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GardenRN
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Post good deals!

I thought it'd be nice to start a thread on and good buys on gardening supplies or tools we spot. I'll start, hopefully others will get use out of this.

To curb some of my excitement and hopefully force myself to avoid starting those tomato and pepper seeds a little longer I went to some random places to see what they had in the way of gardening supplies. I know a lot of people reuse other things and get free pots, HOWEVER, if you need some extras, I found that the "dollar tree" by me has 5" pots, these are 5 for $1. They also have 3" pots I think 6 or 8 for $1. They are brown/red plastic pots. Decent and definitely reusable. I got 30 of the 5".....just so y'all don't have to do the math that's 30 5" pots for $6. I don't think that's too bad of a deal!

They also had BIG indoor/outdoor thermometers for...you guessed it, $1 a piece. Not the most accurate thermometer in the world mind you, but it's good enough for what I am looking for.

I need to go back to the dollar store and walmart to look for popsicle sticks for plant markers for the seed trays. There's no way in he%% I'm paying $0.10 each for those flimsy little plastic white ones from the garden center. They should be more like 50 for $1!

Anyone else find any good deals? Sometimes I feel like I'm getting old when I start complaining about prices....lol. But I'm only 30!

rkunsaw
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I get truckloads of cow manure free at the livestock auction.I also had the crew clearing along the power lines dump six truck loads of wood chips on my property.I have plenty of grass and leaves but for those who don't you can pick up bags of leaves by curbside on collection days.

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GardenRN
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found the popsicle sticks...one bag of 150 for $1 at the dollar store. for marking seeds.

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soil
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my best pruners came from the dollar tree. they work better than the 50$ ones I got.

one good deal that I know of is the bulk bins at the grocery/health food store. one packet of say beans is 2-3$. and you get about 30-50 beans. now I go to the health food store, they have 20 different beans for me to choose from under 5$ a lb. enough to plant a huge patch. they not only have beans they have grains, other legumes, even some rare things for a LOT cheaper than buying packets. and from my experience 90% of the things sprout and grow.

you can also buy whole wheat in bulk for wheatgrass sprouting, far cheaper than buying "sprouting wheatgrass" for the same results.

Bobberman
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What I use for the marking sticks is a piece of vinyl flooring. Most carpet dumpsters will have it or a yard sale may have a 3 by 6 for a few bucks! The back of the vinyl is bright white and like a paper. The better vinyl is stiff and easy to cut. I cut it into triangles and it works great. Also look for the long verticle blinds! I even use the vinyl for dividers in my seed boxes when I plant different varities in a box because its easy to cut into strips!

annastasia76
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I buy my sunflower seeds at the grocery or whole food store, just got a bag of them at about 50 cents per lb, just make sure they are raw sunflower seeds.
one good deal that I know of is the bulk bins at the grocery/health food store. one packet of say beans is 2-3$. and you get about 30-50 beans. now I go to the health food store, they have 20 different beans for me to choose from under 5$ a lb. enough to plant a huge patch.
I actually just checked our local health food store last week and there is actually more variety of beans at winco (pack your own groceries, store) then at the health food store. I wish that the stores had a better selection, I'm currently searching etsy for a better selection.

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GardenRN
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LOVE the beans idea! I wonder if regular beans like you'd find dried and bagged in the regular grocery store would sprout. Might be worth the $2 to find out!

I like where this thread is going!

annastasia76
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I don't see why they wouldn't, they don't process the beans in any other than washing and I doubt that they even do that since rocks are often found in the bags with the beans.

Bobberman
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Lets face it there are good deals everywhere if you look around! I had a flea market store 10years ago and sold the business to a guy and told him that he could buy stuff everywhere for his business! The store was in a old five and ten store building 50 by 110 pretty big.He did so well he bought the building 2 years later! I had everything there. I got the stuff from a hauling business I did for five years. The point In am trying to make is the same with seeds. Dill for instance can be bought as a herb in a bottle for a $1.00 at alot of places and the seeds will grow at a fraction of the price of a seed pack! The beans are a great idea and the mixed 10 bean pack at the grocery store is a whole pound for a few bucks! How abut the 50 pound of deer corn for less that $10 which could be planted! I buy seeds sometimes at Agway and get some good bulk deals on peas zucc and beans!I love dollar stores and Wal Mart!

