Where To Get Free Seeds For Gardening

Gardening can be a great way to save money on your and your family’s grocery bills, but with the rising cost of seeds and seedlings, (as well as everything else) have you ever wondered how you could cut that cost even lower? How about finding free seeds, doing seed swaps, and growing garden plants from kitchen scraps that normally get thrown away? We’re here to help you with just that.

There are plenty of ways you can trade seeds, get them for free, or even harvest them from your garden. Though doing this won’t save you a huge amount every year, when you’re trying to budget or live off the grid, any savings can be incredibly beneficial.

Harvest Your Own Seeds

Unfortunately because of certain pollination methods, hybrids, and many other factors, you won’t be able to take seeds from everything you grow in your garden, but there are several plants that you can harvest for seeds.

You can save seeds from self-pollinators such as tomatoes, beans, peas, and most peppers. Self-pollinating plants don’t need a separate plant for pollination, nor do they need to be visited by bees or moths.

Some vegetables such as carrots and beets have to go through two growing seasons in order to get seeds. If you have the patience, just leave a few these plants alone until they do seed. When you're finally able to harvest these seeds, you’ll get enough to last you for a couple of seasons.

This is also a good way to collect seeds for trade. Most people won't want to wait two years for seeds, so they could be a hot commodity.

Plants that are labeled “heirlooms” are usually good choices for saving seeds because they produce high-quality fruit and new plants can be produced from their seeds.

You’ll want to be careful, or completely steer clear of collecting seeds from plants that need both male and female flowers for proper pollination. These include plants such as corn, squash, melons, cucumbers, and most vine plants. Insects are usually needed to pollinate these crops and it’s difficult to keep the strains pure.

Planting from these seeds may give you plants that produce undesirable results. An example is apple trees. Apples all have seeds, but if you plant these, when you finally start getting apples, you’ll probably get hard, bitter fruits that are inedible.

That’s because the fruit that grows from these trees comes from tree grafting, not from seeds. This is true of most fruit trees because they rely on pollinators to produce food.

Unless you pollinate these plants yourself, you may not know what you're going to get until you harvest them. I tried to plant pumpkins from my own patch one year and got some type of gourd hybrid---that only grew about the size of a softball---and held nothing but more seeds inside.

Get Seeds from Bolted Plants and Herbs

If you’ve seen your lettuces or greens go to bolt you know the plants now taste bitter and are too tough to eat. Go ahead and let them finish their growing cycle and harvest the seeds when they start drying out. Herbs especially grow well from seeds, so when they start bolting, don’t despair, just harvest the seeds and regrow some next year, or start a new batch in containers inside.

Grow Plants From “Scraps”

Maybe you’ve seen this, or maybe you haven’t, but you can grow full plants from some kitchen scraps. When you have finished with that head of lettuce, cut the flat end off and plant it. It will take root and start growing a new head of lettuce. Soon you’ll have a full head of romaine, red leaf, or whatever salad base you started with. It's like getting free food or a two-for-one!

This works with celery too! Cut the end of the celery off and stick it in some water or damp soil, and soon you’ll have a new celery plant growing. Don't toss it if you can regrow it.

The same goes for potatoes and sweet potatoes that have started sprouting. Cut them into two-inch cubes with at least one “eye” and plant them into the ground, “eye” standing up, but covered, and soon you’ll have new potato plants growing.

You can take individual garlic cloves and grow them into full garlic bulbs, especially if they have started sprouting. Just stick them into some soil, and keep it damp. You can also cut off nubs of ginger and regrow them, so you never have to buy ginger or garlic again.

You can even grow your own pineapple plants from the tops that always get thrown away. That tough, prickly, green top will grow a new plant. Before you cut open the pineapple, twist the top off, remove the first 3 or 4 rows of leaves, then let it dry on some paper towels for a few days.

After that time has passed, stick the leaves in some water, but only leave the bottom area where you removed the leaves submerged. When you see roots sprouting about a half inch to an inch long, move it to a pot and keep watered. Once it’s established, let the ground dry out between watering.

