Making compost from your kitchen scraps and yard waste is the most frugal thing you can do in your garden.

And if you pay for your trash by the can or by the pound you can save money on that end too.

http://www.gardensalive.com/article.asp?ai=785

And check the compost forum here too.

Check out the compost forum, they have lots of good suggestions.

I agree, the soil, compost, and mulch forum is the best place to learn how to improve one's garden soil cheaply. I've learned a lot there. I now make a lot more compost than I used to. My DH just made two more bins using free pallets today. That makes 5 bins I now have. I get free sawdust and horse manure from a local stable which we layer with grass clippings for compost. We've also asked for and gotten free fruit and veggie trimmings at a couple of local grocery stores to add to the compost.

One thing I've done that some people don't always agree with is to just bury veggie kitchen scraps between perennials. I've never had a problem but some people think animals will dig it up. I live in a rural area and never had anything dig it up. The worms make short work of them and by the end of summer there's nothing left altho the soil is improved. If you feed the earthworms they will make lots of castings which are very good fertilizer. They also help loosen the soil as they tunnel thru.

If you use used coffee grounds (UCG) as fertilizer make sure you scratch them into the soil a bit otherwise they can repel water. I've gotten a huge amount of free UCG from a local coffee shop and used it to fertilize my lawn and speed up decomposition of my compost. The worms like these also.

Here is a link that might be useful: GW's Soil, Compost and Mulch forum