Hi friend,

It’s a common misconception that you need to spend a lot of money to grow a native garden (or my preferred term, an eco-garden). In reality, it’s much cheaper than a traditional garden.

Eco-gardening means applying sustainable and regenerative practices to your yard. This can look like using materials already on site, making your own compost, and relying on natural processes to do a lot of the work.

It’s been a little over three years since I started transforming my yard.

My front yard started as a traditional lawn. The backyard was overtaken by invasive plants and Japanese beetles.

Have I been steadily chipping away and working hard at this project over multiple years? Yes

Have I spent a substantial amount of money on it? Absolutely not

At this point, my backyard is almost entirely native volunteers.

This means the plants showed up on their own. I didn’t even plant them, much less purchase them.

It’s quite amazing how many native plants show up from the existing seed bank once you’ve gotten rid of the invasives and made room for them.

My front yard, on the other hand, has been a proper Kill Your Lawn type project.

It started with just turf grass (though many species of turf grass are invasive in the US!). Now the grass is gone, and it’s all native flowers.

My front yard right now, spring of 2025:

So, did that part cost a lot of money? Also no.

Here is a loose breakdown of what I’ve purchased since 2022 to turn my yard into an ecological garden:

1. 🍂 Wood mulch = ~$5/bag, approximately 10-20 bags.
2. 🌱 Native seeds = I’ve spent $111 total on native seeds (but most were for growing in my nursery and selling plants locally. I pull inventory from my nursery to plant in the yard. So technically, I’ve made a profit from the seeds I’ve bought.)
3. 🌻 Five bigger established plants for the front yard = ~$150, maybe a little more.
4. ⛏️ Metal stakes for my native sunflowers that are a bit floppy while they're getting established = ~$10-20
5. 🧾 Wildlife Habitat certification + sign from the National Wildlife Federation = $41
6. 🐛 Worms for my composting bin = $29
7. 🦠 EM microbial inoculant - purchased once and re-cultured as needed = $31
8. ⛓️ Chicken wire to protect my nursery plants & vegetables from the mischievous local raccoons = ~$20
9. 🌡️ Meat thermometer for monitoring hot compost = $13
10. ⚫ Biochar for soil remediation = $15

Things I’ve used to convert my yard into an eco-garden that didn’t cost me money:

• 🍄 Homemade compost
• 📦 Cardboard
• 🌱 Seeds I harvested myself
• ⚒️ Shovel and pruning shears (gifted)
• 🍃 Organic material grown on site
• ☕ Natural fertilizers I made myself (compost extract, compost tea, FPJ, leaf mold, etc.)
• 🍂 Leaf litter
• 🌾 Volunteer plants
• 🌧️ Rainwater
• ⏰ Time
• 🙌 My hands

Total spent on my eco-garden since 2022

The total spent including the seeds that I’ve made a profit from = ~ $505 since 2022

Total spent not including the seeds because I made a profit and most of them didn’t go to my yard = ~ $394 since 2022

It’s been a little over three years. So that equals approximately $168/year or $131/year, depending on whether we’re counting the seeds.

And these are not ongoing costs, they’re mostly one-time purchases.

There’s not much else I need to buy for my yard, but I’m sure I’ll make other purchases as time goes on, such as:

• I need maybe two more bags of wood mulch to cover some areas that are still filling in. (~$10)
• I might purchase an established plant here or there as I find them to add more diversity, but that’s just because I want to. (Prices vary)
• More signage to educate neighbors and “code enforcers” ($20-$50)
• I would really love an electric wood chipper for making mulch and compost (~$250)

I’m sure I’m forgetting some things, but you get the picture.

I haven’t spent a whole lot of money on the 3+ year project of turning my yard into an eco-garden.

You certainly CAN spend a lot of money on an eco-garden if you want to.

You could hire someone to do the installation and buy all the plants instead of starting from seed. That’s a totally valid way to do it, but it’s not the only option if you’re on a budget.

And if you do choose to outsource labor and plants, you’re still saving all the recurring expenses that traditional gardens have.

Expenses you don’t have to worry about with an eco-garden:

• ☣️ Synthetic fertilizers
• ☠️ Replacing annuals and dead plants (*you still might have to do this some, especially early on, but natives will grow better for you than most non-invasive exotics, especially when planted for the correct site conditions)
• 🚿 Higher water bills from more irrigation
• ❌ Synthetic mulch for aesthetics that’s reapplied without reason
• 🚜 Gasoline for gas-powered lawn equipment
• ☣️ Pesticides
• 🔧 Maintenance for old lawn equipment and/or buying new equipment, i.e. leaf blowers, mowers, etc.
• ⏰ Spending way more time on maintenance, or paying someone else to do it

The whole point of making an ecological garden is to create a healthy, self-sustaining ecosystem

It shouldn’t require a ton of input from you once it’s established.

There’s plenty of trial and error along the way, like most things worth doing. But it’s not an endless fight for control like a lawn or traditional landscape.

So if you’ve been putting off killing your lawn and planting native, here’s my proof that it doesn’t have to be expensive.

P.S. My offer, The Natural Gardener Workbook Bundle, is currently on sale for a limited time! These three essential digital workbooks will help you plan your garden, deal with invasive species, and improve your soil and plant health with compost. Check it out here.​

Tory is an ecologist and landscape consultant. He helps North American gardeners transition from using outdated and harmful but status-quo techniques to using their yards to improve the health of our planet. Along with being a gardener for over 10 years, Tory has a Master of Science degree in Sustainable Design and is certified in Regenerative Soil Science.​

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