How to Get Free Plants and Seeds

Everyone loves a well landscaped yard. It's especially inviting to see yards with beautiful flowers and shrubs growing in them. The cost of flowers and shrubs, like everything else, is on the increase, and it can be quite costly to purchase everything from a nursery or retail store. One sure way to have that gorgeous lawn is to start a "seed and shrub exchange" with friends, family and neighbors.

Instructions

How To Get Free Plants and Seeds

1. Talk to everyone you know that grows any kind of flowers or shrubbery in their yard. Ask if you could get some of the seeds from their flowers in the fall. Many plants and flowers reseed yearly, and always have plenty of extra seeds that you can gather up and plant. Seal these seeds in a ziplock bag or a glass jar, and you'll be ready at planting time.

2. Offer to trade a sprout from some of your own plants and shrubs. People love to trade things, and try out new plants in their yards. If someone you know mentions that some of their plants or shrubs need thinned out, offer to help them do the job in exchange for a portion of the plants. They will gladly accept in order to have the help.

3. Take a walk in the woods and look around you. Many wild flowers can be dug up and transplanted. Just make sure you know whose woods you are in, and have asked their permission to scout for plants. You'll also need to have some basic knowledge of plants and flowers. You wouldn't want a flower bed full of poison ivy!

4. Don't be afraid to ask friends and neighbors for "starts" of their flowers or bushes. People are very proud of the garden displays they create, and are more than happy to share. Most will even give you advice on how to care for that particular plant. Rose of Sharon is a beautiful shrub. It also multiplies quite rapidly, so people usually have an overabundance of little baby sprouts in the spring. And they usually mow or chop them down. These sprouts could be yours for the digging.

5. Watch for tiny trees to sprout up in your yard. Seeds can be blown in from any where! Protect the little tree until it has gotten bigger, then move it to a more desirable spot. Maple trees are notorious for having their offspring pop up all over. Let these little guys live instead of mowing them down. You might be able to trade them for a plant you want from someone else's yard.