Pineapples take a while to grow, but it can be fun and exciting to watch the tiny pineapple start sprouting on what was originally headed to the trash or compost heap.

If you have strawberries that are starting to get a little mushy, cut off some seeds and grow strawberry plants. Use the darker seeds as they are more mature and will give you better plants.

You don’t even have to pick individual seeds out, just cut the “skin” off and plant it under a thin layer of soil and keep it damp. Strawberry plants will grow from those seeds.

Tomato Plant Cuttings

While these aren’t technically kitchen scraps, you can grow more tomato plants from cuttings. When you see small sprouts at the base of established branches on your tomato plants, pinch them off and grow more tomatoes.

These can be distinguished from normal branches because they grow nearly straight up from the lateral or horizontal branches. These are called suckers and can start completely new tomato plants.

Make sure the sprouts have about three to four leaves, and gently pull them away from the main trunk of the tree, then put them in some water with only the bottom half inch or so covered. You should see roots starting to sprout in a few days to a week.

When you have good roots, plant them in the soil for another tomato plant! What could be better than free tomato plants? Well, I know you can think of a few things, but still, free tomato plants are pretty cool.

Local Seed Exchanges

A seed-exchange or seed-swap is basically a get-together where people share different seeds. It may be a farmer that bought too many, a small-time gardener that wants to share their favorite plants, or a traveler that brought seeds from another area and they want to swap various types of seeds.

This was something people did long ago but faded away with modern technology. Here recently though seed swaps have been increasingly popular, especially with the rise of small, home gardens.

You can do online searches to see if any are going on in your area. Then you can apply to sign up if needed, or show up at the gathering. Another place to find out about them is your local farmer’s market.

The small gardeners and farmers out there tend to love to answer questions about their farms and their products. Go ahead and strike up a conversation, it could become a mutually beneficial interaction. They may be able to sell you some cheap vegetable seeds as well.

Seed exchanges are a great way to meet fellow gardeners, share tips and tricks, and grow a sense of community. Not only that, but you might be able to trade a lot of seeds that are hard to find in stores.

Check Libraries, or Social Media

Libraries are an excellent source for local events, information about your area, as well as wonderful places to get plenty of free offers. Go check out your local library and see what they offer, not many people know about all the great benefits a library can offer.

And yes! Some libraries really do give away free seeds and gardening advice. This has taken off since the pandemic swept across the globe. When food shortages started going from fiction to reality, many people didn’t know how they were going to feed their families. Libraries across the nation started kicking up vegetable seed giveaways as well as information on how to get started.

You can also reach out on social media outlets. There are plenty of gardening groups, and sites that sometimes offer free, discounted, or seeds for swap. If you can’t find anything near you, start a group yourself, it’s not that difficult.

Trade With Neighbors

Let’s say you live in a close-knit neighborhood where you get along with the majority of your neighbors, why not talk to them about a seed exchange? Find out if they are gardening, or if any of their friends or family are growing their own food.

This could be a great way to trade seeds, plants, or even swap vegetables. I know there have been many times when my garden has produced way more than my family and I could eat without freezing, canning, or dehydrating.

Do you have an overabundance of yellow squash and zucchini, does your neighbor have more potatoes than they know what to do with? Set up a trade, then talk about seeds, or vice versa.

You could set up a community seed swap that happens after the harvest. Most likely, if you have a garden and collect viable seeds, you’ll have more than enough to replant a garden next year, and the year after. So will your gardening neighbors, so see what you can trade.

Conclusion

With the uncertainty of food supplies and rising costs of basic necessities, there is no better time to start growing your own food. To get started you need good, viable seeds, but you don’t have to spend a ton of money to find them if you know where to look.

Whether you’re just starting your first garden or are a seasoned farmer, you can find plenty of places to get free seeds or trade for some you don’t have. It may take some time and searching, but growing your own garden is a great pastime for many reasons.

Get out there and start gardening! And don’t forget to check back, leave a comment and subscribe as I will get more gardening tips and advice here to help you become a seasoned gardening expert!