I don't budget, but I do purchase cheap. I shop at the $1-$3 rack at Lowes. I always take my tablet in with me and I will stand there with a plant and look up information pertaining to my area. Many things are listed as annuals, but we know if Florida, many annuals will come back. I also go to the flea market and do the same thing.

I do like the idea of making a spreadsheet to track my finances though. I already have one because I put down my plants, where they're located, when they were planted, and how to follow-up with them. This is my first year gardening in this home (it only took me 5 years) so adding the costs would be a cinch, everything is fresh in my mind.

Carol - I refuse to pay for plants. If I can't get it from a cutting or seed, I don't need it. Of course, space is a premium in my garden and if it doesn't grow in shade, it's not going in the ground.

That having been said, I just paid $100 for a massive Licuala grandis in a 25-gallon can, just because I had an open spot. So, throw caution to the wind? Yeah, I guess so.

I remember adding up just the credit card charges to Bushel Stop, where I buy mulch, rock, and the components of my potting soil, for a six-month period. When I hit $2000, I stopped adding and had a scotch instead.

I prefer to grow from seeds or cuttings. I worked at Lowe's last year so I just had to buy a few cheap plants every week. It's hard, but it's worth it. Whenever I buy a plant it comes with bugs and diseases.

Hi
That's a really tough ?? lol Most I've ever paid for a single plant was 60 bucks ,hybrid Catt orchid . Was one of my better buys as I now have 8 of them while many of my 5 buck plants are long gone .
I'm a hopeless "collector" so "Rare and exotic" always rings my bells lol. I have an arbitrary 20 dollar limit but have violated that twice in the last 6 months .
I don't think there is an answer. I look at it as a "hobby"
and a relatively cheap one compared to birds,marine aquariums . scuba diving, or just plain dining out.
I feel that I've had a greater return on "gardening" than any other thing I've done.??
I do avoid the large shows and always keep a mental notebook on costs .
good luck with your plan!! gary

My plant budget is "Whatever is cheap and native or, at least, non-invasive." This has led me to pretty much exclude much of the plants in big box stores. It seems they are always putting invasive exotics with Florida-Friendly on the pot on the tables. And since I do not have a local native plants nursery, it means that many of my orders are seed orders from online sources. I haven't really kept track of how much I have spent, my gauge is whether my wife fusses at me for spending too much or not. Usually she doesn't. Still, it would be kind of nice to know how much I have invested in my yard. I will have to do that in the future.

I collect tropicals and I like rare plants. I don't really keep track. I will go 3 mos without buying any then splurge a little when I find something 'good' lol. I know what I do and do not have...sometimes finding it is a different story lol. Chickens like to pull tags off of plants and out of the pots, so some of my older stuff like dragonfruits, I don't know which variety is which, but I know I have 8 different ones and I know the names of which varieties I bought haha.
I have started using paint pens on all the pots and UV resistant marker and tree tags or metal tags on the taller plants so they can't get removed so easily.

I spent way too much on water plants this spring but I hardly bought anything all winter so....

The seedlings that I have kept careful track of (ones I used paint pens on the pots) are my brugmansia seedlings and other hybridizing projects. I also use a spreadsheet so I know who begat whom on those.

I usually give myself 3 times to kill something before I give up. If I kill it twice I will wait to buy it again until whatever conditions I couldn't provide the plant are fixed. Of course, if I get it again for free=that philosophy goes out the window.

~SJN

Hi,
I save up cash for some of the shows like Leu Gardens, when the cash is gone, time to go home. Recently, I have been to some nice garden parties and have received wonderful plants in trade. I have recently started collecting passionflower vines and trade with other collectors. I used to have a limit of $100.00 per month, but haven't spent that much in a long time. I have been experimenting with propagating, too. That keeps me busy!

My budget was laid out when I got my house. I took a piece of graph paper, designed the landscaping I wanted including the types of plants, mulch, borders, etc.

After that, I separated the entire landscape into phases (1, 2, 3...) so that I wasn't just socking money away and never doing any of the work. Each phase is under $250, except two big ones that will be around $500 each. I've completed 4 of them with about 16 to go :).

I have to agree with garyfla. My small amounts of money have made a huge difference in the way my property looks, and I derive more joy from watching the plants mature than anything else.

I'd love to be able to say most plants are native. I can't though, I'm more of a theme guy, with some of my yard crowded with classic desert plants (cacti and date palms), some with tropicals (coconut palms and bird of paradise), some edibles (limes, oranges, grapefruit, avocados, bananas, papayas), and some wonderful natives (live oaks, sea grapes, and needle palms) to help balance things out.

I keep a regular budget and try to forecast my want and need garden items. So If I look a last years budget and spent about 100 on mulch and have a note that it covered about 75% of the area the I know need about that much planned. For the want items I might set a basic budget for seasonal seeds and leave a little money for splurges on something special.