While a lot of people love to spend time in their yard, far fewer would wish to spend a pile of money on it - particularly when we find ourselves in the midst of a recession.
Gardening doesn't have to be expensive however; there are plenty of ways of sticking to a budget and even the possibility of using the garden to ease the bills elsewhere.
A recent article in Oregon Business News entitled 'Lawn, garden options needn't bust a budget for Oregonians' suggested ways in which Oregonians - and Americans nationwide - can enhance their garden space without forking out a fortune.
At the forefront of the cost-cutting initiatives was the planting of edibles in the garden. Not only do such plants look great, they taste great too and think of all that money to be saved on grocery shopping.
Mark Bigej, owner of Al's Garden Center is a particularly staunch advocate of planting edibles in the garden, believing the benefits to be numerous.
In an interview with Oregon Business News he said that edibles can be as tasty as they are tasteful.
He commented: "Use attractive edibles like blueberries right in your landscaping with other ornamental shrubs, so they do double duty.
"Your fruiting plum trees and cherries can be absolutely gorgeous - you get great spring bloom, you can prune them into interesting shapes, you have nice fall color on them."
He continued to say that building your own trellises to accommodate vines such as grapes and kiwis was an additional way to save money.
As well as being quick and easy to build and set up, trellises offer a great space-saver too, with vines growing up rather than out. Furthermore, the fruits to be picked from vines are often that little bit more exotic and look great.
Mr Bigej commented: "Grapes are beautiful over arbors or trellises. The kiwi is another great vine that has really neat large leaves with red petals and is beautiful in the summer."
As well as saving on food bills in the long run, the short-term costs of gardening in this way are also inexpensive, with seeds extremely cheap.
For example, a tomato plant that costs $2 can produce more than 20lbs of tomatoes in a single season. You do the math!
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