I live in an area that has a high instance of retirees...there is an annual seed swap here. You bring in your surplus and trade for something else...there is also a free drop point where you can just leave your unwanted extras...someone always scoops things up.

Good idea!

I like to take a shovel, a basket with plastic bags lined with wet paper towels and hit the fields around my house for volunteer plants.There are lots of them around my house. I've found all my lantana that way.Sometimes I do walk throughs at a few nurserys so I can recognize the volunteers from the good looking weeds.I've also found some nice large colorful rocks for my butterfly garden.Sandy

something interesting I just read but never considered...Think vertical. If you are short on growing space, think vertical when planning your garden. Create a simple vertical support...for things like peas, beans and cucumbers.use leftover mesh fencing approx. 4 feet high. Drive some 5 foot stakes into the ground 4 to 5 feet apart.Lace thin dowels through the mesh at the top and bottom and nail the dowels to the stakes to create your vertical growing support. At the end of the season remove the dowels and roll up the wire to use again next year. sounds like a workable idea to me.

--use wire to make a chicken wire trellis around your rain spouts and grow edibles up them.
--spray your tools orange so you can find them in the garden
--seed save,
--trade seeds
--use newspaper and pine needles for mulch
--save sprouting potatoes and garlic for the garden.

For early starting of non-hardy plants indoors use a nail to punch some holes in the bottom of margarine containers, individual yogurt cups, etc. for drainage, plant seeds in them. Or cut tops off of milk, bleach, etc. containers, punch holes in the bottom. Can cut off top, use bottoms of small packages which are like wax- or plastic-coated cardboard, e.g. single-serving milk containers.

If you don't have a space where they can drain without problems, and have a container that can handle some drainage, (e.g. cookie sheet), put them on it. If there's a problem with the plant container standing in water, find something small that is expendable, or a short board, etc. to put under the pot to hold it above the drained water.

Join a garden club, horticultural society, then trade seeds, slips, started plants, etc. (but if they hold a plant exchange, they'll probably charge a transfer fee to help cover the group's expenses).

Check neighbours, friends to find fellow gardeners (though, gardeners, being inclined to talk about their hobby, you may well know who they are at present). Trade seeds, slips, ideas with them.

Grow more than you can use of crops that grow easily at your space, then trade produce with neighbours who grow stuff that you don't or find hard to grow.

Frugal forever!

joyful

I like to host a plant exchange in the spring. Also, when I'm walking around and see an interesting plant *and* a gardener, I'll ask whether I might have a bit of root. Almost all the time, they give it to me and then I tell them what I have.

Also, check the perennial shelves at the end of the season. The dead-looking things they're selling for $1.00 will most likely be gorgeous next spring.

Oh, and compost! You'll never buy fertilizer again, and you can add it to potting soil to make it stretch further and be more nutritious for the plants.

Budster, I always think vertical. I've grown peas, beans, cucumbers and squash up the back of my garden fence. Keeps them clean, takes less room, and takes advantage of what sun I get.

My best ones have already been mentioned, but here goes: ask friends, neighbors & family if they will share. I go to my dad's & grandmother's farms & dig up ferns from the ditches. They are pretty & easy-care. Some hostas get really large as they get older & people will let you divide them; same thing with daylilies. You can also divide up bulbs & take cuttings from plants.

Check nearby schools that have horticulture classes. They usually have plant sales from their greenhouses in the spring - better prices than a nursery.

When dealing with perennials, buy smaller plants. They'll grow pretty quickly & a one-gallon plant is much less initially than a three-gallon.

Don't buy first thing in the spring, be willing to wait until later in the season. I once found beautiful daylilies on sale at the beginning of July at Wal-Mart for $1. They didn't even look bad; they just hadn't sold yet.

I recycle the coffee gounds into the garden and wash off the filter, let it dry and use it in the bottom of flower pots so the soil doesn't wash out when you water it.
Today I was fortunate enough to find a house in the neighborhood who had a huge pile of chipped tree trimmings in their front yard....I asked if I could buy some and they told me to take all I wanted for free....got great mulch for an area generally overtaken by weeds...under the birdfeeder.
I also, at the end of the tomato season, let some of the tomatoes rot of the vine....I get great volunteer tomato plants in the spring. I now have three volunteers up and doing well and know I will get more when the soil starts to warm some more.
By feeding the birds I find lots of interesting plants they bring....one year I got strawberry plants from a neighboring farm.

Great ideas! Here's something I plan to do---use broken cups and castoff pots and pans for a "kitchen" garden. Will group them all together. I saved some items from last year, have an old coffee pot, skillet, and some cups. Holes can be drilled thru the metal.

I also find free rocks along the highway, I've found that morning, between 10-12 is a good time with less traffic. I've found some beautiful rocks this way---for landscaping and for beds.

We have a woodburning stove and have several small logs left over. I already have a bed of Lamb's Ear from the logs a couple of years ago. Will use some of these for other beds. They can be cut smaller and wired or roped together, or just laid down in a pattern.

--Use Willow branches for rooting hormone. Cut some new growth, smash with a hammer and put in water with cuttings. Also, if you are rooting something, put a cutting that is easily rooted in the water with something that is difficult to root. They help one another.

--collect smashed concrete from places where buildings are being torn down (ask and they will be happy to have you haul away). Use for paths and retaining walls.

--Use alfalfa pellets instead of chemicals for fertilizing you lawn. A bag of alfalfa pellets costs between 5-7$ at a feed store. Apply in the spring.

--Use all fences and walls to trellis and grow things UP.

--Use crushed eggshells around tender plants to kill slugs and fertilize your soil at the same time.

--make rainbarrels.

--run your washing machine water to the yard and landscape plants.

--Pump your bathwater to the landscape plants.

-- Wash your car on the grass.

--Use Willow branches for rooting hormone. Cut some new growth, smash with a hammer and put in water with cuttings. Also, if you are rooting something, put a cutting that is easily rooted in the water with something that is difficult to root. They help one another.

--collect smashed concrete from places where buildings are being torn down (ask and they will be happy to have you haul away). Use for paths and retaining walls.

--Use alfalfa pellets instead of chemicals for fertilizing you lawn. A bag of alfalfa pellets costs between 5-7$ at a feed store. Apply in the spring.

--Use all fences and walls to trellis and grow things UP.

--Use crushed eggshells around tender plants to kill slugs and fertilize your soil at the same time.

--make rainbarrels.

--run your washing machine water to the yard and landscape plants.

--Pump your bathwater to the landscape plants.

-- Wash your car on the grass.

I recently heard that most garden departments throw away anything wilted and anything that doesnt see. It is a business writeoff, and more practical than shipping them back to the nurserys.A friend of a friend has mentioned finding hundreds of plants lying on the top of a Hom Bepot dumpster.Water, add some tender loving care and they will bloom next season.

check with your local dump for free containers and such. got a great brand new soaker hose from the local dump man. look for items to make planters or trellises and supports out of. Also some chip up local wood and give out the mulch for free. Great way to increase what you have is to organize a plant swap!

I just found four bags of potting soil in a dumpster. The bags had small tears in the corner.I also found a couple of garden bench kits. Won't know till I assemble them whether there are parts missing, but they are a common design, and I'm betting that if I go back I'll find a couple more benches. Also found some of those cutegarden markers, minus the posts,(which I've seen at another discount store on sale.) All in all, a great day for the garden around this house.Sandy