Before we bought our house, I knew instantly I wanted to pull up the straggling rose bushes and plant the entire hillside with vinca minor. 
We planted vinca minor on the hillside at our last house so I knew the plants ran about $6 for a 1 gallon pot at the local nursery. I also knew this time around I wasn’t going to shell out $300 for the 50+ plants that were needed.
After all, we plan to flip this house in a year or two so we’re on a pretty tight budget. It’s not our dream home, but I do want to enjoy it while we’re here and to make it look nice for when it comes time to sell the property.
After waiting an entire year to plant the hillside, I finally figured out a free option to fill the space.
This weekend while I was puttering around the garden I discovered a small patch of about 20 vinca minor plants growing in our front side yard. I hadn’t noticed them before because they were well hidden beneath other plants which had recently died back.
I immediately dug them up and transplanted the vinca to the hillside in the backyard. But it wasn’t enough to fill the space. Vinca minor grows pretty quick and my end goal is to have the back hillside 75% covered with plants {I think it looks nice when there is a little mulch peeking through} by the time we put the house up for sell.
I really, really wanted to ask the people who bought our last house if they wanted their vinca thinned {because it totally DOES need to be thinned, and I wanted some plant starts} but I knew it would be totally weird. So I didn’t.
I called Mrs. HB instead and asked if she had any vinca she needed thinned and lucky for me, she does! I plan to go over there this week and get the remaining vinca starts I need to get our hillside going.
I know I totally rambled through this story. I guess I just wanted to say that when it comes to saving money, be patient. There’s almost always a less expensive alternative to getting what you want. And sometimes, you might just end up getting what you want for free.
~Mavis
MerryMouse says
Wow! The daffodils and vinca on that hillside look so lovely together, don’t they? If I’d known you wanted vinca minor I could have mailed you some, since it was taking over parts of my yard. After looking at prices in the garden center this summer, I am VERY interested in taking cuttings and making divisions of the plants I already have. Your idea of asking the neighbor if she wanted her vinca “thinned” is an excellent one! Everyone wins! I have some coral bells that need dividing. Want some?
Mavis Butterfield says
Thank you for offering your Coral Bells but I think I am going to pass. If you have a ton of extra Vinca and want to sell it eBay is a good spot to sell it. 🙂 🙂
Jocelyn says
*cringe* This does bring to light that there is potential for an interesting discussion on what constitutes invasive. Unfortunately sometimes us gardeners want easy/fast/spread regardless of control guidelines 🙂
Another non-invasive strategy (vinca minor is on our do not plant list here in Oregon) could also be to look in the neighborhood for the native honeysuckles and propagate those out from clippings. They ramble as ground covers too.
Sorry if this has been a belabored point in the past, I’m new to following your blog.
amy says
I have to echo Jocelyn’s comment and hope you will avoid vinca in the future. It is invasive and will crowd out native wildflowers in natural areas. Invasive.org is a great starting point for more info.
Crystal says
I thought you bought a bunch of vinca plants off of ebay?
Mavis Butterfield says
I did earlier this spring for the long side yard that faces the street. These full size beauties were hiding and I was so excited to find them.
Carmen says
I think most people would want grass and therefore that’s the best thing to do financially for resale.
Did you dig up the lawn?
Mavis Butterfield says
No. That area has always been mulched. It’s on a shaded hillside and grass will not grow there.
sandra fisher says
When I first moved to my new house ( 10 acres in the country and no gardens) I joined the local garden club. I wasn’t interested in arranging flowers but I felt I had so much to learn. The members gladly shared cuttings, bulbs etc with me.
The other thing I did was to go on Freecycle and asked for plants or to help thinning things for people.
Tons of responses.
Along the way I made many new friends and now I can share with other people!
Sandi the happy gardener!