- Compost
Compost is in the same category as mulch. Most soils these days lack nutrients, so if you want your garden to be successful, you’ll need to amend the soil in some way. Here are some ways to get free compost for your garden.
Make your own! You can do this in a few ways. You can start a compost pile in your backyard. You can dig holes right in your garden and pour compost daily and mix it up. You can make a worm composter by keeping it under the sink. But however you do it, make sure you don’t throw away all those food scraps that can be very expensive for your garden!
The green leaves are also a great source of nutrients. Use the same ideas shared above to find a free source of leaves.
Use Freecycle, Craigslist or call some local farms to find used hay barn beds or manure from livestock. A lot of times if you come in and pack the manure yourself, you can get it for free.
dried okra pod with seeds on the table
- Hands
Your garden is not complete without seeds! This can be a big expense, especially if you want specific varieties, but if you plan carefully and plan ahead, you can get as many seeds as you need for little or no money.
Participate in seed exchange. Even if you don’t have a crop this year, you can still participate by pledging to save this year’s harvest to share next season.
Keep your hands on the organic products you already buy. You can save seeds from anything you buy at the grocery store — melons, pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers. The key here is to make sure it’s an organic product because a conventionally grown product might not produce the product you want if they produce it at all.
Take the seeds from previous years. Most stores that sell seeds only sell current years seeds. If you have a source, or if you ask nicely, you can get your seeds last year marked after they were removed from the shelves, and before they were released.
established plants ready for transplanting
- The plant starts
Many can be difficult to start from seed, especially for a beginner gardener. But here are a few ways you can get some already started plants for free.
Just like seeds, stores tend to remove plants when they start to look a little old and wilted. We were our local farmers cooperative when the factory representative. restocked the plants and was able to get about 50 sweet potato plants and 50 zucchini plants completely free. They weren’t the healthiest, but when they hit the ground, they recovered well.
Shop with your gardening friends. If you have a friend who is starting their own seeds, see if they are willing to make a deal with you – to offer a service for the plants they start from you.
Here again you can use your organic store-bought food as the plant gets started- regrow onions cut from root cuttings or plant the ends of your celery. You can regrow potatoes from old potato eyes or grow your sweet potatoes in water and cut slips to grow.
Check out my annual garden planner to help you keep track of all..
