Frugal Plants for Black Thumbs
I am not a gardener.
Growing things is just not my passion, and as a result, I'm pretty bad at it.
Because I'm not interested in gardening, I haven't learned a lot about it, and I tend to give up easily.
(Plus: my yard is very shady, and we have a serious vole problem.)
So, I am no great font of gardening tips.
But there are a few plants that have worked well even for a black thumb like me, and I thought it might be helpful to share those with you.
I cannot be the only black-thumbed frugal person out there!
1. Daffodils
Bulbs are pretty easy even for clueless gardeners to grow, and daffodils are basically the easiest of the easiest.
I've had a lot of trouble with things like hyacinths and tulips getting eating from the bottom up, but since voles hate daffodils, I'm good to go.
I bought a huge variety pack on Amazon a couple of falls ago, planted them all around my borders, and now I have daffodils that faithfully come up each spring.
And since I got a variety pack, they bloom at different times, which means I have daffodils for more than just a week.
I bought this 60 pack for $13.96 plus shipping.
But Amazon also has a ton of other daffodil mixtures you can choose from.
2. Grape Hyacinths (blue muscari)
Like daffodils, these are a bulb, which means once you buy them, they'll keep coming up each year.
I cannot successfully grow regular hyacinth bulbs because the voles gobble them right up. This type has tinier flowers, which is a little sad, but voles will not eat them.
Better to have tiny flowers that last, I say.
The exact pack I bought on Amazon is no longer available, but they have a bunch of different options currently for sale.
(This pack is $19 for 36 bulbs, plus free shipping.)
3. Red Bean Hyacinths
You know how string beans are really easy to grow?
Well, these aren't edible (as far as I know), but they're super easy to sprout and plant, just like string beans.
As long as you have a spot with a lot of sun and somewhere for them to climb, you'll be golden.
My yard is mostly shady, but I do have sun in a few key places for this plant.
In the fall, you just save the bean pods, and you've got new seeds to plant in the spring. You shouldn't ever need to buy seeds for these again!
If you don't have a friend to give you seeds, you can buy a pack of 100 hyacinth seeds on Amazon for $5.49.
4. Hydrangeas
Because I have a lot of shade, these have been great bushes for me to plant.
Aldi usually has these in the spring for around $5, so all my hydrangeas are from Aldi. 😉
5. Mint
Mint is basically like a weed, which means you have to work really, really hard to kill it.
(That is my favorite kind of plant.)
Plus, it self-propagates, and it always comes back in the spring for me, which means it costs basically nothing.
6. Basil
Basil seeds sprout reliably, and as long as you have a small sunny spot, you can successfully grow a basil plant.
I've had trouble growing things like cilantro, which seems to go to seed in about 5 minutes.
But as long as you keep pinching off the flowers on your basil plant, you should get a nice, full, leafy plant instead of a bunch of seeds.
If you don't want to mess with planting basil seeds, you can always buy a small basil plant from the grocery store and just pot it at home.
7. Marigolds
Marigolds are super hardy and they're very easy to grow from seed.
Plus, it's so easy to save the seeds for the next year.
Really, if you just buy a single pack of seeds, you will be set for years to come!
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Hahaha, some refreshing honesty from the plant-growing front--I like it! 🙂 These are excellent suggestions. Herbs in general are pretty difficult to kill, so I'd also add oregano, green onions, chives, and even garlic.
Luckily Mr. Picky Pincher and I love to garden, so we're excited to build our spring garden. In fact, yesterday we started building our raised beds. It's a lot of work but at least we only have to do it once. Phew. We bought a bunch of seeds and plan to grow beans, peppers, squash, herbs, and more. Hopefully we won't need to buy produce at the store any more!
I will cheer you on from the sidelines. 😉
I second chives, can't kill them even if you try. Same with violets, and oregano and thyme. They all just show up every year. Also, if you find the right spot, sage will come back every year and even if you don't love the flavor, it is an attractive plant.
Good to know about hydrangeas. I have a lot of shade, too, so that sounds ideal. I grew up with a gardener and a very large year (2.5 acres) and I think about 5 flower gardens and a third vegetable garden. Now as an adult, I no longer have to, and so no longer do garden. A shame really, but I have other things I would rather spend my time on.
My first and only year with chives, it flowered which I liked until the next year when I realized the flowers spread seeds all over my yard. Every time I mowed everyone new, the whole neighborhood smelt like onions. Never again
I have a black thumb as well. One of the selling points of our current house was the mature landscaping that abounded with hostas and daylilies. Both are tough cookies. Hostas thrive in the shade and come in all kinds of different types. Daylilies are a nice pop of yellow, love partial to full sun and ours bloom over and over because they are large enough to have several stalks of flowers. We also have an amazing groundcover that is like ivy but doesn't try to eat our house. I wish I knew what it is called.