DeborahL
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I've grown lima beans from the bagged grocery store ones. Great thread !

garden5
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For me, one of the best deals is saving your seed from year to year...free seeds! Sure, it might take some effort to isolate a few flowers to prevent cross-pollination, but hey, better than paying 2.50 for another pack of some exotic tomato variety. NOTE: this only works on OP varieties, not hybrids. Well, it does work on hybrids, but you probably won't get the same variety that you planted.

Also, if you know have any friends who love planting flowers every year, ask them to save yo the pots. You can get 4-packs, 6-packs, 3 in., 4 in., and even 1 gal. pots totally free this way. Yeah, sure, you will still need the trays, but I'm sure you could make your own if you had to.

FREE certainly is one of the best deals :).

Happy bargain hunting.

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Gary350
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I get a lot of free seeds from the grocery store. I buy vegatables to eat and I save the seeds. Bell pepper, banana pepper, red chili pepper, mellons, squash, garlic, anything with seeds I save the seeds. The dry beans in bags will grow too only problem you never know if they are bush beans or runner beans. If you buy carrots with tops cut about 1/2 inch of the carrot off with the tops and plant the tops they will grow if you keep them watered. Alot of the seeds in the spice section of the grocery store will grow too. I get all my seed potates from the grocery store I buy a bag of my favorite RED potatoes leave them out at room temperature where there is plenty of light the whole bag will sprout a $3 bag of potatoes is a big savings over $12 seed potatoes. The seeds in plums, cherries, apples, will grow too.

I bought a butternut squash at the store ate the squash salvaged 100 seeds planted 2 seeds and grew 47 squash.

I bought a honey dew melon salvaged probably 700 seeds planted 5 seeds and grew 21 melons.

I bought a bottle of crushed red pepper salvaged a few seeds and grew 10 chili pepper plants one year. It makes 6" long green chilis that turn red after they dry it makes red chili pepper.

I planted sweet potatoes and Red potatoes last year from grocery store potatoes. I need to buy some potatoes today or tomorrow.

The 3 bell pepper plants in my garden last year were grown from seeds I got from a grocery store bell pepper. I had some nice bell peppers.

My mother in Phoenix AZ planted a plum seed it grew a 20 ft tree in only 3 years it was producing 2 bushel baskets of plums every year.

My mother also planted a pecan she got from the grocery store in 4 years it was producing 3 bushel baskets of pecans every year.

You can grow tomatoes from grocery store tomato seeds too but I never do. I like beefsteak tomatoes I never see those in the grocery store.

I do not sprout my seeds in plant trays. I plant the seed in the garden. Small seeds like peppers I cover them with compost or potting soil and keep them watered. They come up within a week and grow much faster and do better than starting seeds in pots.

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GardenRN
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Gary, do you ever get any seeds from the grocery store? :lol:

just teasin' buddy.

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soil
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I actually just checked our local health food store last week and there is actually more variety of beans at winco (pack your own groceries, store) then at the health food store. I wish that the stores had a better selection, I'm currently searching etsy for a better selection.
the health food store was just an example and so were the beans. really I was just mentioning that most bulk bin fill yourself type deal foods will sprout and grow. another example that is not beans is I also got a lb of red quinoa and have it growing now as a cool weather spring crop. I got some amaranth for summer along with the beans, some chickpeas, chia seeds( talk about expensive yet still I saved tons instead of buying seed packets) and a few more deals. I eneded up with about 8 lbs of seed for under 15$. and theres enough extra with a few that I get to eat them.

