Just remembered another point of frugal satisfaction: I now have concrete planters overflowing with giant pansies, borders bursting with every color of phlox, beds of johnny-jump-ups (aka violas, which are small wild cousins to pansies), giant frilly pink hybrid poppies, and festoons of petunias, and they were all either free, or pennies. The violas grew wild here and there in the lawn, so I transplanted them to the flowerbed where they love it and multiply, the poppies came with the house so every year I save seeds and disperse some, and make poppyseed cake with the rest, and the phlox, petunias, and pansies I started from seed in winter, and wow were those a good idea! One seed makes a massive clump of petunias that would fill a hanging basket. Same with phlox.
The only part of my flower garden that wasn't cheap is the Endless Summer Blue Hydrangea, and it was money well spent, for it blooms on old and new wood, so is ever-blooming, and actually survives Maine winters which Nikko Blue generally don't, and is easy to keep blue by feeding it the morning's coffee grounds out of the percolator each day to gently acidify the soil. And its giant blue mopheads make fabulous long-lasting cut flowers for a table centerpiece that lasts the week.
