Fall is a great time to buy gardening supplies of all sorts. The seasons are changing, the holidays are coming, and stores need that valuable shelf space for seasonal displays.
Online vendors, seed companies, and gardening catalogs are ready to move out the old and make way for the new. They need to clear out their warehouses and stockpiles for this year’s seed and plant crop, which is all coming in at this time of year.
Seed companies are readying their businesses for new seeds and supplies, which they’ll start offering for sale around the turn of the year.
What this means for gardeners is that there is still a lot of product that vendors want to move and recoup some profit. And they’re willing to take deep discounts to do it.
Jump to:
- Are Clearance Seeds and Plants Worth Buying in the Fall? Are they any good??
- Garden Deals to Look for In Late Fall, October, and November
- 1. Seeds
- 2. Perennial Plants
- 3. Fruit Trees and Bushes (and other trees and bushes, too)
- 4. Bulbs
- 5. Herb Plants
- Other Garden Sale Items to Look for
- Late Fall Steals Turn into Winter and Spring Growing Deals
- Some Tips for Finding the Best Late Fall Garden Clearance and Seed Sales:
Are Clearance Seeds and Plants Worth Buying in the Fall? Are they any good??
Here’s a valid question that’s worth addressing before we look at the best buys in fall garden clearance sales.
The short answer?
Yes! It is worth buying leftover garden plants and seeds in the fall. At least, it’s worth buying the things included on this list.
If your ground is still workable (i.e., you can still dig it up and pop in a plant), you can plant many of the longer-term items on this list. Most seeds can be stored and saved for next year. And then, there’s always indoor gardening to consider, too.
Garden Deals to Look for In Late Fall, October, and November
More durable items like tools and garden furniture are often stored for the next season. You may come across some clearance and deals there, but you’re almost certain to find clearance sales of perishable garden items like plants and seeds.
Not all of them will be worth your money because not all of them can be reasonably grown, stored, or saved. But many can.
Here are the top five garden items to look for in fall clearance sales, along with some suggestions for putting them to good use.
These are the things that are worth spending your money on. They can net you great savings now and in the gardening year (and years) ahead.
1. Seeds
Seed catalogs, companies, and online sellers harvest and pack new seeds every year. But most seeds last for several years. On average, seeds will last three to five years before they won’t germinate and grow.
With only a few exceptions, this year’s leftover clearance seed will stay good and grow well for several years to come.
So it is well worth buying clearance seeds at deep discount prices in the fall -- whether in person at your local store or through online fall clearance sales. Those sales typically start in September and offer the best prices in October and November.
Seeds for your future garden, seed starting, and indoor growing (microgreens and more!)
Buy seed in the fall months for seed starting inside in the winter and for direct sowing in the spring and next summer.
Another reason to buy seed on clearance in the fall is to stock up for growing winter baby greens, sprouts, and microgreens.
These are all easy-to-grow, highly nutritious plants that you can grow inside with little to no added utilities, lights, heat, or electricity. They do require a lot of seed, though, so buying marked-down seed in the fall is a great way to make growing microgreens and sprouts more affordable!
Skip these short-lived seeds
There are a few types of seeds that aren’t worth buying on clearance and aren’t worth trying to store. Those include onions, alliums, parsnips, and parsley, along with a few others.
For more guidance on what stores and lasts long enough to get your money’s worth, check out this article: Can I Use Last Year’s Leftover Garden Seed?
You might find these articles useful, too:
2. Perennial Plants
Can you still get a shovel in the ground? Then, you can still plant perennials!
Perennials are one of the best things to buy on clearance in October and November; here’s why:
- There is still plenty of time to plant them as long as you can dig into your ground
- Perennials are the most expensive plants because we don’t buy them over and over again every year
- Perennials can be divided and propagated in a year or two, so one cheap perennial can become many!
- Perennials will last for years and years -- many for a lifetime!
Not into fall planting? Store dormant perennials for spring planting instead.
Perennials can also be grown in containers, and/or you can store the perennials in their pots in a cool place where they can go dormant, and then you can plant them in the spring.
So even if you don’t have time or workable ground to get those bargain basement plants in the ground in the late fall, you can overwinter them as dormant plants and still have viable plants to plant and grow in the spring.
3. Fruit Trees and Bushes (and other trees and bushes, too)
Fall is prime time for planting trees and bushes of all sorts, especially fruiting trees and bushes.
Stores tend to bring these in for sale in the spring, but they do as well or better when planted in the fall. However, stores aren’t going to hold on to them, store them, and care for them over the winter.
