Budget Plant Hacks
I'm not sure there's anything more exciting than coming up with a cheap but effective new way to manage my collection. Here are some of my favorite ways to care for and display my plants without spending much at all!
Clear Plastic Saucers
These lil saucers are everything. I've found them locally at HEB, Home Depot, and Lowes for 26 to 34 cents each.
Not only are they awesome for their intended purpose because they are extra deep to prevent spills, I've found a couple of other really awesome uses for them!
They can be used as mini propagation boxes, especially for nodes!
They are also great for leca lovers. Poke a few holes in the bottom of one, fill it with your cuttings and leca, set it inside of another (without holes) and water. Bam!
Acrylic Trash Can
Speaking of propagation boxes, another great way to trap humidity for propagation or rehabilitation is these awesome clear acrylic trash cans from Target.
Garden Stakes
Buying moss poles gets expensive fast, and creating your own can be a really messy and time-consuming process. My favorite way around this is to use hardwood garden stakes. A 24-pack of 12" stakes on Amazon is only about $14! They are much more versatile than moss poles because they are extremely sturdy even though they are thinner, making them a better option for smaller plants than the skinny little bamboo stakes we're all familiar with.
Rubbermaid Shelves
I have used these shelves in a few ways to create more space for plants. My favorite shelf hack is to notch a shelf to contour your window, then simply screw it to your existing windowsill. This creates an extended area right in front of your window for plant space!
If you did not use white screws, you can cover the screwheads with these after screwing it to the sill.
Voila! More surface area for plants and the extended sill looks like it's always been there.
I also created this unit:
It's another Rubbermaid shelf, suspended from my ceiling, using plumbing pipe and flanges.
Birdcages and Wicker Baskets
Other cost effective ways to display plants involve a little thrifting. Birdcages and wicker baskets are plentiful at thrift stores and online on Facebook Marketplace and other sites such as LetGo and OfferUp. The birdcages I've found locally range from $10 to $20 and wicker baskets are typically only $1-$2.
Birdcages are a great way to display plants that trail and/or climb. This one was $10 and I can fit 6 4" pots inside!
Wicker baskets allow you to keep your plants in their nursery pots without having to look at those ugly buggers or having to spring for more pricey cache pots. I've found a ton that are already lined with plastic!
Mega-saucer
These plastic serving trays make excellent saucers for multiple plants to share. They come in tons of colors and sizes and streamline the look of multiple planters. I have a large white one that helps to keep watering a little simpler and 'groups' the plants, making my shelf a little less cluttered.
