A great place to get free seeds is to ask your friends, neighbours and family
if they have any seeds spare. When you buy a packet of seeds you normally only
use a few. Even things like tomatoes come in decent numbers in a packet. It’s
well worth asking especially if you know several gardeners who grow a lot of
their own stuff.

Seeds have a limited lifetime once the packets are opened so it makes sense
to use up as many seeds as possible. Sharing them with a friend is a great way.

Netto has had very cheap seeds in the past. Most supermarkets have a seed range
too but they’re not all cheap. If you want only a few things then it can be
cost effective to buy them at the supermarket. Lidl has an excellent range of
seeds that are low priced. Buying from the supermarket means you don’t pay postage
– although more places are offering free delivery on seeds these days. Even
the poundshop sells seeds, plus they sell small packs of seed potatoes! They
even sell fruit bushes. I’ve had several from the pound shop and they’ve all
grown bar one gooseberry which appears to be dead so far, but I’ll give it another
few weeks before I dig it up (and it had grown last year when it got planted).

Some gardeners might even have extra plants that they can give you too! It’s
the done thing to sow more than you think you’ll need in case some plants die
on your before you plant them out. It’s less of a waste of plants to pass them
on to another gardener, so it’s well worth getting to know people in your local
area.

It’s easy to stop and admire a garden when someone is out pruning or weeding,
so make the effort to say hello and you never know what plants you might come
away with! Things like mint are so easy to grow that you can pince a piece off
and put it in a pot and it’ll grow!