How to Plant an Inexpensive Garden

Rinse and dry as many milk cartons as you can get. Cut off the last 4 inches of each carton and fill it with potting soil. Choose generic potting soil over brand names.

Plant up to three seeds in each milk carton. Seeds cost less than seedlings and you get more seeds in a package than seedlings in a seed flat. Water each carton with about 1/2 cup of water.

Line the carton containers up in a shallow cardboard box lid. Write the name of each plant on an ice cream bar stick and push the sticks into the appropriate carton. Cover the cartons loosely with plastic wrap and set your makeshift greenhouse in a sunny, warm window.

Transplant your seedlings after they reach about 3 inches tall. Repurpose more old containers for this task. Transplant herbs to small teacups and the bottoms of 2-liter soda bottles. Place larger plants in plastic buckets, thoroughly cleaned trash cans and emptied children's plastic pools and sandboxes. Containers conserve space and allow you to move the various elements of your garden around your patio or yard as you like.

Create trellises using branches harvested from trees in your yard. Snip the branches to size and secure them in a grid pattern with zip ties. Push them into the soil near the plants that need staking or a trellis on which to climb.

Place a bucket outdoors to catch rainwater for free water for your plants. You may also use cooled water drained from boiled vegetables to water plants.

Start a compost pile from your organic waste. Simply place all of the waste in a plastic bucket. Stir and agitate the bucket once a week and keep it lidded to discourage pests.