Gardening

I use the agricultural suppliers for most of the basics: compost, potting mix, fertilizer etc. If you can store the larger quanties it is much cheaper. The last 1,000lbs of compost was $80.

For little things like pots etc, shop around. They sometimes are at places you wouldn't expect. The best pots are not at the nursery but at a local home decor place. I got some nice ones a few years ago at my local grocery store.

The best seedling flats are at the hydroponic store where the clerks have red eyes..

I get my pots from thrift stores and garage sales. A lot of time it's just pottery that's not meant to be for plants, but it usually works. It's usually pretty easy to drill a hole or two in the bottom to let excess water drip out.

I usually put regular plates under the pots to catch the excess water, also usually collected from thrift stores and garage sales. I try to collect interesting ones when I can, but I also just have some in bulk for when I need a bunch.

For the plants themselves I often grab clippings from people I know if they have something I like. They usually like sharing. If I'm looking for something specific I'll usually buy seeds online.

My local library has a seed library, it's free. My experience with this is mixed as some of the plants germanated were not what the seeds were labeled. I also get seeds from Gurneys online and have had success there.

Pots and planters i get from big box stores, as these tend to be cheaper here.

Actual plants I get from local nurseries, we have several within 30 minutes drive.

I grow mostly food, and I plant root ends of green onions, sprouting garlic, and sprouting potatoes with a lot of success. Careful with the potatoes, as the grocery store potatoes may have blight whereas seed potatoes from the nursery should not.

Plant shop near by, where the sell plants ready to be planted or seeds, and hardware stores for tools.

Is there a gardening or buy-nothing group in your area? They usually have people willing to trade or give away things, especially clippings for propagation.

I've amassed a fair collection of nursery pots, plus a bunch of random nice ones, and for some reason since local planters are absurdly expensive ($16-$18 for a plain 10” clay pot with no saucer at the local hardware stores, ridiculous!) I buy them in packs online. Haven't had any broken in shipping yet.

I save and replant tomato seeds each year. Apparently there's some bacterial problem with doing that, but it hasn't affected my plants that I've noticed.

The dollar store, grocery outlet and Costco have cheap pots. Estate sales are good too, but they can be a weird scene.