So, what starts out as a pricey investment in the spring becomes an inexpensive one by the fall. And by then, you can get some great deals -- 50% off or more!
Then, they will give you edible fruit and berries for life.
Just make sure you water those new plants, because they still grow roots in the cool fall ground and the roots they do have need to be protected from drying out.
4. Bulbs
Many bulbs are fall planted. That means, we plant them in the fall to slowly root and grow and then give us spring flowers.
Early in the fall, these bulbs won’t be much of a bargain. However, as the fall goes on and the planting time winds down, stores and online sellers would rather clear their stock. Most of the fall-planted bulbs don’t store well and would dry out before it’s time to sell them and plant them again next fall.
But just like trees and perennials, if you can work your soil enough to make a four to six inch hole, you can put spring flowering bulbs in the ground. So buy them up and expand your plantings and garden beds!
By the way -- in future years, those bulbs can just stay in your ground and won’t need replacing. In a few years, you can divide them and spread those expanded bulb clusters even further.
Are there any bulbs you shouldn’t buy on clearance in the fall?
Spring-planted bulbs are not usually a good deal when you buy them in the fall. These would be those bulbs that don’t overwinter in your ground and that you would have to dig and store in the fall to plant in the spring.
The reason?
By late fall, those bulbs are already old. They’re probably dried out and shrunken and won’t have a lot of life left in them to survive another winter of indoor storage.
If it’s a deep enough discount and the bulbs look decent, you can give it a try, but the better late fall clearance deals are on the last of the fall-planted bulbs.
Check out these articles for the best bulbs to buy on fall clearance:
- 5 Fall-Planted Bulbs That Aren’t Daffodils or Tulips (+Bonuses)
- 21 Best Bulbs to Plant in Fall
- 12 Tips to Prevent Animals from Eating Your Flowering Bulbs
5. Herb Plants
For the most part, herbs are perennials, but whether or not herbs will survive through the winter where you live depends on exactly that -- where you live.
Like all perennials, herbs have a range of hardiness zones in which they can survive in the ground in the winter. It’s different for different herbs.
Even if certain herbs won’t survive in your garden over the winter, they’re still worth buying on clearance in the late fall.
Herbs are easy to grow inside. If you have a sunny enough spot, you can grow them on a windowsill. If your sill isn’t sunny enough, it only takes a little additional light to grow them. A small lamp fitted with a grow bulb will do the trick for potted herbs.
Then, you can have pretty, attractive, fragrant, fresh herbs to enjoy and to cook with all winter long. They’ll boost the flavor and nutrition of your dishes and give you something fresh to enjoy in the cold, barren months.
Other Garden Sale Items to Look for
Durable goods are less likely to be cleared out, but stores will sometimes offer sales on other garden supplies rather than deal with moving them and storing them. Sometimes, they’ll offer them in an effort to spur an up-sell to go along with other sale items.
Some other deals to look for in the late fall include:
- Garden tools
- Hand tools
- Soils including potting soils (handy for indoor winter gardening and things like shoots and microgreens!)
- Pots and trays
- Fertilizer (indoor and out)
- Soil amendments
- Garden fixtures, sculptures, and ornaments
- Hoses and accessories
- Mulch
- Compost
Look for the discounts, but know what is really a deal or not. If it’s not a good enough deal, just wait and buy it when you need it.
Late Fall Steals Turn into Winter and Spring Growing Deals
The best and most affordable time to shop for seeds and plants isn’t actually in the spring or during the growing season. The best deals to be had are those in the late fall.
Take advantage of your favorite sellers and stores. Shop the clearance sales with confidence, knowing that the plants, bulbs, and seeds that are left have plenty of life left to give.
Some Tips for Finding the Best Late Fall Garden Clearance and Seed Sales:
- Stop into local home, garden, and growing centers weekly and see what they’re putting out for sale
- Sign up or subscribe to your favorite seed and plant sellers online; they’ll start sending out sales emails and discount codes in the fall, and they tend to get deeper and deeper
- Make it a habit to buy most of your garden seed on sale in the late fall -- that’s a cheap way to grow a great garden next spring!
- If you’ve never grown your own plants from seed before, don’t worry! Buy the seed now. You have plenty of time to learn how to start and grow transplants indoors.
- You won’t need to start those seeds until mid to late winter, so there is plenty of time to read up on how to grow garden plants indoors! (It doesn’t take a lot of money or space, either!)
Leave a Reply