Budget Landscaping Ideas

Walkways and Paths

• Walkways and travel paths can be expensive to create, but they don't have to be. Use inexpensive newspapers to outline the pathway desired. The paper will create a barrier between the path and weeds that might have attempted to sprout beneath it. Then place permanent mulch, like wood chips, on top of the newspapers. Wood chips can be inexpensive too, according to the Virginia Cooperative Extension.

  Contact a concrete removal company to obtain free broken concrete parts for use in the pathway too, on top of the newspapers and wood chips. Concrete removal companies get paid to remove broken concrete, so they benefit from others taking it off their hands after the fact, saving you money. Once you have lined the walkway with newspaper, followed by wood chips--or other mulch material--add the concrete pieces to complete your inexpensive walkway.

Compost Cheapest Fertilizer

• Fertilizers can cost plenty when trying to maintain the plants used in landscaping your lawn. Compost, on the other hand, is free and can be made from regular kitchen table scraps, the leaves in your own yard and grass clippings, according to the Dollar Stretcher. By composting, you will have a natural fertilizer that can be used in place of chemicals that cost more and are often harmful to the environment. In addition, composting will improve soil structure as well as pH imbalances, aid in water retention and help kill disease pathogens as the compost materials rise in temperature during the process, according to the University of Illinois Extension.

  A compost bin can be made out of wood lying around your home, or an inexpensive trash can container can be purchased as well. The money saved from fertilizer cost will more than offset any cost associated with the trash can purchase.

Trees and Shrubs

• Homes will generally have some trees already existing in the yard when it is purchased by a new owner. Yet new owners, or current ones, like to make some type of landscaping changes if for no other reason than to have a new look. One of the least expensive ways to change the landscaped look of a home is to add mulch--or use a different kind--around the bottom of existing trees and shrubs.

  Inorganic mulches, according to the Virginia Cooperative Extension, are even less expensive than organic mulches, since they will not have to be replaced annually at these permanent sites at the home. Inorganic mulches include crushed stone, gravel, volcanic rock and plastics or geotextiles.