What goes on outside your home is almost as important as what you’re doing to green your life indoors. Landscape and garden maintenance can make a big difference on your overall environmental impact depending on how you treat your soil, what you do with water, and whether you’re using your outdoor environment to cultivate spaces that are healthy for you and for local wildlife. But your gardening and landscaping habits also have an impact on your budget. Choosing green gardening and landscaping techniques will preserve your green thumb while also safe-guarding your green bank account.

• Plant just three trees strategically in your yard and you could save between $100 and $250 every year in energy bills. That’s because well-chosen and properly-placed trees will reduce summer air conditioning bills (by up to 50 percent) and cut winter heating bills (by up to 25 percent).
• Plant native species in your garden to cut irrigation, fertilizer, pesticide, and herbicide costs dramatically. Native plants are particularly well-suited to surviving in your local climate with no human intervention!
• Apply mulches in your vegetable garden, on your flower beds, and around trees and shrubs to prevent frost (and plant death), reduce irrigation costs, cut down on weeding requirements (and pesticides/herbicides), and more! Get low-cost mulching ideas at Less Lawn – Mulch for Less Moola.
• Install a rain barrel to collect rainwater and use it for irrigating your garden and lawn. Depending on how dry your climate is and how thirsty your plants are, you stand to easily pay for the barrel investment in no time at all.
• Choose a water-conserving irrigation system, like drip irrigation and soaker hoses, to reduce your water consumption outdoors by as much as 60 percent!
• If you’re charged by the weight or number of garbage bags you produce each week, consider using a mulching lawn mower. Rotting grass clippings—like other organic matter—adds to methane emissions (a greenhouse gas much more powerful than carbon dioxide), and to your waste disposal costs. Leaving the clippings on your lawn adds nutrients and prevent evaporation, too, which means you save on irrigation and fertilizer.
• Grow your own fruits and vegetables so that you can eat organic, locally-grown produce while in season. Growing your own takes a little time, but will save you money, especially when you consider that a single packet of tomato seeds can turn into over $40 worth of fresh, ripe tomatoes! Cut your gardening budget even more by saving your own seeds or participating in a seed exchange.
• Put your egg shells in your compost pile to add calcium and other minerals naturally to your garden.
• Think of the money you’ll save on medical bills by choosing organic gardening! Many of the common chemicals used as pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, and fertilizers are poisonous to you, your family, and your pets. Save yourself the heartache and the cost of a trip to the emergency room by practicing organic gardening methods.
• The average gas-powered lawn mower adds 11 cars-worth of pollution to the atmosphere in just one hour! Riding mowers are worse, putting the equivalent of 34 cars-worth of pollution in the air in the same amount of time. In fact, they represent 5 percent of US air pollution! Get a push mower and you’ll no longer have to deal with gasoline or electric cords. They’re lightweight and easy to use, and will save you big-time in maintenance and operational costs.
• Cut down on the cost and hassle of messy trips to the gas station to get fuel for your gas-powered lawn mower by opting for an electric mower. These will cost you about $5/year in electricity and you can say goodbye to the stink and trial of spilled fuel. Many municipalities have rebates for exchanging gas-guzzlers for electric options.
• Get even more ideas for going green in your garden on a budget by checking out the No-cost gardening blog that challenges you to grow half of your food without a huge financial investment.