Gardening on a Budget: Finding Seeds!

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    Not long ago, I told you about how I'm involved in a Gardening Workshop for my church.  It will be happening this Saturday!  I have been growing transplants of various plants to give away to people so that they can go home and have the beginning of a garden!  You can read about it here.  
     Since writing that post, I've continued to learn and be amazed at the things someone who wants to garden can do to be successful without putting out a lot of money!  Getting hold of seeds to plant and grow has proven to be so easy, inexpensive and so rewarding for me that I decided that I have to let you in on some of my newly learned information.  

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     I wrote about this in my initial post, but I've got to reiterate it here because I am amazed at how successful I have been at germinating and harvesting seeds that I already had in my cupboard.  Here are some examples:

Seeds From Your Cupboards:

     I guess that technically you paid for these seeds, but how long ago and are they just sitting in your cabinet not being used very much?  You won't have to buy them again if you grow them yourself!  The mustard plant is very useful.  The mustard greens are edible and the seeds are used in making mustard and in pickling!  
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My mustard plant is growing fast!

Those are Poppy Seeds coming up! Yup! I sprouted them from my poppy seed container in my spice cabinet.

     I'm expecting to be eating Poppy Seed Muffins and Bread.  You can use the seeds in salad dressing as well.  Plus, the poppies are beautiful and will attract pollinators to my garden.
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I am growing a variety of beans from one package of soup mix in my cupboard. Do you have any dry beans in your cupboard? Those are seeds!

     Normally, it is best to sew bean seeds directly into the ground, but I have these in a container for my class.  Then I will very carefully transplant them.
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Do you have plain popcorn in your cupboard, the kind you pop on the stove or in a hot air popper? Those are seeds!

     I decided that this year I would try a bed that works as a 3 Sisters Garden.  I am growing popcorn, pattypan squash and long beans in it.  I've never grown any of those before, but I am excited to give it a try! The popcorn sprouted readily.  Now I just have to help it pollenate and let it dry on the stalks.  I'll keep you informed! Besides popping the corn, I will also be able to grind it into cornmeal! 
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     So, go ahead and search your cupboards and see what seeds that you already have that you can grow! 
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Seeds From Your Food:

     I always thought that in order to grow something from a seed that you saved from your food that you would have to do something to it to get it to grow.  Well, I've started experimenting and guess what, that isn't usually the case!  Let me show you my success! 
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Pumpkin! 2 years ago, my son threw the pumpkin seeds from his kids carved, store bought pumpkins into my garden and I had more pumpkins than I knew what to do with come up in my garden! Well, this is the next generation coming up from the seeds I saved. (I'm growing them in a more controlled manner this year.)

Green Onion! I always regrow these in water on my window sill, but this year, I've transplanted them to soil to show in my class. I've already harvested from this plant, it grows so quickly!

    This isn't technically a seed, but I couldn't leave it out because growing green onions gives almost instant gratification! 
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Garlic! Every clove in your head of garlic is a seed or sorts! They grow almost at quickly and easily as the onions!

      The green parts of the garlic are edible and harvesting them will not stop the garlic bulb from growing!  The leaf is called a scape and you can use it like a garlicky green onion when cooking.  In about 8 months, you can harvest a new bulb.
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     This was a fun experiment!  I had sliced a tomato for dinner one evening and of course the juices with the seeds slipped out onto the cutting board.  I wondered if I wanted to save the seeds if I had to clean the seeds out of that jelly like substance or if they would grow with it still surrounding them.  So, I cleaned off 3 of the seeds and planted them in a little pot.  Then, I took a blob of the jellied stuff and planted it in a different pot.  As you can see, they all sprouted!  There were a lot of seeds in that jelly substance, I'm going to try to separate them into individual plants.  
     The nice thing about saving seeds from your food is that if you get a product that you really like, you can reproduce it in your own garden! I am going to have tomatoes coming out of my ears this year! You can try this with peppers and other vegetables as well.  And, while once again they aren't technically seeds, you can also regrow carrots, celery, and lettuce from their root ends.  In my garden right now, I have potatoes growing that we planted from the ones in our pantry that had sprouted! 
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The Library! 

     Libraries have always been amazing places, but it today's world, they are really going above and beyond the extra mile!   Here in Phoenix, our public libraries have a seed library.  You don't have to return anything though.  Every 3 weeks, you can check out up to 3 kinds of seeds.  At the end of the 3 weeks, that listing comes off of your card and you can check out 3 more!  They have a mix of vegetables, fruits and flowers.  All for free!   You should check out libraries in your area and see what is available! 
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Ordering Seeds Online:

     While it isn't free to purchase seeds online, the reason I love to get seeds this way is because invariably, the seed company that I order from sends me free extras as a thank you for ordering from them.  When I make seed purchases from a store, that never happens!  Plus, the seeds are priced about the same, you can find more variety and if you order a minimal amount, you can get free shipping.  

Free lettuce from one of my online orders.

     I have started being an affiliate with and ordering from Seeds Now.  I enrolled in their seed subscription program for $10 per month and I just recently received my first order.  It was so much fun to be surprised with new seeds and seed planting pellets.  They sent me heirloom tomato seeds with my last order as well.  I think that I may be becoming addicted to adding seeds to my collection! You can click on this link to go and give them a try yourself! 
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       As you can see,  saying that you can't afford to buy seeds for gardening is not an excuse, and experimenting with what you already have is so much fun and so rewarding! I hope you will give some of these ideas a try! 
​       Happy Gardening!