garden5 is totally right though, the best place for seeds is your own garden, unless of course bringing in new stock/plants/genetics to add to the homegrown group. you can save seed from hybrids theres nothing wrong with them if you have the right mindset. the first year after saving seeds you will get some diversity in different plants( tomatoes for example) which is good imo because you have lots of different plants to choose from. so each year you choose your favorite. after time you have your own OP homegrown, home adapted garden seed that no one else in the entire world has. that you got to select for traits that YOU liked. not some dude 1000 miles away in a greenhouse. ill admit the first yea will give you some crappy plants, but over time youll have nothing but perfect plants. the first slow year or two is what put people off.

gary great post, full of info. I'm growing sweet potatoes this year that I got from a farmers market far from here while on a trip. saved 2 for sprouting because they were soooooo good.

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GardenRN
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the beans paid off. I went right to walmart and got a bag of dried beans labeled "15 bean soup". Came home and spent the next two hours dividing up the different beans into separate baggies. Included were pintos, black beans, kidneys, white kidneys, white beans, gonzolas, navy beans, cranberry beans, limas, baby limas, lentils and a few others. Now I know don't have room to grow all of these, and frankly I don't even want to think how much work it'd be shelling enough lentils to make one bowl of soup! Thank God for automated machinery! But it'd still be fun. Maybe I'll just throw down a bunch in the corner and let them do their thing. But first things first...weez gonna have to run some germination tests to make sure they all work!

garden5
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Soil, I'd like to grow some sweet potatoes myself, but I'm on the fence still about whether I'm going to grow my own slips or order some.

I'm thinking that since I've never done sweets before, I'd rather order slips because 1. I will know the variety I'm getting (just luck of the draw from the store) and 2. I will have one less thing to wonder about if they don't do well :lol:.

Variety is important because I don't have quite as long a growing season up here as they do down south so I think I would have more success with a variety that has a shorter time to maturity.

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soil
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Soil, I'd like to grow some sweet potatoes myself, but I'm on the fence still about whether I'm going to grow my own slips or order some.

I personally would just grow my own. sweet potatoes don't vary in growth that much. they vine like mad and make tubers, thats about it.

that is unless you can find some slips to a special delicious variety. I got mine from the farmers market, rare japanese sweet potatoes.

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gixxerific
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I got more pots of various sizes that I will ever use last year for free. I went to a few nursery's and they have piles and piles of them they were glad to get rid of a few.

Last year Wal Mart had seed packets from American Seeds they were $0.20 and they germinate well. You can't beat that, you can buy a ton of seeds for just a few bucks. They don't have them out yet but there garden section is still in limbo at this time. Keep an eye out for them.

I also get horse manure free from several places around. They normally have a ton of it so they are happy to get rid of it. If you find a place that wants money try to find one that doesn't. All the places around here but a very few are free and most will even load it for you.

Don't forget to use what you have as well. Sour cream containers make good starters as well as egg cartons, to go containers etc. I save milk jugs for watering, I will have several filled up and let them sit to gas off the chlorine.

Let's not forget the ultimate deal MAKE YOUR OWN COMPOST.

Dono

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soil
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Last year Wal Mart had seed packets from American Seeds they were $0.20 and they germinate well. You can't beat that, you can buy a ton of seeds for just a few bucks. They don't have them out yet but there garden section is still in limbo at this time. Keep an eye out for them.
last year they were 10 cents each here, I spent like 10$ on seeds still lol.

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GardenRN
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I probably should have added. I get all of my wood chip mulch for free. If you can find those guys that run tree trimming businesses they are always looking for a place to dump their wood chips. You do want to get the chips from a trimming though, not a dead tree or stump grinding because of the possibility of termites and a lot of dirt being in the mulch.

They will gladly dump the mulch at your house because the normally have to pay do get rid of it. I get it by the truck load when I need it.

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soil
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ill second the tree trimmings, I asked the guys once and they came over with 10 yards of chipped oak from the roadsides. now when I see them and I need it I know what to do.



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