I am a big fan of what I like to call garage sale gardening.  In other words, I have gotten quite a few of the plants in my gardens at garage sales on the cheap.  Why pay nursery prices when you can get good quality perennials for much less?  Personally, I usually find that garage sale plants thrive better and mature more quickly than nursery plants, maybe because they are coming from already firmly established plants.  They are also pretty much guaranteed to be suitable for my area.

The biggest tip I have for you when it comes to garage sale gardening is this; most of the perennials you’ll find at garage sales can be invasive.  If you think about it logically, the reason the seller has extras to get rid of is because the stuff is multiplying easily.  Invasive doesn’t have to be a bad word though (although sometimes it is, so do some research before planting).  It just takes a little effort to keep many of these plants under control though.

Such is clearly the case with the sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum) that I purchased a couple of years ago.  That’s it pictured in my title photo, but here’s a closeup …

I put in just a couple of small plants and a few years later I have a lovely carpet of sweet woodruff in the shade garden under my pine tree.  If you have pines and find that nothing much will grow under them, this stuff is perfect for you (U.S.D.A. zones 4 – 8).  This plant requires almost zero care, it needs extra watering only in times of drought.  However, it does spread quite easily via runners.  If you want to remain in control, you can utilize spade edging to keep it inside its borders.  Spade edging is done by driving a spade into the soil on the edge of the flower bed where you are growing sweet woodruff. This will sever the runners. Remove any sweet woodruff plants growing outside your spade line.

Let’s take a step back and see how sweet woodruff looks in the garden.

Isn’t it pretty?  and it makes a great companion for hostas as you can see.

Another invasive plant that I purchased at a garage sale is cranesbill or perennial geranium.  Not to be confused with the annual geraniums that we all know and love, which aren’t actually geraniums at all but are technically pelargoniums.

My cranesbill is pink, but it also comes in a lovely blue shade.  This stuff likes to take over.  Here’s an example …

It’s going to continue to expand and completely take over that gorgeous hosta in the back of the photo unless I do something about it.  It’s an easy one to beat back into submission though, just cut it back and yank the excess plants out of the ground.  It seems a little brutal at first, but it’s the only way to keep this stuff under control.  That being said, this plant also needs next to no care (zones 4 – 9).  You can cut it back or deadhead it to encourage continued flowering, and this is one perennial that will bloom multiple times over the summer which is nice.

Another invasive plant that I love is the Anemone.  I got mine from my friend Sue, so I’m not positive but I think they are Anemone sylvestris.

These also require little care and spread like mad.  Are you sensing a theme here?  I don’t really like to work too hard at my gardening.  If a plant is fussy and requires coddling, it doesn’t last long in my garden.

Irises are also a good multiplier.  I purchased these mini irises at a garage sale.

Personally I don’t think irises are very attractive in the garden one their bloom is over (which is pretty quickly).  The nice thing about these mini’s is that they are only about 1′ tall.  I’ve got them inter-planted with Palace Purple coral bells which will fill in and disguise the iris plants later in the season.

Another garage sale plant in my garden is the variegated sedum in front of these tulips.

This plant isn’t invasive, but it does need to be divided every few year resulting in excess plants.

Most of my bleeding heart plants also originally came from my friend Sue’s garden.  If you didn’t see it, I posted a tour of her garden two years ago {here}.

She often sells excess plants at our own Carriage House sale in both pink and white.

Bleeding heart spreads by re-seeding itself.  You’ll find little baby plants coming up all over.  I usually just yank them out.  Again, you have to be heartless sometimes (pardon the pun).

You’ll find that garage sale gardening is not going to net you the newest fanciest versions of perennials.  Such as this gorgeous Dicentra spectabilis ‘Gold Heart’ …

So I admit, on occasion I do head to the nursery to splurge on things like these.  But I can also tell you that this plant is still tiny compared to my other bleeding hearts.  It has yet to ‘leap’.

One other thing to be cautious about with garage sale plants is whether or not they are poisonous.  Whenever I bring home a new plant, I try to research it a bit before putting it in the ground.  If you have pets or small children that might ingest your plants, just keep this in mind.

One last potential downside to garage sale gardening is that sometimes the seller doesn’t know the names of their plants.  Such was the case with the two blooming plants in this next photo so I don’t know what either of these are.  Do any of you?

The pale blue/lavender-ish flowering plant is one of my favorites though.  It’s covered in the prettiest flowers in spring.  In fact, all of the photos that I’m using in this post were taken last Saturday in my own garden, so it’s blooming now.  It was a balmy 38 degrees (that’s Fahrenheit people) and gusty, giving us a windchill of 30.  I’d already moved all of my supplies out to the Carriage House and suddenly it was too cold to paint our there, so I had to resort to taking photos of my gardens.

Anyway, as you can see in this next photo, this guy is stepping a little outside his boundaries at the moment too.

As soon as he’s done blooming I’ll pull out the plants that are outside the flagstone edge of my garden bed.  Hey, do any of my local readers want some?  I’d be happy to share, just leave a comment if you’re interested, first come, first served.

I also have a ridiculous amount of ferns.

These are great for naturalizing in a wooded area.  They look gorgeous in spring and summer, but will die back in early fall especially if it’s particularly dry.

Anyone?  Free to you if you can come help me dig them out, and b.y.o.c. (bring your own container to put them in, in a pinch a plastic garbage bag works fine if you take them home and plant them within a day or two).

Also available to share:  orange day lilies, yellow iris, siberian iris, the aforementioned cranesbill and sweet woodruff.

Although I’ve mentioned several cons to garage sale gardening, I think the pros far outweigh them in most cases.  If you’re looking for inexpensive, easy to grow plants for your area, consider checking out some garage sales!