In the house I can keep pothos alive and that is about it. I have a pussy willow inside that I am nurturing until I can plant it in memory of my grandma. She loved them. Hopefully I won't kill grandma's tree!! After that I need a lilac in memory of my grandpa.
Hostas are so great....except if you have voles. Those little buggers have eaten every single hosta I ever had. I've totally given up on growing them. Augh.
I forgot about daylilies! I have those too and I have not killed any of them.
We had voles like crazy and they left my hostas alone!
That's so weird. Hostas are 100% likely to be eaten in my yard. And it's for sure voles, because it's that classic thing where the whole root is eaten and the plant just plops right over.
We do not have a vole problem like you (so sorry!), so our landscaping is absolutely maintenance free. The Hostas, tulips, and daffodils keep coming back each year and I don't do a darn thing 🙂
On the gardening side, tomatoes have by far been our easiest vegetable to grow. With sweet peppers being next. We are still tweaking onions and greens like lettuce and cabbage. Hopefully this year will be better...we are anxiously awaiting Spring in the Great Lakes region!
You are so lucky to not have voles. They are a terrible nuisance!
I would definitely go the hosta route otherwise.
I've tried growing tomatoes, but the problem is my lack of sun. I don't have a large enough sunny space to properly grow a tomato plant, apparently. Also, voles eat tomato plants. Ugh.
You show mint in a pot, but please warn everyone never to plant it in the ground. It's not just hard to kill, but invasive. It was planted at a community garden to which I belonged and no one noticed until it was too late. It took years to get it under control, yet was never truly killed off.
Ajuga is another troublesome plant. Yes, it's a good, and even pretty ground cover. However, it will work its way into your grass - and your neighbors' - in no time and you will never get rid of it.
At my house it is deer that are the problem, and even here daffodils can reach maturity without being bothered by them as every other plant except thyme is. Daffodils must taste truly awful! 🙂
I'm so glad you mentioned this about mint - I was just coming to do the same. A pot of mint is fantastic looking, easy to grow and smells and tastes great. Just don't plant it anywhere it can escape!
That is so true about mint! Took YEARS of hand-pulling, digging, and (sadly) poison to get rid of it.
I follow the adage that it's easiest to grow leaves, then seeds, then fruits. I only plant edibles, but I'm not a very good gardener, so I stick to plants where I can eat the leaves: herbs, lettuces, kale, ect.
I've never heard that adage! But it makes a lot of sense.
Great post!! Thank you, Kristen!! I'm not good with plants either, so this is really helpful.
I don't do well growing garden stuff...the squirrels eat everything I try to grow. My current yard came with a ton of azaleas and they pretty much take care of themselves. Once or twice a year I trim the ones by the drive, but that is it. I have hydrangeas also and love them! Fatsia does well in the shade and gets very large so I just planted some of it around the skirting on my deck to hide that. I had great luck with it at my last house so I'm hoping it does well again. Elephant ears grow from bulbs and usually do ok in shade, but require a lot of water. If you have a little sun, wandering jew is hard to kill and with a bit of fertilizer will actually get pretty big!
We like to grow cherry tomatoes in large pots on our back deck. "Sweet 100's" is my favorite variety. Get 1 plant per tomato lover and stick a large tomato cage right into the planter. We eat them like candy and have been known to fight over them LOL!
I have voles, too. They are terrible.
They do not eat zinnias, though! I buy them every year from the nursery and they are some of the most inexpensive flowers there. (I am lazy and don't bother with seeds.) They grow, need minimal water and grow in my sun drenched front yard and my shady backyard. And my kids love them because they can cut them.
Ooh, this is good to know. I am always on the lookout for plants that voles won't eat. It is super frustrating to spend money on plants only to have them promptly eaten from the root.
Zinnias are super easy to plant from seed and you should be able to find lots of pretty mixes in the grocery stores, etc. You can also save a few of your favorite flowers- let them dry and the big seeds will fall out to use again next year. I just set them in a bowl and then shake out the seeds once they are dry.
I have no yard so all my plants are indoor potted plants. Also, I only have north and west facing windows.
Mostly, I picked a bunch of shade loving plants highlighted in "The Indestructible Houseplant" by Tovah Martin. Some are pricey but many can be found in 4" pots at nurseries for not a lot. And since there aren't really seasons indoors you can get them to be always green. A year later, they are all still healthy. One had a close call; it didn't like the bedroom (and the cat thinks it's particularly tasty).
