Free seeds!

How to get FREE SEEDS*
*if not free, available for a veritable pittance, yes indeed.

magazines

Free potato grow bag kit and five packs of vegetable seeds worth £15.99 when you buy Sainsbury's Magazine March edition (£1.60).  
There's postage and packing at £4.90.  All in all it's not too bad a deal I'd say.  
You could just save your own potatoes at home though...

websites

Banrock Station wines are offering free wildflower seeds to the first 5,000 people to register their interest.  Follow the link above, pop in your details and voila! It's for the benefit of bees, so it's a good cause too.

Farm in my Pocket
Some lovely self-sufficient expert gardeners are giving away free intriguing varieties of these veg:
Pak Choi, Parnsip, Pea, Bean, Runner Bean - and the most enormous heart-shaped Tomato I have ever seen, called 'Heart of Catalonia'. All you have to do is email them, then they send you their address and you send them one self-addressed envelope per different vegetable type.  Nice people :)

Garden Swap Shop
On this website you can swap, buy or sell seeds & plants.  There are some very interesting varieties available - like white aubergine/ eggplant, lovely.

telephone

 

For a Which? free guide to growing your own vegetables, and some free 'Gardener's Delight' Tomato seeds.  Call 0800 533 081 (for free) or text 'PLANT' (text is also free) to 80057 and quote reference: VEG388F.  If you do it by text, they call you back at their nearest convenience.  I am yet to have my call - but assume they will attempt to get people to subscribe for something [not free!], so just don't do that: easy as pie.  Hope it works for everyone.

charity begins in the home

• I do hope you are saving some seeds from all the fruit and veg you are eating?  Keeping a few potatoes aside, letting their little tendrils grow? Good.  You can also trade seeds with your friends, if they're into that sort of thing of course, and don't think you're being 'seedy' (Pahaha! Err, I'm sorry... Bad, bad joke.)

beg, borrow or 'steal'

• Know anyone who works in a kitchen? Get them to save some seeds from peppers, lemons, etc, whilst preparing their fresh produce - they'll only go in the bin otherwise.

• Freegle - post 'WANTED: ANY VEG/ GARDEN SEEDS', in your local group.  Keep your eye out for things like manure also, which crop up unnoticed unless you think to look for it. (More on manure tomorrow - yippee)

• Allotments: This is more relevant to later on in the year.  Allotments often have open days in the summer, where you can pop along and marvel at the accomplishments of others; perhaps picking up some free seeds along the way...

• What I like to call: 'gathering from nature'.  Picture the scene: It is a pleasant, fresh day (of any season); you are dandily strolling down the road on your way to work/ a friends'/ the pub.  But, Lo, what is this, lurching well over the perimeter of a private property?  Could it be? Yes, yes! It IS a Passiflora/ apple tree/ fruit bush/ grape vine/ rosemary bush [NB: easily propagated from a small cutting]/ attractive plant.  Perchance as you passed this magnificent display, didst thou perplexingly procure a pocketful? I thought you may have.

Disclaimer: In no way am I supporting the outright pinching from another's property.  Only if it's dangling in your face/ a health hazard/ going to get cut down anyway.  Then that's NOT stealing.