For seed-starting - there are lots of ways to cut corners.

I got my flourescent lights at Habitat for $5/each. Lowes was lowest price for chains & S-hooks to hang them and the lighting bulbs. (I haven't had to replace the bulbs in 3 years.) Also, styrofoam cups from the local dollar store work for starting plants if you haven't saved any plastic 6-packs from last years purchased plants. I use the jiffy starting mix and atwoods will be running that on sale soon. Some here make their own mix and perhaps you could use the search engine for this page to find their recipes.

If you have a local favorite coffee stop, ask them to save grounds for you. A bucket will only cost you a few dollars. Buy 2 so you can rotate them out and visit every few days to pick up and leave a clean bucket. Also, take a large plastic margarine container or something like that and SAVE YOUR EGG SHELLS! Just drop the shell into the container everytime you use an egg, snap the lid back on and stick the bowl up on a top shelf in the cabinet. You'll be surprised how many you collect in a few months and as long as that lids snapped tight, you won't smell anything.

As far as where any favorites are to order seeds, you can check the thread about the Seed Catalogs. There are a wide variety mentioned in that thread and will give you some direction. We all end up with our favorites somehow.

OH! And minicks in the Bethany area has a wide assortment of different soil combinations to fill those boxes. For your location, that's probably the most reasonably priced supplier. (Excuse my lack of proper punctuation but I'm trying to not directly advertise for anyone specificly)

I'm sure some others with WAY more experience than me will come along with some suggestions. This group (as a whole) has it's PhD in enabling. =)

Good luck and keep us posted!

Paula

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Catalogs filling up the Mailbox Thread December 2011

Don't forget about using cardboard as a base (earthworm's friend) then layer with fall leaves (provided your yard hasn't been sprayed with chemicals), straw or hay, discarded kitchen veggie scraps (composting in place), and top off with a layer of compost or rich mix, etc. Farmer's Grain (east of Farmer's Market in downtown Edmond) has a good selection of products, including soiless seed starting mix and are advocates for organic gardening methods. Minnick Materials in south Edmond offers several soils (garden mix, rich mix, etc.) by the scoop. It's much more economical to purchase in bulk provided you have access to a truck to haul it home. TLC and Horn Seed have good seed selections if you opt to buy locally. Online seed companies are endless....

Hope this helps... good luck!

I occasionally stalk the free stuff and materials sections of Craigslist to see what people near me are trying to give away/sell. I've seen several posts from people giving away free piles of bricks, lumber, old windows, mulch, fill dirt, etc., so if you have a truck to pick stuff up with you could find a lot of scrap materials there for cheap. The old windows (for cold frames) and bricks (for edging) in particular would have come in handy for me if I had a way to get them home.

I have a very small set-up, its about the size of a coffee table and I just sit it on the floor and it will cover 4 flats with three 4' T8 fixtures. I made mine of treated fence panels that were ripped to about 1-5/8". For adjustment height on the lights I just use nylon cord looped over a drywall screws. I got the idea from a picture on the web of a PVC fixture I thought was nice. I didn't want to go to town and buy PVC so I used what I had at home.

A rack like many on here have would be a better set-up but I don't have the room needed for that. I just use my rack for a few weeks and then it is tossed back into the shed.

One of the hardest things for me about gardening is finding the amount of organic matter I need. News papers are a pretty good source of organic matter. I use them as mulch and to make tubes to start seed in and to pot-up in.

Larry

Starbucks gives out used grounds already packaged in bags. If you have one near you, drop by regularly. If you will make a base with compostables and then top it with soil, it will compost in place.

Lowes will clearance out opened bags of manure/soil/ect for half price. However, don't fill your beds with potting soil, it is too light and you will regret it when you are watering nonstop during the summer! Trust me!

check out the Winter Sowing forum...they can give you some great tips on starting seeds outside right now. They generally use recycled materials too, so it is a super cheap method.

Lisa

i second the craigslist suggestion. i'm in tulsa and currently trying to arrange to pick up a bunch of egg cartons to start seeds that someone posted.

i also have a friend that saves me the folger's coffee containers that her work goes through. i have 4-5 of them so far, and since i'm not that interested in the asthetics, they are pretty much perfect.

there is a forum here for tips on frugal gardening

Here is a link that might be useful: gardenweb frugal gardening forum

Every garden needs compost and now is the time to begin.
Wire fence(5') cut in 1/2, can be formed into small bins, (diameter 3-4feet)that will hold leaves, kitchen veggie waste(coffee grounds,egg shells, too),plus nitrogen &dirt. Google for construction details and how to make compost. Leaves are plentiful and next year your garden will need compost or mulch. So start it now.

All markers are not the same either. I just use what ever I have on hand, which is almost never the proper garden marker, but I get a little longer life on the lettering if I turn it to the north to protect it from some of the UV rays.

We had a thread on this topic last year, so I've found it and linked it below. It has tons of great ideas, although some of them already have been mentioned here in this thread.

Not only is Craigslist helpful when you're looking for supplies on the cheap, so is Freecycle, so I'd check and see if there is a Freecycle site for your city or for a larger city nearby if you live in a small town.

I'm pretty good at recycling, so before I toss out anything, I look at it and try to think of a way to reuse it. You'd be surprised how creative you become when you make a regular habit of attempting to reuse items that most Americans think of as "trash".

When ordering seeds I do try to remember to order a couple of garden markers. Nothing is more aggravating than having all the names washed off the plant tags by the end of June.
Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: The Previous Frugal Gardening Thread

I think amazon has the best prices unless someone knows better place http://www.amazon.com/

There's tons of tips in this thread and in the previous frugal gardening thread that was linked above. After reading them, what sorts of other cost-saving ideas are you looking for? There's entire websites and books built around frugal gardening, if you take the time to search and find them, instead of all of us retyping what they say.

If there is a specific area in which you're trying to find savings, tell us what it is and we'll see if anyone has any ideas in that area.

There's also an entire forum here at Garden Web devoted to the topic:

Frugal Gardening