Nearly Free Seed

I'm always on the lookout for ways to reduce my gardening costs.  Primarily, this is because I am a tightwad.  A skinflint.  One cheap bastard.  I cringe when my wife wants to show me all the stuff she got when she returns from shopping.  My sons know better than to ask me to buy them stylish new jeans.  "New clothes for back-to-school?  Sure, hop in the car.  Ok, here we
are.  What's wrong?  You don't like Goodwill?  That's too bad.  Maybe when you get a job you can buy the $30 jeans.  Look at it this way, boy...these jeans are new to you."

In the end, I want my garden to return a net profit to the family's bottom line.  So, I find ways to cut associated costs.  Seed is one of those costs.  This time of year, there are bargains to be found. Seed packed for 2013 is now on sale.  Seed loses it's potency over time - each year less seeds germinate.  For some seed types, their shelf life is very short.  For other, it's much longer.

For a backyard vegetable garden, lower germination rates for heavily reduced cost is a good trade-off.  Last weekend, I was popped into my local Dollar General to pick up some ginger ale, and from seed packets on discount.  Deep discount...

These are inexpensive seeds to start with...these American seed packets sell 2 or 3 for a dollar normally.  However, I picked up these 33 seed packets for 37 cents TOTAL.  29 of the packets were one cent apiece, and the other 4 were two cents each.  Hilariously, the cashier had to ring each packet individually...can't have gaps in the inventory control system, I guess.

That's my kind of shopping spree.

Mind you, there is an even thriftier way to get your seed for next year...

As much as I can, I save seed this year to plant next year.  Some types are easy to save: tomatoes, beans, and peas.  Some plants will cross with other varieties of the same plant family, making next year a bit of a crap shoot if you save that seed.  Some plants don't produce seed until they have been through a winter.  Since we usually get hard freezes here, getting those plants through the winter can be tough.  But I save what I can, and further reduce cost that way.

In the picture above, you can see I've saved 2 kinds of yard-long beans, 2 varieties of tomato, pole beans, peas, lettuce, and cowpeas for next year.

If your community has a seed library, you have a leg up.  At seed libraries, you check out seed, grow the plants, save seed from the plants, and return seed to the library.  We have one in the Richmond area run by the local community college.  It's actually in the campus library, and the same ladies who check out your books and shush you when you're being to loud will also totally hook you up with free seed.  Pretty cool, those ladies.

So, go find some deals on seed and stock up for 2014!