Regrow from scraps
The gardener said: “Sarrot tops, green onion roots, and lettuce heads can be put in water and will sprout new growth. I do the lettuce most often. When you’re cutting up a head of lettuce retain the bottom of the head intact. Place it in a dish of water. In a few days, new leaves will start to grow. Eat them when they’re about five inches tall for a free, healthy meal. I do this with lettuce, green onions, and carrots. I’m sure there are more veggies you could use.”
Compost
“Compost is basically free since it’s made from trash. There are plenty of ideas on the internet for how to make a compost bin yourself from things you might already have around the house or could find on the side of the road. Compost can turn your backyard soil into growable material,” they wrote.
Plant potatoes
“When potatoes go squishy plant them,” the gardener said. “Last year I found a few long-forgotten potatoes in the back of the pantry. I took a shovel and buried them in the yard, then literally forgot about them. I was surprised a month later to see a plant I’d never noticed before. Until I remembered the potatoes.”
People flocked to the thread by adding their money-saving ways, with one person commenting: “Save your coffee grounds. Some plants love the acidity. You can compost them too. Get the Keurig cup inserts if you have a Keurig machine – the ones you pour coffee grounds into. It’s life-changing!
“When you plant stuff, save some seeds, plant more plants. If you have vegetables you like, rather than spending money buying new ones, just start them indoors and plant them outside after the last average frost day.
“If you have a patio, you can have a garden going in pots. Tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, all veggies. Yum! For the starting pots for planting your seeds, don’t bother with store-bought. Yogurt containers work wonderfully!”
A second person said: “Anything that can hold dirt but not water can be used as a planter. It will eventually degrade, but I’ve used old busted buckets, the square pails cat litter comes in, paint buckets from when my parents painted their house, and recycled containers from working food service. If it doesn’t leak already, a drill will do the trick.”
Another added: “Harvest rainwater, just set an empty drum under the gutter and use it to water the crops to save on metered water. Keep the drum covered to prevent mosquitoes and other bugs. Have a hole with a screen to let water in.”
One user said: “A tip I haven’t seen yet here: I rarely buy garden pots. During the years, I used cat litter buckets, big ice cream buckets (I used to work in an ice cream parlor), a small plastic trash can, and two big plastic storage boxes (those are my favorite, so much space!) on my little balcony garden. The way I garden, it is dirt cheap.”
And finally, another commented: “Save seeds from store-bought produce. I have an avocado tree that grew from a pit. Bell peppers and tomatoes for years from store-bought, then have been saving the seeds. Lots of herbs regrow very easily so if you buy a clamshell of fresh mint, basil, rosemary, or tarragon you can root it in just some water and plant it in a pot or in the garden.”
