Grow free/cheap plants

Its been a while since the last "almost daily" post, so I thought I would make it a good one. Free plants for your garden. Well, free seeds, anyway. Here are some sources:
1. Heirloom Seeds- You may have to buy the first of your heirloom seeds, but after that, you can save the seeds and plant them year after year.
2. Seeds From Produce It won't work for all fruits and vegetables, but you can grow from the seeds in produce. If you get it from the local farmer's market, you have a better chance of sprouting something that can grow locally. We accidentally grew a great volunteer crop of cantaloupe this way, and used up some sprouted potatoes. Hybrids will not produce a fruit like the parent, though.
3. Seeds from Bulk Food After we learned that the amaranth that we have (bought) seeds for will not yield as much as others, I was a bit frustrated. All I wanted was to sprout some amaranth like the kind we bought in bulk from our local health food store. Then I read an article that said much of the bulk seed from health food stores can be sprouted. (Coriander, for one. And the seeds are cheap this way.) So I took the bulk amaranth, and tested the viability of the seed (put some in a half-folded, damp paper towel to see if they would sprout) They did. I am going to plant those and see how they grow.
4. Trade Seeds Most packs have more seed than you can plant, or have room for. So sharing seeds is a common practice. If you have a gardening buddy, share there, or go online and find a seed swapping place.
5. Get Cuttings/Divide Plants My friend Steve has a sage plant that is huge and beautiful, but according to him, needs a haircut, as it takes up too much space. He has an aloe plant that has desperately outgrown its pot. He has mint running wild, and Jerusalem artichokes volunteering everywhere. All this means that I am going to have some sage, aloe and mint (I already planted the Jerusalem artichokes last year.)
6. Plant Perennials. They say perennials are hard to grow from seed. I dunno, I am giving it a shot for the first time this year. If I am successful, that will be the last time I have to do it, because perennials come up year after year.

Garden Start Plant Containers

Containers that were used for other things make great planters. How do I know? Because my obsession with zero waste plus huge garden= alternative planters!

For instance, a group of about 50 people meets twice a week (for four hours!) During the break, everyone is invited to have refreshments, lemonade and tea and coffee are the drinks, served in styrofoam cups! Since I've done my best to eliminate styrofoam from my world, and seeing it piled in the trash like that made me panic... that is just crazy waste!

So the cups became planters. Here is a picture from someone doing the same thing (although I am not sure if these were upcycled or not.) It isn't just cups that make great seedling pots, though. We folded the bottoms of toilet paper rolls, cut open plastic soda bottles, used yogurt containers, made pots from newspaper and sturdy old coffee bags... so many options! Using the plastic salad clamshells to sprout early lettuce and have early salads seems particularly brilliant to me (see details here).

We've been saving eggshells, carefully cracked on one side, just for the novelty of planting using eggshells. I will post a picture when that project is underway.

Pantyhose Tip #3

Back to pantyhose....

Cut off a leg from the pantyhose, and fill with soap that has become uncomfortably small for bath usage (bars of soap that have whittled down to thin slivers of soap). Tie off the end and use it inside or outside. The extra length of pantyhose can be used to tie to your garden faucet, making a quick wash up outside easy.

Pantyhose Tip #2

Cut the pantyhose horizontally across the leg (see hair ties) and use these for staking up plants. The soft, yielding material won't damage the stems, especially if you tie using the loose, crazy-8 pattern. Combine two ties for a longer cord, if needed.

To combine two, overlap two loops on a flat surface. Simultaneously pull the lower loop through the upper loop on one end while pulling the upper loop through the lower on the other end. These will tighten into a knot as you pull. Hmm, that isn't as clear as it would be with illustrations.

Here is an illustration that is pretty close. Their loops have a long tail, but the method is the same.