Green Living
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
What are your thoughts on buying plants/shrubs/flowers?
I have just really started working on our landscaping this spring. I need to buy a bunch of plants but I'm not sure where to get them. I work by a local nursery that has awesome stuff but it's very expensive. I could order the same things online for half the price.
So, I'm curious what you all do? Do you buy locally when it comes to plants/shrubs/flowers or do you order online to save money? Thanks!
Re: What are your thoughts on buying plants/shrubs/flowers?
In terms of being "green" I think that the most important thing is to make sure that what you are buying is a native species and not an invasive species to your area.
Do you have any plants, trees, shrubs, etc. on your property that you could trade?
There are lots of people who will trade cuttings, etc. of trees and plants with you for free. Also I have seen people on freecycle that offer up hostas, etc. We got 3 rhodos from freecycle and 2 of them are still alive.
I know my state does a coupon/certificate for $25 per person if you buy a native species that you can use at select local nurseries.
I agree with native species..but not everything has to be native. After living in Arizona and landscaping there, I think it's fine to use non-native species, but be aware of if they are invasive and just as importantly, of their water usage for your area.
A plant can be non-native and yet not be invasive.
Home Depot and Lowes are going to have a lot of the same plants that your local nursery will have..and the prices will be lower if you don't want to order plants. They also have a guarantee on their plants. We only bought certain hard to find plants from our nurseries.
This isn't the "greenest" of answers but it does pertain to your question about money.
You made some great points and gave me some things to think over. I need to research plants that are not invasive in our area and I need to look at how much water everything will need. This gives me a good starting point.
We are also working on our landscaping this year. It was suggested to me to try craigslist so I'm going to do some looking on there for stuff.
As far as nursery vs HD/Lowes vs online I think that online might be the cheapest but their plants also might be the smallest. I want trees that are already ~8ft tall and those are going to be hard to find online for cheaper then a local store.
I've bought plants at Lowes before and they've done fine. I also have used their 1 yr guarantee when a plant died and had no issues with it.
You could also try Costco for plants.
It's okay to take your project in steps. Especially with landscaping! We did our project in steps--by doing foundational things first (walls groundwork, and irrigation) then the planting.
I know you aren't asking this--but I'm going to tell you
We had someone else design our yard...within that design he told us how much it would cost for HIS company to do things--and how much plants would cost..we could hire him for any, none or all of the work. It was great. I loved that he had how much his plants would cost---I used it as a comparison.
Then we had a professional do our irrigation--worth the money in my mind. Ditch digging is hard and knowing how deep to go etc..sucks! I'm glad someone else did it!
We did all the tear out ourselves (pre existing patio, walls, firepit etc)
We had someone else build all the walls
We rebuild the patio--but doing it again-- we'd pay to have someone do that--it was a tile patio and it was really time consuming..depending on what your materials are, you could go either way.
We did all the planting, rocks, and then the hook up of irrigation ourselves...this is hard and time consuming, we also did the lighting ourselves.
Personally, I kind of like buying smaller trees (and horticulture friends think this too). A larger tree that has spent it's entire life in it's box has a root ball that doesn't always spread out after "freedom" in the ground. Sometimes these trees will tend to fall over in big windstorms--even small winds can cause the loss of a tree.
The trade off of a smaller tree is that it takes time to mature, but the root system is strong and established in the ground.
One thing you might want to consider is becoming a member of your local botanical garden. In our area, our garden had a HUGE plant sale two times a year. It featured local plants grown at the garden, as well as plants from all the wholesalers. The prices were pretty good. The membership was $50--you got to shop the plant sale for an entire weekend before the general public. What we saved in plants at the plant sale easily paid for the membership!
Another way to get plants is checking around to see if you have a gardening club nearby, our local Master Gardeners club does a fundraising sale every year and that's where I get my plants. They are usually a great deal, they are always very helpful at the sale, and supporting local.
Our Dept of Conservation also does a native plant sale every spring.
A Spring Day on the Katy Trail
I live in Georgia - where are you? That would be perfect if we live close enough!
Thanks for all of the tips! Any advice is definitely appreciated - I'm so new to all of this and it's overwhelming right now.
I'm trying to plant in the flower beds the builder already designed. Then, we're planning what to plant in other areas to expand our garden. We have a beautiful little creek running through our front yard that I can't wait to finish. I think I'll take your advice on having a professional come in and give their opinion. It would probably save time and money.
DH and I are going to attempt to put in the stone patio ourselves. I'm going to get an estimate first - but, I think we're going to give it a shot first.
I planted 6 or 8 small trees last spring and I can't believe how much they have grown already. The price was amazing so I think it will be worth it.
It's kind of exciting once you get into gardening - but, it can be addictive!
Darn, I am in CA... not close enough.