Plants for Free: How to Create a Great Garden for Next-To-Nothing

by Sharon Amos, Steve Wooster (Photographer)

A budget guide to gardening explains how to design and create a beautiful garden for little or no money, offering tips on bartering for clippings, getting a bargain at garage sales or neighborhood fairs, and rescuing ailing plants and providing an illustrated listing of more than one hundred plants that multiply easily.

Genres: Gardening, Reference

Paperback

Published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Stephanie T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for the lazy gardener. Addresses how many self-seeding, low maintenance plants are often considered weeds, and how that won't matter if YOU think they're pretty. The index in the back is wonderful. It lists plants that will seed and sometimes spread year after year and what climates they thrive in. I found the articles and illustrations helpful since I'm extremely thrifty (ok...cheap) and have wanted to put splitting, dividing and clipping into use for awhile.

Now all I need are some discreet looking scissors, a stash of paper bags, and some gloves. Kind of like handling drugs, only in this case handling kitchen herbs and groundcover.

[Juli Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a whole lot of info here that you couldn't find on the internet, but I appreciated the excellent plant list.

[Mathew Carruthers · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is some good information in this book, especially if you are gardening on a shoestring budget, but honestly, most of the helpful hints about acquiring plants were things I'd already figured out on my own long ago. There is also good technique info - step by step instructions for taking cuttings, transplanting, and dividing established plants. Probably the most helpful part, though is the plant directory. Each entry includes a color photo and all the pertinent info about the plant.

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5 of 5

Gorgeous photos. The fold out symbol index was most helpful so I didn't have to flip back and forth. Limited variety of plants included, though.