MishMash

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 731
Re: DIY landscaping websites
« Reply #8 on: March 08, 2017, 07:03:33 AM »
CRAIGSLIST!!!!!

No seriously though, if you live in an area with a good craigslist following you can routinely get FREE landscaping plants and supplies.  For plants all you really have to do is go dig them up, that's how I got all of my raspberry bushes.

I'll toss out a non native that for me is super easy to control for low ground cover.  Ajuga.  gets pretty blue flowers in the spring, grows dense enough to block weeds, likes pretty much all soil types, and has a fairly shallow root system so all I do when it gets out of it's bounds is walk over and scuff up some plants out of the dirt with my shoe, then move them or give them away. But I'll second the users below though, if it's a hill and you want to control erosion, go for fruit plants, blueberries, raspberries etc, at least then you (or more likely the birds) can get something from it.


Mezzie

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 816
    • Mezzie Learns
Re: DIY landscaping websites
« Reply #9 on: March 08, 2017, 07:17:01 AM »
With recent rains after a long drought, my once orderly desertscape is now a haven for dandylions. I actually like dandylions, but my neighbors don't, so they must go. What I'd like to do is plant native wildflowers in their place as well as add some ground cover (creeping thyme, most likely) and flagstone (not real flagstone to save on $; I'm looking at cement molds and coloring) so that there's a walkwable path through what I'm hoping will be a somewhat wild-looking garden of poppies, hyssop, milkweed, safe, rosemary, and other natives.

Ir'll probably not look anything like I imagine,but it will be a fun project anyway. :)

StarBright

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3270
Re: DIY landscaping websites
« Reply #10 on: March 08, 2017, 07:22:12 AM »
Don't want to threadjack but I saw all the comments here about growing raspberries and didn't see a general DIY grow your own food thread going so wondered if I could just ask -

Are raspberries easy to grow? We have a large space out by our alley (5x12 or so)  that was planted with English Ivy - we've spent the last several months slowly attacking it and have it almost all out.  It gets great sun from morning until about 2 and I've been thinking about planting raspberries and a couple blackberry bushes.

I've done regular old gardening before, (tomatoes, peppers, pole beans, greens, etc) but never planted any multi season bearing anything. I dream of rhubarb, asparagus and raspberries but am totally intimidated.

Are berries relatively easy? I'm zone 6 (NW Ohio).

MishMash

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 731
Re: DIY landscaping websites
« Reply #11 on: March 08, 2017, 08:39:53 AM »
Don't want to threadjack but I saw all the comments here about growing raspberries and didn't see a general DIY grow your own food thread going so wondered if I could just ask -

Are raspberries easy to grow? We have a large space out by our alley (5x12 or so)  that was planted with English Ivy - we've spent the last several months slowly attacking it and have it almost all out.  It gets great sun from morning until about 2 and I've been thinking about planting raspberries and a couple blackberry bushes.

I've done regular old gardening before, (tomatoes, peppers, pole beans, greens, etc) but never planted any multi season bearing anything. I dream of rhubarb, asparagus and raspberries but am totally intimidated.

Are berries relatively easy? I'm zone 6 (NW Ohio).

Zone six should be fine for raspberries, I like the everbearers but in general raspberries are easy to take care of, plant, then stake the canes (or create a lattice) trim the over 2 year old canes in fall if you have summer bearers, a lot of people say watch for bugs etc and they require careful care.  I've never once experienced that though.  Usually my biggest problem is keeping them from taking over.    I think the Heritage variety is bred for your area.

Frugal Lizard

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 5581
  • Age: 57
  • Location: Southwest Ontario
  • One foot in front of the other....
Re: DIY landscaping websites
« Reply #12 on: March 09, 2017, 10:07:36 AM »
Raspberries are good spreaders and would work on a slope if you don't want to pick them. Hard to pick standing on a slope but it does give you a good workout. They are rather unruly so wouldn't look tidy to most people as a landscape plant.  I like a more wild looking aesthetic so I have them in among my plants.  I like the idea that the kids can find food in the garden.