Question

Make some garden friends in your area. This can help save money through shared tools (the types you only use a couple times a year), seedling exchanges, etc.

Start your own seedlings in small, red "Solo" type plastic cups. Just put a small hole in the bottom for drainage. Moisten the seed starter mix in the cup, plant the seeds, moisten again, and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Place by a sunny window and soon they will sprout. You can re-use the cups and plastic wrap many, many times. I also cut old plastic mini blinds and use them as markers in the cups to know what's planted. These also can be re-used many times.

Make your own compost and mulch, grow open-pollinated varieties so that you can save seeds, and don't buy anything in a package. Except seeds.

Good topic! One year members of our garden club were interviewed weekly on the local radio station. When it was my turn my topic was - free stuff for gardening. They never had more phone calls! :-) My favorite free thing is collecting seeds from all over the valley - both town & countryside. I spot likely plants while biking or driving & make a mental note to return in season. Sometimes it' harvesting seed in a friend's garden when they were going to just compost it all. I love the seasonal celebration this provides & the variety you can collect gives you seed to swap. It pays to put together a mobile seed-collecting kit. I ended up buying paper coin envelopes for convenience in labeled gifting & swapping.