I do have a couple that I've had for years though.
Quite some time ago I got an amaryllis bulb/kit as a gift; I put it in the pot, watered it and it eventually bloomed a year later. From what I've read this should be a picky plant but I water it a little more than my aloes, it lives in a west facing window, and blooms around twice a year. Granted, it looks a bit sad right before the flower stalk appears because it kills off some of the leaves first (think just two tall, bight green leaves in a pot).
Oh, and those aloes? I have 4 pots of them, three at home and one at work, the three at home look like bright green explosions in pots while the one at work is smaller and paler but bloomed a year ago. According to the internet this is difficult to do with indoor aloes; I have no idea why it bloomed.
I was also going to mention azaleas, as ours are over 40 years old and bloom profusely every year. Another thing to try is native plants. Native plants thrive because, well, they are native, and used to the temps, rain, sun/shade and pests. We have native yarrow, coneflowers, milkweed, bachelor buttons, and blanket flowers. They will spread to fill an area. If you don't like them there, just always mow them when you mow the grass, and they can't re-seed. I'm trying to find some access to wild phlox seed, because it blooms in solid waves of purple, pink and white along the roadside each spring. Ornamental grasses can also do well, and don't overlook things like blueberry, which not only give you fruit, but have red fall foliage, or at least the southern blueberries do. I'm going to plant elderberry this year as well. Keep an eye out for "weeds" that are actually pretty and encourage them; our shady parts of the yard sport wood violets and beauty berry that are lovely. My goal is to have a very, very low maintenance landscape, so I always look at requirements first. It may be gorgeous, but if a plant takes constant feeding, watering, soil amendment, or pruning, it's not happening in my house or yard.
Plants in pots are simple and a fun way to grow food. I've grown herbs, lettuce, cabbages, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, and greens in pots before.
For inside our house, we grow mother-in-law tongue in pots. It loves low light.
I laughed to see you describe your "black thumb." My mother, who was the daughter of a real "green thumb" always said she herself had the "black thumb of death." Luckily, my dad could grow almost anything.
I agree! Native plants!
Also, camellias usually do well in shade.
I'm glad someone mentioned keeping the mint in pots. After nine years here, I am STILL eradicating the mint in my back garden. Also, you can make yummy mint tea from the mint leaves!
Parsley grows well even in shade, but I would recommend buying the plants, not seeds. Parsley is evidently notoriously finicky about being grown from seed.
Good to know about parsley!
And parsley makes almost every food look and taste better! Plus loaded with vitamins and stuff. Anybody put parsley in smoothies?
Yes! I bought camellias this year to hide a fence line between my neighbor and myself (our dogs don't like seeing each other). There are different types of camellias, but I bought the shade ones since they went under a tree. And can't agree more with mint being invasive! I was sooo thrilled one year that I got something to grow, and then the next year I was irked that it wouldn't stop growing!
Scallions! Buy them at the store for $.30. Put them in a glass of water. Change the water every day for about 10 days, until the roots are several inches long. Then pot in good soil And leave it in the sun! My $.30 investment is still going strong after four years.
Whoa, four years?? I bow to you!
I have heard that yellow onions are easy to grow too. I have a couple of large ones on my counter that have sprouted significantly. I'm game to try to save them, so what's a black thumb to do? Has anyone had success? Deer are a constant challenge here, can I grow them indoors? Thanks!
I would definitely add zinnias to the list for "black thumbs"
I have a hydrangea that has only bloomed once in the several years that I have had it. My go-to plants are hostas. They have a variety of leaves and colors. They are easy to go and hard to kill.
Butterfly bushes! They're very inexpensive (often less than $10 at garden centers), and they grow large and beautiful and, of course, attract lots of butterflies. 🙂 We also have several Knockout Roses, which are basically indestructible and bloom about half the year (their only downside is that you will probably need to cut them back every year, or they may swallow your house). For our patio containers, we love sweet potato vines mixed with angelonia. And my favorite houseplant is pothos, which comes in several beautiful varieties and isn't at all finicky.
Is the red Knockout rose really red, or more pink/rose/maroon/fuchsia?
It definitely has a fuschia undertone.
Thanks! I need some real red easy-to-grow roses.
I'd say I'm more of a very pale green thumb - successful most of the time, but not always☺
We've had much success with caladiums for our shady areas, and as bulbs, many come back the next year, but we usually plant a few extra each year. Sams club sells a large bag of mixed colors for a reasonable price. Mexican heather and lantana both come back each year, although our Louisiana winters are mild compared to the rest of the US. Mint, basil, thyme, and rosemary are my stalwart herbs. On the vegetable front, cucumbers, squash, and peppers (sweet & hot) perform excellently, and prolifically, as long as they have full sun.
