Need budget-friendly, easy garden tools? Here they are! You can grow food wherever you live – from an apartment with a shaded balcony to a yard full of sunshine.

If you like this post you might like our other gardening posts!

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I’ve been growing my own food for 13 years now.

Chris and I have lived in all kinds of housing situations (some of it more sketchy than others). Whether it was backyard shed, the downstairs of our landlord’s house, condos, townhouses, and now finally our fixer-upper farmhouse, I always found a way to grow food.

I’m not a great gardener. You would probably grade my efforts and passion for gardening with a solid B+. But I love it, my soul loves it, and my budget and my table love it too.

Whether you live in an apartment with a shaded balcony or a house with a yard full of sunshine, you can find a way to grow your own food!

I’ve written several tutorials about this, so today’s post is a round-up of simple tools and budget-friendly products that help make gardening easier. I tried to make it easy by sharing Amazon products.

You can grow a garden with pretty much nothing – all you need is water, sun, seeds, and decent soil.

But for those of us with a solid B or C in green thumb, or who aren’t super handy, you can still grow a garden! Here’s how.

Easy Garden Tools List

garden pin 2

Just need the list of easy garden tools? Here it is!

Gardening Without a Yard

grow food without a yard tools

The very first food I started growing (and still grow) was sprouts.

Sprouts are supposed to be incredibly nutritious (like, superfoods), and they’re really expensive in the grocery store. You can grow them at home for pennies. 1-2 tablespoons of sprout seeds will grow into about 4 cups of sprouts in 3-5 days.

You can grow sprouts in your kitchen – no need for great sunlight or dirt or anything except for a mason jar and sprouting lid.

I’ve talked a lot about growing sprouts on Instagram. You can watch all the videos here!

If you’d rather read a tutorial on growing sprouts, go here.

If you have a sunny window, try growing microgreens with a dirt-free kit like this!

Growing sprouts and microgreens is so easy. They are at the top of my list of easy garden tools.

sprouts

Container Gardens

I’ve done a lot of growing in pots, containers, and basically, anything else I could find (old crates, anyone?). We used them on decks, patios, and in the yards of rentals.

Large pots can be really expensive and heavy. If you’re on a tight budget or you don’t know exactly where the sun lands throughout that day, try these grow bags – you can drag them wherever you need to, and they’re a great place to start. Containers are really easy garden tools.

If you’re tight on space, try these vertical fabric hanging gardens!

Easy Backyard Gardening

back yard gardening tools

The key to successful backyard gardens is in the weeds.

You won’t want to weed your garden when it gets hot.

No matter how many good intentions we have in May, July always comes, and the weeds get out of control.

So far, I like raised bed gardens the best. Even though they cost more to set up the first time, they easily pay for themselves in ease of maintenance. Hardly any weeding, excellent soil, and it’s extremely easy to prep in the spring (just stir in some compost and start planting! No tilling required).

The cheapest way to build a simple backyard garden is to buy the lumber, have the lumber yard (or Home Depot or Lowe’s) cut it to size, and screw it together at home. You don’t have to be super handy or have any tools beyond a drill!

But if building a raised bed is not an option, try one of these, instead:

Starting Seeds for Your Garden

starting seeds tools

Starting seeds saves us a lot of money on buying mature plants from nurseries later in the year.

For FREE seed-starting trays and mini-greenhouses when it’s still kind of cold, we used milk jugs and old plastic salad boxes. You can even start them in empty toilet paper tubes!

seeds starts in a salad container
It was hard to keep the soil from get too wet (I think I needed more drainage holes), but salad container greenhouses worked!

I love these kinds of trays because they’re easy to keep organized, you can move them into the sunshine during the day, and they stay clean when you move them indoors at night!

Also, they are reusable and many of them are recyclable.

Big Gardens

nasturtiums and lettuce from the garden

This year, now that we’re at the farm, I’m planning to grow a much bigger garden. I’m looking at the Back to Eden method because you can get the supplies for almost free, and it’s very low maintenance.

Since I’ve never done this before, I can’t make any recommendations, but I see some YouTube videos dropping in the future!.

Front view of a pallet garden

In my experience, the best way to save money while growing a garden is to find a method that works for you and your current situation.

If you hate weeding (who doesn’t?), choose a method that cuts down on the weeds – even if it costs a little more to set up. You’ll get so much of your money and time’s worth if your garden actually succeeds!

If you don’t have good natural sunlight, stick to sprouts, herbs that grow in the shade (there are plenty!), and look at using a community garden or sharing garden space with a friend (I’ve done that too!).

Remember that growing a garden is a skill you develop over time. If you’re on a tight budget, know that it will take some trial and error before you start really saving money.

Gardening is so fun, magical, and good for our soul and our bodies. These are some ways you can make it easy and a little more budget-friendly!

Here’s What You Can Do Now:

Okay, I’m curious.

What kind of garden method would you like to try?

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