Note: This is one of an occasional series of articles on saving money.

Renee’s Garden sends me a press kit and a packet of seeds every year. This year’s freebie was a variety of gourmet kale called Purple Moon. Gorgeous stuff, and we haven’t grown kale for several years, so DF and I were pretty excited.

So is everyone else, apparently: Purple Moon is already sold out for the season.

(As a Renee’s Garden affiliate, I may receive a fee if anyone buys seeds through my link.)

It’ll be one of three purple plants in this year’s garden, joining red cabbage (which is actually a maroon so dark it might as well be purple) and purple carrots (part of a four-color carrot mix). Those deep colors are supposed to be full of antioxidants, which is great, but we mostly care about the flavor.

And the cost: It’s hard to beat free. For the first time ever I took part in the media seed program, paying only the postage for English and pickling cucumbers, edamame, sugar snap peas and onions. Will definitely be writing about these; we’re particularly intrigued by the edamame, since we don’t know if it will grow here (DF’s grandkids will be excited if it does, since they love the stuff).

Getting free seeds is only one way that we practice extreme frugality in the garden, though. A reader named Laure asked for an article about low-cost gardening. This one’s for you, ma’am.

Find free info

The U.S. Cooperative Extension Service. This organization provides advice, how-to pamphlets and “pest scout” information.

The National Garden Bureau. This site’s blog is currently encouraging people to garden in the ground or in containers as an antidote to COVID-19 anxiety.

Local garden clubs. Some sponsor plant swaps/sales, educational programs or other events to encourage the public.

Talk to gardeners. Long admired a neighbor’s garden? Next time you see that person out working in the yard, walk up and introduce yourself. Ask questions, ask for help, ask if you can learn by apprenticing.

Cheap gardening supplies

Thrift stores. Look for pots, tools, garden kneelers* and more in these places.

Yard/rummage sales. You might luck out here as well, garden-wise. Don’t forget to check the “free” box, if there is one.

Dollar stores. I’ve bought 25-cent seed packets here while visiting my daughter. They have fewer seeds but still: 25 cents! The stores also have pots and, if you’re lucky, potting soil and/or peat pots.

Clearance seeds. We’ve gotten as much as 75 percent off by buying at the end of the season.

Orphan plants. That’s what DF calls the poor little root-bound critters left unsold after the big Memorial Day weekend push at the nurseries.

Building our own raised beds. Some of the lumber was likely left over from former DIY projects (in other words, sunk-cost wood) and some might have been free because people tend to give DF stuff. Point being, we didn’t have to pay for prefab raised bed materials.

Building our own soil. We use a combination of store-bought soil, the contents of the previous year’s greenhouse pots, compost and a little bit of shredded paper. About that compost: Some of it is ours and some is from a city program that lets us trade table and yard scraps for well-aged compost.

Building a greenhouse. Where we live you can’t reliably grow certain crops without a ton of wave-selective plastic and floating row covers – or a greenhouse. We opted for the latter, and DF built it mostly from parts of an existing building, a couple of storm doors and old windows that people gave to us. The rest of the materials – cedar decking and special roofing material – were to have cost almost $750, but we cut those costs by more than $107 with discounted gift cards bought on the secondary market. Later we saved more than $40 by using Home Depot garden center coupons; sign up at the website and you’ll get these, too.

Using odds and ends. Among other things, we have used old wire racks and pieces of an old portable greenhouse to make raspberry supports; tied up plants with strips of worn-out flannel sheets; turned empty one-gallon mayo jugs into watering containers (and heat sinks, as they absorb warmth during the day and release it at night); made watering cans out of empty food cans; and turned panels from an old dog run into moose-proof protection for our apple trees.

Free gardening supplies

Saved seeds. Every year DF saves tomato and cucumber seeds; some years he saves squash seeds. Last year he rescued some pumpkin seeds after his grandkids came over to carve, and they’re currently doing very well indeed. (Four of them appear in the illustration above.) We also transplant strawberry runners into bare spots in the bed – free plants!

Encouraging volunteers. Every year we feed the birds black-oil sunflower seeds – and every summer we get a bunch of sunflowers in unexpected places. They’re such cheerful plants and we welcome them. A couple of times in the past few years we’ve gotten surprise volunteers, such as columbine and a ground-hugging daisy-like flower that mystified DF. These might have been from long-ago wildflower mixes and just bided their time until they were ready to be born. Or maybe some more birds dropped them.

Hitting the “used stuff” store. The city landfill encourages people to set aside household chemicals and other items rather than throw them away. That’s how we get stuff like bone meal, lime and slug bait (to say nothing of bleach, cleanser, Murphy’s Oil Soap and other cleaning supplies).

Visiting the Habitat ReStore. These places, run by Habitat for Humanity, carry everything from furniture to building supplies. We’ve scored some very cheap chicken wire, tarpaper (used for weed control), black plastic (ditto) and a pair of rain barrels (actually 30-gallon trash cans that cost us $3 total). Use this link to look for a ReStore in your area.

Holiday gifts. Every year my dad asks what kind of gift card I want, and I always choose a home-improvement center. We use the card for potting soil and other garden supplies.

Gratis guano. People who raise chickens, ducks, horses, pigs or cows will wind up with a lot of poop. Well-rotted manure** is a primo addition to your soil, so put in an order for ordure. (Fun fact: Someone in my Buy Nothing Facebook page group recently put a bunch of chicken manure up for grabs.)

Readers: Got your own frugal gardening tips? Please share!

*If you don’t have a kneeler, try a pad of newspapers or a really old pillow you’d been meaning to throw out.

**One year my dad told me he’d visited a cousin who raised chickens, and that he couldn’t wait to put the chicken manure on his strawberries. I couldn’t resist: “Personally, I like my strawberries with milk and sugar.”

Related reading:

• Always getting ready
• The marvel of an Alaska summer
• Grateful for sun and berries