I wouldn't call myself a green thumb, but I do so enjoy growing things, and they usually grow! 🙂 We moved from Michigan to South Carolina last summer, and I didn't get any gardening time in! I was so sad! We moved into our new house in August, so veggie gardening was out. Plus it was hot, hot, hot. Not the time to plant.
Funny about the daffodils and grape hyacinths working out for you with voles! I had voles galore and I planted both of those in MI and they never did well beyond the first year. Probably should have given them some sort of fertilizer, I guess it wasn't voles eating them if they hate them.
Here's one tip: Home Depot has a one-year money-back guarantee on all their plants. I bought a house plant there last fall, and I am happy to say it is still going strong. I have the receipt tucked into my wallet though, so if it should somehow die before the year is up, I am definitely going back for my money! 😀 They have a lot of plants to choose from this time of year (both indoors and out), and all they require for money back is the dead plant and receipt.
I don't have voles, but can't grow any vegetables because of squirrels. I probably hate squirrels as much as you hate voles. I find it strange that you find hydrangeas an easy plant. Yes they are, but boy in the heat of the summer it is major work keeping them watered. I find spireas very easy to grow. Partial shade is sufficient and I never need to water them. And both fall-blooming and spring-blooming camellias are staples in my shady yard. But I'm in southeast VA and not sure how well they do much farther north.
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/feb/26/news/la-lh-hyacinth-bean-vine-20130225
I have had no luck with hydrangeas, which is sad because they're my favorite. I've grown them elsewhere but they just won't stay alive for me here.
Impatiens are super-easy and colorful for shade. I buy a flat, which I think is 48 plants, for about $10. Very low maintenance. I don't know about the vole issue, though. We have squirrels that ruin my potted plants by digging to plant their nuts and sunflower seeds, but they don't seem to hurt plants in the actual dirt in the ground.
I am in northern Illinois by Lake Michigan. What area do you live in, Kristen? I guess somewhere sort of southern?
Calla lilies! Our previous owner planted some. We have tried to get rid of them, with no luck. I figure if a plant survives a deliberate attempt to kill it, then it's pretty hardy. They love shade! They turn to mush in freezing weather (literally, the leaves and stalks are a pile of goo on the ground), and then they grow right back when it starts to get warm out. One warning...the sap can cause a rash, so handle them with care.
I'm learning myself and I'm definitely made for something w simple upkeep. I got an aquarium to attempt lettuces inside. (I have a cat and she has eaten a whole basil.) I've grown basil from seed pretty easily. I use a pot. I'm wondering if you could make raised beds and have bottom layer bricks (or concrete lol) to keep voles out.
Thanks for the suggestions as I have just started my spring garden planning. I do love gardening but am so so great at it for some reason. We do have mint and I imagine it will never die.
You're not a true black thumb if you can keep those plants alive. I can't even keep an air plant alive--my kids swear I commit "planticide".
But I do have a tip for you--this works! If you like to eat outside and you are bothered by wasps and yellow jackets (they are especially attracted to meat), take some of your mint leaves, crush them up and float them in water. These insects apparently hate mint and won't come around it.
It also helps to give them a "peace offering" by taking a bit of the meat you are eating and dropping it on the ground far away from where you are sitting.
I can't plant bulbs in my zone( Socal) because we have really, really hot summers and not really very cold winters( except this year). Bulbs probably won't come back here. We have a ton of sun so we have to be careful about what we plant.
You are clearly a better gardener than many. Your plants look lovely and seeing them doing well each day must be a great feeling! I should know, since I think I'm about to say 'adios' to my new basil plant 😀
I don't have a green thumb but I figured some spices are easy to take care of, since many grow them indoors. I'm currently struggling with a pot of basil and rosemary. I'm not doing very well though, I think my plants hate me 😀
I am an avid gardener, so thumb super green here, but here are the best nobody-can-kill-em perennial plants. for sun- Black-eyed susans, Coriopis, hardy hibiscus, sedum, obedient flower and for shade Hosta, geranium, Virginia Bluebells and Lily of the valley.
Do you know that voles eat sedum too? AUGH. Drives me nuts.
I really hate voles.
Thank you for the Aldi tip!! We just bought a house after living on a boat for 20 years! I love gardens.... But I am clueless!! I am taking pics around the yard trying to identify what has already been established! If any of your experienced gardeners can help identify, that would be much appreciated!!
https://gardenjournal.org/