5 ways to snag free plants (w/o stealing!)

Gardening can get expensive, so I thought I'd compile a few tips to save money in getting plants for your garden:

1) Save seeds and bulbs. Whatever you have growing in your garden now, save and/or collect those seeds and bulbs to replant in the spring. Also, seeds from fruit bought at the grocery store or given to you by a gardener-friend or family member, save those seeds as well and make sure to mark what they are, so the can be planted and grown for your own garden.

2) Go to garage sales and flatter the sellers. Garage sale sellers generally won't put plants out, but if you compliment them on their garden, and especially on a few plants that they seem to be in excess of, you may be able to snag a few cuttings or even get them to dig up part of the plant by the roots that you can take home with you.

3) Trade from fellow gardeners. Offer to trade a plant from your garden for a plant from theirs to diversify what you have.

4) Pay attention to what others may complain about in their garden. If they say things like 'I need to cut down on (this plant)' or 'My garden's much too full/too hard to maintain', then offer to relieve them from a few plants. Bring over a few containers or plastic bags and dig up a few plants they may not want any more.

5) Invest in perrennials. Herbs and flowers that come back next year will help prevent you from buying them twice.

 

6) scope out backtrails and places where people dump greenwaste. i usually find discarded bulbs or thriving, blooming once potted plants

 

7) Learn about plant propagation, so you can propagate a bunch of plants from one. There are books about it at the library ... one I like is Secrets of Plant Propagation, by Lewis Hill.

 

8.) Join or start a gardening club.

And the one about flattering gardeners, that one really works, very well indeed. It's also a great way to learn tips & techniques too.

Peace,
poor_old_dad

 

our local garden club has a plants swap n sale twice yearly... is a good way and cheap to get native plantings as well as others

 

I've found some cool plants in the cemetary... I know that sounds really morbid but it's not. When working on family graves I noticed a bunch of plants just in the trash that someone had thrown away. They were in rough shape, but now they are thriving!

So yeah, this is kind of the same thing as the greenwaste tip above... I'm definitely not suggesting digging up anything!

 

Years ago my parents had a huge cactus, and one day a man knocked on the door and asked if he could have the apples and a cutting of the cactus. My mom said "sure" because they just ended up a mess for her to clean up.

We went outside a while later and the man had pruned the cactus. It was gorgeous! My mom made sure after that to save all the apples for him, and our cactus was always perfect. When we moved he came over and dug out as much cactus as he could (which was a lot). He trimmed a cactus a few times, and got all the apples and cactus he and his family could eat, and a complete garden of his own. He didn't have to trim the cactus, but by doing so he also benefitted. We had no clue how to do it, and he always got the "fruits of his labor."

I used to help my elderly neighbor with her garden all the time and she was always giving me bulbs, seeds, and cuttings. Helping out someone that doesn't know how to trim or prune their garden is a good way to acquire plants, and is appreciated by both people.

Right now I am plantless We moved and I didn't want my plants to suffer, so they all have a great new home. Now I just need to go get more plants, my house feels bare without them

 

You forgot about stores like Walmart, K-Mart, etc, which have huge seasonal inventory to move.

If you can catch them on the last day, you can often pick up stuff mucho cheap. They'd rather sell it for a couple bucks than have to dispose of it or store it.



x

 

its easy once you get your garden going, my bro has a massive vegi garden goin and we keep all the seeds from everything and replant them. ive found that local markets are a good place to get seeds from, lots of variety.