If your love for gardening is bigger than your budget, you are not alone. A quick trip to your local nursery or garden center for plants and other supplies can add up to hundreds of dollars before you know it.

Fortunately, you don’t need to sacrifice this month’s grocery budget in exchange for a bountiful harvest later. There are plenty of ways you can plant an amazing garden without breaking the bank.

Here are 4 money-saving organic gardening tips to help you get started:

Tip #1: Make Your Own Garden Compost

Buying bags of quality garden soil, compost, and fertilizer can add up quickly. A more affordable solution is to make your own nutrient-rich compost at home.

Simply add your organic kitchen scraps, grass clippings, fall leaves, and other suitable material to your compost heap and turn it every two or three weeks to keep it aerated. Keep it moist while it “cooks” and let nature do the rest. Before you know it, you’ll have plenty of rich, dark organic compost to use in your garden.

For more details on creating your own high-quality compost at home, check out 3 Basic Compost Tips for Your Organic Vegetable Garden.

Tip #2: Grow New Plants from Cuttings

Without question, buying new plants can get expensive. Fortunately, some garden favorites, such as tomatoes and peppers, can be propagated by taking cuttings from the mature plants and rooting them in loose potting medium. Then, once the cuttings establish roots, you can plant the rooted cutting in your garden just as you would any other plant.

If you have a long enough growing season and the right kind of plants, this is a great way to build up your garden from just a few healthy plants. This process takes some time and effort, but it can definitely save you some cash.

Tip #3: Collect and Grow from Seeds

Another money-saving tip is to collect and save seeds from your favorite organic heirloom vegetables from year to year. It’s easy to harvest seeds from many popular veggies, including cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers. However, you’ll want to do some online research on each type of seed you collect to learn how to properly store and prepare them for planting the following year.

NOTE: Although you can collect and grow new plants from hybrid seeds, you’ll achieve more consistent results with heirloom varieties.

Tip #4: Participate in Seed Swaps

Another fun and easy way to save money on your organic vegetable garden is to host a seed swap with your garden-loving friends and family members. Everyone brings their extra seeds and trades them for something else they want. This is a fun way to share your extra seeds with others while gaining interesting new varieties for your own garden.